HASTAC
Founded in 2002, HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory), is a free and open community that fosters a space for creativity, innovation, collaborative learning, growth, and thinking. HASTAC was an early participant in a National Science Foundation initiative to create “collaboratories,” online research clusters without walls, spanning multiple institutions and disciplines.
Often called the world’s first academic social network, our network pre-dates Facebook and currently hosts over 18,000 members from over 400 affiliate organizations.
Scholars collaborate among one another with guidance from mentors and advanced scholars. As an effort to continue to evolve and transform user accessibility, HASTAC transitioned to Humanities Commons in 2022. At its core, HASTAC provides space for curious individuals to collaborate on creating meaningful work and research. Each semester, HASTAC hosts events, showcases, newsletters, and more, to help members and those interested in joining the community to stay connected!
Each year, around 100 new students (Scholars) are accepted into a 2-year cohort of the HASTAC Scholars program.
Scholars come from various disciplines and have been sponsored by over 200 colleges and universities—ranging from small liberal arts colleges to large Research 1 institutions, public and private schools, state colleges and ivies. Each cohort of the HASTAC Scholars program is directed by two Futures Initiative Graduate Fellows from the CUNY Graduate Center.
The HASTAC program is currently co-directed by Cathy N. Davidson of the CUNY Graduate Center and Jacqueline D. Wernimont of Dartmouth College.
CUNY Humanities Alliance
The Futures Initiative and HASTAC are deeply honored to be part of a visionary $3.1 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant dedicated to humanities education at the nation’s community colleges and introductory humanities education for the “new majority” of college students entering universities in the U.S. today.
Read the press release.
Visit The CUNY Humanities Alliance Website
CUNY Office of Transformation
The CUNY Office of Transformation aims to amplify CUNY’s position as the nation’s premier university for equitable social, economic, and civic impact. FI Founding Director, Cathy N. Davidson, works with the Office of Transformation in the role of Senior Advisor to CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. The Office of Transformations seeks to solve problems and work with the CUNY Community to wrestle collectively with seemingly intractable issues.
Visit The Office of Transformation Website
Transformative Learning in the Humanities (TLH)
TLH was a three-year initiative supported by the Mellon Foundation. The grant supported public talks, symposia, and workshops as well as a series of intensive peer-to-peer faculty seminars for CUNY faculty at all ranks (including adjuncts) in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences. TLH focused on: equitable, creative, student-centered pedagogical research and methods designed for the rich diversity of CUNY students; greater recognition for the importance of teaching; and the role of an urgent and indispensable humanities for the future of CUNY students and a more just and equitable society.
