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Arts & Sciences
that closes off the humanities, as the Soviet Union tried to do,
is a society that loses a capacity to reflect upon itself.” He adds,
“The humanities also are one of the ways in which we try to understand
not only our own culture but also the relationship between our culture
and other cultures.”
The lecture and symposia series is one of several new initiatives aimed
at transforming the humanities at Stanford into a “more visible and
dynamic participant in shaping, enriching and challenging the
intellectual agenda across the university,” Casper says.
In his annual state of the university address last fall, Casper
announced that his office would provide $12 million to fund four new
professorships in the arts and humanities. Endowed professorships
typically are funded at $2 million, but Casper said the university
wanted to attract top-ranked scholars to the new chairs.
“These professorships will enable the humanities departments to appoint
the most distinguished scholars working in these fields today,” Casper
told the audience in Kresge Auditorium. “The opportunity to make such
appointments should encourage departments to think ambitiously and
imaginatively about ways to strengthen the humanities as a whole.”
The new professorships and lecture and symposia series will coincide
with the 50th anniversary of the School of Humanities and Sciences in
the 1998-99 academic year. Faculty in the school were encouraged to
submit proposals in January for symposia, conferences, performances and
readings. The projects selected were scheduled to be announced in early
February; they would receive funding of between $5,000 and $50,000 from
the school.
Keith Baker, the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor in Humanities and the
Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities and director of the
center, said the conferences will explore the role of university
literature and language departments.
Stanford libraries will support the humanities initiatives with a
website that will provide information about events.When the Green
Library renovations are complete, rooms will be available where scholars
from various disciplines can gather.
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