A message from Director Wendy S. Hesford—

As the Global Arts + Humanities (GAH) prepares to celebrate its tenth anniversary, we have updated our name to the Global Arts + Humanities | Cross-Disciplinary Research Exchange. This name foregrounds the research-centered dimensions of our strategic plan and mission.

As a university-wide initiative, the Global Arts + Humanities serves as an integral facilitative resource and bridging mechanism for cross-disciplinary work across campuses, colleges, departments, centers, institutes, and between the campus and community. One of the ways that GAH has transformed research culture at the university is by prompting critical reflexivity about the socio-cultural and ethical dimensions of cross-disciplinary exchange.

Common definitions of the word “exchange” refer to an act of giving and receiving something, often of the same type or value, or substituting one thing for another. But exchanges are never simply transactional. All forms of exchange, including the exchange of knowledge, have a socio-cultural and ethical dimension because they entail relationships, obligations and consequences for those involved.  GAH’s invocation of the word “exchange” in its new name aims to foreground a relational ethos grounded in critical reflexivity and a shared sense of responsibility.

Cross-disciplinary exchanges that aspire to a relational ethos are neither lodged in determinism nor in the ideas of ethical idealism. Rather, critical cross-disciplinary exchanges commit to navigate differing values, methods, and terminologies and the ethical parameters of engagement at all stages of collaboration.  

The relational ethos that GAH seeks to engender is one of critical humility, including disciplinary humility, which requires understanding differing contexts and histories. By acknowledging shifting social and institutional relations and global and local interconnections, cross-disciplinary exchanges can serve as resources for thinking about contingencies and demands that shape knowledge. 

The Global Arts + Humanities plays a vital role accentuating collaborations and investing in the humanistic dimensions of cross-disciplinary exchange through our:

• Signature programs: Imagined Futures Initiative, K-12 Interdisciplinary Teaching Institute, Society of Fellows
• Team-based research grants: Arts Creation, Centers + Institutes, Community Engagement, Discovery Field Schools, Graduate Professional Development
• Collaborations across colleges: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Human Ecology, College of Medicine, College of Public Health
• Collaborations with university centers and institutes: Barnett Center for Arts and Enterprise, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Humanities Institute, Newark Earthworks, Sustainability Institute, Translational Data Analytics Institute, University Libraries, Wexner Center for the Arts, among others
• Community engagement: Central Ohio Public Schools, Columbus Museum of Art, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Ohio Prison Education Exchange Program
• Pedagogical tools: Archival Imaginations, CollabORATE, Freedom Dreaming, Project Impact

This year, we look forward to continued partnerships and new collaborations.