The Center was established to promote innovative, collaborative study in the humanities and arts, and encourage conversation and debate in an effort to reach beyond the borders of a given discipline. CHAT selects a theme each year and structures its fall semester programs around it. The Center is home to nine Fellows, three Faculty, four Mellon Post-Doctoral, and two Graduate. Each Fellow delivers a talk on aspects of his or her research, in seminars held every month during the academic year.

After a renovation of the former Provost's House at 48 Professors Row, CHAT began in spring 2008 by hosting a symposium on "The Art and Ethics of Translation." Since then, the center has endeavored to become a hub of intellectual activity and initiative on campus. Numerous scholars, public intellectuals, writers, filmmakers and artists have come to Tufts to present their work at CHAT. Our guests have included the Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe, Pulitzer prizewinner Rita Dove, National Book Award winners Ha Jin and Stephen Greenblatt, MacArthur Fellows Lydia Davis, Peter Cole and Alex Ross together with such distinguished authors and academics as Jamaica Kincaid, Ian Buruma, Stephen Pinker, Rebecca Goldstein, Francisco Goldman, James Wood and Elaine Scarry.

All of CHAT's events are free and open to members of the Tufts community. In addition, some events are also open to the public. Through all of its programs, CHAT works to promote inter-departmental and cross-campus dialogue, to raise the profile of the humanities and arts at Tufts and in our surrounding communities, and to build support for scholarship and creative activity. We have been fortunate in our donors whose generosity has enabled us to expand and enhance our programming.

We hope that you will join us this semester at any or all of the events that we have planned.

-Jonathan Wilson
Director
Center for the Humanities at Tufts (CHAT)

Visit our Events page for dates & more info >