Cosponsored by Graduate Certificate in Publicly Engaged Humanities Program, Case Western Reserve University Department of History welcomes Dr. Daniel Kerr on Friday April 3, 2026 from 2:15-3:30 in Mather House 100, for his talk “Driving the Humanities Forward in Washington, DC with the Humanities Truck.”

Dr. Daniel Kerr, alumnus of Case Western Reserve University’s doctoral program in history, will address his work with the Humanities Truck, an ongoing project he founded in 2018 at American University in Washington, DC. The Humanities Truck, a festive customized step van, serves as an experimental mobile platform that can transform streets, sidewalks, parks across the region into robust programming spaces. The project has mounted co-curated exhibitions, gathered oral histories, staged musical and theatrical performances, hosted public forums and workshops, and deployed a variety of creative interactive activities. Through the project, Dr. Kerr seeks to mobilize the humanities and embrace a model of community-based scholarship and learning that is ethically informed and collaborative.

Dan Kerr is an associate professor of history at American University. He is a core member of its public history program, and he founded and directs the Humanities Truck project. He is Past President of the Oral History Association and has served on the Editorial Board of the Oral History Review. Since his earliest work with the Cleveland Homeless Oral History Project (CHOHP), Kerr has explored the possibilities for using oral history as a community and movement building tool. The CHOHP project shaped the themes woven throughout Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio. The book answers the question, “Who benefits from homelessness?” He is currently working on the Mobilizing Against Homelessness project, which seeks to document and amplify the voices, perspectives, and analysis of those experiencing homelessness in Washington, DC.