CHRISTINE HENSELER
CHRISTINE HENSELER
CHRISTINE HENSELER
Co-founder and Co-President Center for Humanities Communication (CHC)
Professor of Spanish & Hispanic Studies at Union College, NY
Let's start here....
My life's been a journey across continents and cultures, starting in London with German parents, then growing up everywhere from São Paolo and Wisconsin to high school in Spain, and even completing an apprenticeship in Germany. These experiences certainly taught me the value of multicultural learning and hands-on training, but they're just the backdrop.
What truly lights me up – you know that bubbly, deeply satisfying feeling? – is the pure joy of inspiring and supporting our young people, of designing new academic programs with colleagues (or even complex Lego sets), and of sharing in the energy of creativity. It's the rush I get from brainstorming on a whiteboard, writing an article, or supporting others in their big ideas. And if you asked me to define myself in one word, I guess I'd choose "builder."
As a kid, all I wanted to do was draw, make, create. I wanted to be a graphic or set designer. But with no parents or mentors to tell me otherwise, I didn't think I could pursue a financially viable career in these fields.
I now dedicate my life to making sure young people know that there are many meaningful and lucrative career options in the arts and humanities.
In the video to the right, my students at Union College asked their peers to define and identify careers in the arts and humanities.
What they answered might surprise you.
When in 2015-16, I was offered a 100K Mellon grant to create the NY6ThinkTank
with colleagues at Colgate, Hamilton, Skidmore, St. Lawrence, Hobart and William Smith, and Union College, I jumped at the chance to offer fellowships to dozens of students to communicate the value of their humanities degrees in their own voices and through their own perspectives..
Can we communicate the value of the arts and humanities
While playing The GoGame with students and staff, my colleague Katherine Walker, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and I developed a workshop with young professionals working in Music+GPS location, Videography, and Game. We wanted to show our students that careers in these fields are exciting, relevant and multidisciplinary. It was a blast!
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What are the Arts and Humanities?
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Information about Majors
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Essays by Students and Alumni
Portraits of Young Professionals
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Info about Career Options
Fun Facts and Data Contextualized
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This guide gives an overview of what the arts and humanities are and what kind of professions students can pursue. It is meant to inspire students to explore more options for themselves and others, not to provide every and all possible details. Students will find concrete examples of some possible career options and real life insights through personal essays, student interviews, portraits of young professionals, facts and figures, and answers to some of their most commonly asked questions.
At Union College I also led a Mellon Planning grant called
"Our Shared Humanities"
The "Our Shared Humanities" planning grant was initiated to cultivate a sustainable vision for the Humanities at Union College, a campus renowned for its strengths in science and engineering.
Over eighteen intensive months, our comprehensive outreach—engaging nearly all faculty and dozens of staff across four divisions, consulting a humanities expert, and hosting events like a THATCamp, two 4Humanities workshops, a Humanities Maker event, and a "Mellon Mixer"—allowed us to deeply understand the current landscape, articulate the inherent value, and identify effective strategies.
This extensive effort ultimately illuminated how faculty can lead collaborative, cross-disciplinary efforts to support, inspire, and advocate for humanistic studies, enhancing communication and connection not only at Union but across the NY6 Consortium and beyond.
And yet, the naggINg feeling continued.
Could we do more by collabOrating and centralizing our efforts?
So, in 2022, With my colleague, Alan Liu, we co-founded
the Center for Humanities Communication
(CHC)
The purpose of the CHC is to enable practitioners of the
humanities to strategically communicate.
