4Humanities Advocacy Projects

4Humanities and its local chapters are at work on a variety of projects to create advocacy for the humanities and also to develop innovative research and materials to help drive such advocacy. Current ongoing projects include:

* “Shout Out for the Humanities” Student Prize Contest

* Humanities, Plain & Simple Initiative

* Backpack Mini-Documentaries

* Humanities Infographics

* Arts & Humanities in the 21st Century Workplace

* Humanities Showcase

* WhatEvery1OneSays Research Project

Shout Out for the Humanities

Dear Students . . .

Posted by Alan Liu

Shout Out for Humanities Student Contest

The submission deadline (March 1, 2016) for the 4Humanities.org “Shout Out for the Humanities” student prize contest is fast approaching. If you are an undergraduate or graduate student anywhere in the world who values the humanities and think that society should too, please make a submission that tells us why.

How better to advocate for the humanities than to have students tell it in their own words, pictures, videos, songs, online materials, etc.?

We’ll use your submissions to get the news out that society needs a robust, rich mix of fields, disciplines, and values, among which the humanities have a strong role.

Share this post about our contest with friends. Check out our Facebook page and “like” our post on the contest. Follow us on Twitter (@4Hum).

There are separate prizes for undergraduates and graduates. There is a great panel of distinguished judges. We’ll be posting the submissions.

Shout Out for the Humanities

Dear Friends . . .

Posted by Alan Liu

Shout Out for Humanities Student Contest

The submission deadline (March 1, 2016) for the 4Humanities.org “Shout Out for the Humanities” student prize contest is fast approaching. Please help us make one last push to publicize the contest to undergraduate and graduate students in your networks and institutions. Share with students (and instructors) by email and Twitter. Check out our Facebook page and “like” our post on the contest. Send our press release to people who might be interested.

There are separate prizes for undergraduates and graduates. There is a great panel of distinguished judges. We’ll be posting the students’ submissions.

How better to advocate for the humanities than to have students tell it in their own words, pictures, videos, songs, online materials, etc.?

Humanities for Sale: Proving the Value of Humanities in an Age of Sky Rocketing Tuition Fees.

Posted by Ashley Champagne

4Humanities Advocacy Projects

The humanities are dying.

At least, that’s what we see from college statistics, and what we hear from various sources of outcry. One of these sources is William Deresiewicz, ex-Yale professor and author of the book Excellent Sheep. Deresiewicz claims that arts and humanities are being pushed out by more “practical” majors, such as economics.

The Work Humanists Do: An Interview with 4Hum’s New International Correspondent

Posted by Ashley Champagne

4Humanities Advocacy Projects, 4Humanities@UCSB, Voices For the Humanities

Lauren Horn Griffin is 4Humanities.org’s new International Correspondent! She will write on humanities advocacy projects, humanities issues, the relation of the humanities to society, and specific humanities initiatives. Lauren is currently working as the Communications Coordinator for the nonprofit Institute for Diversity and City Life while she finishes her Ph.D., and she is a passionate advocate for the humanities. I caught up with her in Santa Barbara for a chat over coffee to see why the humanities are important to her.

U. S. Patents Related to the Humanities

Posted by Alan Liu

4Humanities Advocacy Projects

In the course of its current effort to collect a “big data” set of newspaper and magazine articles, government documents, and other public discourse on the humanities for study through computational text analysis, the 4Humanities WhatEvery1Says research project acted on an intriguing idea…. The project team collected a plain-text corpus of all U.S. patents issued since 1976 (the first year of full digital text available in the U. S. Patent Office’s searchable archive) and scraped the patent descriptions as plain text to facilitate study through computational text-analysis
        Much of the leading-edge scholarly response to public discussion about the apparent decline of the humanities has revolved around translating the older notion of “general” and (more recently) “flexible” humanities knowledge into such terms relevant to current socioeconomic change as “open access” and “collaboration.” Normally, these concepts are seen through the lens of copyright issues. Little attention has been paid to patents as part of the modernization of the humanities.
        Gutenberg did not have a patent on print. However, thinking about the humanities in society today, researchers may need to evaluate critically how the humanities should adapt to the fact that he didn’t. (Read full post, including details on topic modeling the patents.)

The Arts & Humanities in the 21st Century Workplace Launches New Volunteer Program

Posted by Ashley Champagne

4Humanities Advocacy Projects

The Arts & Humanities in the 21st Century Workplace advocacy initiative is launching a new Volunteer Program. If you are interested in becoming an AH21CW Volunteer and adding your voice to the international conversation on the applicability of the Arts and Humanities to any professional field, consider participating in this program.