Humanities

How a vision for Jewish studies transformed a community and inspired generations.

As Ben Wright approaches retirement, the renowned scholar celebrates a career unraveling the mysteries of the Second Temple period and advancing fresh perspectives in early Judaism studies.

If you wanted to create impactful art challenging the status quo in a repressive country, you’d think you would have to go “underground.” Indeed, that’s exactly where a new, alternative art form called Moscow Conceptualism arose in the late Soviet era – operating in secrecy, away from viewers, critics, and especially those in power. But Russian professor Mary Nicholas says that a subset of Moscow artists of the time – who she considers among the most influential -- challenged the idea they should be hidden -- and with great impact. For Nicholas, Exhibit A is a street procession in 1978, where a small group of conceptual artists called The Nest carried a red banner down a Moscow street.

Mark Bickhard, Henry R. Luce Professor of Cognitive Robotics and the Philosophy of Knowledge, challenges traditional metaphysical frameworks in his latest book, The Whole Person: Toward a Naturalism of Minds and Persons. Bickhard critiques the historical divide between the material world and mental phenomena, rooted in ancient Greek philosophy, and argues for a shift from substance-based metaphysics to process metaphysics. His model, called interactivism, emphasizes the evolutionary and developmental emergence of normative phenomena—such as representation, cognition, and language—through dynamic interactions, rather than static structures or substances.

Meet the new director of the Africana Studies program and new faculty member of the English Department Simone A. James Alexander.

Suzanne Edwards' edited volume with Matthew X. Vernon highlights women's medievalism which has often been silenced.

Xavier Piccone ’24 studies an energy infrastructure and its impact on political and economic systems.

The Berman Center for Jewish Studies will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024. Lehigh spoke with Berman Center director Jodi Eichler-Levine, as well as former director Hartley Lachter and history professor Nitzan Lebovic, about the milestone and the center’s vision going forward.

Ph.D. student explores the literary intersection of health and horror.

Disney theme parks provide connections to fantastic stories and film-inspired fantasies, but it has also become a place of pilgrimage similar to traditional religions.