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Faculty Programming

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Distinguished Faculty Seminar: Future Minds

The Future Minds seminar will create space for a small, interdisciplinary community of college faculty to explore the future of thinking, reading, learning, and embodiment at the intersection of AI and emerging technologies.

Facilitated by Timothy Beal, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, and
Lauren Calandruccio, Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, the seminar will include six to eight additional full-time faculty members (instructor, tenure-track, or tenured) who will work closely with the facilitators in planning seminar sessions, identifying potential guest scholars, and developing individual or collaborative Future Minds projects. 

Click HERE for further details and to apply.

Fall 2026 Events:

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Wednesday, September 2 | 12 pm
Humanities in Action Lunch
Clark Hall Room 206

Join us to welcome the new semester, meet our new postdoctoral fellow Hugh O’Neill and learn about several new initiatives at the BNI including the 2027 Distinguished Faculty Seminar: Future Minds.

Hugh O’Neill is the Virginia and Walter Nord Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities. They have a PhD in Comparative Literature and a background in English-language literature from around the world. They are hosted by the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

Future Minds is a new Baker-Nord initiative that will include a lecture series, a spring distinguished faculty seminar and a fall 2027 symposium. Future Minds is interested in the future of reading, learning, thinking, and embodiment at the intersection of AI and emerging technologies. 

Register HERE.

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Wednesday, September 9 | 9 am
Breakfast with Robert B. Townsend -
Director, Humanities, Arts, and Culture Programs and Codirector, Humanities Indicators,
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Clark Hall Room 206

Join us for a special conversation with Dr. Townsend, Program Director for the Humanities, Arts, and Culture of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He will discuss the AAAS’s extensive research on the state of the field lately (‘Humanities Indicators’), ranging from focus groups with young people about what they think (or don’t think) about humanities majors, to wider public attitudes about the humanities.

Dr. Townsend is a historian. He is the author of History’s Babel: Scholarship, Professionalization, and the Historical Enterprise in the United States, 1880-1940 (University of Chicago Press, 2013) and author or co-author of over 200 articles on various aspects of history, higher education, and public humanities. Prior to the Academy, he spent 24 years at the American Historical Association, in positions ranging from editorial assistant to deputy director.

Register HERE.

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Friday, September 11 | 10 am – 3 pm
Faculty Writing Retreat
Cleveland Botanical Garden, Seminar Room
Set aside time to focus on your writing in a supportive community early in the fall semester. Continental breakfast and boxed lunches will be provided.
Registration HERE.

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Wednesday, October 7 | 12 pm
Humanities in Action Lunch -
Finding Liberation in Prison Music Programs
Clark Hall Room 206 

Mark Katz, founder of the Carolina Prison Music Initiative (CPMI), will discuss his work facilitating music-making in carceral spaces. Katz will argue that taking a care- and trauma-informed approach can create moments and spaces of liberation—for the incarcerated population as well as for outside facilitators—within the often oppressive and unjust U.S. carceral system.

Register HERE.

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Wednesday, November 4 | 12 pm
Humanities in Action Lunch -
Public Life in the Nation’s Capital: Lessons about relationship building across Public Art and Public Humanities Partnerships
Clark Hall Room 206

As a public art curator and public humanities professor based in Washington, D.C., Dr. Michelle May Curry will explore the several distinct types of interpersonal and institutional relationships crucial to sustaining her project-based collaborations across the government and academic sectors. In particular, Dr. May-Curry will explore what public humanities practitioners can learn from public artists and organizations in their relationships with stakeholders, funders, and the general public. 

Register HERE.

Faculty Funding Opportunities: