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February 2nd @ 2:00 pm

Making a Case for the Humanities with Zena Hitz

Feb 02
Making a Case for the Humanities with Zena Hitz

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Open to current graduate students and faculty. Box lunches will be served.

In her recent book, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of the Intellectual Life, Zena Hitz writes “For some time, intellectual institutions in the United States have been under significant financial and political pressure to abandon education for programs with economic or political uses… we academic professionals have lost touch with our origins in ordinary human intellectual activity. We have thus lost the capacity to justify and explain to our fellow citizens or to philanthropists—much less to ourselves—why our institutions matter” (p.198).

Should one studying or teaching in the humanities promote its importance within the university and in society? If so, how should one go about doing this, or learning how to do this?

Join us for a discussion with Zena Hitz on the relationship between academic training in the humanities and the intellectual life.

Zena Hitz will also participate in a public conversation on Lost in Thought at later that day.


For all events held at Gavin House, the Lumen Christi Institute follows Chicago Department of Public Health Guidance for in-person gatherings. Please see here for the city’s most up-to-date guidelines. These are guidelines subject to change.

If you have any questions, please contact us.


Gavin House

1220 E 58th St. Chicago, IL 60637
Hyde Park, IL