The Humanities Center at Rensselaer merges the strengths of our nation's oldest technological university with the new opportunities facing the humanities disciplines by digital information technology tools.  The center is well positioned to study the human uses of new technology and the potential of new media to advance research and scholarship in the humanities disciplines.   The mission of the Humanities Center at Rensselaer is to explore new applications of information technology to enhance scholarship in the Humanities and to explore the intersection of Humanities disciplines with those in science, social science, and technology.  The Center also works to promote curricular innovation that will enhance the Humanities experience of all baccalaureate students at Rensselaer while contributing to the development of technological citizenship and its potential for policy-relevant and cultural contributions to society.

In its inaugural year, 2008, the Humanities Center helped to articulate questions and research areas that reflect the current period of transformation in both technology studies and humanities disciplines.  The Center sought to capitalize on our faculty's long record of work in the collaborative exploration of the social, cultural, communicative, or political aspects of science and technology.   The Center  built on that strength by creating partnerships with colleagues and projects at other institutions.  These initiatives continue in 2009:

Initiatives: Spring 2009

In spring 2009 the Humanities Center offers a variety of new lectures, exhibitions, events, external partnerships, and curriculum development projects. 

Humanities@Rensselaer Lecture Series

The initiative to create a Humanities Center began five years ago, and continues today, with a series of lectures and conferences designed to bring to Rensselaer an array of voices and research innovations on the intersection of the humanities and technology.  A history of the lecture series can be found here. 

Supporting the Humanities Center

Learn more about the Center and ways to support it here.