Each year the Humanities Center invites everyone on campus to think about a concept collectively. In 2025-2026, we explore the notion of borders/crossings. 

We invite scholars to reflect with us on questions that interpret the theme of "borders/crossings" in a capacious and expansive sense, regardless of discipline, field, or craft across the University. 

At a time when crossing political borders—on maps, in discourse, in public and private—seems fraught, and at a time when boundaries around ideas, ideology, and definition are being both rigorously questioned and vehemently (re)inforced, we ask the UVM campus to explore how, when, and why the reality and construction of borders and the crossings thereof operate, and to what avail. 

Humanities research has distinctive methods, theoretical frameworks, and nodes of inquiry that push us to seek answers about the ways borders and crossings, as a twinned pair, function, show up, go unnoticed, and are necessarily linked. We wonder about the interconnectedness of movement and limitations to that movement across physical borders, political boundaries, disciplinary limits, and more. 

In AY 2025-2026, the Humanities Center invites questions, curiosity, and engagement about borders/crossings, and will prioritize funding across all grants and programming that highlights our theme. When applying for any award for this academic year, please indicate if and how your project, event, or research needs fit into borders/crossings, broadly imagined. 

If you have any questions, please be in touch with the Humanities Center Director, Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst or Assistant Director Ande Tagliamonte via humanities.center@uvm.edu.