University of Missouri

Sept. 29, 2023
Photos by Abbie Lankitus

The University of Missouri College of Arts and Science has announced its newest research center, the Center for the Humanities, dedicated to advancing humanities research, collaboration across disciplines and public scholarship. To officially launch the new center, the college hosted a panel that featured humanities center directors from across the country Sept. 28. 

“We are launching the Center for Humanities because of the power of this work and its importance to all of us,” said Cooper Drury, Dean of the College of Arts and Science. “While some universities are divesting from their humanities research and teaching, we’re focusing our efforts in this area. The humanities helps us all to understand people better, so we can teach, collaborate with, and work alongside each other more effectively.”

Spanning the study of art, history, identity, literature and culture, humanities scholars and students at Mizzou make up a vibrant population. The center will foster connections among humanities fields and scholars in order to deepen intellectual exchange, introduce more research opportunities and increase grant collaborations. 

Julie Passanante Elman, the center’s director, identified the need for an integrative structure to facilitate the kind of multidisciplinary research that bolsters collaboration between humanists, artists, and scientists. Elman — along with her colleagues on the center’s executive committee — knew that this kind of approach would be instrumental in nurturing world-changing humanities research coming out of Mizzou. 

The center’s activities fall under the categories of research, student experience and public outreach. Each of these areas represent why the center exists: to bring together the research of scholars and students in the humanities and use that research to address global challenges and improve lives.