Welcome to the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, one of the largest and most diverse colleges on the UMass Amherst campus.

News Spotlight

Hampden Gallery:

New England/New York/New Talent

This month, in Hampden Gallery, located in the Southwest Residential area, is an art exhibit titled, New England/ New York/ New Talent. This art exhibit is a compilation of pieces completed by various artists from the New England and New York area. Each of these visual artists have painted their souls on a canvas for all to see. New England/New York/New Talent had their opening reception on November 7, and is now open to the public until December 7. Fourteen artists were chosen to display their work in the gallery. To read more, click here.

Catherine Portuges and Film Studies

Catherine Portuges, a French professor, arrived here at the University of Massachusetts initially focused on teaching within the Women’s Studies. Currently, she teaches courses entitled Cinema and Psyche and French Film as well as graduate level seminar in Comparative Literature. Ms. Portuges undertook the responsibility of developing an office wherein film studies has grown into an interdepartmental certificate program with over twenty faculty members over fifteen distinct departments enrolling over 300 students. To read more, click here.

More From Comparative Literature

Professor N. C. Christopher Couch of Comparative Literature is faculty adviser of the Comic Art Society, a registered student organization at UMass.  On October 18-19, this club hosted a 24-Hour Comic Day, which was attended by over 30 students from UMass and the Five Colleges. To read more, click here.

Crossroads Conference 2008

The 2008 Crossroads Conference was very successful. Organizers Matt Goodwin and Kanchuka Dharmasiri, graduate students in the UMass Comparative Literature Department, said there was a good turn out overall, including undergraduate students and local members of the general public. For more information, click here

Centering Traditions:

The Renaissance Center, A Hub of Varied Information

Amherst, MA – Tuxedo jackets worn by the extremely wealthy inhabitants of New York, originated from the Algonquin word Tuxedo, meaning “wolf”, later the name of a town in New York along the Hudson River. This example of an “American Indian” word transferring into the English language along with many other place names was spotlighted by Rachel Hare Mustin, the featured lecturer for the first of a series of lectures sponsored by the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Study. Read more here.

A UMass Student is Named a Davidson Fellow and Receives a $25,000 Scholarship

A 17 year old August Siena Thomas, a senior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, was recently named a Davidson Fellow and has been awarded a scholarship in the amount of $25,000 to further her studies.  The Davidson Fellows Scholarship is a competition for youths under the age of 18 who have accomplished a substantial exposition in one of seven designated fields. Read more here.

New Studio Arts Building

This September the College of Humanities and Fine Arts Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Art Department with the dedication of a new Studio Arts Building designed by Graham Gund and a weekend celebrating the Art Department's programs.  For information about the events and pictures of the building click here.

More news here

Upcoming Events

Nov. 18th,  Author Paula J. Giddings discusses her book Ida:  A Sword Among Lions.  7:00 p.m. New Africa House, Shirley Graham Du Bois Library (2nd floor). For more information click here.

Nov. 19th,  "Black Life in Sweden:  Beyond Licorice and Chocolate."  A lecture by Utz McKnight from the University of Alabama as part of the W.E.B. Du Bois Lecture Series Black Europeans:  Race and the New Europe.  4:00-5:30 p.m.  Campus Center room 174-76.

Nov. 19th, The Avanti Wind Quintet performing works of Shen & Haas. At 8:15 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall. For more information click here.

Nov.21st, Prof. Paolo Pucci, University of Vermont, will present From Rags to Riches...and (Maybe) Back:  The Renaissance Courtesan's Struggle for Life." At 1:00 p.m. in 301 Herter Hall.

Nov.24th, Jazz Ensemble I: Still Jazz After All These Years, compositions by jazz writing graduate writing majors. At 8:00 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium. For more information click here.

Nov. 25th, Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Composer Elliott Carter. UMass faculty performing his works, including the Sonata for Cello & Piano. At 8:00 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall. For more information, please click here.

Past Events

Nov.17th, MASS Marimba Band, UMass Amherst Marimba Ensembles & the Tuba Studio--showcasing percussion ensemble music, with marimbas as the primary instrument. At 8:00 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium. For more information click here.

Nov.16th, German Music: Bach to Weill. Professors Marjorie Malnick, mezzo soprano and Estela Olevsky, piano. At 4:00 p.m. in Bowker Auditorium. For more information click here.

Nov. 14th, "Free Will and the Mind-Body Problem."  A colloquia by Bernard Berofsky, Columbia University. Beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Bartlett Hall room 206.

Nov. 14th,  A lecture "Painted Nuns:  Dead, Live, and Learned," portraits of the nuns in the colonial Americas, particularly Columbia and Mexico, by Nina Scott, UMass Amherst Professor Emeritus.  4:00-5:30 p.m. in Herter Hall room 601.

Oct. 30th-Nov. 8th, The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek. The weight and power of a 153-ton steam engine hang over this striking play by Five College alumna Naomi Wallace. In a small American town in the 1930s, sensitive Dalton and tough-girl Pace find a shared purpose in training for a dangerous race against the train that crosses the town’s railroad bridge nightly.

Admission: $12 general, $6 students/seniors

At the Curtain Theatre of the Fine Arts Center. For more information, click here.

Nov. 6th, The English Department presents The Troy Lecture for 2008. A precision of Language: An Evening with Margaret Atwood. Atwood is a Canadian writer, a poet, novelist, literary critic, a feminist and an activist. She is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Governor General's Award and many more. The lecture will take place on November 6th, 4:30pm at the Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Center.

More Past Events Here

College Kudos

Congratulations to:

Miliann Kang, Asst. Professor in the Women's Studies Program.  She was invited to speak this October at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK).  Her presentation is entitled, "Nail Spas vs. Discount Nail Salons:  Constructing Privilege and Stigma Through Body Labor."

Layard Thompson BFA'00, Dance Program alumnus, who received a New York Dance & Performance Award for performance on September 15th:   These awards are informally known as the "Bessies" (named after teacher Bessie Schönberg) and are generally viewed as the dance world's "Oscars."

Lisa Olstein, Associate Director, MFA Program for Poets and Writers & the Juniper Initiative, on receipt of an organizational support grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Ken Kitchell, Professor of Classics, on publication, with Irven Resnick (Univ. of TN), of a translation of Albert the Great’s “Questions Concerning Aristotle’s ‘On Animals’” by the Catholic University of America Press.

Catherine Portuges, Director of the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies, on her participation in the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival as an official delegate.

Prof. Frank Fagundes on the publication of his collection of short stories evoking the Portuguese Diaspora in the Pioneer Valley, No Vale dos Pioneiros: Narrativas da Minha Diaspora.

Prof. Cathy Portuges, Director of the Interdepartmental Film Studies Program, who is lecturing on "Jewish Immigrant Directors and Their Impact on Hollywood" at Arizona State University, Nov. 15-17.

Prof. Julie Candler Hayes on the publication of her book, Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800, by Stanford University Press.