Texas Tech University

Director's Message

borshuk

The Humanities Center at Texas Tech provides a nexus for humanities scholarship in all of its varied forms. Broadly, we define "humanities" as the study of how people make sense of themselves and of their societies. But for us, even a phrase as simple as "making sense" opens many doors and covers much territory. It includes means of expression, like the languages we speak and write, or our systems of images and sounds, the origin stories we tell about ourselves, ranging from theories of economic history to religious narratives, the ways our communities are organized, or the manners in which we have interfaced with technology throughout history, from the wheel to the smartphone. Indeed, in every humanities discipline, the very definition of "human" itself has been—and continues to be—in perennial flux and open to competing, even contradictory, interpretations.

With these diverse perspectives in mind, we encourage an expansive set of methodologies: archival research, discourse analysis, semiotic interpretation, qualitative research, and many more. The Center is a place to foster connections, well beyond the limits of traditional university departments, with an eye always to interdisciplinary collaborations and unexpected intellectual exchange.

In short, our mission is to encourage vibrant and inventive humanities research at Texas Tech by offering intellectual and funding support to faculty members, and by providing a place for scholars to not only learn about one another's work, but also share their insights with the broader community. We look to highlight and nurture the contributions Texas Tech University makes to the capacious effort of "making sense" of humanity itself.

Dr. Michael Borshuk