The following is a statement posted on January 24, 2010, by Cathy N. Davidson, co-founder of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), on her HASTAC blog. [Excerpt]: The World Wide Web is the steam engine of the Information Age. And without the humanities, virtually everything about the World Wide Web is a muddle. […]
Advocacy Statements & Campaigns
“Humanities Matter” Petition in the U.K.
An initiative in the United Kingdom launches a petition drive to urge the British government, now planning to cut government funding to higher education by 80%, to recognize that the humanities and social sciences are a public good. Without a serious commitment to the Humanities and Social Sciences, our society will lack a serious commitment […]
James Rovira: An Instructor’s Ground-Level Defense of the Humanities to Students
James Rovira is an Assistant Professor of English at Tiffin University in Ohio. The following is a slightly revised version of a post he made to the Humanist list on October 29, 2010. [Excerpt] I currently teach in a university in which 90% of its students are either Business or Criminal Justice majors. I don’t […]
Andrew Prescott: Can the digital humanities help advocate for the humanities?
Andrew Prescott, Professor and Director of Research at the Humanities and Advanced Technology and Information Institute, University of Glasgow, originally sent this letter to the Humanist Discussion Group on October 23, 2010. (See original archived post.) The letter, which helped inspire the creation of 4Humanities, calls for the digital humanities community to support the cause […]
Martha Piper: Building a Civil Society: A New Role for the Human Sciences
Martha C. Piper’s 2002 Killam Lecture, Building a Civil Society: A New Role for the Human Sciences (PDF) argues that support of humanities and social science research is needed for a civil society. This lecture received significant attention in Canada, in part because it was one of the documents the Social Science and Humanities Research […]
Inside Higher Ed: Call to Defend the Humanities
According to Inside Higher Ed, Cornell’s president, David Skorton, plans to launch a campaign to promote the humanities. In making the case for enhancing funding for the NEH and NEA, Skorton argues that the humanities can foster civility, ethics, and global understanding.
Boston Globe: College leaders work to increase interest in humanities – The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe web site has a story about how “Colleges aim to revive the humanities.” The story by Tracy Jan (Nov. 8, 2010) talks about how universities like Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard are promoting the humanities in response to cutbacks. If, because of cutbacks and lack of support from the federal government, literature and […]