Bylaws

Mission Statement

The Humanities Council supports the mission of the University of Pittsburgh by extending the frontiers of creative endeavor and fostering knowledge about cultures and traditions across the globe and throughout time. It does so through the innovative research and teaching that takes place every day in our nationally and internationally recognized humanities departments and programs in philosophy, arts, religion, communication, languages and literatures, and history. These departments and programs introduce students to the full range of human thought and creativity, from film, and music to the writing of poetry and philosophy. Humanistic study also provides tools that allow students and faculty alike to become more deeply aware of ourselves and curious about the world we inhabit. Our humanities courses and programming encourage us to learn how to read and speak other languages and to discover why certain countries and cultures have evolved the way they have. Through the development of critical reading, writing, and speaking skills, they also help us to discern how to make creative contributions to civic discourse and to embrace the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century cultural community we all share.

Organization

Work in the Humanities goes on in multiple departments, centers, and organizations to foster humanistic endeavors at Pitt. The chief two organizations are:

  • The Council of Humanities Department Chairs: Part of the Dietrich School Council of Chairs, this council includes chairs from all core humanities departments in the Dietrich School. This council makes formal recommendations to the Dietrich School on administrative matters.
  • The Humanities Council: Includes the Council of Humanities Department Chairs but also directors/chairs from departments, programs, and centers that do work in the humanities. This Council pursues endeavors that will foster humanistic endeavors broadly at Pitt and in the community.

The Humanities Council may create subcommittees as it deems necessary and appropriate. Subcommittees thus created will report to the Council through their chair.

Eligibility

The Humanities Council is a focal point for the humanities at the university: it supports and advances the humanities broadly conceived. We understand humanistic inquiry to be found both in the traditional humanities disciplines and in related areas of inquiry that augment the role of the humanities by exploring the human condition (past and present) in terms of the social and interpretive contexts of ideas, texts, places, events, people, cultural traditions, identities, languages, religions, artifacts, and/or artistic and aesthetic objects and practices. The National Endowment for the Humanities draws this distinction in the following manner: “The term ‘humanities’ includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social 2 sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.”

Membership or representation on the Humanities Council shall thus be reserved for those academic units and administrative offices or appointments:

  • whose mission and function are centered in humanistic inquiry as signaled by disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas with tenure lines in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences (Appendix, Section 1),
  • or whose mission and function overlap or collaborate significantly with humanistic inquiry, either within or outside of the Dietrich School (see Appendix, Sections 2-5).

While normally the Membership will remain constant, drawn from various academic units, if the Humanities Council finds that participation and active membership grow to the point of impracticality, it may want to consider developing a system of rotating 3-year terms for units outside of the core Humanities areas.

It is expected that the Humanities Council will keep up-dated lists of disciplinary and interdisciplinary units relevant to the Humanities from which potential members might be drawn. Following principles of fairness and inclusion, the Council will annually update the list of units and query all of those units in the current academic year to determine interest in membership for the subsequent year.

Membership

  1. Humanities Council Chair: ex-officio. The Chair is selected from among chairs of core humanities departments in the Dietrich School and is elected by the chairs of all core humanities departments in the Dietrich School. The chair serves as both Humanities Council Chair and as representative of the Council of Humanities Department Chairs to the Dean of the Dietrich School. A new Chair shall be elected by chairs of core humanities departments for a one-year term at the end of each Spring term. The Chair’s term may be renewed once. At least two months before a chair’s term is scheduled to expire, the council will constitute an election committee, typically consisting of three members, to identity new candidates. The committee will strive to foster both diversity and a wide representation of departments in its recommendations. Elections shall be conducted in a meeting or by electronic ballot.
  2. Voting members of the Humanities Council shall include
    1. either a chair or a designated proxy from each of the core humanities departments in the Dietrich School, as listed in the Appendix, section 1;
    2. either a chair or designated proxy from other departments in the Dietrich School that include work in the humanities, as listed in the Appendix, section 2;
    3. a director or designated proxy from each center or program that includes work in the humanities, as listed in the Appendix, section 3;
    4. a director or designated proxy from each humanities-related initiative at Pitt; and
    5. a director or designated proxy from other units on campus with standing membership.
  3. Proxies are designated by the chair or director of each unit and intended as only temporary representation.
  4. Interim and acting chairs and directors will have the same voting and membership rights as full chairs and directors.
  5. The Humanities Council shall invite representation from those units in the Appendix, sections 2-5 that express interest in membership. The Chair and Council secretary shall be tasked with maintaining the membership list and inviting new members to join the Council as appropriate. Each interested unit shall be represented by one voting member on the Humanities Council. 6. The role of secretary to the Council shall be filled by the assistant director of the Humanities Center. The position of secretary is a non-voting position on the Council.

Meetings

  1. The Humanities Council shall convene at least once annually. The Chair shall convene and conduct the meeting.
  2. The chair may call any additional meetings as deemed necessary. Upon receipt of a written request for a special meeting signed by three members and stating the business to be discussed, the chair must call a special meeting within two weeks.
  3. Meetings shall end no later than 90 minutes after the call to order, unless a motion to extend the meeting for a specified period of time is passed before the deadline by a simple majority of those members present and voting. Only one such motion to extend the meeting may be entertained.
  4. The meetings of the Humanities Council are to be conducted in accordance with Roberts Rules of Order, as modified by these bylaws.
  5. The Humanities Council Chair and chairs or proxies from a majority of core humanities departments (see Appendix, section 1) constitute a quorum of the committee.
  6. Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting is the first item of business at each regular meeting.
  7. No action may be taken on any substantive resolution which has not been included on the agenda and circulated, along with the appropriate supporting documentation, at least seven calendar days in advance of the meeting at which it is to be discussed.
  8. Any proposal to amend the bylaws of the Humanities Council may not be voted on until the meeting that follows the meeting at which the proposal is made, with the exception of additions to or removals from the list in the Appendix, which may be made in the same meeting as long as a quorum is present.
  9. The precise wording of all amendments to these bylaws must be included as attachments to agenda. Passage is by two-thirds majority of the total voting membership. The amendment does not come into force until after the adjournment of the meeting at which it was adopted and distribution of the minutes.
  10. A motion to consider any proposal out of the order established on the agenda requires adoption by a majority of the members present.

Humanities Council Function

The Humanities Council shall set its own meeting times and establish its own agenda. Its functions include but are not limited to those that follow. 

  1. The Council provides for communication among the various core humanities departments and related programs.
  2. The Council may review the humanities curriculum within the Dietrich School and entertain discussion of curricular innovation across disciplinary lines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
  3. The Humanities Council may undertake symposia, lecture series, or other projects that raise the profile of humanistic study both at Pitt and in the community at large.
  4. The Humanities Council shall maintain an informational website.
  5. The Humanities Council may engage in ad hoc work related to the humanities at the request of the Dean of the Dietrich School. Such activities may include the internal review of NEH Summer Stipend proposals and nominations, for example.

Revised and Approved 4/15/2020.