New Web site brings together professionals in arts, humanities

Contact: David Cooper, Public Humanities Collaborative: (517) 432-2584, cooperd@msu.edu; Kristan Tetens, College of Arts and Letters: (517) 355-5633, tetenskr@msu.edu; or Lisa Mulcrone, University Relations: (517) 432-0922, cell (517) 285-1044, mulcron2@msu.edu

April 23, 2008

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A new Public Humanities Collaborative Web site at www.phc.msu.edu has been created to facilitate interaction and communication within the Michigan State University community.

Created in 2005, the Public Humanities Collaborative unites MSU faculty, staff and students, and community partners to promote civic engagement, educational opportunity and equity, social responsibility and scholarship.

The new Web site was created to provide a common gathering place where PHC members and others can collaborate with community groups, build partnerships, enhance public understanding of liberal arts for democracy and engage in cultural work that serves the public interest.

“The Public Humanities Collaborative Web site represents a new communication strategy to draw together faculty, staff and students in the College of Arts and Letters and across the university who are interested in engaged scholarship in the arts, humanities and design fields,” said Karin Wurst, dean of the College of Arts and Letters which houses the PHC. “It also gives us a bridge to the wider community and a way to link and strengthen cultural institutions both on and off campus.”

Since its inception, the PHC has grown to more than 200 faculty, students and staff members.

"The Public Humanities Collaborative Web site showcases the breadth, depth and diversity of community engagement practices taking place in the cultural disciplines across campus,” said Steve Esquith, dean of the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities. “It also provides an important service that helps link faculty, students and cultural organizations. Event highlights, public scholar profiles and campus-community discussions are constantly refreshed on the home page, so I've bookmarked the site and return to it often."

“The site will have a forum for conversation and a calendar tool that can be fed information from multiple sources,” said Jeff Grabill, associate professor of writing, rhetoric and culture and co-director of the Writing in Digital Environments Center. “It promises to be a useful place to engage issues of public humanities and to stay in touch with the community.”

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