Krebs Center for the Humanities

Drawing on the Past, Advancing the Future

Housed in an Italianate Renaissance villa with a historic art collection, the Center draws on the original pivot point of humanistic thought to meet the challenges of a new one. As Artificial Intelligence, immersive technologies, and rapid cultural change remake our world, humanistic inquiry is more urgent than ever. Through the physical site and its contents, scholarship and academic inquiry, and public engagement, the Krebs Center connects the College, the broader community, and the discipline at large.

Making Connections

The Krebs Center pursues projects that position it at the forefront of critical questions facing the humanities. It leverages the house and collection as living resources for scholarly inquiry, and it fosters conversation between the College and the broader humanities community on questions that are both locally grounded and globally relevant.

Happening Now

The First in a Series of Krebs Conversations
Prof. Justin Kee, Dr. Ben Zeller, and Dr. Mel Rovner sit down to discuss the Future of the Humanities, exploring what insights we can draw from political, theological, and architectural histories to address the technological transformations facing us today.

The Renaissance was a pivotal moment when new technologies met questions about human dignity, collective life, and preservation. As we face another technological "rebirth" in AI, what can we learn from how societies navigated that earlier pivot? Where did they get it right, where did they fail, and how might we avoid reproducing those failures now? The discussion considers perspectives on technology, human dignity, and AI ethics reflected in Amodei's 'Machines of Loving Grace' and Pope Leo XIV's Magnifica Humanitas  in relation to the Renaissance humanist setting, with Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man as a historical touchstone.