Savoring Cinema: Japanese Film Series

The Cohen Center for the Humanities partnered with the Madison Art Collection and film scholar Dr. Dennis Lo of the Department of English to screen three Japanese cinema classics during Fall 2022.

Dr. Hrishikesh Joshi

The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor the College of Arts and Letter's Logic and Reasoning Institute speaker, philosopher Dr. Hrishikesh Joshi of Bowling Green University, and his talk on "Why It's Okay to Speak Your Mind" on February 9, 2023.

Department of Philosophy and Religion

The Cohen Center partnered with the Department of Philosophy and Religion for the event The Global Civil Rights Movement on December 2, 2021.

Center for Civic Engagement's Holocaust Rememberance Week

The Cohen Center for the Humanities collaborated with JMU's Center for Civic Engagement in activities for Holocaust Rememberance Week, including one on music of the Holocaust on January 28, 2022.

Truth Tellers Screening

The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor the Department of Justice Studies' screening of the film Truth Tellers on February 2, 2022.

African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

The Cohen Center for the Humanities partnered with the African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center for their 12th annual conference, held February 16-19, 2022.

Summer Graduate Internship 

The Office of Research and Scholarship awarded The Cohen Center for the Humanities a $5,000 grant to support a summer graduate student research intern in collaboration with the Madison Art Collection.

African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center

The Cohen Center for the Humanities collaborated with JMU's new African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center to create their new website: jmu.edu/africana. This website was created by Graduate Assistant, Megan Medeiros (M'21).

African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies 11th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

Graduate Assistant for The Cohen Center for the Humanities, Megan Medeiros (M'21), in collaboration with Conference Convener David Babcock, created the website for the 11th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference. This was the first year the conference was entirely virtual, due to COVID-19.

African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies 11th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

The Cohen Center for the Humanities sponsored a panel showcasing the scholarship of graduate students in AAAD's 11th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference, held February 17-20, 2021. The panel, titled "Paved with Good Intentions: Discussing the Lack of Black and Brown Spaces within Social Media and Podcasts," was put together by Graduate Assistant Megan Medeiros (M'21) and featured the work of John Albrite, PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Tessa Crosby, PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Megan Medeiros, MA candidate at James Madison University; and Rob Porter, independent (JMU M'20) and was moderated by Rebecca Paulisch, MA candidate at James Madison University.

African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies Center

The Cohen Center for Humanities collaborated with the new AAAD Studies Center to create the Black Firsts at James Madison University Timeline. This project was taken up by Graduate Assistant, Megan Medeiros (M'21) from undergraduate students, Zaria Heyward (2020) and Qyaira Colbert (2020) which was originally created for the Fall 2019 course "Black Studies and Black Spaces."

Dr. J. Blake Scott

The Cohen Center for the Humanities in collaboration with JMU's minor in Medical Humanities sponsored the virtual visit of Dr. J. Blake Scott from the University of Central Florida for his talk, "Using Comics as
Data Collection Tools for Eliciting Stories about Stigma" on February 18, 2021. 

Dr. Catalina Florina Florescu

In collaboration with JMU's minor in Medical Humanitites, the Cohen Center for Humanities helped sponsor Dr. Catalina Florina Florescu's talk "Mia and Staging Breast Trilogy" on March 10, 2021.

Dr. Sean Grattan

The Cohen Center for the Humanities partnered with JMU's English Department to sponsor Sean Grattan's virtual talk, "Post-Apocolyptic Critters: Salvage, Affect, Queer Ontologies" on March 16, 2021.

Dr. Edward Maibach

In collaboration with SCOM, The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor Dr. Edward Maibach's virtual discussion, "Influencing Public Understanding and Facilitating Behavior Change: Two Guiding Heuristics" on April 7, 2021.

Disability Studies and Music Education Symposium

The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor the JMU Center for Inclusive Music Engagement's Disability Studies and Music Education Symposium, held virtually from April 15-17, 2021.

Summer Graduate Internship 

The Office of Research and Scholarship awarded The Cohen Center for the Humanities a $5,000 grant to support a summer graduate student research intern in collaboration with the Madison Art Collection.

2019 Feminisms and Rhetoric Conference

The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped to sponsor American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and other accessibility services for the 2019 Feminisms and Rhetoric Conference brought to JMU by the Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communications (WRTC) program. This event, held from November 13-16, 2019, "is an academic conference that focuses on ways rhetorical actions and actors work for social change."

2020 Civility and Disagreement Conference

The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor the College of Arts and Letters Logic and Reasoning Institute's 2020 Civility and Disagreement Conference on February 28, 2020.

African, African American, and Diaspora (AAAD) Studies 10th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

The Cohen Center for the Humanities sponsored a panel showcasing the scholarship of graduate students in AAAD's 10th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on February 20-21, 2020. The panel, titled "Diasporic Memory in the United States’ Past and Present," was put together by Graduate Assistant Marina Shafik (M'20) and featured the work of Will Stanley, Alex Brooks, Marina Shafik, and Kevin Leaven, all of James Madison University and was moderated by Corey A. Hickerson of James Madison University.

2020 Virginia Humanities Conference

The Cohen Center for the Humanities sponsored a panel on the role of humanities centers for the 2020 Virginia Humanities Conference held at James Madison University. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was cancelled.

Visiting Speaker: John Jennings

The Cohen Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Department of English sponsored the visit of John Jennings for his talk The Cipher Back to Here on October 12, 2018.

Visiting Speaker: Amy Lewis

The Cohen Center for the Humanities in collaboration with the Department of Music Education sponsored the visit of Amy Lewis for her talk Self-Reflection as an Act of Coming to Consciousness on October 17, 2018.

Three-Minute Thesis Competition

The Cohen Center for the Humanities collaborated with The Graduate School to help sponsor their Three-Minute Thesis competition. The first place winner was sponsored by The Graduate School to attend the regional competition at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools in Knoxville, Tennesee, February 14-16, 2019. In addition, the audience voted to select the winner of the People's Choice Award, sponsored by the Graduate Student Association.

Visiting Speaker: Dr. Meredith Conti

In collaboration with the School of Theatre and Dance and the Medical Humanities Minor, The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor the visit of Dr. Meredith Conti for Portrayals of Mental Illness in 19th-Century British Drama on February 21, 2019.

Visiting Speakers: Professor Graham Welch and Dr. Adam Ockelford

In collaboration with the Department of Music Education, The Cohen Center for the Humanities helped sponsor the visiting talk of Professor Graham Welch and Dr. Adam Ockelford, Music with Children and Young People on the Autism Spectrum on March 26, 2019.

Visiting Speaker: Dr. Norah Dunbar 

The Cohen Center for Humanities in collaboration with the School of Communication Studies sponsored the talk of Dr. Norah Dunbar, Deception Detection in Video Games on April 8, 2019.