Over the summer, 2009, the Institute is in the throes of moving to our new, permanent location, the University Club Building at 432 East Campus Mall, at the campus end of State Street and right across from Memorial Library and the State Historical Society. The big move is scheduled for August 3-5, and we hope to be well settled by the end of August.
In 2009-2010, the Institute will celebrate its 50th Anniversary as the oldest humanities institute attached to a university in the United States with a reception on Sunday, September 20, 2009, 5:00-7:00pm, at the University Club. Loretta Freiling has been the invaluable assistant to the director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities since its founding in 1959. In countless ways, Loretta has been the face of the Institute. We will feature her life in the humanities as we celebrate the Institute's 50th Anniversary milestone. New and former fellows and friends of Loretta are all welcome! Invitations will be sent out in late August/early September. (For more information, contact Loretta.)
The Institute is pleased to welcome its new staff, Ann Harris, assistant to the director, who will begin work on July 27, 2009. She comes to the Institute with superb qualifications and a love for the humanities. We are grateful that Loretta will continue working at the Institute on special assignments during the 2009-10 year. Anupam Basu, a former IRH Dana-Allen Fellow, will continue as the Institute's Project Assistant until June, 2010.
In the 2009-2010 academic year, the Institute will welcome 36 external and internal fellows to our interdisciplinary community. Weekly Monday afternoon seminars (3:00-5:00pm) will begin September 14th with a panel discussion on Globalization and the Humanities. Weekly Tuesday brown-bag lunch seminars (noon-1:15pm; optional) will begin September 15th. IRH Seminars are open to any interested faculty and students. Daily informal lunches starting about 12:30 will begin as soon as fellows move into their offices. A detailed schedule will be posted on the web site early in the fall semester.
The Institute's many fellowship competitions will be held as usual. Information on applications will be posted soon on the website. We are currently attempting to move to online submission of applications. The first deadline is October 15, 2009 for the Solmsen Postdoctoral Fellowships (external), the UW-Madison Resident Faculty Fellowships (internal), and the Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity Fellowships (internal).
The Institute will participate in activities planned for the campus Year of the Humanities. Senior Fellow David Morgan will give a Focus on the Humanities Distinguished Lecture on October 28 for the Center for the Humanities. He will also host the IRH Burdick-Vary Symposium on The Mongol Empire in Its Eurasian Context in April, 2010. The Institute plans an anniversary Symposium on Globalization and the Humanities for Feb. 25-27, 2010, with Natalie Zemon Davis and Cathy Davidson giving keynote addresses. Former Senior Fellow Frank Salomon will give a Focus on the Humanities Distinguished Lecture on April 7, 2010.
It will be an exciting year!
Best wishes,
Susan Stanford Friedman, Director
Virginia Woolf Professor of English and Women's Studies
Sally Mead Hands Bascom Professor of English