Since its establishment in 1987, the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities at UC Berkeley has encouraged an interdisciplinary approach to scholarship, fostered innovative research, and promoted intellectual conversation across academic fields.
The Center offers an array of fellowship and grant opportunities for Berkeley’s academic community, develops new academic initiatives, and offers numerous public events, including the Avenali and Una’s endowed lectures in the humanities.
The Histories of South Asia working group uses comparative historical and multidisciplinary frameworks to study key foundational texts by prominent historians of early modern and modern South Asia.
Townsend Center Working Groups, which bring together faculty and graduate students with shared research interests, are a cornerstone of Berkeley’s rich interdisciplinary culture. There are currently more than 80 active groups, exploring topics ranging from tourism studies to ancient philosophy.
The Townsend Center hosts a lunchtime series celebrating the books of UC Berkeley faculty.
You can listen to all the podcast episodes, which include conversations with authors Catherine Gallagher, Joyce Carol Oates, and Daniel Boyarin.
Books and articles by Berkeley faculty, students, and eminent visitors in the humanities are available on our website.
One of the most popular items in our archive is "The Novel in Africa," the text of a 1998 talk at the Townsend Center by author J.M. Coetzee.