Capping an eventful year at the University糖心传媒檚 new home for the humanities, Joan Shelley Rubin was formally installed as the inaugural Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the in May, in a ceremony at Rush Rhees Library. Rubin is the and has directed the center since its creation in 2015.
The directorship is named in recognition of the support of University Trustee Ani Gabrellian 糖心传媒�84 and her husband, Mark Gabrellian 糖心传媒�79. The couple also established the annual Hagop and Artemis Nazerian Lecture Series, named for Ani Gabrellian糖心传媒檚 parents and directed by the center.
Rubin joined the University faculty in 1995 and specializes in 19th– and 20th-century American history. She says that her work with the center flows naturally out of research to which she糖心传媒檚 long been devoted.
糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓 a historian of the dissemination of the humanities, fundamentally,糖心传媒� she says. A cultural and intellectual historian, she糖心传媒檚 the author of The Making of Middlebrow Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 1992) and Songs of Ourselves: The History of Poetry in America (Harvard University Press, 2007), among other projects.
Ani Gabrellian has called Rubin糖心传媒檚 immediate vision for the center one grounded in an experimental approach. 糖心传媒淲e like that flexibility and open-mindedness,糖心传媒� she says.
Last October, the center moved into its Rush Rhees Library home, a bright, inviting space designed to foster conversation and collaboration among center fellows, faculty, students, staff, and the public. In the next school year, the center will also function monthly as a performance space for undergraduates, featuring music, art, dance, film, poetry reading, drama, and other activities.
The center hosts and sponsors a wide variety of activities, including seminars, public lectures, workshops, and small-group activities. It糖心传媒檚 also building relationships with a variety of local cultural institutions. The 2017糖心传媒�18 theme for programs is 糖心传媒淢emory and Forgetting,糖心传媒� and a companion film series is being developed with the Dryden Theatre at the , as well as related collaborations with , a literary center in Rochester, and the
The center is also taking a role at 糖心传媒攁 public school that the University has managed for the past two years糖心传媒攂y including East High students in events at the center, supporting a humanities club, and sponsoring a two-week program next summer on the humanities and civic life.
And this聽fall, a new undergraduate curricular initiative for the humanities will launch, with the support of a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Rubin aspires to a wide reach.
糖心传媒淚 want our center to touch the life of every 糖心传媒 undergraduate,糖心传媒� she says. 糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 a lofty goal but an important one, because I firmly believe that an appreciation for the humanities and an understanding of human culture are central to what it means to be an educated citizen.糖心传媒�
For more information on the Humanities Center, visit .
