While it’s part of one of the most anticipated capital projects on the Colorado State University campus, the new Joe Blake Center for Engaged Humanities will be more about faculty than facilities.
The center, part of the revitalization of the Clark Building, will focus on the excellence within CSU’s educational mission, Blake Center Director Greg Dickinson said.
“We talk about student success, and we talk about scholarly success, but those two things are connected,” Dickinson said. “Great scholars and great teachers equal student success, so over time, the Center for Engaged Humanities is going to be a place that really fosters faculty excellence as a way to also foster excellence within our undergraduate and graduate students.”
Faculty fellowship
Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the center will create a faculty fellowship program to fund engaged humanities research and create opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations.
“The idea is not only to support individual people in their work, but to amplify the conversations happening across the university in regard to humanities-oriented questions,” Dickinson said. While the physical space won’t open until summer 2027, the center’s new group of faculty fellows will begin their work in fall 2024.
The center could also bring undergraduate students into those conversations within the curriculum, similar to the Green and Gold Initiative, which looks at issues of collaboration between the humanities and STEM.
The larger community could also benefit from center fellowships.
“That could mean bringing [to campus] somebody from Sterling who is helping revise their town museum to be more inclusive,” Dickinson said. “They could work with Sarah Payne, a public historian, and the archivists at the library. As we grow this, the work we do with faculty and students can go out into the communities in the same ways that the Center for Public Deliberation and the Straayer Center do.”
Putting humanities in the spotlight
A 1,000-square-foot meeting space in the Joe Blake Center can host speakers and events, from local politicians speaking on democracy to CSU scholars presenting their research.
“Engaged scholarship in a community isn’t always very visible to those beyond the community members involved,” Dickinson said. “But you can also do public programing that’s visible, such as the ACT Human Rights Film Festival. A part of this new center will include a public programming aspect that brings the humanities to the public.”
The $2 million capital project will be funded with a matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, along with funds from a gift from the center’s namesake, CSU System Chancellor Emeritus Joe Blake, who died in 2022.
An advocate for higher education
In 2019, Blake gave the College of Liberal Arts $5 million – the largest gift in the college’s history at that time – in recognition of its outstanding, high-quality faculty, students and leadership. It was Blake’s intention that this gift would help cast a bright light on the incredible faculty and excellence within the college. As a partial match, $500,000 of Blake’s gift will go toward the center’s capital campaign and $1.2 million will go toward programming.
Blake was a long-time advocate for higher education in Colorado and the new center named in his honor will continue that work.
“Those of us who knew Joe recognize how fitting it is we dedicate this new humanities center in his name: Joe’s ability to engage with people, his knowledge of the humanities and humanity defined his approach to helping us all find a common purpose whether here at CSU or down in Denver,” said College of Liberal Arts Dean Ben C. Withers. “Democracy could use a little more of his ability to find something good and interesting in everyone. It is that spirit that will animate CLA’s new Joe Blake Center for Engaged Humanities.”
