Why the Humanities Matter A roundtable discussion

You may ask questions at any point during the discussion by typing in the Questions panel. Questions we cannot get to during the live session will be answered after the webinar.

Meet the Panel

Caitlin Pollock Digital Humanities librarian for the Center for Digital Scholarship at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis's University Library. Pollock serves as the liaison librarian to the Department of Philosophy and the Programs of Africana Studies and Classical Studies. She works with humanities faculty and student to incorporate digital tools in their curriculum and research as well as encouraging digital scholarship on IUPUI's campus. Pollock's research interests include the role of libraries and librarians in digital humanities research and projects, library history, digital humanities pedagogy, 19th century African American female activists, and the intersection of African American women and institutions of higher education. Pollock placed third in the National Endowment for the Humanities Chronicling America Data Challenge.

Moderator: Eric Piper, Wiley Editor

Dr. Ethan Kleinberg Editor-in-Chief of History and Theory Kleinberg is a professor of History and Letters at Wesleyan University who works of the acrobatics of modern thought and Director of the Center for Humanities. In 2011 he was Directeur d’études invité at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Professor Kleinberg’s theoretical approach is mainly characterized by the interdisciplinary interplay between theory of history, literature, and continental philosophy. When he isn’t contemplating the spectral nature of the past he likes to play beach volleyball and bodysurf.

Dr. Willem B. Drees Editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science Drees is also the professor of philosophy of the humanities, and dean of the Tilburg School of Humanities, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He is also noted for his inaugural address of January 2015, Naked Ape or Techno Sapiens? The Relevance of Human Humanities. He has twice received a Fulbright Grant, spending periods for research in Berkeley, Chicago, and Princeton.

Dr. Chris Higgins Editor of Educational Theory Author, The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) Higgins is an Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he serves as. His scholarly work draws on virtue ethics, hermeneutics, existentialism, and pragmatism to illuminate questions about the nature of teaching and the aims of education. He served as co-director of an NEH Summer Institute on The Centrality of Translation to the Humanities: New Interdisciplinary Scholarship (2013). He is currently co-directing a research cluster on Public Humanities for the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.

Taking a step back, do you think this period of self-reflection has been

healthy for the Humanities? What have we learned about the nature of these fields from being forced to give an

account of their value?

VALUE

Taking a step back, do you think this period of self-reflection has been healthy for the Humanities? What have we learned about the nature of these fields from being forced to give an account of their value?

VALUE

“In the end, the humanities can only be defended by stressing how indispensable they are; and this means insisting on their vital role in the whole business of academic learning, rather than protesting that, like some poor relation, they don't cost much to be housed.” – Terry Eagleton, literary theorist, critic and public intellectual

“Creativity is essential to particle physics, cosmology, and to mathematics, and to other fields of science, just as it is to its more widely acknowledged beneficiaries - the arts and humanities.” –Lisa Randall, theoretical physicist

How are Humanities programs creatively engaging with the changes in education? What are some of the ways that you and your departments

are rethinking your activities?

CREATIVITY

CREATIVITY How are Humanities programs creatively engaging with the changes in education? What are some of the ways that you and your departments are rethinking your activities?

“The arts and humanities define who we are as a people. That is their power ― to remind us of what we each have to offer, and what we all have in common. To help us understand our history and imagine our future. To give us hope in the moments of struggle and to bring us together when nothing else will.” –First Lady Michelle Obama “It must be admitted that scientists today take little interest in philosophy of science.... It is not an indication that philosophical issues are no longer relevant. Rather, it is a consequence of the increasingly specialized nature of science, and of the polarization between the sciences and humanities that characterizes the modern education system.”-Samir Okasha, philosopher of science

Classics scholar Alexander Beecroft has posed the idea of “two cultures” in defending the Humanities. One camp emphasizes their

role in promoting practical skills such as critical thinking. Others argue that the

Humanities needn’t be useful to be justified —that there’s an intrinsic value to studying

works of human culture. What do you see the most important arguments in supporting

Humanities programs?

PRACTICALITY

PRACTICALITY One camp emphasizes their role in promoting practical skills such as critical thinking. Others argue that the Humanities needn’t be useful to be justified —that there’s an intrinsic value to studying works of human culture. What do you see the most important arguments in supporting Humanities programs?

“It is a convenient truth: You go into the humanities to pursue your intellectual passion; and it just so happens, as a by-product, that you emerge as a desired commodity for industry.” ― Damon Horowitz, writer

“[T]he strongest defense of the humanities lies not in the appeal to their utility — that literature majors may find good jobs, that theaters may economically revitalize neighborhoods — but rather in the appeal to their defiantly nonutilitarian character, so that individuals can know more than how things work, and develop their powers of discernment and judgment, their competence in matters of truth and goodness and beauty, to equip themselves adequately for the choices and the crucibles of private and public life.” ― Leon Wieseltier, editor and author

What are some of the most exciting trends in Humanities research – either in

specific fields or across different disciplines? How do you think this study will evolve over the next several years?

EVOLUTION

EVOLUTION What are some of the most exciting trends in Humanities research – either in specific fields or across different disciplines? How do you think this study will evolve over the next several years?

“[The humanities] all teach critical thinking skills, reading and writing skills. These are skills that you can use in any career…It’s because they bring those skills of reading, writing, and thinking to whatever job they occupy. So I think there is clearly an instrumental value to all of the humanities, or a practical application to all of the humanities, but there is also the lifelong love of learning. Studying the humanities allows for a student to develop skills or capacities for curiosities.” –Sally Scholz, feminist philosopher

“The value of an education in a liberal arts college is the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.” -Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist

QUESTIONS?

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