„If we are inspired only by literature that reflects our own interests, all reading becomes a form of narcissism.“
Terry Eagleton
#humanities
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“The tragedy of the contemporary academy,” Frey concludes, “is that even when traditional liberal learning clearly wins with students and donors, it loses with those in power.”
“our crisis of the humanities is a crisis of academic leadership — a crisis of will, not capacity”
#HigherEd #Academia #Universities #Humanities
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“they are the “only faculty in the arts and sciences who systematically pay for themselves: they do not need expensive buildings; they do not require substantial material infrastructure or expensive data sets for research; …instruction in their fields is cheap.”
#HigherEd #Academia #Humanities
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https://www.chronicle.com/article/theyre-killing-the-humanities-on-purpose
I majored in humanities, mostly because at that time the Air Force Academy didn't offer a major in Russian...so I minored in that.
All that humanities schooling at a military academy, plus all the mandatory engineering/math/science courses mean that when I see a car roll by at night on The Strip, and it's got purple lights installed on the belly to shine on the pavement so that it looks like some alien sci-fi vehicle...I can recall all the history of the visual arts (tache, sfumato, impressionism, chiaroscuro, cubism, yadda-yadda-yadda) as well as the history of science, electromagnetic radiation, optics, human vision...which allows me to richly, fully, and completely understand and appreciate how stupid that is, lol!
I'm old, but not to the point that this music is too loud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1jmM2k6uU4
Reading Eve Sedgwick on the conventions of gothic novels. What a powerhouse. "These novels whose chief incidents are so similar are not predictable, either, in their resolutions, for comic endings, tragic endings, mixed endings, and endings where the book simply seems to die from exhaustion are all possibilities."
How lucky I am to get to spend my days reading and writing, and sharing what I know (and love) with my students.
Excellent news: A federal judge in Oregon has issued a preliminary injunction ruling that the NEH's termination of congressionally approved operating grants to state and jurisdictional humanities councils was unlawful. #Humanities #NEH #Law #Politics #Culture #US #USpol https://www.statehumanities.org/federation-granted-preliminary-injunction-in-lawsuit-against-neh/
Federation of State Humanities Councils · Federation of State Humanities Councils Granted Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Against NEH - Federation of State Humanities CouncilsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Hannah Hethmon, Communications Manager, Federation of State Humanities Councils (hhethmon@statehumanities.org) FEDERATION OF STATE HUMANITIES COUNCILS GRANTED PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION IN LAWSUIT AGAINST NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE … Read more
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In my work as an archaeologist, I like to tell people that the pattern you think you see is probably just random, and if it's not, then chances are you can never find out what it meant in the past. This drives more #humanities oriented colleagues nuts. 
Tomorrow is the first hearing in the Oregon Humanities and Federation of State Humanities Councils lawsuit against DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities for terminating grants to state and jurisdictional humanities councils. #Politics #Humanities #NEH #Oregon #US #USpol https://www.orartswatch.org/oregon-humanities-to-square-off-against-the-trump-administration-in-federal-court/
Oregon ArtsWatch • Arts & Culture NewsOregon Humanities to square off against the Trump Administration in federal court • Oregon ArtsWatchThe Oregon council's suit, which goes to federal court in Portland beginning Aug. 4, comes as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, also targeted by Trump, announces it will be forced to shut down next year.
For those of us in the humanities, the last 20 years have often felt like a siege. But maybe we’ve reached a nadir. Here are a few links that may provide a needed boost for the new semester.
#AI #HigherEd #humanities #DH #digitalhumanities
https://foundhistory.org/2025/08/briefly-noted-for-august-3-2025-some-good-news-for-the-humanities/
Who knew? Edgar Allan Poe foreshadowed The Big Lebowski in the essay, "The Philosophy of Furnitue," where he writes: "A carpet is the soul of the apartment."
The joys of studying the humanities!
Mellon Foundation: It's time to get out the word that humanities grads can find a great job. They do just fine in employment rates, job satisfaction, and salaries.
www.mellon.orgMellon FoundationThe Mellon Foundation makes grants to actively unlock the power in the arts and humanities that helps connect us all.
Hey guys, gals, and nonbinary pals!
My name is E. and I've decided to join Mastodon. Let me start with this small introductory toot.
I'm 23 y. o. guy from #Russia who loves #history and #humanities . I'm also very enthusiastic about #coffee , #furry stuff, #nature , and #cycling .
I'm also a bit of a #femboy ! Unfortunately, it's dangerous to explore this part of myself while I'm in Russia. One day I'll leave and will be able to wear a skirt proudly.
Once again, hi everybody!
Replied to RaymondPierreL3
@RaymondPierreL3 I cannot speak for Australia, but it is clear in the US. The Republican Taliban prefer the uneducated who have not be taught to think and to look for better ways, because (they think) these people will make better workers and not question authority. People in the humanities are by definition taught to question everything, think critically, and debate authority, even biblical authority, and those in power here see that as blasphemous, especially if those people are female. When our nations decline because we breed and educate to create morons and automatons, "there will be no joy in saying ‘we told you so'."
Greame Turner, as a final comment, writes:
“The attack on the humanities that has slowly gathered momentum over recent years, and which is perfectly encapsulated in the self-serving utterances of university administrations defending their latest round of reckless and ill-informed depradations, is just plain shameful.
We should be doing better than this.
There are consequences, and they will eventually come, but there will be no joy in saying ‘we told you so’.”
That’s the bit that scared me the most in his short blog about the current plight (decades in the making) of our priceless tertiary institutions, its ‘consequences’.
I did not discern a specific answer to what he was asked: Why does the govt hate the #Humanities so much? But he does unpack that question very well. If we are to fix anything, it is imperative we know about what needs to be fixed. Turner goes some ways to lay it out and is worth the read.
If his writing doesn’t spur you to action (whatever that action might be) then you still do not understand the problem. If that is so, please endeavour to find out more about the plight of our tertiary sector and its vital importance to our society.
#AusPol #Anti_Intellectualism #TertiarySector #NeoLiberalism #Corporatism #MarketDrivenMadness #ANU #Go8 #BeanCounters #RunawayCapitalism #Education #NationalDictionary
Read more:
https://graemeturner.org/2025/07/20/why-do-they-hate-the-humanities-academics-are-asking/
Worth a read from historian Ed Dunsworth.
"On Generative AI in the Classroom: Give Up, Give In, or Stand Up" (June 2025)
Active History · On Generative AI in the Classroom: Give Up, Give In, or Stand UpEdward Dunsworth Two approaches dominate discussion about how professors should handle generative “artificial intelligence” in the classroom: give up or give in. Give up. Faced with a powerful new …
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”
Fernando Pessoa
"The Meanings of a Publication in the Humanities: Meaning, text, and authorship in critical perspective" by
Marcel Knöchelmann: https://doi.org/10.1163/18784712-20240036
#publications #humanities #authorship #tradition #culture
[Preprint: https://marcel-knoechelmann.de/2025/07/23/the-meanings-of-a-publication-in-the-humanities/]
Brill · The Meanings of a Publication in the HumanitiesAbstract A publication is meaningful in manifold ways. It is more than text and object, whether digital or physical. A writer, for example, sees a book as a great achievement within a tradition of thought. The corresponding reader finds in the same publication a hermeneutic device. For public discourse, the latest bestselling crossover book provides handy information to special interest readers. To philistine management, a publication is formal authorship in a research assessment exercise. And to varying degrees, all four such personas come together in the ordinary scholar, making the different types of meaning an imbricated whole. In this article, I provide a language for this meaningfulness. I make use of cultural theory to demonstrate four notions of meaning. This helps us to understand the way humanities scholars and other actors in contemporary academia deal with publications. I further illustrate what these abstract notions mean in practice with the recent monograph Also a History in Philosophy by Jürgen Habermas.
"The Meanings of a Publication in the Humanities: Meaning, text, and authorship in critical perspective" by
Marcel Knöchelmann: https://doi.org/10.1163/18784712-20240036
#publications #humanities #authorship #tradition #culture
[Preprint: https://marcel-knoechelmann.de/2025/07/23/the-meanings-of-a-publication-in-the-humanities/]
Brill · The Meanings of a Publication in the HumanitiesAbstract A publication is meaningful in manifold ways. It is more than text and object, whether digital or physical. A writer, for example, sees a book as a great achievement within a tradition of thought. The corresponding reader finds in the same publication a hermeneutic device. For public discourse, the latest bestselling crossover book provides handy information to special interest readers. To philistine management, a publication is formal authorship in a research assessment exercise. And to varying degrees, all four such personas come together in the ordinary scholar, making the different types of meaning an imbricated whole. In this article, I provide a language for this meaningfulness. I make use of cultural theory to demonstrate four notions of meaning. This helps us to understand the way humanities scholars and other actors in contemporary academia deal with publications. I further illustrate what these abstract notions mean in practice with the recent monograph Also a History in Philosophy by Jürgen Habermas.
Looking forward to reading this when it’s out:
Bourgeois coldness by Henrike Kohpeiß
'Bourgeois coldness refers to an affective strategy that offers an explanation for how self-preservation works. Bourgeois coldness is one of the most advanced affective and aesthetic forms of preserving the structure of the colonial status quo. It creates an affective shelter in the world, unencroached upon by the immediate consequences of its many catastrophes. It functions like air conditioning – a complex technology which reliably stabilises the climate until those inside consider it natural. Bourgeois spaces – institutional and affective – stay cool and pleasant. But outside it’s burning.'
Divided PublishingBourgeois ColdnessBourgeois coldness refers to an affective strategy that offers an explanation for how self-preservation works. Bourgeois coldness is one...
