Welcome
From the Quadrangle
WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE YOUR RACE?
The Whitney Humanities Center opened the academic year with the Finzi-Contini Lecture, delivered by Namwali Serpell, Professor of English at Harvard, Yale alumna, and author of several books, including her novel The Old Drift, which won the 2020 Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction.
Read more MAKING SPACE FOR THE HUMANITIES
Founded in 1981, the Whitney Humanities Center has long been represented by a single image that graced the second-floor lecture room at 53 Wall Street: a carving of a ship above the mantle. But that ship sailed when the Whitney moved out of 53 Wall Street and into HQ at 320 York Street, from the outskirts of campus to the center of humanities conversations and initiatives.
Read more DAVID DIOP’S “AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK” WINS INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
It’s hard to miss, but I passed it twice before realizing what I was looking at. Just in front of the gare centrale in the Plateau region of Dakar, in the middle of a rond-point, is a bronze statue of two men atop a white pillar.
Read more “MAKE IT SING!” JON BUTLER REMEMBERS 320 YORK
Here at the Whitney Humanities Center, we are very excited to be part of the new Humanities Quadrangle. But, although recently reimagined and renovated to function as a humanities hub, 320 York Street has a long history of housing humanities departments.
Read more THE STONE HEADS OF 320 YORK
As you enter the new Humanities building at 320 York Street—the Humanities Quadrangle, or HQ—you might notice twelve stone heads looking down at you from the arched entrance. Although the heads’ exaggerated ears suggest a certain looseness with anatomical detail, the specificity of the faces suggests they represent real people.
Read more