The MLA Executive Council has issued a statement criticizing the final Continuing Resolution for the 2011 federal budget in the United States, which includes dramatic cuts to International Education and Foreign Language programs, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The MLA urges its members in the U.S. […]
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n+1: Why Bother? Review of Humanities Manifestos
In the most recent issue of the literary magazine n+1, Nicolas Dames reviews three recent books on the value of the humanities, Terry Castle’s The Professor and Other Writings, Louis Menand’s The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University, and Martha Nussbaum’s Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities. The review […]
4Humanities Initiative: Humanities, Plain & Simple
Directed by Christine Henseler, The Humanities, Plain & Simple is a special 4Humanities project. It 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 […]
Can you fill your sandwich with Dante? Some reflections after the Italian universities’ “reform”
By Domenico Fiormonte, University of Roma Tre, 4Humanities International Correspondent On December 14th, 2010, students from all over Italy filled the streets of major cities protesting – and, in Rome, rioting – against a new University Reform bill, the third in ten years and one that endangers the very existence of one of the largest […]
Con Dante nel panino
Il 14 dicembre 2010 gli studenti italiani hanno riempito le piazze delle maggiori città italiane per protestare contro una riforma universitaria – la terza in dieci anni – che minaccia l’esistenza di uno dei più estesi sistemi di alta istruzione pubblica del mondo occidentale. Gli scontri avvenuti in quella giornata non sono tuttavia la mera […]
Current Athens Media Art Events
By Eva Kekou, 4Humanities International Correspondent Despite the economic crisis, a number of media art events are taking place in Athens. Creativity flourishes amidst difficult social and economic changes. It seems a crucial time of transformation is stimulating creativity and collaboration for the first time in Greece. The many events one can mention include Athens […]
The Sciences vs. Humanities: A Power Struggle
In a recent blog for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael Brown emphasizes that we need to think about the humanities not just as those disciplines that “specialize in expression, appreciation of qualitative aspects of life, and the promotion and expression of ‘values,’” but also as disciplines that provide crucial knowledge about our social nature. […]