News articles and commentary on the place of the humanities in the modern world.
The humanities bring home the (Canadian) bacon (Nikki Wiart, Maclean’s)
The humanities bring home the bacon: a Canadian study looks at the earnings power of humanities and liberal arts graduates. From the article: [Ross Finnie, Director of Ottawa's Education Policy Research Initiative] says more research can help pinpoint [...]
Business people need the liberal arts (Yoni Applebaum, The Atlantic)
Business people need the liberal arts: why more than specialization is required to succeed in business when you're really trying. From the article: Businesses want workers who have “the ability to think, the ability to [...]
Gnomic genomics of happiness (Will Storr, The New Yorker)
Gnomic genomics of happiness: is happiness in our genes, and can our euphoria alter the way our genes express themselves? From the article: The study indicated that people high in eudaemonic happiness were more likely to [...]
STEM without poetry is like life without metaphor (Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy and Uri Wilensky, Hechinger Report)
STEM without poetry is like life without metaphor: how scientists may improve their writing and understanding by reading literature. From the editorial: It is within the lines of poetry that students can discover, celebrate and appreciate [...]
How can we reintegrate knowledge in a simple and useful way? (Charles Eames)
How can we reintegrate knowledge in a simple and useful way? Forty years ago, a leading designer reflects on the challenges created by divisions in higher education. From the article: Unfortunately, universities today are becoming [...]
Caring for the soul: where psychiatry and religion meet (Richard Gallagher, Washington Post)
Caring for the soul: where psychiatry and religion meet. Religion and science collaborate in order to help the spiritually afflicted, and thereby challenge the doctrinal conventions of each. From the editorial: Is it possible to [...]
Thinking, feeling, reading (Susan Reynolds, Psychology Today)
Thinking, feeling, reading: how not just what you read, but how you read, affects your soul and self. From the article: Recent research also revealed that “deep reading”—defined as reading that is slow, immersive, rich [...]
Natural empathy and artificial intelligence (Satya Nadella, Slate)
Natural empathy and artificial intelligence: the CEO of Microsoft calls for a greater appreciation of the human condition as computational technology becomes more sophisticated. From the editorial: At a developer conference earlier this year, I shared [...]
Liberal arts needed in the tech world (David Kalt, Wall Street Journal)
Liberal arts needed in the tech world: why having a facility for languages, of all sorts, enhances the richness of software development. From the editorial: Most liberal arts degrees encourage a well-rounded curriculum that can give [...]
AI is coming, and it’s our boon (Brian Fung, Washington Post)
AI is coming, and it's our boon: how working with computers and technology can, in fact, aid the inquiry into ourselves. From the editorial: Making artificial intelligence easy for regular people to use and love depends on [...]