Penn Humanities Forum Programs

At the inaugural ceremony of the Penn Humanities Forum in February 1999, William Ferris, then Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, called the humanities “the intellectual air we breathe, the cultural sea we swim in. It is where humankind’s best insights into our values, traditions, and ideals can be found.”

The Penn Humanities Forum is charged with taking a fresh look at ideas that touch on the human experience. The goal of the Forum is to demonstrate the importance of humanistic thought across the arts, sciences, and professions, and to invite the public and the university to discover their common stake in the "thinking arts."

Programs and Fellowships

Addressing a different topic each year, the Forum supports an integrated program of research, teaching, and interchange with the community.

Our annual calendar of public lectures, performances, and exhibitions, many of them free, feature renowned artists, writers, historians, scientists, philosophers, and others whose contributions have helped to shape and reshape the human experience.

Each year, the Forum also offers topic-related fellowships to postdoctoral researchers, faculty at Penn and Philadelphia-area universities, and directors and curators of cultural organizations in the region. Other fellowships promote Penn undergraduate and graduate research.