New for 2011--Hall Center Competitions Portal 

Beginning in Fall 2011, the Hall Center will implement a new online system for receiving, processing, and reviewing applications for Hall Center awards and fellowships. It will include several important features:

• Convenient online interface
• Automatic solicitation of reference letters
• Easy upload of supplemental material

The Competitions Portal will go live on or before September 1, 2011. It will be accessible via the Hall Center's website. All 2011-2012 competitions will be included in the launch, with two exceptions.

• The NEH Summer Stipend Institutional Nomination. Due to the early September deadline, this application will continue via paper submission for Fall 2011 only. The application form and information are available here. In future years, this competition will also be included in the online system application process.
• Simons Public Humanities Fellowship. Because of the unique nature of this fellowship and its rolling deadline, we will continue to receive application letters and resumes via email. Information on this fellowship opportunity are is available here.  

Fore more information about the system, click here. Please direct any questions to Associate Director Kristine Latta at klatta@ku.edu. 

Idea Café at the Commons

Hume Feldman, Cosmology & Astrophysics 

"When Models Disintegrate" 

Tue, September 6, 12:00  p.m.                                                   The Commons, Spooner Hall    

In this Idea Café discussion, KU Professor of Cosmology & Astrophysics Hume Feldman considers the question: What do we do when the story we tell ourselves, the narrative we depend on for comfort, understanding, and our general well-being falls apart?

Lunch is provided. RSVP is required by August 30 to thecommons@ku.edu. Limit 40 guests. 

Fall Faculty Colloquium

Consciousness in Interdisciplinary Perspective 

Directors: Anna Neill, Associate Professor, English and Leslie Tuttle, Associate Professor, History   

Thu, September 1, 9:00-10:30 a.m.

Hall Center Seminar Room 

The Hall Center's 2011 Fall Faculty Colloquium, "Consciousness in Interdisciplinary Perspective," will encourage interdisciplinary dialogue about consciousness, which sits simultaneously at the forefront of the cognitive sciences and at the root of humanistic inquiry. Participants will consider how new insights about how our evolutionarily shaped minds might enrich understanding of the classic subjects of humanistic scholarship, such as reading, storytelling, reasoning, and believing. The format of the colloquium will be unique, exploratory and interrogative, with the principal aim being to generate novel ideas for further investigation.  

Seven faculty members and one graduate student will meet under the leadership of co-directors Anna Neill and Leslie Tuttle: Sherrie Tucker (Associate Professor, American Studies); Iris Smith Fischer (Associate Professor, English); Mark Landau (Assistant Professor, Social Psychology); Glenn Adams (Associate Professor, Social Psychology); Ann Rowland (Associate Professor, English); Ben Sax (Associate Professor, History); Brian Daldorph (Assistant Professor, English); and Nicholas Simmons (doctoral candidate, Philosophy).  

All KU faculty and graduate students are welcome to to attend Colloquium sessions. 

Jim Martin Travel Award in the Humanities  

The Hall Center is pleased to announce the Jim Martin Travel Award in the Humanities. The goal of the award is to allow KU humanities graduate students who have completed all required coursework for the PhD to travel within the United States for purposes of research. One award of up to $2,000 will be given each year. The deadline for applying is November 21, 2011. 

The award is made possible by Kathy Martin and family, in honor of Jim Martin, former president of the KU Endowment Association and former Hall Center Advisory Board member.

Eligible applicants are KU graduate students in core humanities disciplines who have successfully completed all the required coursework for the PhD, and demonstrate a high level of motivation, including the ability to establish and achieve goals.

 Questions may be directed to Director Victor Bailey (vbailey@ku.edu, 864-7822) or Associate Director Kristine Latta (klatta@ku.edu, 864-7823). 

Upcoming Seminars    

Aug 29 Gender Seminar, Dorice Elliott

 Sep 2 Peace, War and Global Change Seminar, Paul Kelton