The College of Arts and Humanities is proud to announce that UWG has been selected as the statewide site for focus on The Heart of the Matter, the recently released report on the Humanities and Social Sciences commissioned by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Commission was formed in 2010 in response to a bipartisan request from members of the U. S. Senate and House of Representatives who wanted to know what actions Congress and others should take
. . . to maintain national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education, and to achieve long-term national goals for our intellectual and economic well-being; for a stronger, more vibrant civil society; and for the success of cultural diplomacy in the 21st century.
Georgia is one of only five states selected by the Academy for sponsored discussion on the report, and the COAH’s second annual Symposium on The Shape of the Humanities in Higher Education was selected as the site for the state’s signature event. The selection was made by Jamil Zainaldin, President of the Georgia Humanities Council; Esther Macintosh, President of the Federation of State Humanities Councils; and John Tessitore, Program Director for the Academy. All three organizations are providing support for the UWG event.
The Symposium is held in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature’s 28th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference in the Humanities, which will bring more than 100 scholars from around the state, the nation, and some 7 other countries to campus October 31-November 3. The Symposium will take place on October 31 at 7:30 pm in the Townsend Center for the Performing Arts.
The 88-page Commission report may be found at www.humanitiescommission.org. Fifty-three nationally prominent representatives from industry, government, academia, and the arts made up the Commission, which was co-chaired by Richard Brodhead, President of Duke University, and John W. Rowe, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Exelon Corporation. Other prominent members included journalist David Brooks, filmmaker Ken Burns, poet Dana Gioia, musician/songwriter Emmylou Harris, actor John Lithgow, film producer George Lucas, musician Yo-Yo Ma, Boeing President James McNerney, and former Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter.
Another Commissioner, G. Wayne Clough, will participate in the UWG October 31 Symposium. Dr. Clough is the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and President Emeritus of Georgia Tech. Other panelist will be FSHC President Macintosh; Rosanna Warren, award-winning poet and professor at the University of Chicago; and Robert Schaefer, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Planning at UWG. The Symposium will be moderated by COAH Dean Randy Hendricks. The event is free, and the public is invited to attend and take advantage of opportunities to engage with the panelists.
The public is also welcome to a poetry reading by Rosanna Warren on Friday, November 1 at 7:00 pm in the Kathy Cashen Recital Hall, an event sponsored by the Department of English and Philosophy and the Creative Writing Program.
Randy Hendricks, Ph.D. is the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.
