Annual Symposium

The CHR hosts an Annual Research Symposium each spring, organized around our annual research theme.

It features a keynote address from a prominent humanities scholar and aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers working in areas related to our theme. 

Now inviting submissions for the CHR's Fifth Annual Research Symposium

We're delighted to share the call for papers for our annual research symposium:

Call for papers: Space, Territory, and Mobility (PDF here)
Center for Humanities Research Annual Symposium 
April 23-24, 2026 – Fairfax Campus

Keynote Speaker: Setha Low (Distinguished Professor, Psychology; Anthropology; Earth and Environmental Sciences; Women's and Gender Studies, CUNY Graduate Center)

Deadline: January 16, 2026

Full details here

Fourth Annual Research Symposium (April 24-25, 2025)

Theme: "humanity and its others"

Keynote: Jeffrey J. Cohen (Dean of Humanities and Foundation Professor of English, Arizona State University), "Monsters at the Limit"

View the talk on YouTube here

Access bibliography compiled for the occasion by Alok Yadav here

Third Annual Research Symposium (April 11-12, 2024)

Theme: "Democracy, Disposability, and Repair"

Keynote: Nancy Fraser (Henry A and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science, The New School for Social Research), “Three Faces of Labor: Uncovering the Hidden Ties among Gender, Race, and Class” 

View the talk on YouTube here

Access bibliography compiled for the occasion by Alok Yadav here

Second Annual Research Symposium (April 27-28, 2023) 

Theme: "Connecting/Not Connecting"

Keynote: Seyla Benhabib (Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy Emerita, Yale University), “Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered” 

View the talk on YouTube here

First Annual Symposium (April 7-8, 2022)

Theme: Pasts/Presents/Futures

Keynote: Kara Keeling (Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago), "'Marvels of ... Inventiveness': The Times of Black Studies"

This talk, featuring work-in-progress, was not recorded.