The two-day Brooklyn College “HHS Expo” is free, open to the public and will feature student work and research. Through its diverse and interconnected award-winning departments, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) and its students are well-equipped to become leaders and influencers in an ever-changing and interdependent world. Now, the important research these students are doing in the educational laboratory that is HSS will be showcased in the Second Annual Brooklyn College HSS Expo scheduled for two full days on April 25 and 26. The Expo will bring together all of Brooklyn College’s longstanding HSS end-of-year student events in a single forum. HSS Dean Ken Gould first conceived of the Expo for Spring 2020. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the campus, the first annual event was held online. The Expo is returning in a hybrid form in 2022 to give the public a chance to see again the high level of intellectual output of Brooklyn College students while providing them the opportunity to test out new ways to display their scholarly work and research. For Gould, highlighting and supporting the humanities has never been more important. “HSS is the core of our liberal arts education and the center for cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and teaching rooted in strong disciplines,” Gould says. “This two-day event will help us continue to build our academic community, both on and off-campus, and let our brilliant students shine and get acclimated to presenting and engaging with the public.” The HSS offerings at Brooklyn College are extremely robust and include departments focused on Africana Studies, Classics, Communication Arts, Sciences, and Disorders, English, History, Judaic Studies, Library Sciences, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Political Science, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, and Sociology. One of the Expo highlights includes several HSS students from Brooklyn College’s Department of History and other disciplines presenting their research on April 25 at 7 p.m. This event will be live-streamed and available to view at https://youtu.be/-sRJp7hFbjw. In all, the two-day Expo will showcase approximately 50 students. Some of the presentations include: A student panel discussion on the history and current state of activism, including the Occupy Movement and Covid-19. Undertaking research into the events that shaped the Brooklyn College experience, student panelists will interview alumni about what drew them to activism on campus, if and how Brooklyn College transformed their lives, and what lessons current students might draw from their experiences. (April 25, 2:15 – 3:30 p.m.) Research from the ongoing Asian American Pacific Islander Project. Students will present a documentary they created and a partial clip of an interview from a current podcasting project. (April 25, 2:15 – 3:30 p.m.) History and Religion majors—all upper-level seminar students—will talk through theoretical and historical issues on the question of religious experience. Do religious objects have agency or are their worth and meaning inscribed by the users of these objects? Does religious experience “really” happen, or is it simply a product of psychological issues? Those and many other questions will be explored. (April 26, 10 – 10:45 a.m.). Brooklyn College’s offerings in the humanities and liberal arts are recognized nationwide. Last year, the college was ranked as the top public liberal arts college in New York City and among the top 50 liberal arts colleges in the nation, according to AcademicInfluence.com. The college was one of only two New York State colleges or universities that made the site’s list of renowned liberal arts institutions. The rankings highlight that businesses everywhere are beginning to acknowledge that the desirable employee today masters writing, psychology, logic, math, graphic design, economics, computer programming, and more. The HSS Expo has enjoyed extraordinary support from a $50,000 grant from the Kitch Foundation, which will award 10 students $1,000 awards at a post-event research contest. More information and to register for the events. More information about last year’s HSS Expo.
