Call for Proposals: 2026 Humanities Symposium
2026 Humanities Symposium: Food and Culture
February 17-20, 2026
The Center for Public Humanities is pleased to invite proposals for the 2026 Humanities Symposium, titled “Food and Culture.”
Food is at the center of our biological lives. Food is also at the center of our cultural and social lives. Food, whether employed or restricted, is a resource for religious experience and meaning. Food is a resource for personal, familial, group, ethnic, national, and even religious identity. Food is a weapon of war and a resource of politics. Food can be an expression of love and community, or it can be an expression of class status and privilege. Food, in its abundance, variety, and even scarcity, shapes our sense of what it means to be human and live in the world together. The Center for Public Humanities encourages you to engage with us at this year’s “Humanities Symposium focused on the topic of Food and Culture.”
Toward this end, the CPH invites you to contribute with your disciplinary knowledge, experiences, and creative capacities to our conversation on “Food and Culture”.
We welcome individual or collaborative proposals for symposium sessions or events from all departments, campus offices, faculty and staff, University alums and student groups, as well as interested members of the Harrisburg and Central Pennsylvania community. Past presentations have included faculty-student conversations, interdisciplinary and departmental panels, poster sessions, multimedia presentations, and artistic performances, such as dance, film, concerts, poetry readings, exhibitions, and more.
Proposals for individual student presentations of any of the types listed above require a faculty sponsor. Student presentations other than posters should be 10-15 minutes long.
Interested participants can submit proposals here
Proposals will be expected to provide a description of the proposed presentation and how it relates to the specific theme of the Symposium. Deadline for submission is Monday, November 3, 2025.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your ideas for a proposal, please do not hesitate to contact CPH Director Pete Powers at ppowers@messiah.edu.
Peter Kerry Powers, Professor of English
Director, Center for Public Humanities
Messiah University
One University Avenue
Mechanicsburg PA 17055
717.766.2511 ext. 2144
ppowers@messiah.edu.