The Humanities Center of the University of Hartford requests applications from full-time faculty interested in becoming one of the Faculty Fellows of the Humanities Center for the 2024-25 academic year by offering a lecture focused on their own project related to the seminar topic of “Banned Books and Censorship” during the spring 2025 Humanities Lecture Series. Ayelet Brinn, assistant professor of Judaic studies and history, will lead the Humanities Seminar for this next year. She requests applications for faculty fellows from all disciplines and colleges in the University.
Description of the seminar:
Recent years have witnessed a rise in attempts to ban or remove books from schools, libraries, and other institutions throughout the United States. According to the American Library Association, 2022 saw more attempts to ban books from libraries than any time in the past twenty years, almost doubling the number from 2021. However, the impulse to ban, censor, or burn, or redact passages from written texts has a much longer history, both in the United States and abroad. While the desire to ban certain texts emerges from specific political, cultural, and historical contexts, overall, these efforts have tended to focus on texts that stretch contemporary social boundaries in their depictions of race, sexuality, politics, gender, religion, and science. By understanding banned books and censored materials within their historical context, and by comparing and contrasting the treatment of different texts across time and space, we can better understand the relationship between power, culture, and literacy in society at large.
Possible topics for proposals:
How schools have reacted to calls to censor or ban items
Rhetorical analysis of arguments for and against banning and censorship
Exploring the relationship of bans and censorship to changing understandings of gender, sexuality, religion, science, and race
Censorship and self-censorship under the Hays Code in Hollywood
Graphic novels, music and artworks as banned texts/media
Analyses of supreme court cases in the United States that relate to censorship and free speech
Ethics of storytelling and journalism
Ethics of censorship of material for children vs. adults
Applications are due April 12, 2024. Please see the attached flyer for full details on how to apply and the benefits of being a Humanities Center Faculty Fellow.