Tom Rudin is the director of the Board on Higher Education and Workforce at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to joining the Academies, Rudin served as senior vice president for career readiness and senior vice president for advocacy, government relations, and development at the College Board and was a policy analyst at the National Institutes of Health.
Ben Hurlbut is trained in the history of modern biomedical and life sciences and studies the changing relationship between science, politics, and law in the governance of biomedical research and innovation in the 20th and 21st centuries. He is an author of Experiments in Democracy: Human Embryo Research and the Politics of Bioethics (Columbia University Press, 2017).
Judith Swift is the director of the Coastal Institute and professor of Communications Studies and Theatre at the University of Rhode Island. Her research focus is the translation of science to the public and she often employs the arts as a means to translate science. Among her recent works is, “It’s A Shore Thing,” a cabaret on adaptive management of coastal ecosystems.
Craig Steven Wilder is a historian of American institutions and ideas and author of several books, including his most recent. Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013), which Kirkus Reviews named one of the best nonfiction books of the year. Professor Wilder is also a senior fellow at the Bard Prison Initiative, has advised and appeared in several historical documentaries, including Ken Burns’ “Race Man,” (2016).
Explore the beginnings of the nation and the blossoming of the American Renaissance and Transcendentalism in this day tour to Concord, founded in 1635 as the first European settlement off the New England coast. Participants will get to see the Concord Museum; the Old North Bridge, site of the first American victory of the Revolution; the homes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Louisa May Alcott; and finally, Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau lived in his cabin.
The Black Heritage Trail explores the history of the free African American community located in Boston’s Beacon Hill area during the early 19th-century. Throughout this guided walking tour, a National Park Service ranger will discuss the historic houses of worship, homes, schools, and Underground Railroad sites located along the trail. Afterwards, participants can tour the newly restored African American Meeting House and visit the Abiel Smith School.
Join fellow colleagues on a narrated boat tour of Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. Bruce Berman, education director of the Save the Harbor/Save the Bay will be the tour leader, which will include storytelling and songs of the sea.
Attend a public humanities program hosted by Mass Humanities and featuring a screening of Doug Blackmon’s documentary, “The Harvest” at Hibernian Hall. Blackmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery by Another Name, will discuss themes from the film with Farah Stockman, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Boston Globe, and a few residents directly affected by the 1974 court order to desegregate public schools through busing. This event is part of Mass Humanities’ Pulitzer Prize Centennial Campfires activities.
Join Ben Hurlbut and Judith Swift as they unpack the role of the humanities in gene editing, climate change and immigration in this year’s opening panel. Moderated by Tom Rudin, this panel will explore the intersections between STEM research, global challenges, and humanities education. A reception will immediately follow the panel.
What better way to meet new people, interact with colleagues. or continue conversations sparked at the conference than through food, drink, and exploration? Sign up for the first-ever conference “dine around” to join a small group after the Capps Lecture at a restaurant within walking distance! Participants can choose from restaurants that range from casual to upscale and feature a variety of cuisines.
Celebrate the beginning of the Federation’s 40th anniversary year with us at the conference’s hospitality suite – a milestone made possible by the members, alumni, partners, and supporters that work in and for the public humanities! We look forward to honoring our shared history and celebrating the importance of the public humanities together. Thank you for all that you do!
