News articles and commentary on the place of the humanities in the modern world.
The Clarion Call for STEM (New York Times)
The clarion call for STEM: state legislatures and politicians -- from both parties -- stress education in the sciences, rather than in the humanities and arts: taxpayers should subsidize, the argument goes, those courses of [...]
Math and science are liberal arts (Cecilia Gaposchkin, The Conversation)
The liberal arts include the sciences, and the sciences make use of the approaches the humanities bring to observation and inquiry. The author writes: The idea that STEM is something separate and different than the liberal arts [...]
Engineering the bridges between humanities and sciences (Julio M. Ottino and Gary Saul Morson, Chronicle of Higher Education)
The ways engineering, in order to succeed, requires training in the humanities (for example, Russian literature) and vice versa!
Science needs the humanities (Edward Giuliano, Washington Post)
The President of the New York Institute of Technology explains why the humanities are vital for scientific and medical inquiry.
What’s Wrong with the Humanities? (Bruce Cole, Public Discourse)
Words of warning from the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The humanities are declining because too many humanities scholars are alienating students and the public with their opacity, triviality, and irrelevance.
Liberal arts and success in life (U.S. News)
Richard Detweiler's study suggests that a liberal arts education is associated with greater odds for students to become leaders, be seen as ethical, appreciate arts and culture and lead a more fulfilling and happy life.
Henry VIII’s football malady
Henry VIII may have been knocked in the head, according to an expert in cognitive neurology.
Digital companies require liberal arts majors (Harvard Business Review)
What can’t be replaced in any organization imaginable in the future is precisely what seems overlooked today: liberal arts skills, such as creativity, empathy, listening, and vision. These skills, not digital or technological ones, will hold the [...]
Forgetting Cervantes in Spain (El Pais)
“All the recent Spanish governments have been contemptuous of culture, but the current one is downright aggressive towards it” - Arturo Pérez Reverte
Prisoners, liberal arts, and freedom (France 24)
What happens when convicted murderers are taught liberal arts? According to hundreds of US felons who have gained degrees in philosophy, literature and history, higher education is transformative for both the student and society.