Events

[CONFERENCE] There’s been a lot of a talk about the usefulness of Humanities programs in higher education and even more pressure on the dynamics that fund them over the past decade. Since the recession, the stagnation of middle-class wages has been outpaced by the rising costs of tuition and the heavy burden of student loan debt. The Buffalo Humanities Festival is a chance to annotate that narrative by hosting a weekend-long conversation at the intersections between the study of humanities and our political realities. For one of the co-founders of the festival, UB art professor Elizabeth Otto the festival is an essential opportunity for Buffalo academic and cultural institutions to join in Humanities-based discussion about important issues.  

For example, this year’s theme is “Renaissance,” and it will kick off with a town hall meeting on Thursday at the Buffalo Central Library entitled: “The Economics of Segregation: A Town Hall on Race and the Buffalo Renaissance.” The talk will feature UB urban planning professor Henry Louis Taylor Jr, Clotilde Dedecker of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, Rev. James Giles of Back to Basics Ministries, and Keith Lucas of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.  

On Friday at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, science writer and author of the critically acclaimed books The Planets, Galileo’s Daughter, and Longitude, Dava Sobel will give the keynote address after being introduced by Mayor Byron Brown. On Saturday, the discussions continue between Buffalo State’s Rockwell Hall and the Burchfield Penney Art Center across the street with panels, talks, and short films being presented throughout the day.

Free tickets for the town hall meeting are available on eventbrite.com while tickets for the rest of the events and talks may be purchased through the buffalohumanities.org website.