The Center for the Humanities at Wesleyan University is one of the oldest humanities institutes in the United States. It developed from the Center for Advanced Study, which was established at Wesleyan University in 1959, and assumed its present name in 1969 when it was reorganized to include Wesleyan faculty members and students. Since its inception, the mission of the Center has been devoted to two chief and related purposes: To enrich the academic life of the University through lectures, special seminars, colloquia and teaching in regular courses; and to support the Fellows of the Center so that they may devote the bulk of their time to their own research, writing and creative efforts.

Much has changed at the Center for the Humanities over the last fifty plus years but these two core directives remain at the heart of our mission as we seek to energize and illuminate the greater campus community through our Monday evening lecture series as well as other programming, and to promote cutting edge faculty research by providing support to our Faculty and Visiting Fellows.

Self-critical and experimental in nature, the Center for the Humanities is an oasis of interdisciplinary discourse and dialogue in an era of increased professionalization and specialization. Perhaps most important, it remains a truly special place of intense formal and social intellectual engagement.