Humanities/Humanity is a program that brings together small groups working to advance thought about foundational topics connecting disciplines. Each year Humanities/Humanity funds a number of exploratory initiatives, in which distinguished teams of scholars gather at the Whitney Humanities Center for meetings of two or three days each. The themes explored in these workshops are framed by the Yale faculty that envisage them, in interaction with the group they convene. Workshop leaders collaborate with their invited participants to devise a program of readings and other preliminary materials in preparation for in-person meetings.
Featured Humanities/Humanity workshop: Desert Futures
What happens when we think of the desert not as a margin, but as a center and a focus of study? Jill Jarvis from the Department of French discusses the genesis of “Desert Futures: Sahara,” an interdisciplinary symposium supported by the Humanities/Humanity Program at the Whitney Humanities Center. In this video, Jarvis is joined by Yale historian and sociologist Jonathan Wyrtzen to explore how this multi-day event—taking place at Yale University from April 28 to May 1, 2022—might move the field of French and Francophone studies beyond inherited colonial cartographies.