Cultural critic William Deresiewicz thinks it is getting harder and harder for people to find humanities-based learning in the modern academy. He offers some alternatives.–places were one can read deeply and engage ideas in such a way that might nourish […]
humanities
Another liberal arts college closes its doors
In the 1970s, Goddard College, a liberal arts school in Plainfield, Vermont with roots that go back to 1863, had 1900 students. Last week the Goddard administration announced the college is closing. It has 220 students. As David Jesse reports […]
What is happening at Valparaiso University?
Valparaiso University, the Lutheran college in northwest Indiana where I taught from 2000-2002 as a Lilly Fellow in Arts and Humanities, is considering cutting majors in German, Spanish, Global Studies, Music, Astronomy, International Relations, Theology, Theology and Ministry, and Philosophy. […]
Back in 1962 The Twilight Zone tackled the crisis of the humanities
It seems like there is an article on the fate of the humanities published every week these days. For example, check out Agnes Callard’s recent essay at The New York Times: “I Teach the Humanities, and I Still Don’t Know […]
History is one of the largest majors at conservative Hillsdale College. Why?
Conservative pundit and First Things senior editor Mark Bauerlein seems to have discovered that the number of history majors in the United States is in steep decline: Here is a link to the 2021 piece he references. The low number […]
Why aren’t there more places like the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research?
If I had my way, I would leave academia and try to create a non-profit like the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. If I could find funding for such a project, I would buy and old church and repurpose it […]
The National Endowment for the Humanities survives another attempt to cut its funding
Yesterday I wrote about how my congressman, Scott Perry (PA-10) tried to cut funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Well, it appears that Perry’s attempt failed. Here a message I received today from the National Humanities Alliance: “…the […]
My congressman, Scott Perry (PA-10), wants to defund the National Endowment for the Humanities
Here is the National Humanities Alliance: Later today, the House of Representatives will consider an amendment to the FY 2024 Interior Appropriations bill that would eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This amendment was proposed by Representative […]
What is going on at the University of North Carolina?
Here is Brianna Atkinson at WUNC-North Carolina Public Radio: “The UNC System Board of Governors allocated $3.7 billion of operating expenses from the state budget. The two-year funding plan includes money for new university programs, rural healthcare partnerships and faculty […]
Mintz: “A hard rain is about to fall” on higher education
Here is the University of Houston historian at Inside Higher Ed. He is talking about higher education in the wake of this and this and the first paragraph of this. The events of the past few days will, I think, […]
Tabor College chapel talk
Yesterday I had a great visit to Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas. Thanks to David Faber for hosting me and to Ryan Loewen and Erik Noren for opening up their classes to this visitor. One of my assignments was to […]
SUNY-Potsdam puts 14 degree programs on the chopping block. Mostly liberal arts.
The hits keep coming. Most of these proposed cuts are liberal arts programs. I am sure Daniel K. Williams, Christopher Gehrz, Sarah Huffines, Daniel Hummel, Dixie Dillon Lane (see here), Shirley Mullen, Betsy Lasch-Quinn, and Brad Frey might have something […]
Doctorversary
Fifteen years ago this week, I sat in a majestic seminar room in Princeton, NJ, with a phone to my left, the rest of my dissertation committee and other faculty members all around the rectangular table, as I defended my […]
Ideas in progress: David O’Hara on interdisciplinary humanities, sustainability, and bees
Social media can be depressing, but as Andrea Turpin reminded a while back, having a secret list of “Deeply Good People” can be a helpful way to bring to the fore the encouraging content. And some of the most encouraging […]
“Strangely enough, the humanities are faltering just at the moment when we’ve never needed them more.”
Apparently New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd just got an M.A. in English Literature from Columbia University. Here is a taste of her piece “Don’t Kill ‘Frankenstein’ With Real Frankensteins at Large“: And who is a better guide to covering […]
Ideas in Progress: Julie Durbin on vocation, mission, teaching, and the creative life (Part II)
In part I of this interview, you told the fascinating story of the many hats you have worn and currently wear—missionary and traveler, writer and musician, and of course, professor. So, let’s pick up now with this last one, in […]
“Good [humanities] teaching matters, but it can’t be measured”
Here is a taste of Johann Neem’s review of Gayle Greene’s Immeasurable Outcomes: Teaching Shakespeare in the Age of Algorithm: These are tough times for humanities professors. Flip through The Chronicle and the disillusionment jumps off the page. Post-pandemic students are disengaged. Colleges […]
Liberty University gives Ron DeSantis an honorary doctorate in the humanities
Ron DeSantis was at Liberty University on Friday morning. Watch: When I first heard that DeSantis was speaking at Liberty University, I thought that he might announce his presidential candidacy there. That didn’t happen, but here’s what did happen. 27:31: […]
What if students WANT the humanities in their college curriculum?
Most of the time, the well-merited jeremiads about the state of the humanities in American universities come from scholars. At the same time, most of the attacks themselves come from university administrators or system-level administrators (for state universities). But last […]
A college without the liberal arts is a vocational school
Historian Bret G. Devereaux asks, “Is a university a university without the liberal arts?” Here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home we have been asking this question for nearly a decade and a half. Here is Devereaux at The […]