University of Central Arkansas

The Humanities and World Cultures Institute was chartered by the University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees and the Arkansas State Department of Higher Education in April 2002 both to support the development of interdisciplinary curricula that will help students function in an increasingly global and technological world, and to facilitate the university's sharing of the richness of the humanities with the larger central Arkansas community.

The Institute supplements the curricular efforts of the established disciplines by coordinating four minors that cross traditional departmental boundaries: Asian Studies, Gender Studies, Latin American Studies, and Southern and Arkansas Studies. It also works closely with the interdisciplinary African African-American Studies, Environmental Science, International Studies, Public Administration, and Religious Studies major programs.

The Institute hosts various faculty development activities aimed at increasing interdisciplinarity and globalization of curricula among local humanities professors. Specialists in various areas routinely come to UCA to do workshops for faculty and students or to lecture on topics of interest to students of world cultures. The Institute also supports the efforts of faculty trained in Anglo-American and European cultural disciplines as they work to develop their ability to teach about African, Asian, and Latin-American cultures, both by arranging their participation in development workshops and by coordinating dialogue groups for colleagues wishing to explore select topics.

The Institute reaches beyond the immediate university community by coordinating various learning and cultural events for the community, including an annual Humanities Fair for high school students and summer workshops or courses for high school teachers wishing to broaden the non-Anglo-American and non-European portions of their curricula.

Director of the Humanities and World Cultures Institute

phone: 501-450-5592

e-mail: deitrick@uca.edu