Spring 2023 Director’s Note from Dean Allbritton

As the academic year comes to an end, we are greeted with warmer days and blooming Maine flora. Reflecting on this year, I’m proud of the work that the Colby Center for the Arts and Humanities has done to get here, and that we’ve remained steadfast in our mission to inspire critical thinking, creativity, and celebrate the excitement of the arts and humanities.

Despite the many challenges of the past year, our faculty and staff have created a dynamic academic landscape where students explore the pressing questions facing our world today. Through innovative student research projects, engaging public lectures, and thought-provoking conversations, the Center has served as an incubator for your biggest and best ideas.

This summer, Colby and Waterville will host the fourth iteration of our Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities, where over 40 scholars from across the globe will gather to discuss urgent issues connected to our rapidly changing climate. A special cohort of Colby students, working as summer research assistants in environmental humanities, will have front row seats to the public lectures and seminars of some incredible thinkers and climate scholars. More information will soon be made available on those public lectures, which I hope you’ll join.

Next year is the 10th anniversary of the Center for the Arts and Humanities, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than our upcoming two-year theme of Play! We’ll have playful events, thoughtful conversations, and creative work around the playful worlds of the arts, artificial intelligence, public policy, and more with our collaborators and friends across campus. I can’t wait to celebrate with you all.

In the meantime, whether you’re bounding to the finish line or just barely making it, congratulations on arriving to the end of the semester. I’m thankful for your support of the CAH, and I look forward to continuing to work (and play!) together next year.