image
image
image
image
image
image
image 2006-07 | Travel
image 2005-06 | Word & Image
image 2004-05 | Sleep & Dreams
image 2003-04 | Belief
image 2002-03 | The Book
image 2001-02 | Time
image 2000-01 | Style
image 1999-00 | Human Nature
image March 1999 | Philadelphia Writers

 

 

Annual Topics

A meeting ground for students, scholars, and the Philadelphia public, the Penn Humanities Forum focuses each year on a broad-ranging topic, offering a series of distinguished lectures, performances, conferences, and seminars that demonstrate the centrality of the "thinking arts" in every aspect of contemporary experience.

Each topic generates a high-profile program of public lectures, exhibitions, and performances, most free and all open to the public. Anonymous 4, Tariq Ali, Ian Buruma, Manuel deLanda, Stephen Greenblatt, Jenny Holzer, Elaine Pagels, Kiki Smith, and Art Spiegelman are just a few of the distinguished thinkers and artists who have addressed our town–gown audiences over the years (see Sitemap for complete listing).

Through annual fellowships, students, professors, and experts from Philadelphia's cultural institutions conduct independent research on the year's topic that cuts across barriers of field and intellectual orientation. Fellows meet in seminars, conferences, and cultural events.

Click on the individual topic listings (left) for descriptions and more information on each year's programs and fellowships.

Topic Directors  
2005·06: Catriona MacLeod
2004·05: H. Van Dongen
2003·04: Carol Ann Muller
2009-10: Peter Conn 2002·03: Peter Stallybrass
2008·09: Peter Struck 2001·02: Holly Pittman
2007·08: Gary Tomlinson 2000·01: Wendy Steiner
2006·07: Karen Detlefsen 1999·00: Wendy Steiner