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Meet Upper House Team Member Dan Hummel!

We are delighted to introduce you to our Upper House team, and this week we invite you to meet Dan Hummel, the Director of University Engagement. A historian by training, Dan is the author of Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) and has written for several news outlets and journals. Prior to joining Upper House, Dan held fellowship appointments at the Institute for Research in the Humanities (UW-Madison) and the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation (Harvard Kennedy School). At Upper House he helped create the Fellows program for grad and undergrad students, now directed by Eric Carlsson.

Dan, how has your role at Upper House furthered your faith journey?

Working at Upper House has helped me integrate a decade of study and work in academia with my faith commitments and pressed me toward deepening the relationship between both.

What part of the Upper House project has intrigued/inspired you the most? 

Upper House’s commitment to engage the work of the university from a faithful and faith-filled perspective is inspiring. One of the parts of Upper House that does this best is the Fellows Program, which offers UW students an opportunity to learn in community about how their studies, careers, and faith can reinforce each other.

What is one of the best pieces of advice you have been given?

I was told by a professor during my early grad school days to “always be writing,” which I took to mean that even if I didn’t have a specific assignment or looming deadline, I should be exercising the writing part of my brain constantly to be a better historian (my field of study). I took the advice to heart and find it to be one of those practices with benefits that go way beyond putting words on a page. The deeper principle, I think, is to be intentional about always learning and forming new ideas—a principle worth following because it keeps life interesting and benefits the intellect and heart and soul, too.

Upper House is a place that seeks to integrate the mind, heart, soul, and vocation. Dan’s work in this direction is instrumental to the fulfillment of our mission to have positive conversations within and across the university and our broader community. Feel free to stop by to hear what he is working on and his research in history. Next week, we will feature Kate Austin.