Voices For the Humanities

4Humanities is a platform for people from different parts of society and the world to give voice to the enduring and contemporary importance of the humanities. Why study and creative expression in such areas as literature, history, languages, philosophy, classics, art history, cultural studies, and others (see “What Are the Humanities?”) so valuable to individuals and societies? The voices gathered here say why.

* 4Humanities seeks out both original and reposted statements about the humanities from people in business, the sciences, entertainment, universities, high schools, and other sectors. We also report on significant developments and initiatives related to the humanities.

* Listen to the voices in our sections on “Advocacy Statements & Campaigns,” “The Changing Humanities,” “Student Voices,” and “International Correspondents.”

* Also listen to the voices gathered in our special projects “Humanities, Plain & Simple” and “Backpack Mini-documentaries.”

For those wishing to consult resources in framing their own statement for the humanities, 4Humanities offers a “Guide to Issues in Humanities Advocacy” and its “The Humanities Matter!” infographic.

Public Research Competition 2011 at the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta is running an innovative graduate student competition for ideas and strategies for communicating Arts (Humanities, Social Sciences and Fine/Performing Arts) research to the public. See Public Research Competition 2011 – Faculty of Arts – University of Alberta. The idea is that graduate students get a limited amount of time to pitch […]

Insider Higher Ed: Views: Sorry

Stephen Brockmann has penned an essay for Inside Higher Ed titled Sorry which looks back on the “culture wars” and how the humanities was replaced by vocational programmes while we were arguing over the canon. The battle between self-identified conservatives and progressives in the 1980s seems increasingly like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. […]

What Would It Take to Create a Humanities Journal With the Public Impact of a Science Journal Like Nature?

In a recent post on Research Blogs, Christopher Pressler—Director of Senate House Libraries, University of London—reflects on “whether it is possible, or indeed even wise to start a journal in the humanities that has a similar market profile as Nature‚ the critical and popular science journal.” Nature, he observes, has the following characteristics: Highest prestige […]

Blaming Government, But Not Showing Why They Matter: A Critique of the Humanities

In a reflective opinion piece of 7 January 2011 in the BBC News Magazine, Alain de Botton—“philosopher and writer”—takes a sympathetic, but also sternly critical, view of the plight of the humanities under the threat of “cuts” in the United Kingdom. “If asked to apportion blame for what has happened to their departments,” he says, […]

A Humanities University Goes into Exile for the “Autonomy” to “Think Critically”

As Inside Higher Ed recently reported, the European Humanities University (EHU) “may be unique in the world in that it operates today completely as a university in exile.” Formed in Belarus in 1992, the university was forced to close by its home government in 2004. Subsequently, as EHU’s “About” page says, it “re-launched activities in […]

Allan Goodman: Universities Should Produce “As Many Poets as Physicists”

Interviewed by Times Higher Education in the U.K., Allan Goodman, President and CEO of the non-profit Institute for International Education, argues that universities should produce “as many poets as physicists.” From Times Higher Education: Business should pay for degrees in subjects such as science and technology, with public funding directed towards the arts and humanities, […]

The Importance of the Humanities for African-American Students

Writing in The Chronicle Review in the Opinion & Ideas section of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Marybeth Gasman — an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania — reflects on cuts to the undergraduate curriculum being considered at Howard University, one of the U.S.’s historically black universities. Gasman […]