Fragile humanities: the credibility problem and a way forward. From the commentary:

[T]he humanities have a credibility problem. That problem takes two forms: first, the lack of public trust in humanities scholars’ processes of inquiry and expert conclusions…. The second credibility problem facing the humanities is with respect to political advocacy…. For all our political and policy views and all our expertise, the conflation of our scholarship and our political advocacy doesn’t improve our credibility; it undermines it….

In defining themselves in opposition to professionalized, utilitarian institutions, the humanities obviously aren’t cozying up to big business, so their credibility problem isn’t the same as that of the sciences in that regard. But when humanities scholars and advocates lead with activist political commitments, they run into a problem comparable to the one scientists face when their work is embedded in political institutions: People see it as less trustworthy because of the possibility that it’s rooted in cynical political objectives rather than scholarship.

For everyone invested in the institutional future of the humanities, it’s clear there’s a fork in the road. Down one path is understanding the humanities foremost as knowledge work and therefore requiring institutional and civic credibility to function and thrive. That would mean letting go of the oppositional identity that, from the beginning, has both defined humanities scholarship and kept it on the institutional margins. But it might also open up new collaborative possibilities, allowing humanists to partner with the sciences, not simply as critics or ethical watchdogs but as problem-solvers with knowledge and skills often lacking in other fields….

Down the other path is understanding the humanities as a kind of pure activism committed to rejecting the values that govern institutional and civic credibility. To truly embrace that attitude would be to give up on perennial pleas for institutional support in the form of research funding and tenured faculty positions. But it might also mean reimagining new institutional homes for humanities work, alongside different venues for publication beyond the paywalled academic journal, such as podcasts and literary magazines. Many humanities scholars and advocates believe the university is irreparably broken, but that doesn’t mean a homeless humanities, just a different, more nurturing home.

For other posts on the crisis of humanities, see here.