HFA Days

HFA Days, held April 11-12, invites the UMass community and public to experience different facets of teaching and learning, creative and scholarly work, and outreach within humanities and fine arts. 

HFA Days will include Open Classrooms, Faculty Lightning Talks, Interdisciplinary and Public Initiatives, and Special Programs that encompass additional events hosted by departments and communities. All are free and open to the public. 

Thursday, April 11 Event Schedule

Faculty Lightning Talks

11-1 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts
Learn more

Featured topics: 

• Traces of Turkish Migration in West Berlin
• Music, Noise, and Movement at the Boston Marathon
• Pleasure, Play, and Politics: A History of Humor in U.S. Feminism
• The Continuum of Black American Artistry: Building Infrastructure for Success
• DIY Climate Change Adaptation
• Language in Minds and Machines: Comparing AI language models to human readers
• Another Journey to the West

Special Program: Dance Rehearsal

Emerging Choreographers: Integrative Experience Rehearsal
11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Totman, Rooms 202/204

Special Program: Undergraduate Internship Event

HFA Undergraduate Internship and Research Reflections
1-2:30 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts, Lobby

Open Classroom

ART 490STB - Topics in Design: Public Art
Jeffery Kasper, Department of Art
1-3:45 p.m.
Studio Arts Building, Room 240
Register to attend this course

Open Classroom

WGSS 393A - Feminism and Social Justice Activism
Laura Briggs, Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
1-2:15 p.m.
South College E470
Register to attend this course

Open Classroom

HMFNART 101 - Traversing Differences: Local
Una Tanovic, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
1-2:15 p.m.
Herter 212
Register to attend this course

Special Program: Jazz Rehearsal

Rehearsal: Jazz Ensemble I
2:30-4:30 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts, Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall

Open Classroom

PHIL 336 - Existentialism
Ernesto Garcia, Department of Philosophy
4-5:15 p.m.
South College Room E241
Register to attend this course

Interdisciplinary and Public Initiative Panel

4-5:45 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts
Learn more

Featured initiatives:

• Race and Visual Culture in the Americas, 20th-21st Centuries
• Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley
• Slavery North
• World Studies Interdisciplinary Project (WSIP)
• Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy
• Tasso in Music Project
• UMass Cornerstone Initiative

Special Program: Art Exhibit Opening Reception

Withdrawn
An MFA Thesis Exhibition by Dan Willig
4-6 p.m.
On View: April 1-12
Herter Art Gallery

Special Program: Art Exhibit Opening Reception

Wallpapered: An Examination of Femininity
An exhibition of prints by Christina Fallon
4-6 p.m.
On view: April 1 - 12, 2024
Herter Art Gallery 

Special Program: Theater Rehearsal

Rehearsal: Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
directed by Milan Dragicevich
7 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts, Rand Theater

Friday, April 12 Event Schedule

Special Program: Thesis Poster Session

Architecture Master's Thesis Poster Session
9-11 a.m.
Design Building Atrium

Special Program: Student Art Sale

Student Art Sale from the Department of Art
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Studio Arts Building, Lee Edwards Gallery (1st floor) and atrium (2nd floor)

Special Program: Wind Ensemble Rehearsal

Rehearsal: Wind Ensemble
10 a.m. to noon
Bromery Center for the Arts, Room 36

Open Classroom

HIST 394AI - Age of the Crusades
Anne Broadbridge, Department of History
10:10-11 a.m.
Herter 201
Register to attend this course

Faculty Lightning Talks

11-1 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts
Learn more

Featured topics: 

• Are Dreaming Animals Playing without a Body?
• The Strange Career of the Artisanal Penitentiary
• The Humanities are Better than the Natural Sciences
• Palace Intrigue: Digital Reconstruction and VR at the Palace of Nestor
• The Hatmaker's Wife
• Awakening, Revitalizing, and Maintaining Endangered Languages
• Power of Collaboration
• Two Anonymous Letters about Slavery from 1788

Special Program: Graduate Student Networking Event

HFA Graduate Careers Beyond the Academy Networking Event
1-2:30 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts, Lobby

Open Classroom

Music-ED 211 - Instrumental Techniques for Bassoon
Rémy Taghavi, Department of Music and Dance
1:25-2:15 p.m.
Bromery Center for the Arts, Room 150
Register to attend this course

Special Program: Zine and Comic Making

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 40th Anniversary Shell-ebration
Zine and Comic Making Craft Night
2-5 p.m.
W.E.B. Du Bois Library, FL 2 Recess

Special Program: Campus Tour of Brutalist Architecture

Understanding UMass Amherst’s Brutalist Heritage
3 p.m.
Meet in the Bromery Fine Art Center’s lobby 
Led by Timothy M. Rohan, associate professor and chair, Department of the History of Art & Architecture, CHFA, and co-founder of UMass Brut, the advocacy group for Brutalist architecture in the UMass system

Special Program: Public Reading

LiveLit
4-5:30 p.m.
South College Atrium

A full schedule can be found here.

Through these immersive events, community members can gain valuable insight into what research, teaching, learning, and collaboration looks like in the humanities and fine arts. 

HFA Days is part of the second annual Spring Arts Festival, created in partnership between College of Humanities & Fine Arts (HFA) and the UMass Fine Arts Center.