Vision
The Center for Arts and Humanities (CAH)
strives to build a vibrant space for scholarly and cultural exchange
and collaboration, critical reflection, and creative experiment. It aims
to position the American University of Beirut as a leading space for
interdisciplinary research and teaching across the arts and humanities
in the Arab region, in conversation with artistic and humanistic
inquiries across the globe.
Mission
The Center for Arts and Humanities (CAH) at the American University of Beirut aims to foster interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration across the arts and humanities as well as with other fields of knowledge, be they housed in the social or natural sciences, engineering and architecture, medicine, or law. It advances a nuanced understanding of the fields of artistic and humanistic inquiry and the creative and critical roles they have played across time and space as well as in the specific communities and societies we live in across the Arab region today.
CAH's mission has three core components:
- Research: promoting interdisciplinary projects across the arts and humanities.
- Teaching: supporting collaboration and innovation in arts and humanities curricula.
- Outreach: engaging colleagues and students in other academic fields, cultural practitioners, political activists, and broader publics both locally and globally.
History
The American University of Beirut
was awarded a three-year Mellon Foundation grant in 2012 to integrate
faculty development with curricular innovation in the arts and
humanities through the Arts and Humanities Initiative. Upon the
successful completion of this initial phase, the Center for Arts and
Humanities (CAH) was established at AUB in 2015 with the generous
support of a subsequent Mellon Foundation grant.
CAH developed into a
space for interdisciplinary research and teaching in the arts and
humanities, especially through its faculty and postdoctoral fellowships,
artist/writer in residency program, and affiliates program, which offer
academics, writers, artists, and students a physical and intellectual
space to work on their projects, meet, share ideas, and collectively
develop new initiatives. CAH has organized and co-organized in
collaboration with other academic units across AUB and beyond numerous
academic events, ranging from international conferences to workshops,
lectures, book talks, literary salons, exhibitions, performances, and
film screenings. CAH is also developing training programs and
opportunities for academic development in the arts and humanities.