Advocacy Statements & Campaigns

Advocacy statements, examples of the importance of the humanities, and news about the past, present, and future of the humanities: 4Humanities provides a platform for endorsing the importance of research, teaching, innovation, and creative renewal in the history, language, literature, philosophy, the study of cultures, and other areas that help society focus on human values and needs.

See also the other materials gathered in our “Voices For the Humanities” section.

Cover of The Entrepreneurial Humanities, edited by Alain-Philippe Durand & Christine Henseler (Routledge, 2023)

Christine Henseler, “Stop Repeating Age-old Stigmas: Careers in the Arts and Humanities are Plentiful and They Pay”

By: Christine Henseler It baffles me to hear parents tell their kids that art is a hobby, not a career; that you can’t make good money with a degree in English. Wasn’t it just yesterday evening that these same adults binged for hours on the entire season of Grey’s Anatomy? For the second time? It so […]

Cover of Christine Hensler, Arts and Humanities: Don’t Leave School Without Them

New Guidebook on How Humanities & Arts Lead to Professions and Careers

[Now also in paperback] A new, open-access guide book has been published online by 4Humanities.org’s co-leader, Christine Henseler. Called Arts and Humanities: Don’t Leave College Without Them! (2022), the work takes the form of a “flipbook” giving a broad overview and specific examples of the humanities and arts, and the kinds of careers they lead […]

The Entrepreneurial Humanities (logo)

The Entrepreneurial Humanities
(Call for Essays)

Edited by Alain-Philippe Durand and Christine Henseler Call for Essays When the general public hears the word “entrepreneurship” and reads articles and magazines that sell us on the “100 Most Entrepreneurial People in __________ (fill in the blank),” they usually think of new business models and products in technology and the sciences. “Entrepreneurship” is rarely […]

Generation Now: Millennials Call for Social Change book cover

Generation Now: Millennials Call for Social Change — Book Published by 4Humanities.org Co-leader Christine Henseler and Her Students

In the spring of 2018, a group of Union College students took my class called “Millennials and Social Change”. They were in for a surprise. They registered for a course about the rise of the everyday changemaker. It was a class that focused on the current student generation, the Millennials (b. 1980-2000), and the changes they wished to see in their lives and in their communities.

Ten weeks later, the students in this class had become changemakers themselves. They had risen to the challenge with honesty, passion, and ambition and had written personal stories that inspire and give hope to others. Their collective calls for change became this book, Generation Now: Millennials Call for Social Change.

Call for Papers | The Arts and Humanities: Don’t Leave School Without Them

Calling all students and young professionals from all communities, backgrounds and interests to share experiences and opinions on what they would want their peers to know now about why, how and where the arts and humanities can play a foundational and transformative role in their educations and career opportunities.

Liberal Arts Is the Foundation for Professional Success in the 21st Century

“What are you going to do with that degree?” Sadly, many students in the liberal arts and humanities have gotten used to that condescending question by now. With economic downturn in 2008 and a job market demand trending towards science and engineering degrees, a specialized education seemed like the obvious solution to steady employment in a tough market.

But trends in industry and the very nature of work since then are beginning to paint a very different picture of the future. A recent study even suggests that this reputation is undeserved and deeply misleading. Instead, it finds a high correlation between a broad undergraduate education and financial success. In fact, those who take the arts and humanities in addition to their main field of study are 31-72% more likely than others to have higher-level positions and earn more than $100,000.