Resumen de Public Humanities and Agents of Change: Have We Been Doing This All Along?

Meredith Lyn Jeffers

• Over the last several years, faculty have engaged students and community members in a series of collaborative projects with the goal of addressing complex issues such as identity, language, and belonging. I posit that the work we have been doing constitutes a broader innovative humanities project centered on cultural studies. To demonstrate as much, I explore current definition(s) of public humanities and outline activities that have comprised the endeavor in question. To conclude, I consider how reframing these events as a public humanities project, with students serving as agents of cultural change, could further contribute to the common good of the university, the campus community, and partners at dual and concurrent enrollment programs, while deepening engagement with local and state public institutions.