Newsletters

THE DIRECTOR OF THE CHA, JENNIFER HO, IS NOT AN OFFICER OF THE UNIVERSITY; THEREFORE, ALL COMMENTS BY DR. HO ARE NOT TO BE CONFUSED AS COMMENSURATE WITH OR REFLECTIVE OF COMMENTS BY THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER OR THE CENTER FOR HUMANITIES & THE ARTS.

May 2026

Dear CU Boulder Community & Supporters of the CHA,

This will be the last CHA newsletter that I will send out for the academic year and for the end of my second term as director. I’m very pleased to share that the CHA will be led by Dr. Paul Sutter (History) as interim director starting July 1. Paul is most recently a former faculty fellow at the CHA and co-chaired the search for CHA Director (along with Professor Erika Randall) in 2018-19 that led to my application and move from North Carolina to Colorado. Paul is an accomplished scholar and respected leader. I know he will steward the CHA through its transition from the Graduate School to the Arts and Humanities division in the College of Arts and Sciences with professionalism, skill, and a desire to ensure that the CHA carries out its mission of being a pan-university center that supports and uplifts arts and humanities on and off campus.

As the child of immigrant parents, it is not in my nature to talk about my accomplishments, though I will highlight, below, the various programs and awards and events I created during my 7 years as CHA Director. In many ways it would be misleading to suggest that my stewardship of the CHA from August 2019 through today was entirely of my doing. First and foremost the staff of the CHA were integral to keeping the center running: from Paula Anderson’s long tenure as business manager to Sharon Van Boven taking over in Summer 2019 to the second full-time staff hire of Kat Lewis as event and communication coordinator to Mariana Pereira Vierira as the CHA program manager to Diamond Darling as the second event and communication coordinator to Adele Potter as the current and only staff person in the CHA offices, our indominable Program Manager. And the many wonderful student workers who manage our social media accounts and helped with the Hazel Barnes Flat: Dani Urbina, Megan King, Dylan Carpenter, Nyssa Baca, Devon Quispe, Jack Watson, Madeline Job, Amy Hoagland, Kim Jackson, and John Newton. The CHA has relied on its staff to do the heavy lifting of managing day to day operations, the logistics of the many types of reviews for the many awards we distribute, to the events and programs and communication (like sending out this newsletter) to managing the Hazel Barnes Flat in London—with the guidance of David Chadwick and Linda Money at the CU Foundation. And, of course, the CHA has been supported by staff in the Graduate School and now in the College of Arts and Sciences—we are grateful especially to Dean John-Michael Rivera and Greg Storch in helping with the many moving parts of CHA’s transition.

The CHA has also been guided by the generous service of its two boards: the Community Advisory Board, comprised of community members who support the public facing mission of the CHA (such as our Difficult Dialogue Conversation series) and the Faculty Steering Committee. Each faculty serves a 3 year term; they advise the director and staff of the CHA and review the many awards that the CHA distributes. Indeed, it may not have been widely known that one of the early decisions I made as director was to not make decisions on any awards. I wanted to be able to meet with any faculty and students who had not received an award and give them my advice on improving their application or explaining the decisions of the review committee as to why their application weren’t selected this time around. The faculty fellowship and faculty small grant are very competitive, as is the graduate student summer fellowship, as well as the applications to use the Hazel Barnes flat during the summer months. It never feels good to be rejected when you apply for things, but I hope that the feedback, especially from the faculty fellowship review, can be helpful for faculty to apply for future fellowships, either here or at the National Humanities Center (which we modeled our application after).

So here are the things I helped to create during my two terms (7 years: 2019-2026) as CHA Director:

*Difficult Dialogue series (2 panels, one in the fall, one in the spring, 6 off-campus events in partnership with Colorado Chautauqua, a game co-developed/created with our Community Advisory Board member, Ami Dayan)

*Summer Fellowships for graduate students

*JEDI completion award for a graduate student

*MFA/MM material grant for student artists working on projects needing material help for their artistic creations

*Cox Family Process Speaker Series (where we bring a faculty humanist or artist to campus to talk about a work they are known for and explain its origins, reception, and afterlife)

*Shelter-in-place Projects during COVID-19 open to all staff, students, and faculty

*Revising the award structure for the Schwalbe travel award connected with the Hazel Barnes Flat (scaled to support those in greater need by rank—full professors receive the smallest awards) and implementing an application schedule so that the summer months are not booked up two years in advance.

*Embedding Impact Playback into the CHA

*Organizing CHA Book Clubs twice a year, where we distribute free copies of a book and hold meetings in person and on Zoom for people to discuss the book – it is open to anyone anywhere in the world, though we only distribute the books in person (we don’t ship!)

*Faculty Celebration Magazine—where we celebrate the major accomplishments of faculty in arts and humanities.

And though I’m not a math person, I thought some numbers may help put into perspective how the CHA has tried to accomplish its mission of uplifting the work of arts and humanities on and off campus over the last 7 years (2019-2026) – also keeping in mind the years of the pandemic, which allowed us to have more faculty fellows (since we pivoted to zoom and had additional money that weren’t being used for travel) and we had single digit numbers for about 2 years for people using the Hazel Barnes Flat during the height of the pandemic:
 

• 68 faculty fellows

• 151 visitors to the Hazel Barnes Flat

• $174,418 in faculty small grants

• $132,740 in graduate student travel grants

• 38 graduate student summer fellowships

• 21 Dissertation, Incoming graduate, and JEDI graduate completion fellowships

• $31,144 material grants for MFA/MM graduate student artists

• 30 shelter-in-place grants funded in the first year of the pandemic (2020-2021)

• 31 difficult dialogue events

• 120 books distributed of Cox Family Process speaker authors

• 500+ books distributed for the CHA book club (2024-2026)

• 139 faculty profiled in the Faculty Celebration Magazine of Major Works (2020-2024)

Directing the CHA has been a privilege, one that has allowed me to meet so many people from across campus. No matter what the future holds for me as far as any formal role with the CHA, I will always be a champion of arts and humanities and will cheer on my amazing colleagues (which include community members, staff, students, and faculty) working in arts and humanities on and off campus. Because I truly believe that the arts and humanities give meaning to our lives.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Ho

Director, Center for Humanities & the Arts 

PS. Faculty who have a major accomplishment to celebrate in 2025, I hope you will submit your work so that the CHA can highlight you in the 2025 Faculty Celebration Magazine, which will be released in Fall 2026. You can send your submission here: https://www.colorado.edu/cha/content/faculty-celebration-major-works-magazine-submission-form. And for anyone interested in joining the Fall 2026 book club, we will be reading and discussing the brilliant book Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth (Random House 2026) by Daisy Hernandez. You can hear an interview with Daisy on NPR about her book. More details about the book club and signing up to get your copy can be found on this google form, which we would appreciate you filling out if you want a free copy of the book and to participate in the Fall book club. Though the CHA offices are closed during the summer (there’s no air conditioning in Macky) we can leave a copy of the book outside our offices and for anyone with Buff One card swipe access, you can pick it up Mondays-Fridays 9-5pm. Contact us at: cu-cha@colorado.edu.

CHA Upcoming Opportunities

📚 Fall 2026 Book Club Pick Announced!

Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth by Daisy Hernández (Random House, Feb. 2026)

Blending memoir, history, and cultural criticism, Hernández explores what citizenship really means—and who it has never fully included. Drawing on her family’s experiences of migration and political exile, this timely book challenges myths of belonging and nationhood.

✨ Join the Book Club

We’re also seeking discussion facilitators and meeting hosts—indicate interest on the same form.

📖 Book Pickup
Beginning the week of April 7, CHA offices will be open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m., through the end of April. Alternate pickup options—or sourcing your own copy—are available on the form.

We hope you’ll read alongside us.
Questions? Contact the CHA team at cu-cha@colorado.edu

Call for submissions (2026 edition)

Submissions Now Open: Faculty Celebration of Major Works Magazine 2026

The CHA is now accepting submissions of new, original works completed in 2025 by CU Boulder faculty in the arts and humanities. We invite you to share your accomplishments and be featured in next year’s annual Faculty Celebration of Major Works Magazine.

🔗 Submit your work: https://www.colorado.edu/cha/content/faculty-celebration-major-works-magazine-submission-form

Deadline: July 1

Arts & Humanities Opportunities Across Campus

🎬 Summer 2026 Film Studies Courses — Open for Enrollment! 🎬

Looking to dive into global cinema, iconic filmmakers, or feminist film history this summer? Check out these three exciting CINE courses offered in Summer 2026—open to a wide range of majors!

⚔️ CINE 3003.201: The Samurai Films of Akira Kurosawa
Instructor: Prof. Suranjan Ganguly
🗓 June 30 – July 30, 2026 (Summer Term B)
📍 T/Th, 1–5pm | ATLAS 1B29

A deep dive into Kurosawa’s legendary samurai films—including Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Ran, and more. Topics include honor, loyalty, violence, and the existential struggles of the masterless samurai.
🎟 Non-film majors welcome—contact instructor to enroll
📧 suranjan.ganguly@colorado.edu