Arts and Humanities

In Europe, the transition from hunting and gathering to farming did not happen overnight. But in the Western Mediterranean, it happened much faster than in any other region of Europe — or the rest of the world for that matter.

Nationally-renowned poet Claudia Rankine, a recipient of the 2016 MacArthur “Genius” Award,  will deliver the keynote address at Colgate’s 196th commencement Sunday, May 21, in Sanford Field House. Rankine, the Frederick Iseman Professor of poetry at Yale University, is the author of five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me […]

Beyond the collections, annual memberships, and traveling exhibits, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes at the world’s museums, and a new Colgate minor in museum studies seeks to dive deep into the operation, ethics, and history of museums around the globe.

Penny Lane, the Colgate art and art history professor whose documentary Nuts! won big at Sundance last year, has earned two major grants aimed at increasing female representation in reporting and filmmaking.

Suppose, for a moment, that the Good Samaritan didn’t rescue just one person merely by chance. Let’s say that he spent his entire life walking up and down mountain passes, finding wounded travelers by the hundreds, spending his children’s lunch money on the medical bills. Would we still respect him? When New Yorker staff writer […]

Democracy — typically applied to politics — has found a place in music. The Grammy Award–winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, famed for its lack of a conductor and uniquely democratic approach to music making, visited Colgate this semester for a performance and discussion about the applications of a collaborative organizational structure. The New York City–based orchestra was […]

“Who knew that so many new things could be made from junk?” said Fiona Adjei Boateng ’19, a theater student who was making handbags out of denim pants during an upcycling workshop. Reet Aus, an Estonian fashion designer and environmental pioneer, hosted the workshop in Clifford Gallery. She is known for upcycling, which is using […]

Some say that the death of a great philosopher in Colgate’s Ho Tung Visualization Lab on October 27 was a miscarriage of justice and a stain on Athenian democracy. Socrates’ suicide, reenacted on the Vis Lab’s domed screen by actor H.C. Selkirk, didn’t require the response of law enforcement, but it did draw a crowd […]

Colgate’s Chapel House is at once an architectural novelty and a sanctuary. Beneath the flat roof, behind the 1950s abstracted formalism, you’ll see rare works of religious art and books on world religion; you’ll find a dining room, music room, and living quarters. In silence and meditation, you can lose yourself or find yourself at […]

Over the next few days, environmentally conscious fashion trailblazer Reet Aus is visiting campus. She’ll lead a handful of special events to highlight how she’s been working to make fashion more sustainable. Her doctoral thesis focused on efforts to incorporate upcycling into mass production, and since 2012 she has been working with Beximco, a major apparel […]