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The Humanities Center

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For more information, contact Humanities Center Director Nicholas Ealy, Professor of English and Modern Languages.

The Humanities Center at the University of Hartford embodies a decades-long commitment to the humanities from UHart scholars in literature, languages, history (including art and music history), philosophy, cinema, rhetoric, creative writing and the communication arts.

About Us

The Humanities Center aims to provide greater visibility for the humanities at UHart and to furnish venues for interdisciplinary exchanges across the humanities and the arts, sciences, technology, media, music, psychology, film, philosophy, history, and literature. It was founded in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences through a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

What We Do

Year-Long Honors Seminars

Each year, the Humanities Center sponsors a year-long honors seminar featuring a topic chosen and taught by a full-time Faculty Fellow. Students of high achievement, from across all programs of study, can apply to take the honors seminar and become a Student Fellow. Student Fellows are eligible to receive a $500 scholarship once accepted to the honors seminar. 

Spring Lecture Series

The Humanities Center also sponsors a lecture series that is open to the public each spring and is based on the topic of the honors seminar. Up to four University of Hartford full-time faculty, chosen as Faculty Fellows of the center, speak in the lecture series. The remaining speakers are both on- and off-campus experts on subjects related to that year’s topic.  

Honors Seminar Topics

2025-26: AI in Action – The Future of Humans

Led by Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and History Amy Weiss, this seminar explores how artificial intelligence, often considered to be a twenty-first century innovation, has existed as a discreet field since the 1950s and is based on even earlier models on the ways in which humans have contemplated the many uses of technology as a means of improving their lives. As such, students in the seminar examine historical, social and industry-based developments of AI in order to better understand the ethical and economic implications of this technology. Specific topics covered include industrialization and gender; reality v. deep fakes; AI in academia, the law and medicine; and AI in career trajectories.


  • 2024-25: Banned Books and Censorship
    Faculty Fellow: Ayelet Brinn, Judaic Studies and History
  • 2023-24: Fiction, Fabulation, Futurity
    Faculty Fellow: Rashmi Viswanathan, Art History
  • 2022-23: Decolonizing the University: Ethnic Studies through Time
    Faculty Fellow: Karen Tejada, Sociology
  • 2021-22: Fearing the Unknown – Irrationality, Anti-Politics, and Conspiracy Theories
    Faculty Fellow: Marco Cupolo, Hispanic Studies
  • 2020-21: Lights, Camera, Activism!
    Faculty Fellow:  Mala Matacin, Psychology 
  • 2019-20: Transversing Gender, Race, and Class
    Faculty Fellow: Kristin Comeforo, Communication
  • 2018-19: Evidence in a Post-Truth World
    Faculty Fellow: Lauren Cook, Cinema
  • 2017-18: The Secular and the Spiritual
    Faculty Fellow: Richard Freund, Judaic Studies
  • 2016-17: Our Monsters, Ourselves
    Faculty Fellow: Amanda Walling, English and Modern Languages
  • 2015-16: Remembering 9/11
    Faculty Fellow: Sarah Senk, English and Modern Languages

2025-26 Faculty Fellows

Lillian Kamal

Associate Professor of Economics Lillian Kamal (Barney) will present on “Connecting with Consumers: The Future of AI in Marketing.” Here, she will explore the present realities and future potential of AI in marketing while addressing issues such as the ways in which AI has influenced how business marketing operates and connects with consumers; the roles humans have in AI marketing communication; and how we can harness AI to build creative, inclusive and responsible marketing for the consumers of the future.

View Faculty Bio

Dakota Nanton

Assistant Professor of Cinema Dakota Nanton (A&S) will present on “Artificial Imagination: Filmmaking in the Age of AI.” In a discussion of how AI is both challenging and enhancing the future of filmmaking, he will examine the technological capabilities of AI, the creative opportunities it offers, and the ethical dilemmas it raises. Drawing on his own professional training and research in AI filmmaking, the lecture will aim to demystify current AI tools and foster critical conversation around their implications for media creation, cultural representation, and artistic ownership.

View Faculty Bio

Associate Professor of Physics Brian Wells (A&S) will present on “Beyond Human Design: AI-Driven Innovation in Metamaterials and Space Communication Systems.” In this talk, he will explore how AI is transforming the design processes and performance outcomes of antenna systems and metamaterials used in deep-space communication and exploration technologies. In addition, he will examine broader ethical implications of AI in scientific research regarding authorship, the “flattening” of human expertise, and the evolving role of scientists.

View Faculty Bio

2025-26 Student Fellows

  • Katrina Baran (Biomedical Engineering – CETA)
  • Ame Beaulieu (Accounting – Barney)
  • Meaghan Bucklin (Illustration – HAS)
  • Eva Geiger (Communication – A&S)
  • Sequoia Hornsby (English – A&S)
  • Rusha Mataj (Biochemistry – A&S)
  • Nora Miller (Criminal Justice/Politics & Government – A&S)
  • Patrick Morrow (Architecture – CETA)
  • Avianni Nieves (Communication/DMJ – A&S)
  • Natalia Ortiz-Villacorta (Actor Training – Hartt)
  • Evan Redo (Prosthetics – ENHP)
  • Nadia Ribeiro (Cinema – A&S)
  • Max Rosenbush (Judaic Studies – A&S)
  • Morgan Sibley (Exercise Science – ENHP)
  • Chelsea Smith (Political Science/Business – A&S/Barney)