Over the course of 30 years, the Center’s faculty directors have inspired new initiatives and opportunities for research through their vision, intellectual generosity and commitment to service. In the late 1980’s, Bernd Magnus envisioned a Humanities Center with what was at the time a new and innovative approach to research: interdisciplinarity. Under his leadership, residential programs with high-profile faculty guests helped launch the Center’s reputation for scholarship and service to the intellectual life of the university. -- Following this auspicious beginning, Emory Elliott helped develop [...]

In 1990, the Center’s Resident Faculty Program sponsored three, quarter-long faculty groups the members of which, relieved of teaching for the quarter, met each week with an ambitious plan: to pursue their own research alongside a collective, interdisciplinary agenda. The first year, eighteen scholars attempted to do just that. At first, results were mixed. Contrasting methods and research ‘languages’ forced the group members to set aside the first few weeks simply to listen. From this deep listening grew a rich, interdisciplinary conversation—a “spirited exchange”—in [...]