Jim Cullen, a history teacher at Greenwich County Day School and a Current contributing editor, talks to his class: We’re in my “Money and Morals” elective, where we’ve been reading Hernan Diaz’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning 2022 novel Trust, a fun-house mirror of postmodernism […]
humanities
Reviving intellectual life in the university is “more than simply promoting the humanities or encouraging interdisciplinary study”
Earlier today I posted on Steven Mintz’s categorization of university professors. Read it here and figure out where you fall in Mintz’s taxonomy. Mintz’s categorized professors as part of his larger thoughts on how to make universities less anti-intellectual. Here […]
Julie Durbin invites students to “A Way of Pilgrimage in the World.”
What students need to learn is more than just information—a what. What they need is a how and with whom—a way of pilgrimage in the world.
Philosopher-carpenters
My father and brother are carpenters. My other brother is a plumber. I am a college professor. I thus naturally gravitated to Alex Sosler’s Plough article on schools that blend the life of the mind with the life of the […]
No, accreditation requirements won’t save the humanities
Gutting the humanities in declining institutions never stops the decline–but leaders still try.
To go or not to go: graduate school
Graduate school in the humanities is a gamble.
“Students would stop, perhaps look over at a bookshelf, or just say, point-blank, that they didn’t read.”Â
Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Beth McMurtrie writes: Students seem increasingly cynical about the value of college, transactional in their approach to learning, and frustrated by their coursework. On college tours and in admissions literature, they are promised […]
National Endowment for the Humanities announces August 2024 grant winners
Here are a few of the grants that caught my eye: William Okie (Outright: $35,000)[Public Scholars]Kennesaw State University AND A CURRENT AUTHOR!Project Title: The Hidden Histories of Wayside PlantsProject Description: Writing a book about the natural and cultural history of […]
Former Cornerstone University professors start “Contrary U”
After Cornerstone University fired humanities professor Matt Bonzo and Michael Stevens (and others), the chair of the Board of Trustees implied that they were “contrarians.” If you are not familiar with what happened at Cornerstone, check out our coverage here. […]
Pope Francis defends the humanities
Here is a taste Pope Francis’s letter to candidates for the Catholic priesthood: “On the Role of Literature in Formation” 1. I had originally chosen to give this Letter a title referring to priestly formation.On further reflection, however, this subject […]
Cornerstone University president Gerson Moreno-Riaño says the quiet parts out loud
I was going to take some time off from the blog this weekend to get some work done on a book manuscript, but this story pulled me back, Michael Corleone-style. (Not familiar with what is going on these days at […]
A Cornerstone University alum laments
Amy Houskamp Nemecek is a senior editor at Baker Publishing Group and the author of The Language of the Birds and Other Poets. She is a graduate of Cornerstone University, a Christian college that just cut virtually all of its […]
The chair of Cornerstone University’s Board of Trustees responds to the school’s cuts in arts and humanities (UPDATED)
Are you new to this story? Get up to speed here. The alumni of Cornerstone University recently received this statement from Richard S. Koole, chair of the Cornerstone University Board. Current was able to obtain a copy: Fellow Alumni, Like […]
Religion News Service on the crisis at Cornerstone University
Here is Kathryn Post: Meredith Mead, a conservative Christian with a love of words, enrolled in Cornerstone University three years ago, choosing the 83-year-old nondenominational school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, over other top Christian schools because of its creative writing […]
Cornerstone University alumni push back on school cuts to arts and humanities program
As many of you know, we have been covering the cuts at Cornerstone University. Get up to speed here. Members of the Cornerstone University community have come together to form a new website: “VOICE OF CU: Coming together to shed […]
More questions about Cornerstone University’s decision to fire humanities professors
Not familiar with this story? Get up to speed here and here and here. Cornerstone University is trying to refute our claims that it has eliminated all arts and humanities programs. In an interview with MinistryWatch blogger Warren Cole Smith, Cornerstone spokesperson Heide […]
Cornerstone University alumni react to the termination of Arts, Music, and Humanities programs
Cornerstone University recently terminated its Arts, Music, and Humanities programs. Tenured faculty were fired. Get up to speed here and here. Some of our sources in Grand Rapids have gathered these comments from Cornerstone alums and former students: A Journalism […]
“Welcome to East Beltline Trade and Vocational School”
David L. Turner, a former professor at Cornerstone University’s Cornerstone Theological Seminary (formerly Grand Rapids Theological Seminary), reflects on the recent cuts to Humanities and Arts programs at Cornerstone. Here is a taste of his blog post: Bad news about […]
Cornerstone University responds to our story on faculty cuts and the termination of humanities and arts programs
Earlier this week, we called your attention to Cornerstone University’s decision to fire tenured professors and terminate all humanities and arts programs. Get up to speed here. Yesterday, WOOD TV-8 the Grand Rapids NBC affiliate, did a story on our […]
Cornerstone University fires tenured professors and terminates all humanities and arts programs
I recently finished Rick Ostrander’s memoir focused on his career in evangelical higher education. Among Rick’s many stops in Christian college leadership was Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He served as provost at the university from 2009 to 2015. […]