The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, located in Seattle, Washington, is one of the largest and most comprehensive

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

centers in the United States. Housed in the College of Arts and Sciences at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

(UW), it offers UW scholars a spectrum of local opportunities for intellectual community and grant support that advances crossdisciplinarity,

collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...

, and research while networking them nationally and internationally.

History

In 1987, the UW's College of Arts and Sciences established the University of Washington Center for the Humanities with a mandate to support interdisciplinary activities. Ron Moore and

Leroy Searle Leroy Searle is a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature at University of Washington, author, musician, and poet. His lifelong areas of study are American literature, history and theory of criticism, modernism, European and ...

served as formative leaders of the Center. In 1997, Barclay and Sharon Simpson endowed the Center, which was renamed the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, in tribute to Barclay Simpson's father, a lifelong supporter of humanistic education.

Kathleen Woodward Kathleen Woodward is an American academic. She is a Lockwood Professor in Humanities and in English at the University of Washington and has been the Director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities since 2000. Her areas of specialization includ ...

was named Director of the Center in 2000; she continues to lead it toda

Programs and Initiatives

Collaboration and Crossdisciplinarity

All Center programs are grounded in

and crossdisciplinarity. The Center provides funding and support for fellowship programs, research clusters, graduate student interest groups, conferences, and symposia, allowing faculty and graduate students to exchange ideas and develop individual and collaborative projects together with other faculty, students, visiting scholars, and community practitioners. Between 2000 and 2013, the Simpson Center funded 126 faculty fellowships and 51 dissertation fellowships supporting scholars from 30 campus units across the humanities, arts, social sciences, and professional schools. The Center also supports large-scale projects funded by major foundations and agencies. Recent examples include the American Music Partnership with

KEXP-FM KEXP-FM (90.3 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys for the Seattle metropolitan area. The station is owned by the non-pr ...

of Seattle (

Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which ...

, 2009–2011), the Sawyer Seminar on Now Urbanism (

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

, 2010–2012), and Biological Futures in a Globalized World (

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, formerly known as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and also known as Fred Hutch or The Hutch, is a cancer research institute established in 1975 in Seattle, Washington. History The center grew out o ...

, 2011–2012).

Public Scholarship

The Simpson Center has gained national recognition for its work advancing scholarship as a publicly engaged practice, a field often referred to as the

public humanities Public humanities is the work of engaging diverse publics in reflecting on heritage, traditions, and history, and the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of civic and cultural life. Public humanities is often practiced within feder ...

. Undertaken with and for diverse communities, public scholarship promotes mutually-beneficial partnerships between higher education and organizations in the public and private sectors. The Certificate in Public Scholarship is a portfolio- and project-based program that enables graduate students and faculty mentors to integrate their scholarly, social, and political commitments in the context of their intellectual and professional developmen

Center grants support humanities-based research, teaching, and engagement projects that encourage dialogue, exchange, and collaboration among UW scholars and community members. The Center hosts the Solomon Katz Distinguished Lectures in the Humanities, which feature leading thinkers such as

Dipesh Chakrabarty Dipesh Chakrabarty (born 1948, in Kolkata, India) is an Indian historian, who has also made contributions to postcolonial theory and subaltern studies. He is the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in history at the University ...

Robin Kelley Robin Davis Gibran Kelley (born March 14, 1962) is an American historian and academic, who is the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA. From 2006 to 2011, he was Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Sout ...

, Wendy Brown,

Anne Balsamo Anne Marie Balsamo (born January 7, 1959) is a writer who focuses on the connections between art, culture, gender, and technology.FacultylistNewSchoolFaculty./ref> Education Balsamo attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urban ...

, and

Cathy Davidson Cathy N. Davidson (born 1949) is an American scholar and university professor. Beginning July 1, 2014, she is a professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She was a professor of English at Duke University in 2006. She ...

in events that are free and open to the public.

Digital Humanities

In 2008, the Simpson Center received a $625,000 Challenge Grant by the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

(NEH), an endorsement for its plans to raise funds to establish the Digital Humanities Commons, a fellowship program that will support inventive and experimental research inspired by new and emerging technologies in the

digital humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

. In 2010, the

gave $600,000 to underwrite the Digital Humanities Commons fund-raising effort

The fundraising goal was met in February 201

and beginning Summer 2014, the Simpson Center Digital Humanities Commons will enable UW faculty and graduate students to collaborate with librarians, engineers, and designers in the development, innovation, and exchange of digital research and scholarship. Simpson Center Initiatives, such as the 2011 Digital Research Summer Institute and the Puget Sounds archives for rare performances of Northwest popular music, are helping to build campus communities of scholarly digital practice.

Affiliations

The Simpson Center maintains affiliations with national and international scholarly organizations, such as the

Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes Established in 1988, the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes serves as a site for the discussion of issues germane to the fostering of cross-disciplinary activity and as a network for the circulation of information and the sharing of ...

;

HASTAC HASTAC (/ˈhāˌstak/'), also known as the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, is a virtual organization and platform of more than 18,000 individuals and 400+ affiliate-institutions dedicated to innovative new mod ...

(Humanities, Arts, Science, Technology Advanced Collaboratory); Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life; the National Humanities Alliance; and the Western Humanities Alliance.

External links

The Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the HumanitiesAmerican Music Partnership of SeattleThe Sawyer Seminar on Now Urbanism
{{authority control University of Washington Humanities institutes Digital Humanities Centers Research institutes in Washington (state) 1987 establishments in Washington (state)