The Federation of State Humanities Councils, the National Humanities Alliance, and host council Michigan Humanities invite you to join us in Detroit, Michigan—the Motor City—at the 2025 National Humanities Conference November 12-17. Connect with other humanities professionals across the nation from humanities councils, community organizations, museums, libraries, scholarly societies, and colleges and universities.
The call for proposals is now open. Learn more about the theme and submit your session proposal here. The deadline for proposal submission is Thursday, April 10 by 11:59 pm PT. For questions regarding the online submission form, please contact events@statehumanities.org.
More information on registration, hotels, and other details will be avaiable soon.
Roots of Invention, Innovation, and Revitalization.
The automotive capital of the United States, Detroit is famous as an industrial center with a distinctive soundtrack: the Motown music of the 1960s. Perhaps less recognized is the region’s deep sense of rootedness and place. Its roots extend from the Indigenous mound builders and Algonquian-and Iroquoian-speaking people through growth fueled by early French colonization, fur trading, immigration, the Underground Railroad, and the Great Migration to the contemporary inner-community support networks that create and provide what has long been denied and absent from Black Detroit communities. What has revitalized and reinvented Detroit since its inception is its people.Detroit is known for new technology, arts, and innovation, especially in the face of austerity. Innovation in Detroit has been driven by a commitment and a deep urge in its inhabitants to invent a new way of being, thinking, and creating, all rooted in their love of place. This innovation is rooted in the city’s diverse population and its struggles for social justice and economic opportunity.
While these roots are specific to Michigan and Detroit, every place and every story has its own roots. The concept of rootedness illuminates a variety of human experiences, including a connection to place, a sense of belonging, and a dynamic relationship with the world. Being rooted means being connected to a heritage, a language, and cultural moorings that bind us to one another and to place. Rootedness is the social, environmental, and economic anchoring that sees us through tough times. It is what helps us move forward. Rootedness requires that we ground ourselves in the histories of our people, families, land, local communities, and cultural communities. The theme of rootedness is embedded broadly throughout the humanities. Where there is heritage and culture, where there is something to tell or write about, where there is something to catalog, trace, and map, where there is something to explore and analyze, there are roots. Roots and the concept of rootedness shape the 2025 National Humanities Conference in Detroit.
