The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute (AGHI) and the Ivy Bookshop/Bird in Hand present a gathering series called “Humanities in the Village.” The endeavor seeks to bring fresh scholarly work from our city’s thriving universities and colleges into conversation with a broader public audience. How does humanities research intersect with contemporary social and political concerns? Can we include these intersections in our developing work, bringing our scholarship into closer resonance with the pressing public matters of this time?

AGHI, in partnership with the East City Bookshop, also hosts Humanities on the Hill at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center at 555 Pennsylvania Ave NW in Washington DC.

Join us for these talks every month during the academic year and frequently during the winter and summer breaks. See our Events calendar for specific details. To learn more about our past public humanities events, scroll down to our archive section.

Want to present at a Humanities in the Village or Humanities on the Mall event?

Have a new book, project, or big idea ready for a public audience and wider discussion? We are scheduling Humanities in the Village and Humanities on the Hill (previously “on the Mall”) gatherings for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025. If you are a faculty member or graduate student at any Baltimore or DC college or university and would like to pitch us an event for a public audience, please fill out our form. (And please note which location and series you would like to be considered for.)

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Archive—Past Events:

2025 Humanities in the Village events

• January 27 – Jennifer Stager (History, JHU) and Leila Easa (CCSF): Public Feminism in Times of Crisis in conversation with Dora Malech (Writing Seminars, JHU)
• February 24 – Christopher Cannon (co-editor of The Oxford Chaucer in conversation with Sharon Achinstein (English, JHU)
• More events for 2025–26 to come! Want to pitch us an event? Fill out this form.

Humanities on the Hill (DC)—Fall 2024 through Spring 2025

• September 8 – “Spinoza: 6 Reasons for the Excommunication of the Philosopher” with Film director, David Ofek, Yitzhak Melamed, and Virginia Jewiss
• September 25 – Why the Museum Matters with Dan Weiss and Jennifer Kingsley
• November 20 – A conversation with Martha S. Jones (author of Vanguard: How Black Women Overcame Barrier, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All) and Nadia E. Brown (Georgetown)
• February 25 – Mary Beard (author of Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient World) in conversation with Chris Celenza (KSAS Dean)

2024 Humanities in the Village events

• January 29 – David Steiner (author of A Nation at Thought: Restoring Wisdom in America’s Schools) in conversation with Fred Lazarus (president emeritus of MICA)
• February 26 – Nate Brown (UWP), reading new short fiction and in conversation with Jean McGarry (Writing Seminars, emerita)
• April 29 – Jennifer Gosetti Ferencei (author of Imagination: A Very Short Introduction) in conversation with Jane Bennett
• August 26 – Joseph Plaster, (author of Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin) with Drew Daniel (English, JHU)
• September 30 – Diego Javier Luis (author of First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History with Johaina Katinka Crisostomo
• October 28 – Peter Pomerantsev (author of How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler with Dave Troy
• December 2 – Patchen Barss (author of THE IMPOSSIBLE MAN) in conversation with William Egginton (AGHI Director, JHU)

Humanities on the Mall (DC)—Fall 2023 through Spring 2024:

• November 5: Bill Egginton (author of The Rigor of Angels) conversation with Emma Snyder (The Ivy bookshop)
• December 3: Danielle Evans (author of The Office of Historical Corrections) in conversation with Bill Egginton
• February 4: “Students, College Campuses, Difficult Conversations” panel—featuring Michael S. Roth (president, Wesleyan University), Chris Celenza (JHU Dean of KSAS), and Aliza Watters (JHU Assistant Dean and Director of First-Year Seminars)
• March 3: “The Physics of Democracy” with JHU’s Sean Carroll and Hahrie Han
• April 7: “Devoti Tutti [Devoted]” screening + discussion with Bernadette Wegenstein (JHU) and Eugenio Refini (NYU)