News articles and commentary on the place of the humanities in the modern world.
The master economy and student majors (Jeffrey Dorfman, Forbes)
The master economy and student majors: should states grant incentives to students to select a particular course of study? Dorfman says no: The logic behind such proposals is that state funding should be concentrated on [...]
The fight over liberal arts education in Japan (Rie Mori, AAC&U)
The fight over liberal arts education in Japan. The humanities and liberal arts are under pressure from the government, but have allies in the business community. From the article: the national government wants to focus national [...]
Scholars bulldozing history (George Will, Washington Post)
Scholars bulldozing history. How Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study will demolish an important site of the American Revolution: the Battle of Princeton. From the article: In today’s academia there are many scholars against scholarship, including [...]
Where it’s at: the mystery and origins of the @ symbol (BBC News)
Where it's at: or better, where "at" (@) has been. What is modern is ancient, if we should notice. From the article: "The earliest yet discovered reference to the @ symbol is a religious one. [...]
Computers transform our knowledge of the past (James O’Malley, Little Atoms)
Computers transform our knowledge of the past. According to the author, computerized quantitative analysis offers insights that traditional historical study cannot. From the article: Huge swathes of our past are slowly but surely getting digitised [...]
A classics major adds value for engineering and STEM (Forbes)
A classics major adds value for engineering and STEM: a profile of Tim O'Reilly, who brings classical ethics and eloquence to the world of technology. From the article: O’Reilly has a deep understanding of how [...]
How humanities teach us the art of life (Arnold Weinstein, New York Times)
How the humanities teach us the art of life. A professor of literature asks about life's greater meaning, which the humanities may provide. According to the author, "The humanities interrogate us. They challenge our sense of [...]
In Canada, the liberal arts are still relevant (iPolitics)
In Canada, the liberal arts are still relevant, for their relationship with STEM fields fosters innovation and enterprise. From the post: A March 2016 report from The Business Council of Canada surveyed 90 Canadian employers who said [...]
What employers want from college graduates (AAC&U)
What employers want: employees with liberal arts and humanities sensibilities. What employees lack: these sensibilities .... The article states: that "employers overwhelmingly endorse broad learning and cross-cutting skills as the best preparation for long-term career success. However, [...]
Historian uses new technology to uncover the layers of religious history (EurekAlert)
A 1535 Latin Bible, owned by Henry VIII, contains annotations from the "great" English Bible written between 1539 and 1549, and were discovered recently by Dr. Eyal Poleg, a historian at the University of London [...]