The mission of The College of Arts and Sciences’ Interdisciplinary Humanities Research Center (IHRC) is to:
- strengthen faculty research and creative activity while also enhancing its integration into the curriculum;
- support initiatives involving multidisciplinary research teams, both within the university as well as with external partners;
- foster intellectual community and public engagement.
The IHRC has a strong tradition of digital scholarship advocacy and sponsorship.
The IHRC provides key support for the African American Public Humanities Initiative and oversight of the Paul R. Jones Initiative.
The IHRC has been an incubator for curriculum innovation and public humanities outreach since its establishment in 2009, providing seed grants to support interdisciplinary team-teaching as well as collaborative projects resulting in the establishment of new undergraduate minors (e.g., Environmental Humanities, Game Studies, the re-design of the Disability Studies minor), and inter-arts collaborations resulting in performances and exhibitions as well as scholarship and K12 outreach.
The IHRC supports:
- creative, intellectually ambitious course development and curriculum innovations designed to bring cutting-edge research into the classroom to engage more undergraduates in humanities research and more graduate students and faculty in interdisciplinary practices;
- multidisciplinary research collaborations and research-related special events programming that are anchored in but not limited to the humanities;
- collaborative collections-based research projects that foster public and digital humanities skills that are in high demand within the academy and transferable to a broader range of careers involving humanities research, education, and advocacy.