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July 2025:

Dear IHGC community:

First of all, I want to thank you all for an inspiring and sustaining year of conversation, learning, and discovery. Getting to learn from each of you has been a source of great comfort for me in these uncertain times, and I hope that the Institute has been a welcoming space for all of you. Over this year we have hosted events and meetings for the Games Lab, Personhoods Lab, Race & Performance Lab, and Reading Lab, mentored the undergraduate-led Humanities Society, co-sponsored the work of the Modern & Contemporary Culture Workshop and Political Theory Workshop, featured lectures hosted by our IHGC Fellows and in our “For the Humanities” series, launched the Queer South(s) Initiative, celebrated faculty book publications at our annual Book Celebration and pop-up book launches, and supported the work of the Digital Humanities Initiative, Environmental Humanities Initiative, and Islamic Worlds Initiative through our role in hosting the Emerging Initiatives for the College. There has been quite a lot of activity, and all of it is only possible through the support of a highly capable and professional team. I’m immensely grateful to Meg Homer and Anne Gilliam in the IHGC office, to our wonderful student interns, and to the Dean’s Office—especially Associate Dean of the Arts and Humanities Sarah Betzer. 
 
There is much that is bittersweet about the end of the academic year, including saying goodbye to colleagues moving on with their professional careers. Reading Lab also comes to an end this year, but many of its conversations will continue in one form or another, as projects sparked by the lab’s convenings are being planned here and at other institutions. But there is much to look forward to as well. Over the summer, I am excited to launch our Winter School collaboration with the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.  A group pf advanced graduate students and faculty members will participate in what we hope will be an annual graduate education seminar that addresses questions of race, aesthetics, and democracy. We also welcome a new humanities lab: Collaborative Curation, led by Henry Skeritt (Art) and Lise Dobrin (Anthropology); as well as two new working groups: Art, Expression & Democracy, led by Steve Parks (English) and Naseemah Mohammed (African American and African Studies); and Mysticism, Poetry, and the Arts, led by John Nemec (Religious Studies) and Mehr Farooqi (Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures). We are also excited to welcome our new IHGC Fellows, Sam Shuman (Religious Studies) and Sarah Orzak (Women, Gender & Sexuality).
 
We recognize that these are uncertain times for the University and for higher education and as we await clarity and guidance from emerging leadership, we remain committed to our mission to support humanistic research while creating a space for intellectual engagement and collaboration across disciplines. 
 

Warmly,
Jack

Jack W. Chen 
Director, Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures
Chair, East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Professor of Chinese Literature
Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of Virginia

Read more about IHGC Director, Jack Chen.