The College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is pleased to announce the formation of the new Humanities Center. Dedicated to facilitating and improving research opportunities in humanities disciplines, this new program demonstrates the university's significant commitment to and support of the humanities. Starting in academic year 2012–13, our first full term of operation, the center will offer four faculty research fellowships to UT Knoxville faculty members and two dissertation completion fellowships to UT Knoxville graduate students.

O r i g i n s
A committee of department heads and administrators began work in 2009 to bring this exciting program to fruition. We believe the benefits of the center to the university's humanities faculty and graduate students will be considerable, and we are most grateful to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost for their assistance. Officially established in July 2011, the center admitted its first class of four faculty fellows (increasing to six by 2018) and two graduate fellows in the fall of academic year 2012–13.

P r o g r a m
The center will offer its fellows amenities for sustained research similar to those they might enjoy at the National Humanities Center. The center will have its own suite with offices for a director and support staff, individual offices for the fellows, a seminar room, a lecture room, and a common room. The period of residence for all the center's fellows is a full academic year. We expect all successful applicants to be in residence in the center during their tenure, as well as to participate in weekly meetings of the fellows. During the year, both faculty and graduate-student fellows will be encouraged to join one of the ongoing faculty seminars appropriate to their research topic, and reflecting the practice at the National Humanities Center, both faculty and graduate fellows will be expected to make a public presentation of some portion of their current work.

E l i g i b i l i t y
While we realize that proposing a definition of the humanities is not going to satisfy everyone, we accept the definition of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The term humanities includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following:

• language, both modern and classical;
  
• linguistics;
  
• literature;
  
• history;
  
• jurisprudence;
  
• philosophy;
  
• archaeology;
  
• comparative religion;
  
• ethics;
  
• the history, criticism, and theory of the arts;
  
• those aspects of social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and
  
• the study and application of the humanities to the human environment, with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history, and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life. Anyone whose research falls into one of these categories should consider applying for a fellowship.

Contact Information

Dr. Thomas Heffernan
Kenneth Curry Professor of English and Director
The University of Tennessee Humanities Center
F101 Melrose Hall
1616 Melrose Avenue
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-4352

Email: humanitiesctr@utk.edu
Phone: 865-974-4222
Fax: 865-974-4432