The Value of the Humanities

A panel on Walter Capps’ contributions to the humanities and the value of the humanities today, featuring prominent leaders of humanities organizations

Friday, Nov. 10

10:00am - 12:00pm

McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020)

Welcome and Introductions:

Greg Johnson, Director of the Walter H. Capps Center, UCSB

Daina Ramey Berry, Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities & Fine Arts and Professor of History, UCSB

David Marshall, Executive Vice Chancellor, UCSB

Speakers:

David Marshall, Executive Vice Chancellor, UCSB

James Quay, former Executive Director, California Council for the Humanities

Ralph Lewin, Executive Director, Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund

Phoebe Stein, President, Federation of State Humanities Councils

Brief Bios:

David Marshall is Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Executive Vice Chancellor (Provost), at UCSB. He has been Executive Vice Chancellor since 2014. He previously served for sixteen years as Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and was the first Michael Douglas Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts. From 2005 to 2012, he also was Executive Dean of the College of Letters and Science.

James Quay grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He earned a BA in English from Lafayette College and then performed two years of alternative service in central Harlem as a conscientious objector. He and his wife moved to California where he earned an MA and PhD in English Literature from UC Berkeley. He served as executive director of the California Council for the Humanities from 1983 to 2008. Since his retirement, he has been a facilitator for the Center for Courage and Renewal. He was a guest lecturer in Walter’s Vietnam War course.

Ralph Lewin is the Executive Director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund. He previously served as President and CEO of the California Council for the Humanities. He is also an alumnus of UCSB and attended Walter Capps’ course on the Vietnam War.

Phoebe Stein is president of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Stein served as the executive director for Maryland Humanities from 2008 to 2020 and has been an advocate for the humanities at local, state, and federal levels for nearly 25 years. Stein serves on the board of the National Humanities Alliance and on the advisory councils of Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National History Day.

Events may be photographed, livestreamed, and recorded.