humanities

The Hypocrisy (and Futility) of English-Only "Decolonization"

by Eric Adler

The peril the liberal arts face today is exemplified by calls to dislodge the centrality of "dead white men" from the curriculum; universities are happy to accept this as a cheap way to pander to diversity as they gut language requirements and departments that would enable students to have a deeper engagement with world cultures.

Humanists Must Take Back Teaching from the Reformers and their "Learning Objectives"

by Johann N. Neem

Rejecting standardized, quantifiable, mechanistic objectives and assessments is the key to making education an exchange of understanding between human beings, and to reversing the tendency to see each other as bundles of human capital or useful skills. 

Review: AP Program Undermines Humanities, Devalues College, and Cheats Students of Learning

by David M. Perry

According to Annie Abrams's new book, the Advanced Placement program has subordinated high school students' learning to standardized testing and enabled public universities to gut humanities departments by accepting high school work for college credit. Her dive into education history explains how that happened. 

We Can't Accept a Vocational Training Model of College

by Bret Devereaux

Neither politicians nor students have any factual knowledge of which majors prepare students for the work force, but that hasn't stopped the institutional dismantling of the humanities and the elevation of the needs of corporations over those of the polity. 

Moral Panics Around the Humanities Reflect Long-Developing Paradigm Shift

by Steven Mintz

The ferocity of attacks on the humanities and academic research as "indoctrination" reflect the recent integration of ideas with long histories in academia into highly visible protest movements. Can humanists connect newer thinking to the established concerns of the humanities for understanding justice or the good life? 

The Scholarly Infrastructure of the Humanities is Eroding

by Steven Mintz

The unpaid labor of peer review and journal editing used to be considered a professional obligation. Scholars today are less likely to see it that way. Why? What can be done? 

How History Came to Matter

by Steve Mintz

Academic historians' worthy insistence on cultivating expertise and methodological rigor can't come at the expense of working to alter public understanding of the past now that the stakes of that understanding are so high. 

Is the Narrative Impulse Dangerous (Review)?

by Timothy Snyder

Jonathan Gottschall's book proposes that human intellect is a captive of the structure of stories. Reviewer Timothy Snyder is skeptical of his case. 

We Need Poets as Much as Physicists and Artists as Much as Actuaries

by David P. Barash

We need the expertise of scientists and technologists to solve big problems, but we need artists to make people care enough about those problems to demand solutions.

Good News for Humanities Funding?

"While the prospect for robust funding looks better now than it has over the last four years, advocacy remains crucial to the task of making clear how the humanities connect to the challenges of our current moment."

‘Whiteness’ and the Humanities

by Simon During

Trends in antiracist scholarship are not the cause of the crisis of the humanities, but a response to it. Resolving the impasse between tradition and revisionist scholarship can only come from outside the academy through action to secure the place of the humanities in the university curriculum of the future. 

Howard University's Decision To Cut Classics Department Prompts An Outcry

Anika Prather of Howard's Classics Department shares her view of the decision to close the department. 

A Once-in-a-Century Crisis Can Help Educate Doctors

by Molly Worthen

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered valuable lessons on the necessity of humanistic education in the training of medical professionals. 

Colleges Are Using COVID as a Pretext to Make Draconian Cuts to the Humanities

The COVID pandemic has given cover to massive declines in academic employment, with the humanities being particularly hard-hit. It's unclear whether the liberal arts will remain viable at many institutions or how higher ed will change as a result. 

The Humanities [Are Everywhere] in American Life

by Karin Wulf

A new report indicates that Americans both value and use the humanities. 

College Cuts in the Green Mountain State

by Dan Chiasson

"Data-driven" decisions to cut programs in the humanities are based in unstated assumptions of value that point to a troubling direction in higher education. 

What Is College For?

by Steven Mintz

Two new books argue for a robust and engaged humanistic study as indispensable to higher education. 

Danielle Allen Wins Re-envisioned Kluge Humanities Prize

Dr. Allen, a Harvard political theorist whose work has spanned the Declaration of Independence and the governmental response to Covid-19, will lead an effort to cultivate “civic strength.”

The Decline of the Humanities and the Bleach-Drinking Epidemic

by Lior Sternfeld and Mana Kia

When Donald Trump hinted that injecting "disinfectants" could cure COVID-19, he was displaying a lack of critical thinking skill that is endemic in a society where learning is valued only in economic, rather than civic, terms.

Germany Enlists Humanities Scholars to End Coronavirus Lockdown

Germany has done more than other nations to enlist the advice of philosophers, historians of science, theologians and jurists as it navigates the delicate ethical balancing act of reopening society while safeguarding the health of the public.