The idea of a homeland evokes thoughts of pleasure and pain, belonging and exile, flight and shelter. Is home a place, a state of mind, an imagined community, a commodity, or, as Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes, a fundamentally “human institution?” James Baldwin suggests we can only know home by its absence, while for Robert Frost it’s the place “they have to take you in.” For some, the idea of home promises shelter, identity, authenticity, and stability, while for others it evokes loss, exile, oppression, constriction, and the impossibility of return. The idea itself has shaped and been shaped by gender, race, class, geography, religion, and ethnicity while being deployed to both offer protection and propagate terror. Home, in short, is an essential element of the human condition and throughout the 2017-18 academic year, the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities will explore its myriad human dimensions through an array of programs including concerts, performances, film screenings, exhibitions, discussions, lectures, debates, and workshops.
In order to support this work, the OCH invites applications from the TU faculty to join the Interdisciplinary Humanities Seminar focused on the topic of Home and Homelands. The seminar will convene once a week through the fall 2017 semester and will build on the expertise of each participant to launch an intensive investigation of home, assisted by visiting speakers, artists, and performers. In the spring, participants will share their work with the larger community through talks, performances, colloquia, and other events. The Center encourages interdisciplinary work and welcomes a broad interpretation of the theme that will carry our investigations across intellectual, critical, experimental, and aesthetic domains.
All TU faculty are eligible to apply and those in the College of Arts and Sciences may receive a one-course reduction designed to support their work as a fellow. If you have questions or wish to receive and application, please complete the form or write directly to Sean Latham. All applications are due no later than January 30, 2017.