Center for Humanities at Virginia Tech

10/12/2026

The countdown has begun! Humanities Week is only one week away! Visit our website for a full list of events and details!
https://liberalarts.vt.edu/humanities-week.html

10/08/2026

"Virginia Tech Humanities Week explores the responsibilities of being American". See the full article about our upcoming keynote address given by Scott Simon here: https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/10/clahs-humanities-week-2026.html
This event is free and open to the public. We'd love for you to join us! Tuesday, October 20th, 7:30pm at The Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg.

NPR's Scott Simon will speak for the week's keynote event on Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg.

10/01/2026

What does October bring, along with pumpkin spice?? Humanities Week!!! Don't miss an exciting week full of engaging explorations of this week's theme, "Legacies of 1776". The event line-up includes a keynote address given by acclaimed journalist, author, and longtime host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon; AI discourse on aligning engineering innovation with humanistic values; the chance to become a muralist; and even an opportunity to sing-along with "Hamilton". Visit our website for full details and stay tuned all month for Humanities Week highlights!
https://liberalarts.vt.edu/humanities-week.html

10/01/2026

Join our seminar presentation this coming Monday!

Sophia Terazawa: “Performance Art and the Poetics of Extremity”
Monday, October 5, 12:15-1:15pm
Hybrid: Athenaeum classroom, 124 Newman Library, or https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/83608595868

This presentation is a personal retrospective of endurance art practices in provocation and protest, and where they fit or conflict within academia. Sophia Terazawa is a poet and performance artist teaching courses in creative writing and hybrid forms.

This presentation is a part of the Humanities Seminar Series, sponsored by the Center for Humanities and held most Mondays at 12:15.

09/29/2026

If you are interested in or have questions about Latin America, Science, Technology, and Society, you are welcome to join the Latinx STS Faculty Working Group! Please see their schedule for details. Beautiful things happen when we expand our cultural horizons!

09/25/2026

The Center for Humanities is proud to co-sponsor the "Past Meets Future" workshop happening this weekend in Alexandria. This full-day workshop brings HCI and AI researchers together with the people who keep the world's memory: the digital humanities and the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums). Last year the workshop mapped the field's challenges. This year they explore solutions, together.
https://past-meets-future.github.io/2026/

09/25/2026

Reminder: AI Why?, a virtual discussion on AI at Virginia Tech for CLAHS faculty, is happening today at 3pm. We'd love your input! https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/83163649240

09/24/2026

If you'd like to learn more about Chinese Theatre, please join us this coming Monday at our Humanities Seminar:

Sophia Tingting Zhao: “Globalizing Chinese Theatre: Chinese Dramatists and the Making of World Theatre”
Monday, September 28, 12:15-1:15pm
Hybrid: Athenaeum classroom, 124 Newman Library, or https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/83608595868

This talk proposes that we rethink the globalization of Chinese theatre as a process of intellectual mediation rather than the transmission of a fixed theatrical tradition. Intellectual mediation refers to the ways Chinese dramatists translated, theorized, staged, and reconstructed Chinese theatre across languages, media, and institutions. The talk examines three paths through France, the United States, and Britain: Song Chunfang’s multilingual writings situated Chinese theatre within world literature; Hong Shen’s English plays and essays articulated Chinese drama as a coherent aesthetic system; and S. I. Hsiung’s Lady Precious Stream transformed Chinese conventions into an internationally performable form. Together, these dramatists did not merely enter world theatre but helped shape it.

Sophia Tingting Zhao is an Associate Professor of Chinese at Virginia Tech. Her research explores Chinese theatre and performance in global contexts, with particular interests in transnational cultural exchange, global modernism, and media and technology.

This presentation is a part of the Humanities Seminar Series, sponsored by the Center for Humanities and held most Mondays at 12:15.

09/24/2026

Learn more below about the showing of "Faust" on October 1 at The Lyric, and the "Art of Goodbye" exhibit at the Alexander Black House, which opens Sept. 30!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BxXP8SwPV/

We know you have all been patiently awaiting the announcement of our annual "Art of Goodbye" exhibit... and we are excited to announce that the opening is next Thursday, October 1!

ALSO, make sure to mark your calendars for Wednesday, September 30 at 5:30pm to kick off the "Art of Goodbye" festivities with Dr. Christopher Campo-Bowen who will prepare you all for The Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg showing of Faust with the Invincible Czars by discussing the Legend of Faust.

The showing of Faust is at 7:30pm on October 1, so make sure to buy your tickets now so that you can head straight over to The Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg right after the "Art of Goodbye" opening at the Alexander Black House!

Link to purchase Faust tickets: https://prod5.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=635162~4ab27fc5-7b1f-40ac-9bdb-32c61284f6ac&showing=635164&