Humanities Hosts Crossroads Student Humanities Conference

On Saturday, March 26, 2022, the NSU Center for the Humanities hosted the 4th annual Crossroads Student Humanities Conference.  Housed in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences the Center for the Humanities showcases undergraduate and graduate student research in the humanities through this conference.  This year’s Crossroads theme, “Rebirth, Renewal, Reboot,” explored how the humanities helps navigate trauma, tragedy, and loss.  Paper topics ranged from the cultural renewal of Germany after World War II to Civil War poetry reflecting mass death trauma.  Research was presented by students from NSU, University of Miami, University of Central Florida, and University of Florida. The conference also offered panels on humanities-based skillsets in the workplace and digital humanities strategies for textual analysis.

The conference’s opening plenary speaker was Janet Roseman, Ph.D., from NSU’s Kirin C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine; Roseman’s talk, which derived from her recent book, “If Joan of Arc Had Cancer,” focused on applications of historical inspiration for female patient therapy.  The event’s keynote speaker, made possible by the Stolzenberg-Doan fund in the Department of Humanities and Politics, was internationally acclaimed author, scholar, and activist Azar Nafisi, who shared a powerful message regarding the role of literature in times of social and political repression.   See a video of Nafisi’s talk and a photo gallery of the event.

The NSU Center for the Humanities champions core academic disciplines in the humanities, such as history, literature and languages, philosophy, religion, politics, and film, particularly the way in which these disciplines may be applied to engage and promote positive action involving local and global human issues and concerns.  The Center aims to demonstrate the relevance of the humanities as a complement to the core STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) and the social sciences, with a view toward encouraging students and scholars in those disciplines to explore these connections.

Posted 04/10/22