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The Davis Humanities Institute is on track to start anew. By fall 2025, it will become the campus hub for making connections and sharing ideas across the arts, humanities and beyond.
“We’re excited about the re-launch of DHI 2.0,” said Jenny Kaminer, faculty advisor for the arts and humanities at the College of Letters and Science, and chair of the institute’s visioning committee. “There's a lot happening behind the scenes.”
The committee has been hard at work clarifying DHI’s mission and creating a plan for its future. The process has included interviews with stakeholders and consultations with leaders across and outside of the university, including other humanities institutes in California and the U.S.
Its goals include making a deeper impact on campus and in the community, providing more research opportunities for undergraduate students and supporting cross-collaborations between disciplines within L&S as well as other colleges within UC Davis.
A vision for the future
DHI 2.0 has the potential to make a larger impact than ever by bringing more people with differing backgrounds together more often.
“Faculty from mathematical and physical sciences don’t necessarily cross paths often with faculty from humanities, arts and cultural studies or social sciences, so what I think the new DHI is uniquely poised to do is to act as the convener or the matchmaker to help incubate those kinds of connections and those new research directions,” Kaminer said.
The committee plans to preserve the DHI’s position as a home away from home for faculty, staff and students in arts and humanities departments by providing ongoing opportunities for informal networking and celebrating each other’s work.
The DHI plans to continue supporting faculty and graduate research while also introducing new ways for undergraduates in the arts and humanities to get involved with research. Potential partnerships for undergraduate research include UC Davis School of Law and the Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement, among other colleges and offices across UC Davis.
The committee also envisions a DHI that will bridge the “causeway divide,” connecting the UC Davis campus and community to the Sacramento campus and the future Aggie Square. This may include forming strategic partnerships, having more public-facing programming and events, and demonstrating the tangible impact of humanities research.
“We’re actively discussing what kind of structures we can put in place that will make the DHI a key partner with community organizations,” Kaminer added.
Value alignment across L&S
The recommendations of the DHI visioning committee align with the College of Letters and Science’s strategic vision, which includes increasing collaboration between disciplines and building community across the college.
Final recommendations from the DHI visioning committee will be submitted to Dean Estella Atekwana by the end of the year. The Dean’s Office has been overseeing and managing the DHI during the visioning process, which was estimated to last 18-months to two years, coinciding with the College of Letters and Science’s strategic visioning process.
“If we think about religion, the experience of trauma, agriculture, medicine, artificial intelligence and so many other areas that are relevant to people, the humanities unite all of them and provide us a window into how we experience them as humans,” Kaminer said. “The new Davis Humanities Institute will really showcase the powerful role the humanities play in our lives every day.”
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