The Humanities Studio at Pomona College was established in the Fall of 2018 to foster interdisciplinary study of the humanities among Pomona students and faculty, and to enrich the experience of the humanities for students, faculty, staff, and our surrounding communities.
Through a variety of programs and events, we seek to spark conversations across the humanities disciplines. But we’re equally interested in building connections and sharing resources between the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, including mathematics.
The Humanities Studio does this work via four main programming streams:
The Fellowship Seminar
Research within the Humanities Studio takes place under a "parallel projects" model and is organized around an annual theme. Faculty members with scholarly projects falling under the theme, and students whose senior thesis projects make them good candidates (regardless of home department or discipline), are appointed as Humanities Studio Fellows and, along with the College's current Chau Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows, share a collaborative workspace and a year-long seminar. Each Fellow pursues their own research questions, while all share insights, resources, methodologies, and disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
The Speakers Series
Public-facing humanities programming makes up an important element of the Studio’s work as it aims to share the value and the excitement of humanistic study with the broader public. Each year, in conjunction with the Studio’s annual theme, the Studio invites a series of thought leaders from various fields to present public lectures, participate in seminar with Humanities Studio Fellows, and meet in smaller settings for practical workshops, interviews or creative projects with the campus community.
The Humanities Toolkit
With the aim of equipping faculty and students to take their passion for and knowledge of the humanities “to the next level,” each year the Studio convenes this series of professional-development events for students and faculty. Events are responsive to the needs of the College community and have included sessions on writing and pitching an Op-Ed; applying to graduate school in the humanities; writing for trade publishers, and careers in commercial publishing; publishing with a scholarly press; and a roundtable on “Humanities Futures,” highlighting the careers and life trajectories of graduates with degrees in the humanities.
“Random Acts of Humanities”
Forged on the spot and in the moment, partnerships with departments, programs, faculty members, and students seize other “pop-up” programming opportunities that fall outside the Studio’s annual theme.