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Fostering and Enhancing Community Engagement with the Humanities

Recognizing the urgent need for humanists to engage with audiences beyond the university, we launched in 2014 our Public Humanities Initiative. Its mission is both to foster community participation in the humanities at Columbia and to apply the values and perspectives of the humanities to projects that advance the public good. Often partnering with other Columbia centers and institutes, with local educational and cultural institutions, and with neighborhood organizations, Public Humanities at the SOF/Heyman sponsors a wide range of programming, service, and research activities dedicated to expanding opportunities for community conversations and collaborations.

Health and Medical Humanities

The Health and Medical Humanities Initiative provides an ongoing forum at SOF/Heyman to explore the challenges inherent in bringing together disciplines as diverse as medicine and the humanities, and the benefits that arise from doing so.

Humanities in Practice

A forum for innovation and inquiry, Humanities in Practice provides opportunities for Columbia faculty and graduate students to expand their work beyond the classroom and into the public realm.

Justice in Education

The JIE Initiative provides formerly incarcerated individuals with opportunities in higher education while contributing to the growing movement to end mass incarceration.