Humanities News

Photo by Geoffrey Rockwell

On Starving the Humanities and Social Sciences of Students and Funding in Japan: 4Humanities’ View

On June 8th, 2015 the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology informed national universities that they should cut or change their departments associated with the humanities and social sciences (HSS). The “nonbinding” notice went to the 86 national universities – universities that depend on the government for support for about 44% of their funding. It asked for plans, which many believe will then be taken into account by the Ministry in the allocation of future funds. A follow up survey of national university presidents found that at least 26 had plans to stop accepting students into HSS programs, though the important universities of Tokyo and Kyoto have refused. 4Humanities responds to this directive.

Alan Wildeman on Ignoring the Liberal Arts

The President of the University of Windsor, Alan Wildeman, has contributed a piece to the Globe and Mail titled “We Ignore the Liberal Arts at Our Peril.” In it he argues for the humanities and social sciences.

The exhilaration of the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries has been replaced by the nervousness of what appears to be an Age of Justification in the 21st century. Moderm society’s love of innovative gadgets and apps, pronouncements that youth can now be taught on the Internet (and possibly become high-profile entrepreneurs to boot), and social media outpourings that give falsehoods as much airplay as truths, have created a cocktail of rhetoric for critics who are sure that a liberal arts degree is a worthless investment.

Wildeman mentions research from the Education and Policy Research Initiative to the effect that humanities and social science students start with earnings of around CAD $40,000 after graduation and are earning close to double that 13 years later. You can read a summary by of the lead researchers, Ross Finnie, in an Ottawa Citizen piece, “How Your Degree Might Influence Your Earning Potential.” Too many people are basing their opinions on the liberal arts based on short-term employment. (Read more…)

The Making of the Humanities Conferences and “Making of the Humanities IV”

By Floris Solleveld Final Call for Papers — “The Making of the Humanities IV”, Rome, 16-18 October 2014 The history of the humanities considered as a whole is still a young discipline. While there are well over a hundred institutes and graduate schools in the history of science, or the history and philosophy of science, […]

U of Alberta Suspends 20 Programs

On August 16th the Dean of Arts at the University of Alberta suspended admission to 20 small enrollment programs. (You can see a PDF of the memo here.) The programs suspended include programs in classics, a number of modern language programmes, printmaking, composition and theory, world music and technical theatre. Current students in these programmes […]