Hall Center researchers use Halloween to teach about humanities
Olivier Desbois | KUJH News
The University of Kansas’s Hall Center hosted Haunting Humanities last night, a sort of spooky science fair for exploring art, history and literature. The event took place at Abe and Jake’s Landing in downtown Lawrence Wednesday night, and included 20 different exhibits for visitors to engage with.
The Hall Center began organizing Haunting Humanities months ago, looking for KU students and faculty with interactive ideas for teaching people of all ages about their work. The event provided an opportunity for researchers to present information in more ways than traditional lectures.
“There are different ways that you can enter into all of these different topics that are passive and just where you can listen and learn, but there are also ways that you can kind of participate and learn,” Giselle Anatol, Director of the Hall Center, said. “That’s what we really wanted to emphasize.”
One attraction allowed Star Wars fans to participate in a light saber duel, while also learning about the visual influences for the franchise’s unique aesthetic. Another station included an escape room designed as the halls of Prince Prospero from Edgar Allen White’s “The Masque of the Red Death.”
The event also included live performances such as Chinese classical dances performed by Wanwan Cai, Irish dances from the Lawrence Arts Center and folklore adaptations from KU’s theatre department. Other exhibits allowed visitors to learn more directly about their topics.
“They have these books from the 15, 16, 1700s that you could actually touch and go through,” Lillianna Lamagna, a Linguistics Graduate Student, said. “The books demonstrated what they believed to be monsters, and just kind of like the mythological experience of people.”
KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities is one of the university’s 11 research centers. Their faculty produces journal articles about specific literary and artistic works, and on other disciplines of humanities. Halloween’s focus on fear makes it an ideal holiday for the center to show their research’s relevance.
“Talking about the ways that art can help you kind of conquer fears, or writing can help you conquer fears,” Anatol said. “Learning about history can help you to understand what people were afraid about and why they engaged in wars or aggression against a different group of people, or a different nation.”
Information on upcoming events hosted by the Hall Center is available on their website.
