Humanities
Want to Save the Humanities? Make College Free.
It's time to shift the social contract of education away from short-term job training toward long-term development. And free college has to be part of that shift.
Academics Want to Do More Public Writing. How Can We Help Them?
It's long past time for every discipline to count and valorize all scholarly work, even or especially when it's aimed at an extramural audience.
In the Age of Trump, We Need Cutting-Edge Humanities More Than Ever
The latest academic hoax emerges from the same ideological position as the Trump administration's attack on trans rights.
Down With Facebook. Long Live the Red Book?
A new book argues that American democracy depends on an unlikely source: the English department.
Conservative Media Is Waging a War on the Humanities, and It's Succeeding
An influential conservative online ecosystem targets teachers whose expressed opinions question the dominance of white men.
To Be a Good Doctor, Study the Humanities
An emphasis on the humanities in medical school trains future doctors to become proficient in the social and cultural context of health care.
The Humanities Are Dead. Long Live the Humanities.
It's true that much of the scholarship that professors in the humanities produce is micro-focused and barely relevant to larger social concerns. But those academics would also be best served by ignoring that critique.
Studying Humanities Teaches You How to Get a Job
Forget the tut-tutting of politicians: The skills you learn in the humanities are exactly the skills you use in a job search.
We Need to Assess Assessments
Why our methods of measurement in academia matter.
The Future of the Humanities: Reading
As technology advances, doomsaying remains constant.
Killing the Bard
English Ph.D.'s and astrophysicists unite! Devan Kreisberg explains that it’s not just the humanities that are under attack, but exploration for its own sake—and that anthropology and astronomy are equally at risk.
The Future of Work: Navigating the Whitewater
The latest entry in a special project in which business and labor leaders, social scientists, technology visionaries, activists, and journalists weigh in on the most consequential changes in the workplace.
Grad School's Mental Health Problem
Navigating the emotional stress of doctoral programs in a down market.
The First Americans
Until recently, the reigning theory on who the first Homo sapiens in North America were pointed to the Clovis people, evidence of whose culture was discovered in the American Southwest. That theory has been powerfully challenged by, among others, Meadowcroft, an archaeological dig in western Pennsylvania that began in the 1970s.
Devastation of 1918: Finding Pockets of Hope in the Great Flu Pandemic
The influenza pandemic of 1918 has taught us many lessons and, according to new research, some of them are decidedly low-tech.
The American Language: A Historical Database of English in the U.S.
The Corpus of Historical American English is making it easier than ever to discover subtleties of American usage.
What's the Economic Value of an Arts Education?
While it's not perfectly tangible, the financial value of a degree in the humanities certainly exists.
Save the Humanities—From Themselves
The humanities and social sciences in America could use a white knight, but instead they got a white elephant.