Center for the Humanities at Temple

The Center for the Humanities at Temple University (CHAT) is a vibrant hub for interdisciplinary research, dialogue, and public programming. Our mission is to highlight the vital role of the humanities in addressing key issues in fields like medicine, law, business, and the sciences. At CHAT, we define the humanities in broad and inclusive terms, valuing diverse perspectives, methodologies, and scholarly traditions.

As a member of The Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), CHAT is part of a global network of institutions dedicated to humanistic research. CHAT is supported by the College of Liberal Arts.

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ANNUAL THEME

2025-2026 Un/Bound

Bound, Bind, Bonds — these interrelated terms have long shaped humanities scholarship, offering frameworks to explore socio-cultural, historical, and economic relationships. Binding, for example, may describe bodily modifications that align inner identity with outward appearance. To be bound can evoke temporal stuckness or dissonance, or signal connection to structures that guide but also constrain, while Bondage names systems of confinement and exclusion. Yet these terms also gesture toward affective ties—community, intimacy, and solidarity.

This year’s theme invites reflection on the various ways we are bound and unbound, as well as the shifting forms that binding and bonds can take.

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