Because the Katz Center is committed to sharing knowledge and expertise with the broader public, it organizes public lectures and other programs within the Jewish community, the Philadelphia community, and within other communities as well. Most of these programs involve the fellows who come each year from around the world to the Katz Center to pursue their research; some involve preeminent scholars especially invited to the Center to share their insight.
In addition to the programs which the Katz Center organizes at its own initiative, we also aim to support other organizations that want to initiate their own program with our fellows. Local organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish, are invited to propose a program that involves our fellows. If it is consistent with our mission, and if the fellows in question are available, we are ready to help by connecting you to the scholar in question, brainstorming about the nature of the program, and in cases of financial need, helping to defray the cost of the scholar’s honorarium.
If you seek to create your own program with a Katz Center fellow, email Anne Albert, Klatt Family Director for Public Programs, with a brief proposal that includes a concise description of the program you have in mind; the fellow or fellows you’d like to involve; and a proposed time and location for the program. She can be reached at aoalbert@upenn.edu.
If we are in a position to support the program, we will help connect you to the fellow, can offer advice on how to implement the program, will help promote the program through our social media, and will work to avoid scheduling conflicts with other programs we know about.
The expertise of the fellows is valuable which is why we expect the host institution to offer an honorarium for any program we cosponsor and help to arrange. If your institution does not have the resources for an honorarium, however, we may be able to help cover that expense. If that is something you want us to consider, please let Dr. Albert know when contacting her.
Expectations
In return for this support, we expect the host institution to make all the necessary logistical arrangements for the program (we cannot offer staff support); to take the lead in publicizing the program, producing any print or digital fliers, listings, ads, coordinate with us on the date and time so that we can avoid conflicts with our own programs, and acknowledge the Katz Center as a co-sponsor of the program in publicity.
We cannot promise to support every program; it must be consistent with our mission as a part of the University of Pennsylvania and as a non-sectarian and inclusive research center, and the fellow(s) in question must agree to participate.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Klatt Family and the Harry Stern Family Foundation for endowing the public outreach component of the Katz Center’s mission.