Welcome to the Center for Global Humanities

The Center for Global Humanities hosts lectures and films dedicated to exploring the human condition in the 21st Century.

Exploring the human condition

The University of New England invites you to participate in the Center for Global Humanities lecture series. CGH events introduce UNE students and members of the wider community to scholars whose work explores humanity’s most pressing issues. Each event begins with a catered reception where we share good food and drinks and welcome the speaker.

It is our hope that by taking a timeout from our hectic modern lives to gather and think deeply about a topic, our guests will find enrichment, feel a sense of community, and cultivate the breadth of knowledge to face with confidence the decisions we encounter as global citizens.  

All we ask is that you arrive with an open mind and an eagerness to learn. Our speakers represent viewpoints from across various ideological spectra, so you will almost certainly disagree with some of their ideas and agree with others. And that is absolutely fine. We believe the respectful exchange of ideas is essential to the health of society and strive to be a pillar of UNE’s Marketplace of Ideas initiative.

The public lectures offered an opportunity to engage with students from different majors and the local Maine community. Often, a community member would pose a question that would prompt a new thought that I had yet to consider. The dialogue that would follow between the community member and speaker enhanced my understanding of the topic.”

— E. Mackenzie Greenleaf, Health Sciences ’23 

Five U N E undergraduate students pose together at a Center for Global Humanities lecture

Undergraduate Students

For UNE undergraduate students, the center offers the chance to supplement their education with lectures that convey some of the latest knowledge being created today while engaging with the very scholars creating it. Whether chatting informally with our speakers before the lectures, or asking questions during the public Q&A sessions afterwards, students engage in an intellectual experience that transcends the ordinary confines of the classroom.

A U N E graduate student uses a microphone to ask a C G H speaker a question

Graduate Students

For graduate students on the UNE Portland Campus for the Health Sciences, the center offers the opportunity to infuse their studies with the methods of critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity, and contemplation of personal values that the humanities encourage. Engagement with the center’s topics also helps these budding health professionals to better understand how their work will fit within the larger human story.

A community member asks a question from the audience of a C G H lecture

Community Members

For UNE’s faculty, professional staff, and members of the public, CGH offers the opportunity to embrace life-long learning, which is so crucial to our continued evolution as individuals as we encounter each new life phase.

A Center for Global Humanities lecture speaker standing at podium

Visiting Scholars

For visiting scholars, CGH offers a world-class speaking venue with professional audio as well as high-end photography and videography that give many of our lectures a wide reach on the CGH YouTube page, where some of our videos have accrued more than 100,000 views.

Interested in connecting or collaborating with the Center for Global Humanities? Contact CGH Director Josh Pahigian at cgh@c178.net.

Upcoming Events

CGH events are always free and open to the public.

Watch Past Lectures

Musa al-Gharbi - The Bifurcation of America (and Other Countries)

Catherine Liu - What is Trauma in a Digital Age?

Zizi Papacharissi - Reimagining Democracy

Richard Reeves - The Peculiar Condition of the Human Male

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Contact

Center for Global Humanities
University of New England
716 Stevens Avenue
Portland, ME 04103
United States of America