Excitement Builds around Possibilities for New Humanities Center

Michael Steinberg, the inaugural director of the Cogut Humanities Center and professor of history and music, spoke recently with Inside Brown's Deborah Goldstein about the center's future home, his passion for opera, and questions he's never before been asked.

Q: When we say "humanities," what does that encompass?

A: The history of the humanities starts with traditional disciplines - philosophy, history, and literature. In the 19^th century, universities expanded and disciplines like art history and musicology were added, in addition to many of the social sciences with close relations to the humanities - anthropology, for example. Then, the 20^th century brought in technology-based disciplines like film studies, digital arts, and computer-based initiatives as well as the recognition that the humanities are a global phenomenon. Added to the evolution of disciplines is the growth of interdisciplinary study. Humanists listen to each other across fields more than they used to.

Q: So the Cogut Humanities Center is where all of those roads intersect?

A: Yes, and it will be physically too, when the center moves out of Alumnae Hall into the restored Pembroke Hall in 2008. The building will house both the Cogut Humanities Center and the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. It will be a place for innovation and excitement - what we like to call an "intellectual destination."

Q: Tell me about the design process for the $10-million expansion and renovation of Pembroke Hall.

A: Toshiko Mori, the principal architect, does extremely sleek, contemporary work. She has an incredible sense of how to do something radically different that is also intensely respectful to traditional structures. It's been fascinating to work with Mori and to have her ask us "What do you need? What do you want? What kind of lighting? What kind of space?" It's been a learning experience for me because I've never been asked questions like those.

Q: What will the new center look like?

The building will be filled with seminar rooms, lecture areas, performance and gallery spaces, and an interactive humanities lab that we're just beginning to design. We are planning a "fellows' pavilion" with offices for about twenty visiting scholars. Mori wants to put us in a space that will really energize the programs.

Q: You arrived last summer as the center's inaugural director. What have you accomplished since then?

A: The first thing I wanted to do is put the Faculty Fellowship Program in place, and we did that immediately. It's a big innovation here at Brown. An exceptional group of six Brown faculty members will inaugurate the program this semester. They will participate in a weekly seminar with other fellows, faculty members, and students to get feedback on work in progress. Their residencies will be complemented by the visits of several distinguished fellows from the university and arts worlds.

Q: You organized the center's first Fall Humanities Weekend this past November. Is that an example of things to come?

A: The Humanities Weekend looked at some general themes to show how groups of scholars think and talk together. Toshiko Mori and others participated in a workshop discussion on architecture and the humanities, which focused on the ethics and politics of designing space. We also had discussions about parallel innovations in research and teaching in the sciences and the humanities. President Simmons hosted an interesting discussion about "Reinvigorating the Humanities."

Q: What programs are you planning for this semester?

A: Pamela Rosenberg, the outgoing general manager of the San Francisco Opera, will be here for a month in February before she returns to Germany as the administrative director of the Berlin Philharmonic. She will co-host a workshop on innovations in opera staging that will feature the legendary director Peter Sellars, among other figures. Later in the semester we'll co-host with the Pembroke Center and Watson Institute a series of programs commemorating the centennial of the birth of Hannah Arendt, the philosopher and political theorist.

Q: I hear you have an interest in opera ... do you sing?

A: I studied voice for several years and sang in various choruses. My wife [Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, who teaches in Comparative Literature and Italian Studies] and I have both integrated opera into our research and teaching and plan to teach a senior seminar on it next spring, 2007.

Q: What are you most excited about?

A: Brown is clearly at a defining moment, one that makes the most out of the special combination of rigor and informality that one feels here on a daily basis. That's the best example for a lively and innovative Humanities Center.