Founded in 1986, the Humanities Institute presents a thematic program each semester on a topic related to the humanities. As part of Scripps’ tradition of interdisciplinary education, this program includes lectures, conferences, exhibitions, performances, and film series bringing prominent and younger cutting-edge scholars to campus.
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Latest Program
“Toxicity“
In the 2026-27 academic year, the Scripps Humanities Institute will take up the theme of Toxicity by examining the impacts of toxicants on bodies, ecologies, and societies. To this end, we will interrogate the historical, social, and political conditions shaping the circulation of chemical contaminants–such as those found in wildfire smoke, pesticides, smog, construction materials, and weapons of war. Speaker events will grapple with the (slow and fast) violence of toxicity, as well as how people seek to escape, resist, endure, or live otherwise with toxic exposure.
In the Fall 2026 semester, events will focus on toxicity in relation to on urban pollution and waste, nuclearity, and militarization. In the Spring 2027 semester, events will examine toxicity in relation to land, labor, and resource extraction.
Toxicity is the first of three interrelated themes developed by Scripps HI co-directors Gabriela Morales, Lara Deeb, and Seo Young Park. Morales is leading the theme of Toxicity in 2026-2027, Deeb will lead the theme of Ruination and Afterlives in 2027-2028, and Park will lead the theme of Livable Worlds in 2028-2029. Through their distinct but connected foci, the three themes address how people make lives amid the urgent planetary crises we face.
Below is the schedule of events for the Fall 2026 semester:
- Tuesday, September 22 @ 4:15pm: Lindsey Dillon, Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz, will give a talk about her book, Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco.
- Tuesday, September 29 @ 4:15pm: The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) will lead a student workshop based on the organization’s work tackling toxic waste and air pollution in the Inland Empire.
- Tuesday, October 13 @ 4:15pm: Amy Zhang, Associate Professor of Anthropology at NYU, will give a talk about her book, Circular Ecologies: Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China.
- Thursday, October 22 @ 7pm: Film director Shaunak Sen will join us for a screening of his documentary, All That Breathes.
- Thursday, November 5 @ 4:15pm: Liliana Colanzi, Associate Professor of Latin American Studies at Cornell University, will read from her short fiction collection, Ustedes brillan en lo oscuro (You Glow in the Dark).
- Thursday, November 12 @ 4:15pm: Panel on “War, Toxicity, and Ecological Violence” (line-up TBD).
Event Information to follow
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