From fall 2008 through spring 2010, the Glasscock Center is exploring the theme of  “Journeys. ”  We conceive this theme broadly to embrace considerations metaphorical and literal, contemporary and historical, on such topics as migration, travel, exile, transportation, exploration, tourism, border crossing, voyage through time, quests, rituals of passage, and biographical narrative.  Our two-year lecture series and a symposium in spring 2010 focus on topics related to “Journeys,” and faculty receiving Investigative Course Grants address “Journeys” in the classroom. 

The 2010-2012 theme for the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research is “Sustenance.”  Beginning in Fall 2010, the Center’s lecture series, roundtables, symposia, and other events  will consider “Sustenance” across a wide range of disciplines.  Through spring 2012 faculty colloquia of works-in-progress, the Investigative Course Grants, and our Internal Faculty Fellows program will all emphasize this theme.

The Glasscock Center imagines that research may investigate some of the following (and other topics as well): 

images of sustenance in literature, art or music
historical conditions that prompt new technologies of sustenance or discourse on sustenance
narratives of health and well-being; philosophical approaches to sustaining life or culture
ethical issues surrounding sustainable and unsustainable modes of human being in nature
emerging rhetoric and social practices around sustainability
changing definitions of livelihood
approaches to food and eating; modes of spiritual sustenance
sustaining the life of the mind in a digital world. 

The Glasscock Center invites suggestions for speakers in its lecture series on “Sustenance.”   Please send the name, position, and affiliation of potential speakers, along with a description of the individuals’ suitability to the theme and links to pertinent material, to Donnalee Dox by 15 September 2009. 

The Glasscock Center is dedicated to fostering and celebrating the humanities and humanities research among the community of scholars at Texas A&M University and in the world beyond the academy. In addition to bringing scholars together around a particular theme for lecture series and conferences in alternate years, the Glasscock Center awards annually a national book prize, the Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship. The Glasscock Center also supports humanities students and faculty at Texas A&M University with a number of funding opportunities, including release fellowships, cross-disciplinary travel grants, stipendiary fellowships, and co-sponsorship grants for lectures and symposia. Fellows and grant recipients are integral to the Center's on-going programs and activities, such as monthly colloquia, humanities working groups, and the Humanities Informatics lecture series. In alternate years, the Center holds a conference and series of events organized during the academic year, where faculty and graduate students present their works-in-progress to gatherings of interested colleagues.

In July 2002, the Board of Regents of Texas A&M University approved the renaming of the Center for Humanities Research as the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. This name change recognizes an extraordinary gift from Melbern G. Glasscock '59 and Susanne M. Glasscock, which constitutes a sustaining endowment for the Center. The funds made available by this endowment are providing for expansion of existing programs and the development of new ones.

The Glasscock Center is a unit of the College of Liberal Arts and its offices are located in Suite 310, Glasscock Building (formerly the History Building) on the Texas A&M University Campus.