The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has called for a A New Humanism for the 21st Century. This text calls for a humanism that sees the importance of communication, culture and community to building a better societies. She quotes Pico della Mirandola (Italian Renaissance Humanist) to the effect that we are shapers of our own […]
Advocacy Statements & Campaigns
Stanley Fish: “The Value of Higher Education Made Literal”
In The New York Times Opinionator Blog for December 13, 2010, Stanley Fish, the well-known professor of humanities and law and public commentator, criticizes the cuts to higher education in the U.K. They are being sold on the idea of giving more “choice” to students, he says, but—not trusting student choice—they insure that the forced […]
Humanities in Action Lab
Christine Henseler, a professor of Spanish and Hispanic Studies at Union College in Schenectady, NY, who also has a background in advertising and book marketing, has started a project called The Humanities in Action Lab: The Lab focuses on reaching beyond and across disciplines to uncover and raise consciousness of how the Humanities are influencing, […]
Arts Against Cuts
Arts Against Cuts is an initiative in the U.K. to battle the budget cuts threatening the arts This blog is an umbrella space for students, artists and cultural workers to display and align their ideas and actions against the cuts. We are fighting back against the most significant governmental attack on the public sector in […]
DEFEND the ARTS and HUMANITIES
DEFEND the ARTS and HUMANITIES is another campaign started in the UK by Arts and Humanities academics. The campaign started as a Facebook group. They have developed a set of positions in answer to the question “Why Defend the Arts and Humanities?” The Arts and Humanities are useful The Arts and Humanities promote a just […]
Humanities and Social Sciences Matter | Campaign for the Humanities and Social Sciences in UK Universities
Humanities and Social Sciences Matter is a “campaign to promote and defend world-leading humanities and social science teaching and research in UK universities.” They are running a petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/humanitiesmatter/ and have posts summarizing and linking to ideas and events. We believe in Higher Education teaching that is informed by the highest quality research, that […]
Cornell University President’s Speech on Value of Humanities and Arts
Several days ago, 4Humanities reported on the “State of the University” speech that David Skorton, President of Cornell University, gave on October 29, 2010, in which he made a bold, strong call for supporting the humanities and arts. In addition to making the full text of the address available on the site of the Cornell […]