Who We Are

The Frederick Douglass Center for Leadership Through the Humanities is committed to cultivating leadership on campus and in the communities we live and work by centering humanities-based education and humanistic thinking to advance a more just society. With the humanities at the core of all that we do, we illustrate how these essential disciplines help us understand complex social problems and imagine better futures.

The Douglass Center was launched in 2024 to illustrate how these essential disciplines in the humanities help us understand complex social problems and imagine better futures. As a public land-grant institution in Maryland, the Center takes its name and core values from one of its native sons, the Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery in Maryland, he clandestinely learned to read, seized his freedom and advocated for the liberation of others through his writing, oratory, and political leadership.   

Learn. We believe leaders are first and foremost followers. They listen to the collective, to the environment and to the past. Learning about the world, the communities we serve, and ourselves are prerequisites for leadership. The humanities can provide a roadmap to ethical and transformative leadership.

Lead. We believe with a commitment to listening and learning through the humanities, anyone can and will lead with a transformative vision of progress. They will know and understand the gravity of situations and be equipped to stand up and speak up from the front, the side or the back of the pack. Humanities scholars and practitioners, formally and informally trained, are essential to shaping how the world sees and understands progress. 

Liberate. We believe leadership is not about a title or position, but rather a commitment and conviction to contributing to our collective humanity. Leaders grounded in humanistic thinking will be equipped to employ a compass that points toward that shared humanity at every level of our society.