"The information age without the humanities
is like the industrial age without the steam engine."
— Cathy Davidson
THE HUMANITIES IN ACTION LAB
The Humanities in Action Lab places attention on the role of the Humanities to strengthen innovation across disciplines. The Lab focuses on reaching beyond and across disciplines to uncover and raise consciousness of how the Humanities are influencing, questioning, and contributing to innovation inside and outside of academia. This Lab is meant to raise consciousness in regard to the reasons why the Humanities should matter more in the twenty-first century than any other time in history. Why is it that colleges and universities, private foundations and governments, should be funding, not cutting, programs in the Humanities? Why should they care?
In a world where quantitative research and new media technologies are taking center stage, an initiative such as this one may remind scholars, students, parents and governments that "human-rooted" questions must remain at the center of our thinking and action. This Lab proposes to highlight innovation in projects that cross disciplines and change or question the dynamics of their fields. Instead of centering on the way in which digital culture is changing research outcomes in the Humanities (as in most Digital Humanities Centers), this Lab proposes a reverse movement in which Humanities-based questions move outwards to everything from Engineering to Computer Science, Business and Mathematics.
This Lab is in its initial stages. I welcome you to e-mail me your essays, your videos, photographs, projects, or any other material that speaks to this matter (henselec@union.edu). I highly encourage the perspective of individuals and organizations outside of the Humanities. The goal is to demonstrate why you think the Humanities are worth more attention, inclusion, and money. This Lab provides a platform for any projects that have consciously included Humanities-related and -rooted questions in their work. How have interdisciplinary projects changed the way you have previously thought about your field or project? And, what matters to most parents of students and business people out there, how has have the Humanities changed your bottom line?
National and International Initiatives Union College / Campus-Wide Initiatives
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Panel at the Modern Language Associate Convention Boston, 2013 “Humanities in the Twenty-first Century: Innovation in Research and Practice” Lynn Pasquerella President of Mount Holyoke Title of Talk: "The Promise of Humanities Practice" David Theo Goldberg Co-founder of HASTAC and Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute UC Irvine. Professor, Comparative Literature Jane Aikin Director, Division of Research Programs National Endowment for the Humanities Christine Henseler Associate Professor at Union College Title of Talk: 4Humanities: Advocating for the Humanities in the Digital Age 4Humanities: Advocating for the Humanities
4Humanities is a site created by the international community of digital humanities scholars and educators to assist in advocacy for the humanities. 4Humanities is both a platform and a resource. As a platform, 4Humanities will stage the efforts of humanities advocates to reach out to the public. We are a combination newspaper, magazine, channel, blog, wiki, and social network. We solicit well-reasoned or creative demonstrations, examples, testimonials, arguments, opinion pieces, open letters, press releases, print posters, video advertisements, write-in campaigns, social-media campaigns, short films, and other innovative forms of humanities advocacy, along with accessibly-written scholarly works grounding the whole in research or reflection about the state of the humanities. As a resource, 4Humanities will provide humanities advocates with a stockpile of digital tools, collaboration methods, royalty-free designs and images, best practices, new-media expertise, and customizable newsfeeds of issues and events relevant to the state of the humanities in any local or national context. Whether humanities advocates choose to conduct their publicity on 4Humanities itself or instead through their own newsletter, Web site, blog, and so on, we want to help with the best that digital-humanities experts have to offer. (See full mission statement) Humanities, Plain & Simple The Times Higher Education quotes from one of the entries on the "Humanities, Plain & Simple" site. Humanities, Plain & Simple is a comprehensive and targeted campaign that calls out to individuals and groups inside and outside of academia to write statements in “plain language” as to why the Humanities matter. How has Humanities-based thinking directly or indirectly altered or innovated strategies, ideas, research, leadership, learning? The statements will be published on the 4Humanities site and/or in mainstream print publications or digital media sites. The pieces may be of a serious or sarcastic nature; they may be of a few short paragraphs or of several pages; they may address the effects of a particular experience or talk about the Humanities as a whole. The only request is for writers to communicate in the language of everyday life, to address a general audience, and to refer to real-world situations. We highly welcome the work of individuals from inside and outside of academia, and from inside and outside of the Humanities. We are also interested in putting together teams from a variety of backgrounds to write and edit longer essays targeted to specific audiences. If you are interested in this initiative, or would like to submit advocacy statements, please send them to Christine Henseler (henselec@union.edu). The material will be evaluated by the 4Humanities Collective for possible publication and dissemination. All accepted pieces will be posted on the 4Humanities website. The |
The Humanities Super Seminar (IDM 360) For more information go to the course website: www.humanitiessuperseminar.weebly.com The Humanities Super Seminar is an interdisciplinary course designed for juniors at Union College. In a small class atmosphere, 15 students will engage in a dynamic exchange of ideas between themselves and three faculty from the Humanities and three outside speakers (from on or off campus). Each year the topic of the Seminar will change based on the interests and availability of faculty members (see projected topics below). The course will be discussion-based, will challenge preconceived ideas, and will include a variety of hands-on, real-life projects and activities apart from the reading of academic articles, mainstream papers, films, videos, and blog responses and comments. The goal of the Humanities Super Seminar is to provide an interdisciplinary intellectual space for the exchange of ideas and research among faculty and students from different departments. Faculty members are encouraged to bring their research into the classroom and to view the course as a place of interdisciplinary development and growth for the students and faculty alike. YEAR 1 - Spring 2012 Global Activism: Hacking, Leaking, and Whistleblowing Global activists have new tools at their disposal. The World Wide Web is only 20 years old. Social networking, crowdsourcing, and hacktivism are even younger. Some groups, like Wikileaks and Anonymous, see the new tools as forces to be harnessed in the service of global justice -- and especially in the service of exposing the misdeeds of the powerful. In this seminar we will discuss some of the fundamental problems tackled by activists, from what is on your plate and what is in your Diet Coke to what is on your computer's hard drive. We will consider justifications for, and criticisms of, the power structures that determine how we live. We will explore the tactics that some activists use to subvert these power structures. Join 7 faculty members in this exclusive course open to only 15 students. This course is specifically, but not exclusively designed for juniors interested in seriously cool, critically challenging, and deeply interdisciplinary conversations with several faculty members from the Humanities and three faculty from varied disciplines to give you a wide range of perspectives on the topic of Global Activism in the twenty-first century. Hugh Jenkins (English): On transparency of information and access in local/global food production and consumption. Anastasia Pease (English/Russian): On transparency of corporate and global information and information leaks. Mark Wunderlich (Philosophy): On legal cases related to the ethics of information openness. YEAR 2 (2012-2013): Medicine and Humanism YEAR 3 (2013-2014): Art and Technology in the Twenty-first Century YEAR 4 (2014-2015): The Law of the City YEAR 5 (2015-2016): Trauma and Memory YEAR 6 (2016-2017): The World is my Theatre "A Union of Ideas"
"A Union of Ideas" stresses interdisciplinary connections and the building of alliances and interactions between faculty and students from across the college. This initiative supports and furthers interactive and hands on forums and workshops, speaker series, and events that are meant to be fun and intellectually engaging. EVENTS: March 5th, 2012, Bailey Hall, Room 207 Math in Literature: Is this Really A Math Course? Don Wilken, Professor Eemeritus of Mathematics at SUNY Albany |
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Why the Humanities Matter
On October 14th, 2010, I created a Wikispace page where individuals could comment on "Why The Humanities Matter." Below are several responses. Please feel free to access the public Wiki page to see more and add your remarks. FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A PROFESSOR IN THEATRE I hear many lamenting the loss of languages or decrying the general harm to humanities SUNY Albany's cuts will do. It is shameful. However,we must not forget the contributions of theatre, not just to our culture, but to a liberal arts education. There is a public misconception that an education in theatre is only for actors or academics. In today's age of interdisciplinary learning, theatre departments should be recognized as icons of a liberal arts program. In few other academic disciplines do the subjects of history, literature, psychology, science, math, engineering, visual art and sculpture permeate every hour of the day. Actors and directors must know the history surrounding a play. They must know literature and its devices to understand the story the play tells. They must know psychology to understand what motivates their character's actions. Technicians must know science to understand the physics of lighting or the chemistry of cooking fake glass. They must know math to layout and construct an archway or even for something as simple as reading the fractions on a tape measure. They must know engineering to choose appropriate materials when building sets or flying performers. Designers must know about and be skilled in the myriad conventions of visual artists and sculptors in order to convey the appropriate moods and feelings in their sets, lights and costumes. More than these academic subjects, the skilled theatre professional must also possess finely tuned creative problem solving and collaborative skills. Learning not just to succeed but excel within tightly defined parameters is the daily fodder of directors, actors and technicians. Theatre programs are one of the most effective methods for nurturing these rare and invaluable assets. This list of needed knowledge and skills is a miniscule example of the multitudinous subjects taught and used every day in the field of Theatre. Success in this field requires a massive breadth and wealth of knowledge. Eliminating a theatre department deals a debilitating and depressing blow to any liberal arts program. Thanks for listening to my two cents! Steven M. Michalek Technical Director, Lighting Designer, Production Manager Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Theatre and Dance Union College (and SUNY Albany alum) FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST 16 October 2010 Francis Bacon said "Histories make men wise." Yet history is replete with civilizations that failed to learn the most important lessons of adapting to changing times, losing grip on those positive core values distinguishing them in the first place, and making their appearance and contributions brief. I am not surprised how many of my Stanford undergraduate as well as postgraduate adult courses are filled with pre-engineering or pre-law students as well as professional engineers, bankers and lawyers trying to feed their souls starved by a relentlessly arid commercial society driven by bottom line, profit margin and productivity. Commerce alone does not feed society without compassion to reach out to those without food. That broader reach makes us human. While machines can calculate and do wonderful tasks, they are incapable of such higher thought. Archaeologists and historians try to understand the past, and perhaps this enables them to not only better grasp the present but perhaps even to better glimpse the future. Dr. Patrick Hunt, Stanford University FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A HISPANIST: The Humanities matter because humanists do the heavy lifting of society. The description of the universe is child's play alongside the description of the human soul. Yet that is precisely what culture attempts to do through its modeling of lived human experience, and it is humanists who describe to us that attempt and assess its scope, failures, and successes. Professor David William Foster, Arizona State University FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A STUDENT IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE: October 15th, 2010 How does one experience math? What does the knowledge of science feel like? Why do we talk about the sun setting, when we know it's the earth which is rotating? The humanities matter because they study the reaction of the human mind to the world. This is not simply psychology. Psychology is a science which explains the infrastructure affecting consciousness. The humanities study the questions science cannot: What's it like to know something, or believe something? Science studies that which can be measured. That's great. We need it, and it's done awesome things for us. But how do we know that only things which can be measured exist? How can science prove that? Once a scientist argues that only the measurable exists, he has done philosophy. Once he argues that a sunset is beautiful - not, mind you, how the human mind processes it as beautiful, but that it is beautiful - he has done poetry. The fact is, the empirical world can not be fully studied without the humanities, because not all of our empirical experiences translate readily into math or science. Science has been advanced, often, by the works of the imagination. I recall watching a scientific study of the effect of nature on the human mind, inspired by Romanticism to ask the question, Does nature make us happier and healthier? They found that, in fact, it does. This imaginative question would not arise to be asked without the dynamic imagination invested in the poetic tradition, to inspire scientific questions in the empirical world. If we take away imagination and the humanities, we also take away the same creative force behind every scientific study. All pursuits of knowledge stand or fall, in my opinion, together. Anthony Cirilla PhD Student in Medieval Literature Saint Louis University FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A PROFESSOR OF FRENCH 15 October 2010 Studies in the humanities spark and develop an individual's capacity for enlightened empathy. No trait is more important for counterbalancing the all-too-human tendency toward bigotry, chauvinism, and egocentricity. To debase the status of the humanities in higher education is to undermine its soul. Edward Baron Turk John E. Burchard Professor of the Humanities Massachusetts Institute of Technology FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A LIBRARIAN 5 October 2010 How can a person be considered educated without an exposure to art, literature, cinema, language, theater, music, and all the other facets that we include in the broad category of "humanities?" Historically it has only been members of nobility, the privileged classes, and clerics who were able to receive tutoring in the classics. Is that what we return to now, in the 21st century, when in a global environment it is even more important for all citizens of the world to have a basic understanding about how people creatively express themselves? Without humanities there is no civilization, no intellectual life in the world. Without humanities education there is no true literacy, no humanity! Science is empirical, humanities are creative. Science measures and leads to technical wonders. Humanities enable human beings to appreciate the way those technical wonders enhance life through sound, light, and the written word. Let us not return to an intellectually-diminished world. Let us celebrate the creative spirit of man which, through the study and appreciation of spiritually-inspired creations, allows us to fully participate in the totality of the human condition. "The educated differ from the uneducated, as the living from the dead." (Aristotle on Education, 384 - 322 B.C.) Louise Ratliff Librarian University of California, Los Angeles FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF OUR LEANING TOWER OF PISA Much is being said on this Wiki regarding the role of the Humanities to inject soul and spirit, humanity and literacy into human endeavors. I absolutely agree. But as long as we continue to describe our disciplines abstractly, we will remain, as the discussion on Libraries and the Humanities suggests, unsearchable and, quite simply, invisible to the rest of the world. We need to assure that others understand why and how the Humanities provide cutting-edge value to other disciplines inside and outside of academia. As Kathryn Tomaseks entry highlights, we need to demonstrate in what ways the Humanities are integral to our evolving (digital) culture. Why should engineers, chemists, political scientists, or biologist care? Why should they pay any attention to us at all? While there is much value in discipline-specific studies, and I do not wish to undermine its importance, I believe the humanities can gain more ground, more forcefully and concretely through interdisciplinary work. Interdisciplinarity, as well as service learning programs and any and all programs that reach beyond the confines of our discipline-specific and closed borders, allows us, yes, in fact it forces us, to reach out to other communities and clearly communicate who and what we are about. The truth is, we are not innocent in this long-standing and developing crisis. Cross-disciplinary interactions remove us from the abstract, often jargon-filled silos we have constructed around ourselves. Interdisciplinary projects, among others, put us in contact with a more material world. Instead of indulging in theoretical, academic jargon that only we can understand, we now have to explain and apply our intellectual approaches and endeavors to the work of others. There is a place for theoretical discipline-specific musings; but we may also need to think and recognize how and why what we do has concrete effects in the world at large. Christine Henseler |
Why the Humanities Matter
On October 14th, 2010, I created a Wikispace page where individuals could comment on "Why The Humanities Matter."
Below are several responses. Please feel free to access the public Wiki page to see more and add your remarks.
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A PROFESSOR IN THEATRE
I hear many lamenting the loss of languages or decrying the general harm to humanities SUNY Albany's cuts will do. It is shameful. However,we
must not forget the contributions of theatre, not just to our culture, but to a liberal arts education. There is a public misconception that an education in theatre is only for actors or academics. In today's age of interdisciplinary learning, theatre departments should be recognized as icons of a liberal arts program. In few other academic disciplines do the subjects of history, literature, psychology, science, math, engineering, visual art and sculpture permeate every hour of the day.
Actors and directors must know the history surrounding a play. They must know literature and its devices to understand the story the play
tells. They must know psychology to understand what motivates their character's actions. Technicians must know science to understand the
physics of lighting or the chemistry of cooking fake glass. They must know math to layout and construct an archway or even for something as
simple as reading the fractions on a tape measure. They must know engineering to choose appropriate materials when building sets or flying
performers. Designers must know about and be skilled in the myriad conventions of visual artists and sculptors in order to convey the appropriate moods and feelings in their sets, lights and costumes.
More than these academic subjects, the skilled theatre professional must also possess finely tuned creative problem solving and collaborative
skills. Learning not just to succeed but excel within tightly defined parameters is the daily fodder of directors, actors and technicians.
Theatre programs are one of the most effective methods for nurturing these rare and invaluable assets. This list of needed knowledge and
skills is a miniscule example of the multitudinous subjects taught and used every day in the field of Theatre. Success in this field requires
a massive breadth and wealth of knowledge. Eliminating a theatre department deals a debilitating and depressing blow to any liberal arts
program.
Thanks for listening to my two cents!
Steven M. Michalek
Technical Director, Lighting Designer, Production Manager
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre and Dance
Union College (and SUNY Albany alum)
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST
16 October 2010
Francis Bacon said "Histories make men wise."
Yet history is replete with civilizations that failed to learn the most important lessons of adapting to changing times, losing grip on those positive core values distinguishing them in the first place, and making their appearance and contributions brief. I am not surprised how many of my Stanford undergraduate as well as postgraduate adult courses are filled with pre-engineering or pre-law students as well as professional engineers, bankers and lawyers trying to feed their souls starved by a relentlessly arid commercial society driven by bottom line, profit margin and productivity. Commerce alone does not feed society without compassion to reach out to those without food. That broader reach makes us human. While machines can calculate and do wonderful tasks, they are incapable of such higher thought. Archaeologists and historians try to understand the past, and perhaps this enables them to not only better grasp the present but perhaps even to better glimpse the future.
Dr. Patrick Hunt, Stanford University
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A HISPANIST:
The Humanities matter because humanists do the heavy lifting of society. The description of the universe is child's play alongside the description of the human soul. Yet that is precisely what culture attempts to do through its modeling of lived human experience, and it is humanists who describe to us that attempt and assess its scope, failures, and successes.
Professor David William Foster, Arizona State University
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A STUDENT IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE:
October 15th, 2010
How does one experience math? What does the knowledge of science feel like? Why do we talk about the sun setting, when we know it's the earth which is rotating? The humanities matter because they study the reaction of the human mind to the world. This is not simply psychology. Psychology is a science which explains the infrastructure affecting consciousness. The humanities study the questions science cannot: What's it like to know something, or believe something? Science studies that which can be measured. That's great. We need it, and it's done awesome things for us. But how do we know that only things which can be measured exist? How can science prove that? Once a scientist argues that only the measurable exists, he has done philosophy. Once he argues that a sunset is beautiful - not, mind you, how the human mind processes it as beautiful, but that it is beautiful - he has done poetry. The fact is, the empirical world can not be fully studied without the humanities, because not all of our empirical experiences translate readily into math or science. Science has been advanced, often, by the works of the imagination. I recall watching a scientific study of the effect of nature on the human mind, inspired by Romanticism to ask the question, Does nature make us happier and healthier? They found that, in fact, it does. This imaginative question would not arise to be asked without the dynamic imagination invested in the poetic tradition, to inspire scientific questions in the empirical world. If we take away imagination and the humanities, we also take away the same creative force behind every scientific study. All pursuits of knowledge stand or fall, in my opinion, together.
Anthony Cirilla
PhD Student in Medieval Literature
Saint Louis University
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A PROFESSOR OF FRENCH
15 October 2010
Studies in the humanities spark and develop an individual's capacity for enlightened empathy. No trait is more important for counterbalancing the all-too-human tendency toward bigotry, chauvinism, and egocentricity. To debase the status of the humanities in higher education is to undermine its soul.
Edward Baron Turk
John E. Burchard Professor of the Humanities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A LIBRARIAN
5 October 2010
How can a person be considered educated without an exposure to art, literature, cinema, language, theater, music, and all the other facets that we include in the broad category of "humanities?" Historically it has only been members of nobility, the privileged classes, and clerics who were able to receive tutoring in the classics. Is that what we return to now, in the 21st century, when in a global environment it is even more important for all citizens of the world to have a basic understanding about how people creatively express themselves? Without humanities there is no civilization, no intellectual life in the world. Without humanities education there is no true literacy, no humanity! Science is empirical, humanities are creative. Science measures and leads to technical wonders. Humanities enable human beings to appreciate the way those technical wonders enhance life through sound, light, and the written word. Let us not return to an intellectually-diminished world. Let us celebrate the creative spirit of man which, through the study and appreciation of spiritually-inspired creations, allows us to fully participate in the totality of the human condition.
"The educated differ from the uneducated, as the living from the dead." (Aristotle on Education, 384 - 322 B.C.)
Louise Ratliff
Librarian
University of California, Los Angeles
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF OUR LEANING TOWER OF PISA
Much is being said on this Wiki regarding the role of the Humanities to inject soul and spirit, humanity and literacy into human endeavors. I absolutely agree. But as long as we continue to describe our disciplines abstractly, we will remain, as the discussion on Libraries and the Humanities suggests, unsearchable and, quite simply, invisible to the rest of the world.
We need to assure that others understand why and how the Humanities provide cutting-edge value to other disciplines inside and outside of academia. As Kathryn Tomaseks entry highlights, we need to demonstrate in what ways the Humanities are integral to our evolving (digital) culture. Why should engineers, chemists, political scientists, or biologist care? Why should they pay any attention to us at all?
While there is much value in discipline-specific studies, and I do not wish to undermine its importance, I believe the humanities can gain more ground, more forcefully and concretely through interdisciplinary work. Interdisciplinarity, as well as service learning programs and any and all programs that reach beyond the confines of our discipline-specific and closed borders, allows us, yes, in fact it forces us, to reach out to other communities and clearly communicate who and what we are about.
The truth is, we are not innocent in this long-standing and developing crisis.
Cross-disciplinary interactions remove us from the abstract, often jargon-filled silos we have constructed around ourselves. Interdisciplinary projects, among others, put us in contact with a more material world. Instead of indulging in theoretical, academic jargon that only we can understand, we now have to explain and apply our intellectual approaches and endeavors to the work of others. There is a place for theoretical discipline-specific musings; but we may also need to think and recognize how and why what we do has concrete effects in the world at large.
Christine Henseler
On October 14th, 2010, I created a Wikispace page where individuals could comment on "Why The Humanities Matter."
Below are several responses. Please feel free to access the public Wiki page to see more and add your remarks.
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A PROFESSOR IN THEATRE
I hear many lamenting the loss of languages or decrying the general harm to humanities SUNY Albany's cuts will do. It is shameful. However,we
must not forget the contributions of theatre, not just to our culture, but to a liberal arts education. There is a public misconception that an education in theatre is only for actors or academics. In today's age of interdisciplinary learning, theatre departments should be recognized as icons of a liberal arts program. In few other academic disciplines do the subjects of history, literature, psychology, science, math, engineering, visual art and sculpture permeate every hour of the day.
Actors and directors must know the history surrounding a play. They must know literature and its devices to understand the story the play
tells. They must know psychology to understand what motivates their character's actions. Technicians must know science to understand the
physics of lighting or the chemistry of cooking fake glass. They must know math to layout and construct an archway or even for something as
simple as reading the fractions on a tape measure. They must know engineering to choose appropriate materials when building sets or flying
performers. Designers must know about and be skilled in the myriad conventions of visual artists and sculptors in order to convey the appropriate moods and feelings in their sets, lights and costumes.
More than these academic subjects, the skilled theatre professional must also possess finely tuned creative problem solving and collaborative
skills. Learning not just to succeed but excel within tightly defined parameters is the daily fodder of directors, actors and technicians.
Theatre programs are one of the most effective methods for nurturing these rare and invaluable assets. This list of needed knowledge and
skills is a miniscule example of the multitudinous subjects taught and used every day in the field of Theatre. Success in this field requires
a massive breadth and wealth of knowledge. Eliminating a theatre department deals a debilitating and depressing blow to any liberal arts
program.
Thanks for listening to my two cents!
Steven M. Michalek
Technical Director, Lighting Designer, Production Manager
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre and Dance
Union College (and SUNY Albany alum)
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST
16 October 2010
Francis Bacon said "Histories make men wise."
Yet history is replete with civilizations that failed to learn the most important lessons of adapting to changing times, losing grip on those positive core values distinguishing them in the first place, and making their appearance and contributions brief. I am not surprised how many of my Stanford undergraduate as well as postgraduate adult courses are filled with pre-engineering or pre-law students as well as professional engineers, bankers and lawyers trying to feed their souls starved by a relentlessly arid commercial society driven by bottom line, profit margin and productivity. Commerce alone does not feed society without compassion to reach out to those without food. That broader reach makes us human. While machines can calculate and do wonderful tasks, they are incapable of such higher thought. Archaeologists and historians try to understand the past, and perhaps this enables them to not only better grasp the present but perhaps even to better glimpse the future.
Dr. Patrick Hunt, Stanford University
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A HISPANIST:
The Humanities matter because humanists do the heavy lifting of society. The description of the universe is child's play alongside the description of the human soul. Yet that is precisely what culture attempts to do through its modeling of lived human experience, and it is humanists who describe to us that attempt and assess its scope, failures, and successes.
Professor David William Foster, Arizona State University
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A STUDENT IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE:
October 15th, 2010
How does one experience math? What does the knowledge of science feel like? Why do we talk about the sun setting, when we know it's the earth which is rotating? The humanities matter because they study the reaction of the human mind to the world. This is not simply psychology. Psychology is a science which explains the infrastructure affecting consciousness. The humanities study the questions science cannot: What's it like to know something, or believe something? Science studies that which can be measured. That's great. We need it, and it's done awesome things for us. But how do we know that only things which can be measured exist? How can science prove that? Once a scientist argues that only the measurable exists, he has done philosophy. Once he argues that a sunset is beautiful - not, mind you, how the human mind processes it as beautiful, but that it is beautiful - he has done poetry. The fact is, the empirical world can not be fully studied without the humanities, because not all of our empirical experiences translate readily into math or science. Science has been advanced, often, by the works of the imagination. I recall watching a scientific study of the effect of nature on the human mind, inspired by Romanticism to ask the question, Does nature make us happier and healthier? They found that, in fact, it does. This imaginative question would not arise to be asked without the dynamic imagination invested in the poetic tradition, to inspire scientific questions in the empirical world. If we take away imagination and the humanities, we also take away the same creative force behind every scientific study. All pursuits of knowledge stand or fall, in my opinion, together.
Anthony Cirilla
PhD Student in Medieval Literature
Saint Louis University
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A PROFESSOR OF FRENCH
15 October 2010
Studies in the humanities spark and develop an individual's capacity for enlightened empathy. No trait is more important for counterbalancing the all-too-human tendency toward bigotry, chauvinism, and egocentricity. To debase the status of the humanities in higher education is to undermine its soul.
Edward Baron Turk
John E. Burchard Professor of the Humanities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A LIBRARIAN
5 October 2010
How can a person be considered educated without an exposure to art, literature, cinema, language, theater, music, and all the other facets that we include in the broad category of "humanities?" Historically it has only been members of nobility, the privileged classes, and clerics who were able to receive tutoring in the classics. Is that what we return to now, in the 21st century, when in a global environment it is even more important for all citizens of the world to have a basic understanding about how people creatively express themselves? Without humanities there is no civilization, no intellectual life in the world. Without humanities education there is no true literacy, no humanity! Science is empirical, humanities are creative. Science measures and leads to technical wonders. Humanities enable human beings to appreciate the way those technical wonders enhance life through sound, light, and the written word. Let us not return to an intellectually-diminished world. Let us celebrate the creative spirit of man which, through the study and appreciation of spiritually-inspired creations, allows us to fully participate in the totality of the human condition.
"The educated differ from the uneducated, as the living from the dead." (Aristotle on Education, 384 - 322 B.C.)
Louise Ratliff
Librarian
University of California, Los Angeles
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF OUR LEANING TOWER OF PISA
Much is being said on this Wiki regarding the role of the Humanities to inject soul and spirit, humanity and literacy into human endeavors. I absolutely agree. But as long as we continue to describe our disciplines abstractly, we will remain, as the discussion on Libraries and the Humanities suggests, unsearchable and, quite simply, invisible to the rest of the world.
We need to assure that others understand why and how the Humanities provide cutting-edge value to other disciplines inside and outside of academia. As Kathryn Tomaseks entry highlights, we need to demonstrate in what ways the Humanities are integral to our evolving (digital) culture. Why should engineers, chemists, political scientists, or biologist care? Why should they pay any attention to us at all?
While there is much value in discipline-specific studies, and I do not wish to undermine its importance, I believe the humanities can gain more ground, more forcefully and concretely through interdisciplinary work. Interdisciplinarity, as well as service learning programs and any and all programs that reach beyond the confines of our discipline-specific and closed borders, allows us, yes, in fact it forces us, to reach out to other communities and clearly communicate who and what we are about.
The truth is, we are not innocent in this long-standing and developing crisis.
Cross-disciplinary interactions remove us from the abstract, often jargon-filled silos we have constructed around ourselves. Interdisciplinary projects, among others, put us in contact with a more material world. Instead of indulging in theoretical, academic jargon that only we can understand, we now have to explain and apply our intellectual approaches and endeavors to the work of others. There is a place for theoretical discipline-specific musings; but we may also need to think and recognize how and why what we do has concrete effects in the world at large.
Christine Henseler
Photos used under Creative Commons from fayemozingo, notahandbag, Zanastardust, avlxyz
