Newsletters

THE DIRECTOR OF THE CHA, JENNIFER HO, IS NOT AN OFFICER OF THE UNIVERSITY; THEREFORE, ALL COMMENTS BY DR. HO ARE NOT TO BE CONFUSED AS COMMENSURATE WITH OR REFLECTIVE OF COMMENTS BY THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER OR THE CENTER FOR HUMANITIES & THE ARTS.

February 3, 2026

Dear CU Boulder Community & Supporters of the CHA,

I think about water a lot. It was a question I even asked during my interview to be CHA Director: how concerned should I be about water issues in Colorado?

A lot it turns out.

The state is over 50% below its usual snowpack for this time of year. And if the state doesn’t get big storms there will be serious drought issues plaguing Colorado this summer. As a new-ish resident, reading about the Colorado River in David Owen’s Where the Water Goes: Life and Death along the Colorado River was eye opening and sobering. It made me realize there is much I don’t understand about water in the West and much I want to continue to explore. Which is one reason I’m grateful for Colorado River Stories – Legacies of Water, an improvisational theater experience. If you are also concerned about water, please join us on Wednesday, February 4, 6:30-8:00pm. We’ll have heavy appetizers for the first 60 people who arrive at 5:45pm or until they run out. You can register for this free theater experience here: https://www.colorado.edu/cha/colorado-river-stories-legacies-water-0. And if you’re not sure what improvisational theater is, check out Impact Playback’s website.

I’m very glad that we’ll be able to gather on Wednesday, February 4 to share stories and experience theater together. Art and community are vital in stressful and turbulent times. So let me end with things that may be helpful for us to consume when the news of the world is too much for us to bear. The most profound truths can often be found in fiction, and Gish Jen’s The Resisters, describes a dystopian future in which the United States of Auto America is divided into the “Netted” and “Surplus” with resistance appearing in the form of baseball. The West Wing Weekly podcast first aired in 2016, but I’ve been dipping in and out of it since the start of COVID19 and each time I listen to an episode I also go back and watch The West Wing, which is comfort food for me. And if anyone is interested in actual food consumption, let me share a recipe that I have been searching for since I was in graduate school in the mid-1990s and fell in love with Dancing Deer Bakery’s Deep Dark Gingerbread Cake. Moving out of Boston, I tried recipe upon recipe to try to recreate this cake (which Dancing Deer no longer sells). Finally over winter break, I found this recipe in The New York Times for Ginger Cake, and it was exactly the taste I had been searching for and instantly plunged me back into memory of wintry nights in Boston enjoying this lovely rich cake. 

Sincerely,

 

Jennifer Ho

Director, Center for Humanities & the Arts

PS. February, as everyone knows, is Black History Month, and another work that I think offers us a key to survival is Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy. It’s hard to encapsulate exactly what is so special about Inciting Joy, but if I could buy all of you a single book, it would be this book. Gay writes about so many subjects—about what it means for him to be an African American poet and gardener and what it means for him to be a son and teacher and skater. And what it means for him to experience joy hand in hand with sorrow. Because for Gay, joy and sorrow and intertwined. And that feels right to me—and it also feels that understanding these connections with joy and sorrow provides a way for us to survive in times of immense opposition. Though of course if we want a lesson from history about surviving and persevering in the face of horror, tyranny, and oppression then we should all be reading more African American history, and one historian I truly appreciate is Dr. Carol Anderson, so I hope you’ll check out one of her many books.

CHA Upcoming Opportunities

🌟 Announcing the CHA Faculty Fellows!
We are thrilled to introduce our newest Center for Humanities & the Arts Faculty Fellowsfor Fall 2026 and Spring 2027. These scholars represent exceptional creativity, research, and commitment to the arts and humanities at CU Boulder.

🍂 Fall 2026 Faculty Fellows

• Suzanne Magnanini — French & Italian
• Crystal Nelson — Art & Art History
• Thorsten Trimpop — Critical Media Practices
• Megan O’Grady — Art & Art History

🌱 Spring 2027 Faculty Fellows

• Jane Garrity — English
• Thomas Pegelow Kaplan — History & Jewish Studies
• Jaquetta Shade‑Johnson — Program for Writing & Rhetoric
• Nisha Shanmugaraj — Program for Writing & Rhetoric
• Jianmin Shao — Women & Gender Studies

Please join us in celebrating these outstanding faculty members and their important contributions to the humanities and arts at CU Boulder!

CHA Dissertation Fellowships — Apply by February 15, 2026

The Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) invites applications for two campuswide Dissertation Fellowships, open to CU Boulder Ph.D. candidates working in the humanities and arts.

Award includes:

• Tuition coverage for up to 5 dissertation hours per semester

• Mandatory student fees and student health insurance

• A stipend equal to a 50% Graduate Part-Time Instructor

Eligibility:
Doctoral students from any CU Boulder department who have advanced to candidacy (D status) and expect to defend their dissertation during the fellowship year are eligible to apply. Applicants from outside traditional arts and humanities disciplines should clearly demonstrate how their project engages interdisciplinary arts and humanities methods and archives.

📅 Application Deadline:February 15, 2026

🔗 Learn more and apply: https://www.colorado.edu/cha/content/dissertation-fellowship-application-form

The CHA JEDI Completion Fellowship supports CU Boulder master’s and doctoral students in the humanities and arts during their final year of study. The fellowship provides tuition, fees, health insurance, and a stipend.

Award includes:

• Tuition coverage for up to 5 dissertation hours per semester

• Mandatory student fees and student health insurance

• A stipend equal to a 50% Graduate Part-Time Instructor

🗓️ Deadline:February 15, 2026
🔗 Details & application: https://www.colorado.edu/cha/content/jedi-completion-fellowship-application-form

Questions? Email chagrants@colorado.edu.

Call for submissions (2026 edition) Deadline February 15

Submissions Now Open: Faculty Celebration of Major Works Magazine 2026

The CHA is now accepting submissions of new, original works completed in 2025 by CU Boulder faculty in the arts and humanities. We invite you to share your accomplishments and be featured in next year’s annual Faculty Celebration of Major Works Magazine.

🔗 Submit your work: https://www.colorado.edu/cha/content/faculty-celebration-major-works-magazine-submission-form

Arts & Humanities Opportunities Across Campus

Visual Evidence Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder

We’re thrilled to announce the official launch of the Visual Evidence Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder — a new interdisciplinary hub dedicated to advancing equitable and responsible visual technology in the pursuit of justice.

Learn more about our mission and projects:
🔗 colorado.edu/lab/visualevidence

Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Instagram, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay connected and engaged:
👉 colorado.edu/lab/visualevidence/engage

Stay tuned for next week’s release of our inaugural report:
📘 “Video’s Day in Court: Advancing Equitable Legal Usage of Visual Technologies and AI.”

Let’s work together toward a more just and transparent future through visual evidence.

🌎 New Spring 2026 Course!

GEOG4022 / MCEN4228: Climate Action Planning — Reducing CU Boulder’s Emissions

Want to help shape CU Boulder’s climate future? Learn climate action fundamentals and work on real projects that reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions.

📅 Spring 2026
🕒 T/Th 3:30–4:45 PM
📍 GUGG 206
✨ Open to all majors — no prerequisites!

In this hands-on, student-led course, you’ll:
• Work on interdisciplinary teams
• Analyze real CU Boulder emissions data
• Develop solutions aligned with the 2024 Climate Action Plan
• Present your findings to campus leadership
• Build skills in climate policy, organizing, and community engagement

Perfect for students interested in sustainability, climate justice, project-based learning, or making real climate impact on campus.

Join us and be part of the change! 🌱

🌟 Exciting Grant Opportunities & Resources for Artists! 🌟

CCI is opening applications for our next round of Folk and Traditional Arts Project grants on January 27, 2026.

🎨 Creative West Artists Fund
Supporting artists across 16 western states and jurisdictions, this fund emphasizes self-determination for artists and their communities.
Apply here: Creative West Artist Fund

🎶 Living Traditions: Folk Arts and Beyond Grant
Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, this grant celebrates and invests in cultural practices and creative expressions connecting communities across the Creative West region.
Apply here: Folk Art and Beyond

💡 Capacity Building Webinar Series
Join us monthly on the second Tuesday, 4–5:30 PM MT, for expert-led sessions on skills and strategies to support your creative work.
Register here: Webinar Series

Perfect for students interested in sustainability, climate justice, project-based learning, or making real climate impact on campus.

Join us and be part of the change! 🌱

Cary Wolfe & Adam Nocek at CU Boulder

February 5–6, 2026

Join us for two conversations on environment, complexity, and practice with scholars Cary Wolfe and Adam Nocek. Open to CU faculty and graduate students.

Thursday, Feb. 5 — 1:30 PM
Brakhage Center (ATLS 311)
Adam Nocek on social and ecological interventions in urban agroecology.
Nocek is Associate Professor at ASU and Founding Director of the Center for Philosophical Technologies.

Friday, Feb. 6 — 5:00 PM
CASE E351
Cary Wolfe on James Turrell’s Roden Crater and the “outside” of geological time.
Wolfe is founding editor of the Posthumanities series and a Fellow at the Berggruen Institute.

Free and open to CU faculty & grad students. Registration recommended:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cary-wolfe-and-adam-nocek-on-environment-complexity-and-practice-tickets-1981159499394

Sponsored by: Critical Media Practices, Cinema & Moving Image Arts, English, Media Studies.

🗣️ Panel Discussion | Black History Month

The Black Panther Party, the Black Freedom Struggle, and Their Significance in Trump’s America

Join us for a powerful panel discussion featuring former members of the Black Panther Party (for Self Defense): Gayle Dickson, Aaron Dixon, Ericka Huggins, and Billy X Jennings. They will be joined by photographer and scholar Susanna Lamaina and Reiland Rabaka, Director of the Center for African & African American Studies.

Together, the panel will explore the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party, the Black Freedom Struggle of the 1960s, and their continued relevance today.

📅 Thursday, February 12, 2026
⏰ 7:00 PM
📍 Norlin Library — CGBIS Room M549 (5th Floor)
🎟 Free and open to the public

This event accompanies the traveling exhibition Revolutionary Grain: Celebrating the Spirit of the Black Panther Party in Portraits and Stories, currently on view at Macky Gallery.