The Humanities Action Lab in the Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies is a place of listening, engagement, and curiosity, one guided by creation, curation, interpretation, and collaboration. a place of personal reflection, imagination, innovation, and the pursuit of that elusive-but-oh-so-rewarding aha moment.
Students participate in hands-on, collaborative research designed to address pressing social challenges and provoke public engagement. This space, which exists through faculty and community relationships, encourages experimentation, transdisciplinary collaboration, and public outreach, equipping students with the tools to develop new approaches and solutions to complex local and global problems.
Humanities and Cultural Studies students understand that we are living in unprecedented times. The challenges that arise from this context require much of us. We need to,
- Build new systems and methods from which to make and communicate meaning.
- Re-define what it means to be an effective leader that meets the moment.
- Innovate from a solid foundation of dignity and respect for all peoples and cultures.
The lab is designed to give students personalized learning experiences that they can then pursue in the context of their own lives and career goals. For HCS students, this has looked like a lot of different things, including
- ways of forging community bonds based on shared values, struggles, and joys.
- analysis of peoples, cultures, histories, and artistic/religious/political expressions from the past that produce new ways of understanding and responding to the present.
- unique learning environments that involve students from multiple departments working to achieve a shared goal.
- communicating solutions-based research to the public.
- articulating possible career pathways and other forms of professional development.
- applying humanities coursework directly in community projects.
