1. Humanities, Plain & Simple Project
Create posts, video statements, etc., for the 4Humanities "Humanities, Plain & Simple" initiative.  This project can link up with other projects.  See,for example, Alan Liu's "Humanities and Tomorrow's Discoveries" draft post, which implies links to a humanities showcase, discover humanities resources, etc.  (See other current draft posts or outlines for posts created by our local chapter for "Humanities, Plain & Simple.")

Resources:

• Gather examples and parallels for such statements about the humanities, science, etc.

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 27, 2012) 

• We might think of "Humanities, Plain & Simple" statements as a necessary end goal of all our projects.  That is, every project should develop to the point where it is able to inspire or facilitate "plain & simple" statements to the public about the humanities. 
• "Statements" can take the form of short arguments or narratives, visualizations, videos, etc.  (Ann Bermingham: "1 minute video clips for YouTube and UCTV").  In addition, statements should have the capability to be "meme-ified" for timed and targeted release through social media (see Project #9 below).
• We can post on 4Humanities "Humanities, Plain & Simple" statements as we develop them.  Alan's "Humanities and Tomorrow's Discoveries" statement is near completion (with supporting materials to be added later based on our other projects).

Adrianna Simone** 

Alan Liu**

Mary Jane Davis**

Cole Cohen**

* 2. Humanities Showcase Project (project page)
Create showcase of humanities research with public impact.  See the draft content for UC humanities and social science showcase examples created by Alan Liu for the UC Commission on the Future working group on Research Strategies.  The showcase could take the form of a database of blurbs and images, which can then be used to create posters, brochures, online OMEKA exhibits, and other kinds of static or interactive displays.  The showcase would also be a resource for humanities advocates looking for high-impact examples to use in their speeches, etc.  

Resources:

• Los Alamos Labs "Our Science, Your Future" site
• Conrad Rudolf, History of Art (UCR): "We Gave You . . ." slides (example: UC-We-Gave-You-set-2.ppt)
• Alan Liu: "UC Research Examples"
• Original results from Alan's solicitation of examples from through UC for the UC Commission on the Future's "Research Strategies" working group (special login required)

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Gather examples
• Start with small pilot set of examples
• Plan media and storage
• Database for holding examples
• Plan presentation form(s) 

Alan Liu*** (Team leader)

Lindsay Thomas**

Jen Hammerschmidt**

Zach Horton*

Leslie Hammer**

Bill Warner***

Pax Hehmeyer*

Linda Adler-Kassner

Eileen Boris

Cole Cohen

* 3. Outreach 4Humanities Project (project page) 

[New: Outreach 4Humanities Project Page]

Recruit and collect statements, interviews, video interviews, etc. about the humanities from people outside the humanities--e.g., scientists, doctors, politicians, business people, film directors.  Also recruit/collect statements from administrators, parents, and students.  One simple project might be to use both personal contacts and email correspondence to solicit famous people for 100 word statements about "What the humanities & arts mean to me."   (Possibly collaborate with 4Humanities@CSUN for video interviews.--CSUN's Documentary Backpack Proposal [working] )

Resources:

• Examples of related campaigns?

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Brainstorm the kinds of non-humanist or non-academic people and individuals to recruit
• Students
• Parents
• Administrators
• David Skorton (President of Cornell U.)
• Scientists, doctors, etc.
• Might think about people who have written explicitly about relationships betw. science and humanities: Edward O. Wilson, Roald Hoffmann, etc. 
• Politicians
• Could be very valuable to try to focus on sympathetic conservative politicians 
• Film and music stars, etc.
• James Franco?
• Lady Gaga's wriing instructor!
• Allison Anders, film studies professor and director (she's also got a lot of connections) 
• Local leaders (create database sorted by community?)
• Historical people
• Competition for undergrads producers?
• Recruit influential intermediaries to help us recruit the above
• Plan media channels and forms 

Adrianna Simone*** (Team leader)

Alan Liu**

Kristin Cornelius***

Zach Horton**

Leslie Hammer***

Ann Bermingham

Dan Reynolds**

* 4. Humanities Infographics Project (project page)
Collect and visualize statistics that show the importance of the humanities and arts.  Cf. the Quantifying Digital Humanities project:  (Collaborate with Melissa Terras and 4Humanities@UCL) Specific infographic projects might include:

• Map project showing density of humanities & arts programs, cultural resources, support structures, funding, etc. in various nations and parts of nations.
• A possible model might be something like : http://www.globalfistulamap.org/ 
• Map of where the cities and towns are that have had "community read-a-book" events

Resources:

• Public Libraries hold these types of events and film showings as part of their programming (examples?)
• Quantifying Digital Humanities project 

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Brainstorm kinds and sources of data about the humanities we want
• Solicit humanities centers and other resources around the world for ideas and data?
• Create database of data
• Brainstorm effective visualization styles
• Plan media channels and forms for presenting the data
• Team and team leader(s)?
• First team meeting: Wednesday, March 14, 12:00 - 1:00 pm

Lindsay Thomas*** (Team leader)

Alan Liu***

Dana Solomon***

Julia Panko*

Zach Horton**

Gary Colmenar**

Bill Warner**

5. Humanities Pathways of Life Project
This project idea is inspired by Linda Adler-Kassner's outline for a Humanities, Plain & Simple post, which includes the suggestions: "develop a representation -- like a map or other cool visual --  of the humanities' contributions to habits of mind or strategies that are considered critical."  The project would be to create a static or interactive visualization, or perhaps a "game," about how the humanities contribute to a human being's habits of mind, strategies of life, or career and life paths.  (E.g., this could be an interactive visualization titled "Your Life and the Humanities" structured something like a game in which users explore different paths of life to reveal the hidden levels or careers made accessible by the humanities.)

         A variant of this idea is a Top Myths About the Humanities Project.  For example: an interactive site that shows ten statements about the humanities ("Humanities and arts students don't get jobs...l") and ask the user to guess which two are wrong.  Clicking on the statements pops up infographics and facts.

Resources:

• Other projects like this?

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Brainstorm and research possible ways to do this 
• Plan media channels and forms
• Team and team leader(s)?

Lindsay Thomas***

Jen Hammerschmidt*

Ann Taves**

Mary Jane Davis**

Cole Cohen*

Claudio Fogu

Linda Adler-Kassner

6. Humanities Undergraduate Outreach Project (project page) 

[New: Humanities Undergraduate Outreach Project Page]

Project group that would work on outreach to undergraduate students and involve students in the activities of our group.  See Jen Hammerschmidt's proposal for this.

Resources:

• Jen Hammerschmidt's proposal
• Chris Newfield's undergraduate papers (see his comment below):
• "I have about 25 papers written by UCSB undergrads last fall in my Global California class, shifting the normal memoir project to a life-at-UCSB project. They are 7-10 pages apiece, and about half of them are ready to go. They came from a wide range of majors, and focus on a mixture of issues - student life, I.V., gender troubles, and also problems with advising, meeting people in classes that will be intellectual friends, curriculum issues, etc. It would like put them together in an online collection as an example of the kind of thinking and writing that the humanities gets students to do, with the added benefit of some substantive analysis of where college and hum education is right now and needs to go. Generally speaking the papers were very perceptive and are definitely on the ground. If anyone is interested in this I would be glad to send samples and take it from there."
• Research other projects related to this--CSUN's "Freshman Feature" Proposal [working]

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Brainstorm most effective or interesting way to involve undergraduates
• Plan media channels and forms
• Team and team leader(s)?

Kristin Cornelius (team leader)

Adrianna Simone* 

Kevin Kearney*

Harold Marcuse*

Mary Jane Davis***

Miriam Wattles

Pax Hehmeyer*

7. Infrastructure Plans for Tomorrow's Humanities Project
Create a variety of concrete infrastructure, organizational, and funding plans for what is needed for tomorrow's humanities (i.e., templates for tomorrow's humanities ranging from floor plans for classrooms or project labs to redesigned departmental and divisional organizations, etc.).  Also, create mission statements that give a sense of why we need new humanities infrastructure and forms.

Resources:

• "Uses of the University in 2050" Charrette (Feb.  23-26, 2012): Design principle discussion of the "Place / Non-place" of the future university

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Research and do site visits of innovative architecture, think tanks, programs, and projects in both the humanities/arts and other fields
• Consult with designers, architects, humanities scholars, students, etc.
• Consult with administrators (from the level of department chairs up to university chancellors/presidents)
• Draw up concrete example scenarios
• "Classroom of the future"
• Centralized technology/digital sources for the humanities
• Department of the future
• Divisions and Colleges of the future
• Budget scenarios
• Team and team leader(s)?

Alan Liu*

Kevin Kearney*

Ann Taves*

Bill Warner**

Adrianna Simone

8. Gazette of Humanities Initiatives that the Public Can Get Involved In
Create an interactive gazette of humanities initiatives or projects that the public can become involved in, branched by region, nation, state, city.  This could be in the form of a searchable database that outputs briefs (like info "cards") on each initiative, with "action" links (e.g., "write your congressman," "sign up," "sign the petition").

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• This may be a project for crowd-sourcing.
• See also E. Cook's "The 100-Mile Project" proposal below.

9. Social-Networking Strategy for the Humanities Project
Work on designing a robust social-network strategy that uses Twitter, Facebook, etc. to advocate for the humanities--both generally and for specific purposes (e.g., in response to particular laws or funding cuts).

Resources:

• The 4Humanities collective has a twitter handle - @4hum - which Lindsay uses to advertise posts on the website, information about our local chapter's activities, and other items of interest. 

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012)

• Brainstorm
• Initial idea: a social-network strategy should facilitate the potential of all our other projects in becoming "memes."  To be successful in the age of new media, all advocacy projects should be able to be distilled not just into a slogan, motto, iconic image, etc. (hallmarks of older media) but into a meme that can go viral).  Facilitating the meme-ification of humanities advocacy means planning the timed and targeted release of advocacy products through social networks.
• Create media plan
• Team and team leader(s)?

Lindsay Thomas**

Jen Hammerschmidt**

Amanda Phillips***

Harold Marcuse**

10. Let the Humanities Help You Project
Create online, modular resources that let the humanities and arts serve the public in their everyday lives. 

Resources: -- For example:

• Jen Hammerschmidt's "Five tips to help children and adults talk about art together" 
• Best Guides to . . . [book or topic under discussion in national news]

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012) 

• Brainstorm initial modules
• Humanities volunteer project for people and communities who need help (one project chosen per year)?
• Plan media channels and forms
• Team and team leader(s)?

Jen Hammerschmidt** 

Kevin Kearney**

Harold Marcuse***

Mary Jane Davis**

Insert Other Project Ideas Below

(or email Lindsay Thomas (lindsaythomas@umail.ucsb.edu) with your idea and she will mount it here)

* 11. Imagine a World Without the Humanities (project page)   

A visual ad campaign with a dystopian theme. Could include:

• A world without Apple devices, only boxy, inefficient gadgets.
• A scenario where Romeo and Juliet are text messaging inane phrases.
• A picture where "Two and a Half Men" is playing at Lincoln Center, or various other doomsday scenarios in which critical thinking and cultural awareness are lacking.

Resources:

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012)

• Brainstorm ideas and similar projects
• Plan media channels and forms
• Team and team leader(s)?

Kevin Kearney** (Team leader)

Julia Panko***

Zach Horton**

Dan Reynolds**

Michael Green (CSUN)

12. The 100-Mile Project

 In line with other projects listed here about myths and misapprehensions about the humanities that seek to cast the net more widely, think locally: find out how UCSB's humanities research  is represented in and to the wider Santa Barbara region (SLO, SB, V), and develop local campaigns.

Resources:

Plan of Action: (last updated Feb. 26, 2012)

• Research and brainstorm ideas
• Consult with local community leaders
• Ed  Easton (mayor of Goleta; participant in Alan's group at the "Uses of the University in 2050" Charrette, Feb. 23-26)
• Major of Santa Barbara
• SB and Goleta high school principals and teachers
• SB journalists
• Plan media channels and forms
• Plan events?
• UCSB Reads Event (idea suggested by Gary Colmemar:
  
  "{Here is an idea to engage the campus to think about the humanities. As you know the library coordinates the annual UCSB Reads where one book is highlighted each year. This year the book is called Moby Duck which is about the thousands of plastic toys that were lost in the ocean and its implications to the environment. So the main theme was the environment and what can we do?  Book discussions are organized throughout the community public libraries, SB, Carpenteria, Santa Ynez etc.
  
  The book selection is done by a a campus committee with representatives from the humanities, social sciences, sciences and other campus units coordinated by library representatives.
  
  The criteria for the book is broad but with an good appeal to students. Specifically, the should address some societal/current issue and of a popular genre. Here is a link to previous UCSB Reads, http://www.library.ucsb.edu/about-library/ucsb-reads
  
  This year's events calendar, http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/content.php?pid=215982&sid=1796571
  
  I think our committee could make a few recommendations to the ucsb reads committee to consider for next year's event. A book that could touch on something related to the humanities and its importance. For starters, Stephanie LeMenager is the Humanities rep."
• Team and team leader(?)

Resources:

•  Art in Action

E. Cook

Miriam Wattles