Past Long-Term Projects

Since 1998, the Kahn Institute has launched dozens of innovative long- and short-term projects that have brought together a wide range of students and faculty members. If you have questions about past projects, please contact us at kahninstitute@smith.edu.

Hauntings

For some, haunting conjures ghost stories and spooky houses. Yet, haunting evokes myriads of social ...

  • December 9, 2025
A cloud of black and gray smoke with the word "Hauntings" in all caps

Year on Democracies

The Kahn Liberal Arts Institute is partnering with the Provost's Office for the next campus-wide the...

  • September 9, 2021

TranslationS

Translation at its best both bridges and recognizes difference. At a time of intensive globalization...

  • September 1, 2019

Fear

This yearlong Kahn project aims to address the power of fear—to destroy and subvert, but also to cre...

  • September 1, 2019

Food

In this Kahn project, we invite scholars of food from across the liberal arts curriculum (as well as...

  • September 1, 2018

Refugees

This Kahn project seeks to draw together faculty from a wide range of fields whose work intersects w...

  • February 1, 2018

War

This year-long Kahn project will bring together scholars from across the disciplines whose work touc...

  • September 1, 2017

Destroy then Restore

This year-long project explores the dynamic interaction between human societies and natural processe...

  • September 1, 2017

Modes and Models of Making

In this yearlong Kahn project we are interested in exploring how the idea of "making" infuses our se...

  • September 1, 2016

Shaping Perception

This year-long Kahn project will explore the concept of "perception" as an essential form of human e...

  • September 1, 2016

Play

This one-semester project aims to approach play from a variety of disciplinary perspectives in order...

  • February 1, 2016

Memory

This yearlong project aims to consider the great range of mechanisms, uses and representations of me...

  • September 1, 2015