Part of my goal as Dean of the Humanities has been to contribute, in our contemporary moment, to the project of conveying the value of Humanities scholarship in the broader public sphere. I also firmly believe that competency in English languages and literatures requires some engagement with and competency in other languages; there is no global citizenship, no communication in a global context, without multi-lingualism.
In the Humanities we harness the power of words; we keep and represent a diverse record of voices; and we teach and learn how to make words work for you. We think about meaning--the meaning of various objects and texts in material culture, in various media; how to read and take possession of a variety of cultural forms of communication, including digital media. We interpret the meaning of things humans make and do, as our entryway to thinking about what it means to be human. And we do that with a profound focus on individuality, both the diversity of individual voices, but also, the power of individual contacts and connections across differences of time, place, race, gender, religion, to name but a few. I believe the ethical pluralism of the Humanities disciplines are the key to understanding and negotiating the racial impasses that have shaped, and continue to shape, the color lines that divide us across the world.