ITHACA, N.Y. -- Brett de Bary, Cornell University professor of Asian studies and comparative literature, has been appointed director of the Society for the Humanities (SHC). She replaces Dominick Lacapra, Cornell's Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies and professor of history, who has served as SHC director for the past decade.

"The distinction of Cornell's Society for the Humanities has become almost synonymous with the distinction of its former director," said de Bary of her predecessor. "Dominick Lacapra's wide-ranging concerns as an intellectual historian, especially with the ethical challenges posed to humanistic inquiry by the Holocaust, led the society to probe profound issues of late 20th century thought and conscience. I hope to maintain this tradition of scholarly intensity and engagement."

De Bary said SHC will continue to maintain its reputation as a site for bold and innovative work in the humanities, while adapting to a brave new world.

"The 21st century has already made formidable demands on humanists who, above all else, struggle to wrest meaning from culture and history," said de Bary. "For new times, we need to create new languages. We have a responsibility to engage modes of human expression found in the most diverse times and places. We need to pay more attention to experiments in thought that are taking place in the creative and performing arts." The society's focal theme for the coming year, "Translation," will embrace many of these themes.

SHC was established in 1965 and occupies the stately Andrew Dickson White House on central campus. Its mission is to support research and encourage imaginative teaching in the humanities. At any given time, the A.D. White House hosts eight or nine SHC fellows from the United States and abroad. Up to eight semester-long faculty fellowships are shared among individual Cornell scholars. Together they offer Cornell students a panoply of innovative seminars each year. The society also oversees six Mellon postdoctoral fellows teaching in humanities departments at Cornell. With additional lectures and conferences featuring distinguished scholars from around the world, the old mansion bustles with activity, even on weekends.

"The beauty of the A.D. White House has special meaning for me," said de Bary, who said her own vision of the humanities was shaped by growing up with a father who is a scholar of East Asia and a mother who read Dante while raising four children. "It is a space where the history of our intellectual community is so alive and palpable. I would like to see it as a space that can be broadly welcoming, helping us redefine and enlarge what the humanities means."

To that end, de Bary initiated a new series at the society called "Musicians Manqués".

Launched Sept. 21, it features Cornell professors, graduate students and staff members "who have 'hidden lives' as passionate musicians," she said. For her, their informal Sunday afternoon concerts in the former drawing room of A.D. White's home "can help us bear in mind that the humanities should be connected not only to work and professionalism, but to the life of the senses and to the enjoyment of public life."

De Bary received a B.A. from Barnard College and her Ph.D. in East Asian languages and cultures from Harvard University. She specializes in modern Japanese literature and film and is former director of the Visual Studies Program at Cornell. She also is an associate editor of Traces: Multilingual Series of Translation and Cultural Theory and has published criticism and translations in the areas of Japanese fiction, film, feminist criticism and post-modern theory.

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