How the humanities heal: a doctor’s perspective (Audrey Shafer, Medscape)
A physician recalls not only her own past, but also the history of health care that involves the greater story about the human condition.
14
03, 2017
11
03, 2017
The Question of the Humanities
The Question of the Humanities: the editor of Humanities Watch weighs questions the humanities ask, and are asked, concerning their relation to the sciences, technology, and business interests. Text of the remarks can be found here.
8
03, 2017
Medicine finds its roots in the humanities (J. Kutac, R. Osipov, A. Childress, Journal of Medical Humanities)
How the current shape of healthcare can learn much from investigating Renaissance perspectives on the human condition, and the manner in which humanists describe this condition.
26
02, 2017
DNA and dynasty: tracing history through science (Andrew Curry, National Geographic)
Modern DNA analysis reveals clues to changes in Native American society beginning in the ninth century CE.
22
02, 2017
Humanities in the Age of Big Data
Humanities in the Age of Big Data: an historian tries to unravel the consequences for ourselves and our way of life. Dataism is a new ethical system that says, yes, humans were special and important because up until now they were the most sophisticated data processing system in the universe, but this is no longer [...]
15
02, 2017
The humanities at Davos (YaleNews)
The humanities at Davos: Yale's President Peter Salovey, a scholar of emotional intelligence, speaks at the World Economic Forum about the place of humanities. From the article: Speaking at the reception ... Salovey emphasized the ways that the humanities can promote understanding, such as how the study of languages can provide insights into a culture, reading literature can [...]
28
01, 2017
The busyness of business, the practice of inwardness (R. Hougaard, J. Carter, G. Dybkjaer, Harvard Business Review)
The busyness of business, and the practice of inwardness: how business leaders are profiting from the ancient method of mindfulness, as it leads to more rewarding decisions. From the article: Research has found that mindfulness training alters our brains and how we engage with ourselves, others, and our work. When practiced and applied, mindfulness fundamentally alters the operating [...]
22
01, 2017
Humanities aid the growth of STEM (Neil Kobitz, Chronicle for Higher Education)
Humanities aid the growth of STEM: a mathematics professor calculates their value, an important formula...when others are now estimating the worth of the NEH as close to zero. From the editorial: ... [F]or STEM majors, as much as for other future professionals, a broad background in the humanities is likely to give them a tremendous advantage in [...]
15
01, 2017
Mocking the humanities (George Will, Pittsburgh Tribune)
Mocking the humanities: a pundit recounts how a scientist used parody -- a classic literary mode of expression -- to mock academic practices in the humanities. From the commentary: Alan Sokal's point ... was that intellectual inquiry in the humanities often is not open. The humanities, he today tells The Chronicle, had become a “subculture” [...]
31
12, 2016
The English we thought we knew (Lennox Morrison, BBC Capital)
The English we thought we knew: now that the majority of English speakers is non-native, how is that changing the language, our prime means of communication? Is the English-speaking world getting larger, or more fragmented: more coherent, or more incoherent? And what does this portend for the learning of other languages? From the article: With non-native English speakers [...]