Public Humanities:
Activism, Practice and Social Change

14th Winter School of the Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts

Public Humanities:
Activism, Practice and Social Change

Tallinn University
27–29 January 2025
2–4 ECTS

The role of the humanities increasingly extends beyond academia to actively engage with pressing societal issues. On the one hand, humanists are increasingly called to collaborate with diverse communities, address social inequities and activate their work through expanded media fields. On the other hand, humanities itself is seeking paths to evolve into publicly engaged scholarship with high societal impact beyond narrow specialist research fields.

To address this need, a new field of scholarship, most commonly called “public humanities”, has developed over the last few decades. Public humanities refer to academic engagement that seeks to reimagine access to the capacity to create knowledge amongst a very broad set of publics, including communities historically marginalised. They encourage scholars to relate their work to the public, fostering collaboration across disciplines and enhancing understanding of complex topics. Public humanities also aim to bridge the gap between scholarly research and social engagement, bringing critical insights into the community to foster understanding and transformation.

The 14th Winter School of the Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts (formerly Estonian Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts) invites all participants to critically explore the topical questions related to public humanities, such as, but not limited to:

• What role can public humanities play in promoting civic engagement and social change?
• How can public humanities initiatives be more inclusive and representative of diverse communities and their histories?
• How can public humanities effectively balance the dual goals of academic rigour and broad public engagement, especially when addressing complex societal issues?
• If and how can digital technologies be leveraged to enhance the accessibility and impact of public humanities?
• How might public humanities training prepare students for careers in the public and private spheres, careers that then might critically transform those spheres?

Plenary lecturers:
Dr. Zoe Hope Bulaitis (University of Birmingham)
Prof. Stefan Collini (University of Cambridge)
Prof. Poul Holm (Trinity College Dublin)
Prof. Helen Small (Universty of Oxford)
Prof. Joanna Sofaer (University of Southampton)
Prof. Marco te Brömmelstroet (University of Amsterdam)

Programme directors:
Prof. Marek Tamm (Tallinn University)
Prof. Tauri Tuvikene (Tallinn University)

Programme manager:
Eva Kruuse email – evak@tlu.ee

Science slam coordinator:
Tanya Escudero e-mail – escudero@tlu.ee

Please see “Practicalities” for organisational information about the Winter School.