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Mass Humanities

Established in 1974 as the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Mass Humanities is a programming and grant making organization that receives support from the NEH and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as well as from private sources. Mass Humanities regularly identifies areas of special interest or concern and develops initiatives aimed at increasing program activity in those areas. Our current thematic initiative, "Liberty and Justice for All," invites proposals for public programs that explore the interplay of these two fundamental principles of American political life. "Liberty" and "justice" may seem to be well understood philosophical touchstones of our democracy, but they yield, when examined further, significant controversy and opportunity for reflection. Mass Humanities supports programs that use history, literature, philosophy, and the other humanities disciplines to enhance and improve civic life throughout the Commonwealth, and gives highest priority to projects that apply the humanities to current issues, deepening public understanding of these issues and thereby enhancing civic life.

http://www.masshumanities.org/

What's New in Fake News?

Sun, Oct 15, 2017

So-called fake news is not a new phenomenon. It’s been around since the beginning of the Republic. And yet there is something different and more insidious going on when we have officials in the highest reaches of our government attempting to delegitimize the mainstream media by labeling stories that run counter to their preferred narratives as “fake news.” Yet there is fake news. Lots of it. Conspiracy theories abound like weeds in the garden and persist despite repeated debunking. What does this tell about ourselves and what are the implications for our democracy? Each fall, Mass Humanities brings a stellar group of scholars, journalists, and public officials together for a series of public conversations examining fundamental aspects of our democratic culture. Past symposia have focused on the Presidency, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Supreme Court, the role of the media in our democracy, military and civic culture in America and the Internet and democracy, economic inequality, and racial conciliation. This talk focuses on the effect of "fake news" on our democracy. (Image: [Mass Humanities](http://masshumanities.org/programs/symposium/ "Mass Humanities"))

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A Neighborhood Conversation on Racism in Boston

Wed, Nov 01, 2017

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Farah Stockman hosts a conversation in Roxbury's historic Hibernian Hall to celebrate the culmination of weeks of neighborhood readings on the historic busing crisis that ripped Boston apart in the 1970s. An upcoming film, _The Harvest_, co-produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist/historian Douglas Blackmon and award-winning documentary filmmaker Sam Pollard is the impetus for the conversation. Portions of the film inform the conversation. The discussion, moderated by Stockman, includes two former residents of Boston: Michael Patrick MacDonald, who grew up in South Boston’s Old Colony housing project during the 1970s busing crisis, and Cheryl Harris, who grew up in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston and experienced the social and political upheaval first-hand as a young mother. The film explores the legacy of public school integration in Blackmon’s hometown of Leland, Mississippi. This Roxbury conversation will find the parallels in the Boston busing crisis and Boston's ongoing issues of system racism.

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Boston Talks About Racism, Busing Crisis in Boston

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Mass Humanities
The Politics of Hope: Four Historians Take on the Obama Presidency

Sun, Nov 06, 2016

Perhaps no president came into office with greater challenges or higher expectations than Barack Obama. Where will future presidential historians rank our first African-American president? For what will he be best remembered?

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Mass Humanities