Central Region Humanities Center
About the Center
With an emphasis on Southeast Ohio, the Central Region Humanities Center is establishing strong ties with academic programs, providing student experiential learning opportunities, supporting graduate and undergraduate students, and engaging with community organizations.
Ohio University's Central Region Humanities Center was created in 2001 with support from a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.
The center's goal is to establish the center not only as an agent of regional understanding, but also as a clearinghouse for exchanging regional research and program ideas, as well as a facilitator that will enhance the work of other organizations and preserve their resources.
The center sponsors an annual speaker series and an interdisciplinary biennial conference, both of which focus on the rich culture and history of the local region.
Past & Virtual Events
- Black Life in the Ohio Valley Conference
- "Erased but not Forgotten: People and Places of Color in Southeastern Ohio, Prehistory to Present," presentation by Amelia Adams, April 2022
- Two-day conference on Ohio Settlement: First Nations and Beyond, which brought together faculty and staff from multiple departments across the university and drew hundreds of community members to campus in 2020.
- Black History Tour of Athens through mAppAthens traces how early African Americans helped shape the cultural and intellectual landscape of the region.
Advisory Committee
In addition to a director, the center has an advisory committee including faculty from African American Studies, English, Fine Arts, Geography, History, Journalism, and Sociology & Anthropology as well as representatives from a number of institutions outside Ohio University, such as the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, the Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Southeast Ohio History Center, the Tablertown People of Color Museum, and the Underground Railroad Museum in Flushing, Ohio.