The WVU Humanities Center cultivates critical humanistic inquiry, fostering innovative, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and publicly accessible scholarship and teaching to benefit the common good of the University, the state, and the world.  The humanities are now more critical than ever as they can address society’s most pressing concerns by critically examining the past, illuminating the present, and imagining possible futures through the study of human thought, culture, and history. 

Humanities work at WVU might surprise you.  A few current scholarly projects of our faculty include: Appalachian Futures: A Traveling Exhibit and Programming curated here but heading across the state to local and educational institution’s libraries, Culture Kits with resources to help students learn about people and places around the globe that are being co-developed by WVU faculty with K-12 educators, a public history partnership with the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau that will explore the relationship between its timber history and musical traditions, an investigation of the intersections between online dating, technology use, and marriage based on local population participation, and an examination of real-world impacts of literature on daily life, plus so much more.    

Why we need your support

WVU humanities faculty have garnered over sixteen major fellowships and awards just since 2016.  To apply for these competitive national and international grants, faculty need to demonstrate the sound scope and quality of their work.  As we raise the research profile and visibility of the work being done at WVU, the Humanities Center instituted a grant program in 2018 with awards for research travel grants, collaborative grants, pedagogical innovation (teaching) grants, and faculty fellowships, which assist faculty in doing their ground-breaking scholarship, teaching, mentorship, and community collaboration.  With your support we can continue to advance the quality and quantity of humanities research at WVU.

The Humanities Center is committed to bringing renown scholars to WVU and to featuring our own exceptional researchers and their work through our Speakers Series.  Each year the Center selects a topical theme with real-world implications and focuses on it through a variety of humanistic perspectives.  These presentations, panels, roundtables, and workshops always warmly welcome the public to WVU to learn about and discuss the subject highlighted.     

Future planning

WVU’s Humanities Center is comprised is first and foremost comprised of people.  Plans for the future include a physical space that welcomes Faculty Affiliates, undergraduate and graduate students, our Community Affiliates from across the state, and the public.  We envision a space that can host public events, workshops, and open discussions and dialogue.  This physical Center will support and promote collaborative efforts across our campus, local community, and state, and spur innovation by bringing people together to address issues that impact West Virginia, the region, and the world.

To learn more about individual giving or foundation support

In addition to supporting the Humanities Center through your giving on this page’s link, there are opportunities for individuals and foundations to underwrite specific grants, named lectures for our Speakers Series, as well as donating to help us acquire a physical space with room naming options and the naming the Center.  For more information please contact Chuck Kerzak at ckerzak@wvuf.org.