Our Mission 

The Humanities Collaborative takes a wide view of humanistic inquiry, including research and conversations that cross disciplines, schools, and the academic / public divide. Our programs include intellectual, creative, and investigative endeavors that span traditional humanities disciplines, the creative and performing arts, the social and natural sciences, as well as questions that arise from schools such as law, business, medicine, and public health. Our programs are part of a new vision of the humanities that includes public outreach and community collaboration with partners across our state, the US, and the world.   

Founded in January 2021, the Humanities Collaborative sponsors grants, lectures, workshops, seminars, and working groups to bring humanities scholarship to broad and diverse audiences within and beyond, inside and outside the University of South Carolina.

What Are the Humanities? 

In the humanities, we study human culture and society. The humanities include academic disciplines ― from anthropology to philosophy, from art to religion ― that explain and enhance the human condition, giving us new ways to look at the world. Many fundamental aspects of everyday life fall under the umbrella of the humanities, including literature, film, television, video games, politics, religion, and social media.  
  
Some people might think the humanities are the opposite of the sciences, but in fact the two share a close relationship. If the sciences teach us new things about the world, the humanities allow us to communicate how that knowledge affects the lives of our fellow humans.  

By exploring the humanities, we can ask and answer compelling questions, such as:   

• How do art and culture influence each other?   
• What can we learn from major religious and political movements that have shaped history?   
• How can we find more meaningful relationships to those physical places that we share? 
• How do our digital lives influence how we see each other or communicate with each other as human beings?  

Leadership 

The Humanities Collaborative is led by Qiana Whitted, director.

Dr. Whitted has been Professor of English and African American Studies at USC since 2003. Her research and teaching encompasses Black literary and cultural studies, and American comics and graphic novels. She is the author of the Eisner Award-winning book, EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest (Rutgers University Press, 2019) and editor of the book, Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics (Rutgers University Press, 2023), which received the Edited Book Prize from the Comics Studies Society.

She has served as editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society and chair of the International Comic Arts Forum. As the new Director of the Humanities Collaborative, Dr. Whitted plans to work with her team to expand the range of opportunities and resources available to faculty and students in the humanities, to increase the visibility of interdisciplinary research and creative practice across the university, and to seek out new ways to share the significance of this important work with the public.

Dr. Whitted is assisted by the Steering Committee and the Advisory Committee. 

• Maureen Ryan, Associate Director 
• Mary Elizabeth Smith, Graduate Associate

 

Expand allSteering Committee 

• Jeanne Britton, Library 
• Thaddeus Davis, Theatre and Dance   
• Peter Duffy, Theatre and Dance 
• Tony Jarrells, English  
• David Kneas, SEOE  
• Kathryn Lindeman, Philosophy  
• Maureen Ryan, FAMS  
• Pat Sullivan, History  
• Nancy Tolson, African-American Studies  
• Ashley Williard, LLC 

Advisory Committee 

• Susan Courtney, English
• April Langley, African-American Studies
• Matthew Kisner, Philosophy
• Paul Malovrh, LLC
• Stephanie Milling, Theatre and Dance
• Jessica Elfenbein, History
• Laura Kissel, SVAD

Affiliations

The Folger Institute Consortium

As members of the Folger Institute’s consortium, our students and faculty are eligible to apply for grants-in-aid to participate in a wide-offering of programming—seminars, workshops, and symposia. A center for humanities research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Folger Institute gathers interdisciplinary communities of scholars for collection-based research and fellowships in public humanities and artistic research.

Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)

CHCI is a collaborative of humanities researchers, scholars, and educators united by the goal of supporting the future of the humanities by fostering global interdisciplinary collaboration.

National Humanities Alliance

The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) is a nationwide coalition advocating for the humanities on campuses, in communities, and on Capitol Hill through grants, advocacy, and education.