Dianne Harris, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of history at the University of Washington, will explore the concept of “access” and how it relates to the humanities and higher education in this year’s annual Future of the Humanities Lecture. Her talk, “Access and the 21st Century University,” will take place on Wednesday, March 23 on Zoom. The lecture will be free and open to the public (register in advance).

“As tuition prices rise and the public's faith in our enterprise falls, questions about access are in the foreground of debates that focus on higher education,” said Harris. Her talk will focus on what "access" has meant in the past, what it has come to imply today, and why that term is of particular importance for those who care about the future of liberal arts education today and its ties to social justice.

Harris has worked on behalf of the humanities throughout her career. She served as dean of the College of Humanities at the University of Utah, as  a senior program officer for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and as director of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. Just prior to the 2016 presidential election, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the National Council on the Humanities.

Harris will also give a workshop on grantwriting to faculty, graduate students and staff. Registration is required for the March 23 workshop, which will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Zoom.

Kina Viola is program coordinator for the Society for the Humanities.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.