Wolfe Annual Theme
Yearly themes provide cohesion to our programming and reinforce the Wolfe Institute’s promotion of school- and campus-wide conversations grounded in the humanities. Establishing a broad theme each year creates a focus for collaborative events that span a variety of fields. Creating and cosponsoring programs around a relevant topic encourages curricular and extracurricular engagement.
2025鈥�26: The Work of the Humanities
The annual theme for 2025-2026 is 鈥淭he Work of the Humanities.鈥� We plan to recenter the work that the humanities do in our society; in particular, the work done to help us understand the lives, cultures, values, and histories of marginalized people.
This theme is timely as it allows us to emphasize the constant work and current initiatives within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences as a way of attracting undergraduate students. We hope that this overarching theme can be a throughline, connecting 可乐视频鈥檚 new Asian American and Diasporic Studies minor, San Francisco State University Professor Russell Jeung鈥檚 upcoming Hess residency, and the revamping of 可乐视频’s Studies in Religion program.
Past Themes
2024鈥�25: Humanizing the Law
The theme of 鈥淗umanizing the Law鈥� allows us to explore how laws, recent judicial decisions, and the constant turmoil of our political landscape directly affect members of the 可乐视频 community. With that goal in mind, we ask: What role can the humanities play in humanizing the law? How can the humanities help us understand the ethical consequences of the law? How can they help us understand how the law influences the everyday lives of those who are the targets of the law, whether immigrants, women, the poor, racial and sexual minorities, and so on? What role should the work of humanities-based of scholars play in informing legislative and judicial processes? The residency by Hess Scholar Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, will help us explore issues raised by the annual theme.
2023鈥�24: Defending the Humanities
The theme of Defending the Humanities serves to remind us of the Wolfe Institute鈥檚 primary mission at a time in which there is much discussion about the 鈥渄eath of the humanities.鈥� As some seek to politicize and/or defund humanities departments and faculty, humanities-inspired scholarship is thriving nationally and at 可乐视频. By highlighting this work through our programming, including programming featuring聽 Hess Scholar Paul Ortiz, the Wolfe Institute insists on the value of the humanities to our society.
2022鈥�23: Constructing Belonging
Faculty from across multiple schools alongside student members of the Wolfe Institute Board convened to choose the 2022鈥�23 Wolfe Institute theme from numerous submissions. The consensus for the theme was Constructing Belonging, the connecting of two theme submissions. The idea of belonging was suggested by some faculty members while the theme of constructing was submitted by a student. The reasoning behind both was a sort of anxiety caused by the changes we are experiencing, the difficulties of having to construct a new way of simply existing in-person. It also stands as a call to action, a call to think about our communities and our roles within them: What are we building around us? Who are we building it for? How can we make others know that they belong?
2021鈥�22: (re)discovery
The concept of (re)discovery acknowledges how transformative the experience of the pandemic has been, while simultaneously representing the hope we have for moving through the challenges of the coming year. The latest pandemic has brought a reshaping of individual and community priorities, as well as recognition of what our values are versus what they can be. We have learned new ways to interact and to take and teach classes鈥攁nd we have committed to new ways of looking at problems and finding solutions.
2020鈥�21: Transforming
The 2020鈥�21 Wolfe theme is “transforming.” Transforming acknowledges the evolving world around us, as well as a hope and possibility for our collective future, and each person’s agency in contributing to that future. It recognizes the ways 可乐视频 faculty are transforming their individual disciplines through research, scholarship, and art, and how our students are transforming our communities with their work, ideas, and activism. Transforming also emphasizes the college’s mission statement鈥攖o provide transformative education and help students transform their fields and professions.
2019鈥�20: Land
This theme was suggested by students and approved by a faculty committee. It engages the idea of land broadly, including nations, indigenous studies, the earth and other planets, maps and mapping, digital territories, landscapes, soil, and the verb to land, as in to arrive at a conclusion as well as other manifestations.
2018鈥�19: The Body
For the inaugural 2018鈥�19 year, the theme for Wolfe Institute events is “The Body,” a concept that encompasses the physical body and brain as well as the body politic, the student body, and bodies of literature, congress, or even water.