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Emrys King ’25 is writing his mathematics senior thesis on the history of statistics and its connections to the eugenics movement. Faculty in art, politics, Asian American studies, neuroscience, molecular biology, English and German are all giving him input on it.

King is one of 15 Pomona Humanities Studio fellows this year. The fellows—comprised of faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows—gather on Friday afternoons for three hours around a seminar table on the second floor of the Seeley G. Mudd building, where The Humanities Studio has been housed since its 2018 inception.

Facilitated by W. M. Keck Professor of English Kevin Dettmar, the fellows read and discuss texts with broad humanities application and interdisciplinary scope. They also present on their own research projects and workshop them with each other.

“People in the humanities need support. We need time, and we need conversation and community,” says Dettmar, who serves as the director of The Humanities Studio.

There are perhaps no other spaces like this on campus, where faculty and students interact across disciplines and as peers.

“It’s a really unique atmosphere,” says Ananya Ramkumar ’25, a biology and English double major. “We connect as people and as thinkers, and the power dynamic is different. It allows me to be in the space in a way that’s just for learning and growing,”

“If you have an idea as a student and you say it, it gets treated with the same level of respect and seriousness as if faculty say it,” adds King.

At a recent seminar gathering, Erubey Lopez ’25 presented a draft of his linguistics thesis. Lopez is studying the Yucatan Spanish dialect and how it differs from other Mexican dialects.

Clara Meyers ’25, an English major, says, “It was interesting to hear the different perspectives of students and professors because people are coming from such different fields. Reading a linguistics paper as an English major is very different from reading it as a math major. There are a lot of different angles that come into play and make for interesting conversation.”

Often when writing a paper, Meyers says she might work on it on her own before turning it in and receiving some feedback. But as a Humanities Studio fellow this year, she is appreciating the communal process of research and writing.

“It’s really nice that we all have works in progress that we’re working on together and thinking about together,” says Meyers.

“You get this built-in set of pseudo advisors,” says King. “The people who will be reading and evaluating my thesis are mathematicians, but I also want it to make sense for historians and a broader audience.”

The weekly seminar is one main component of The Humanities Studio. Another is a year-long lineup of visiting speakers. So far this year, the Studio has brought documentary director Arthur Jones, historian Danny Widener and poet Maggie Millner to campus to speak to a broader audience.

The Humanities Studio fellows receive the added benefit of interacting with these visiting speakers in a more intimate setting during their Friday afternoon seminar.

“It feels more informal than the presentation,” says King, “and you have greater access to asking what the speakers think about different things.”

Each year, the fellows’ research projects are organized around an annual theme. This year’s theme is “Connections.”

“All good humanities scholarship is ultimately a revelation of connections,” says Dettmar. “Every year we bring together a unique scholarly community to search for them together, across the disciplines. The difference this year is that connection isn’t just our mode—it’s our theme.”

Although the theme is an intellectual one, the connections that are made go beyond the academic.

“It’s a wonderful community with folks that I might not have been in contact with,” says Lopez.

“I feel like I have 16 new friends,” says King. “I’m very grateful that I get to know them before I leave Pomona.”