Humanities Week

All day | Hayden Library

Over the course of Humanities Week 2022, the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies is celebrating unsung heroes: extraordinary, yet overlooked people whose actions created changes within their communities and around the world.

SHPRS staff, faculty and graduate students selected works that tell the stories of these people and groups whose hard work and noteworthy achievements made a lasting historical impact.

This collection aims to acknowledge those who have often been left out of the widely known narratives of their times. SHPRS extends its great appreciation to the Hayden Library collections staff for making this collection a reality.

Learn more.

1:30 to 2:30 p.m. | Durham Hall lobby

The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe.

For Humanities Week we are hosting SILC Café each day of the week. Please check back for more details!

10 to 11 a.m. | Social Sciences, 314

Students can share their creative work such as poems or music that focus on their cultural identity and use of Spanish and Spanglish in the United States. 

11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | Student Services Lawn (Tempe)

In this interactive outdoor exhibition, Project Humanities Founding Director Dr. Neal Lester explains how and why artifacts are just as important tools of social justice as are books. As a Vital Voices event, attendees are invited to bring artifacts that connect them with justice causes and to participate in 3-4 minute shares with other attendees.

Learn more and RSVP.

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Memorial Union, North Stage (outdoors)

Join the ASU Creative Writing program for a live reading of fiction and poetry that engages the issues of our time.

There is an art that lives in the humanities: that’s creative writing. Often creative writers’ work is informed by research or documentary strategies, or it engages other humanities topics, such as social justice, queer studies, women’s studies, ethnic studies, religious studies, history, languages, etc., but with a more intimate lens. Creative writers think and work across many disciplines — collaboratively and also independently.

Come and hear the work of graduate student writers from ASU Creative Writing, and get an original piece on the spot, made for you on a real (20th-century) typewriter!

Learn more.

1 to 3 p.m. | Memorial Union La Paz (MU 242)

Benjamin T. Smith, Professor of Latin American History at the University of Warwick, will be speaking about his book "The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade," looking at why it is worth studying the drug trade, how we can do it and what it can tell us about society, politics and the future of Latin America.

Register to attend.

1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. | Durham Hall First Floor Lobby

Join us on Tuesday, Oct 18th to make "Onigiri," the Japanese Rice Balls, and to take photos before enjoying your delicious Onigiri. By Posting your photos on your SNS with #OnigiriAction, school meals will be delivered to children in need! Every onigiri post to social media (or the campaign website) with #OnigiriAction provides 5 school meals to children in need. The tool kits to make Onigiri will be provided. 

Learn more and Register.

1:30 p.m. - 3 p.m. | Durham Hall 240 and online

Please join us on October 18th via zoom or in-person to listen Professor Michael Pettid's lecture on the women's guidebook to properly manage a household. 

Pettid will examine the Kyuhap ch’ongsô [The Encyclopedia of Daily Life], which was compiled by Lady Yi Pinhôgak in the early years of the nineteenth century. The work was meant to be a guide to knowledge that womenfolk needed to properly manage a household and was passed on to her daughters and daughters-in-law. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Humanities Research, the School of International Letters & Cultures, and the Asia Center at ASU.

RSVP.

 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. | Memorial Union Cochise (MU 228) and online

Join the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics for an artistic exploration of technology and humanity and as we launch the Humane Technology Tarot Deck, a project that combines years of research and community-centered conversations with meaningful, artistic interpretations of the critical interventions we need to consider collectively.

Designed by the Lincoln Center team in collaboration with artist Neil Smith, our custom tarot mini-deck cards are a provocation and invitation to understand more deeply our relationship(s) with technology and digital culture.

Register to attend.

7 to 8:30 p.m. | Roskind Great Hall (ARM 101)

Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the first African American to have been appointed since the position was created by an act of Congress in 1986.

Dove’s numerous honors include Lifetime Achievement Medals from the Library of Virginia and the Fulbright Association, the 2014 Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, the 2019 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets and the 2021 Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as the sixteenth (and third female and first African American) poet in the Medal’s 110-year history.

The Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Distinguished Lecture Series brings to ASU nationally known scholars concerned with promoting culture through the humanities and a better understanding of the problems of democracy. This annual free public lecture is funded with an endowed gift from Jonathan and Maxine Marshall. 

RSVP.

10 to 11 a.m. | Social Sciences, 314

A round table discussion with former and current students to talk about their experiences in Spanish for heritage learners classes and what it means to them to have this space at ASU.

12 to 1 p.m. | Durham Hall 135

Please join the Italian program, the ASU School of International Letter and Culture, the Institute for Humanities Research and the Environmental Humanities Initiative for this dynamic talk series featuring Italian writers and directors working in the fields of ecology and ecocriticism. 

This talk will be given by Fabio Marzano, a biologist, journalist and author of I Racconti delle Piante.

Learn more. 

3:30 to 5 p.m. | Coor Hall 120 and online

This panel is an interactive discussion of the global reception and history of two of Japan’s most famous cultural exports: manga and anime. 

Prior to the lectures, there will be quizzes, and raffles with prizes. Winners will receive one Kimono and one hand-held fan.

Register to attend.

5 to 7 p.m. | Memorial Union Pima (MU 230)

Associate Professor of history Curtis Austin will be joined by the Phoenix Boys Choir to demonstrate that in addition to iconic figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, there are countless others, who doggedly fought for their own rights and the rights of others, but their stories have never been told.

This project celebrates those who, without acknowledgment or fanfare, played key roles in the civil rights movement and often sacrificed all to rectify decades-old injustices. Even though they stayed out of the limelight, their contributions were just as important in fueling the movement as were the legendary historical figures we learn about in school.

Austin and Matthew Barr, professor at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, are collaborating on an oral history and book project titled "The Unsung Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement."

Austin and Barr already have conducted 40 interviews and hope to have nearly 200 oral histories available and archived on a website through ASU’s Hayden Library by Christmas, with the book published late in 2023.

Register to attend.

Image credit: The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, was the site of the "Bloody Sunday" conflict on March 7, 1965, when police attacked civil rights movement demonstrators as they were attempting to march to the state capital. Photo courtesy Clément Bardot/Wikimedia Commons.

10 to 11 a.m. | Social Sciences, 314

One of our instructors will create a presentation on Latinx culture through music in the United States.

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Coor Hall Fourth Floor

Join the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies for an open house featuring an inside look into faculty research through a gallery of projects. Meet your professors virtually on a walking tour of offices and mingle with your peers.

You will also be able to see the winners of the SHPRS Student Photo Contest and vote for the best photo in the People's Choice category.

Snacks will be provided.

11 a.m. to 12 p.m. | Ross-Blakley Hall 196 and online

Nicole Anderson, director, and Ron Broglio, associate director of the IHR give their advice on surviving the first semester at university and living the college lifestyle as habits for learning and for life.

Learn more and RSVP.

11 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Memorial Union, outdoors

Writing Programs in the Department of English at ASU hosts activities in celebration of the annual National Day on Writing. Join us outside the ASU Memorial Union for games, information, and writing prompts. Writing Programs staff will be available to answer questions and share information about the ASU Common Read as well as upcoming TomorrowTalks events.

The National Day on Writing is an annual event established by the National Council of Teachers of English to promote the role of writing in society. 

ASU's National Day on Writing event is free of charge, open to the public, and is part of a university-wide Humanities Week celebration sponsored by The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU.

Learn more.

12 to 1:30 p.m. | Coor Hall 4403 and online

At this hybrid lecture, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, director of Jewish Studies, will show how the Bible harbors deep ecological wisdom that teaches ethics of care and responsibility for the well-being of the Earth and for future generations.

Learn more and RSVP.

1:30 to 3:30 p.m. | Online

Join the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands for a discussion with middle grade author Brian Young (Diné from Fort Defiance, Arizona on the Navajo Nation). Young will discuss his book "Healer of the Water Monster," which Publishers Weekly recently reviewed as an “excellently wrought middle grade debut” with “gentle, complex characters and flawed, loving human relationships.”

Learn more and RSVP.

5 - 8 p.m. | Downtown Phoenix Campus, University Center

Scholars at all levels (including students and those out of academia) are invited to attend the fall 2022 Veterans in Society conference, hosted this year by ASU's Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement, in conjunction with the Veterans Studies Association. 

The conference kicks off the evening of Oct. 20 with a keynote address and reception; Oct. 21 will be a full day of sessions. 

Register to attend.

5 to 7:30 p.m. | Nelson Fine Arts Plaza

Join the Avanzando: Education Pathways — Humanities Lab for an early-evening event featuring music from Guitarras Latinas, cultural foods, chalk mural art and a rich panel discussion moderated by Avanzando course students.

Avanzando course students will partner with community professionals — Francisca Montoya, Esmeralda Franco and Megan Vanbuskirk — in a live panel discussion to introduce Maryvale High School students, ASU students and audience members to the foundational role the humanities have played in the panelists various career paths.

Learn more and RSVP.

6 to 8 p.m. | Downtown Phoenix campus, Cronkite School

RSVP.

6 to 7:30 p.m. | Memorial Union Ventana C (MU 241) and online

Join the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy as we grapple with vital issues of belonging, labor, self-determination, justice and culture that shape our lives and societies.

Learn more and RSVP.

7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. | Downtown Phoenix Campus, University Center

Scholars at all levels (including students and those out of academia) are invited to attend the fall 2022 Veterans in Society conference, hosted this year by ASU's Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement, in conjunction with the Veterans Studies Association. 

The conference kicks off the evening of Oct. 20 with a keynote address and reception; Oct. 21 will be a full day of sessions. 

Register to attend.

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Armstrong Hall L1-30 and online

So what are you going to do with that? English majors, history majors, language majors and more have heard the question a million times. But the truth is that you can do a lot with a humanities degree. 

Join a panel of alumni from the humanities division at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to hear their stories of where their humanities degrees took them, and how their studies have positively influenced their careers.

In-person attendees will be provided with a boxed lunch. 

Learn more and RSVP.

4:30 to 7 p.m. | Roskind Great Hall (ARM 101)

Film and Media Studies in the Department of English at ASU presents a screening of the hit Netflix documentary, “Chasing Coral” (2017). In the wake of our current climate crisis, ecological filmmaking and mediamaking is a growing space for transformative storytelling and critical inquiry. “Chasing Coral” is emblematic of recent efforts to bring awareness to our imperiled ocean ecosystems and the work that scientists are doing to address threats from ocean warming, acidification, and other anthropogenic disturbances.

Following the screening, ASU Assistant Professor Lisa Han (film and media studies) will lead a discussion and Q&A with MG Hall, the climate impact coordinator at Exposure Labs, the film production company behind “Chasing Coral,” “Chasing Ice,” and “The Social Dilemma.” Joining them are ASU Assistant Professor Jacob Greene (writing, rhetoric and literacies) and PhD student Thomas Ingalls, a marine scientist working on coral reef research and management.

Learn more.