Muscular Humanities

AJS Perspectives, 2020

Documenta, 2020

e Quanti cation of Qualities e tension at universities between the humanities and the exact sciences is an old sore. e cause is known: the humanities are increasingly measured according to the methods and rules of validation of the exact or positive sciences. Positivism asserts that all genuine knowledge should be based on facts, obtained through observation and measurements, which allow for veri cation. Such facts should thus preferably be countable and/or measurable, so that control is possible. is quanti able condition of the scienti c method evolved into an unbalanced institutional relationship with a preponderance of the exact sciences over the humanities. e result is that broadly interested and committed intellectuals had to make way for specialists and experts. ese days, even entire departments and faculties are being ousted from the university. In 2016, for example, the University of Rotterdam's Faculty of Philosophy was shut down because it was said to be unpro table. 1 It is in other words not so much the exact sciences that "threaten" the humanities, but rather higher expectations regarding pro t margins. e positive sciences simply attract more students, who can then o en move on to the business world, and they also supply far higher ratings in terms of scienti c output. On the level of research, too, a mentality geared towards pro tability is by now a well-known ailment. It is not what you write that counts; the decisive elements are how much you publish as well as the impact factor and ranking of the journal in which your writings appear. And the management that arose in university governance during the 1990s is forever at the ready to measure all these factors to see whether we are still able to compete with the rest of the world. e grievance is perennial as well as the lament among scholars that accompanies it. 2 e logic of quanti cation is a numerical logic based on the assumption that (scienti c) quality can be expressed in quantity. ese days it seems to pop up everywhere in the ubiquitous evidence-based education, research, and policy. It concerns a technique of measurement that Margaret atcher once implemented in order to make the National Health Service and education "more e cient" in

Rendezvous Journal of Arts and Letters, 2017

In Permanent Crisis, Reitter and Wellmon have provided a timely account of the nineteenth century debates in the German academy that shaped the structural armature of the modern research university. Discord and discontent are inherent in the institutional culture of the humanities, making humanists exquisitely tuned to see attacks coming at them on all fronts. The argument is illustrated and extended by observations from J. Hillis Miller, an eminent literary critic, and opportunities literary critics have missed in using the Internet to reach citizen-humanists and enrich civic life. I use Plato's The Crito and Goethe's Faust as two examples of core humanities texts that have enriched and guided my own life.

Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 2014

June 2013 was a notable month for Americans devoted to the humanities, marked by the release of two major-and very different-reports. First out of the gate was 'The Teaching of the Arts and Humanities at Harvard College: Mapping the Future' (Harvard University, Arts and Humanities Division, 2013). Just a few weeks later, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013) published 'The Heart of the Matter: The Humanities and Social Sciences for a Vibrant, Competitive and Secure Nation,' which takes as its central task making a case for the crucial importance of the humanities and social sciences to Americans and America. These reports differ in some basic and important ways: the former was commissioned by Harvard College for its own members, though with a clear eye to a wider audience, and its major concern is to articulate and analyze the distinctive nature of the humanities and propose remedies for their apparently shrinking place in undergraduate education. The latter responds to a request from the United States Congress about how to maintain 'national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education' as a means of 'achieving long-term national goals for our intellectual and economic wellbeing, more vibrant civil society, and for the success of cultural diplomacy in the 21st century.' That said, they both work from the premise that the humanities shape our world in fundamental ways (the Harvard report is eloquent on this point, articulating the humanities' power to 'describe,' 'evaluate' and 'imaginatively transform' our experience of the world) and that humanities education gives us the tools we need to function constructively and critically in that world. Further, they both know that, true as this may be, the message is not being heard-by students, academic leaders, policy makers, and the larger public-and make strong recommendations for how to remedy this situation. These reports are calls to action that are complementary, feasible, and could yield powerful results. The question is: who's going to answer? Harvard's vision of Mapping the Future is a frank and even bold (self-)assessment of why the humanities have a more tenuous hold on the academy than in times past. Even taking into account discussion of whether the humanities' share of

Daedalus

In the last couple of decades, it has become painfully clear that the academic publishing industry has been powerfully reshaped by dynamics that, though sometimes overlooked or underappreciated by scholars (especially in the humanities), are the direct results of the normal market forces of academic capitalism. Steadily rising publishing costs, driven in large measure by the serials crisis and the increasing costs of STEM print books, are exacerbating budget shortfalls against the backdrop of already falling library expenditures, precisely at the same time as institutions of higher education are grappling with unpopular tuition hikes, bloated administrations, ever-increasing student demand for costly amenities unrelated to education and the economic destruction caused by COVID-19. Consequently, it is more difficult than ever before for scholars to publish their book-length research with prestigious university presses, and less likely that copies of those books will be purchased by university and college libraries. This downward spiral is further complicated by the vicissitudes of academia's longstanding prestige economy that often rewards scholars not with monetary rewards, but with intangible designations of esteem. Hardly surprisingly, the current situation is both untenable and unfair. After a review of the status quaestionis, this brief essay proposes correctives that may prove useful to recognizing longstanding biases and to addressing social injustices that have proven harmful to research activity writ large.

Rendezvous Journal of Arts & Letters, 2017

From the Editors’ Introduction (Editor Sharon Sieber; Associate Editor Angela Petit). In this volume, Rendezvous Journal of Arts & Letters examines the evolving state of the humanities in higher education in the United States. This volume brings together 18 articles on the state of the humanities, and, as we discovered, the subject is so large that most of the articles pursue topics we had not previously considered. This diversity has led to a rich and varied collection of perspectives on the humanities. Despite their variety, the articles cohere in that they all, to some extent, touch on questions of value and definition.

Digital Studies/Le champ numérique

In recent years, every measure of significant change from research to academic programming and hiring indicates that Digital Humanities (DH) has moved from nascent to significant on the higher education landscape. But is the future of DH bright? In addressing this question, the goal of this paper is threefold: to stimulate further historical research on the emergence and development of DH; to provoke further critical analysis of current activities and initiatives; and to help cultivate creative thinking about how we can work together to ensure the ability of digitallyenabled scholarship to enhance knowledge and understanding of human expression and action. With examples primarily from what began as History and Computing as well as other text-based Humanities fields, this discussion does not seek to capture the diversity of developments across the Humanities. Rather, it attempts to build on pioneering efforts by Susan Hockey, John Bonnett, Kevin Kee, Ian Milligan and others to examine the multi-faceted activities that, in hindsight, we are beginning to connect within a nascent narrative of DH's history. While this paper offers only select contributions in the pursuit of this goal, the hope is that greater attention to the surprising features of the past will better emphasize their enduring and changing importance for DH's uncertain future. En 2015, toutes les mesures de changements importants, de la recherche aux programmes d'études et d'embauche, indique que les humanités numériques sont passées de naissantes à importantes dans le paysage de l'enseignement supérieur. Mais est-ce que l'avenir des humanités numériques est prometteur? Pour aborder cette question, le but de cet exposé est triple : stimuler une recherche historique plus poussée sur l'émergence et le développement des humanités numériques, provoquer une analyse critique plus poussée des activités et initiatives actuelles, et aider à cultiver la pensée créative pour tenter de découvrir comment nous pouvons travailler ensemble pour assurer la capacité des érudits qui maîtrisent l'instrument numérique à rehausser les connaissances et la compréhension de l'expression et de l'action humaine. Principalement au moyen d'exemples de ce qui a commencé comme « histoire et informatique » ainsi que d'autre champs des humanités axés sur le texte, cette discussion ne cherche pas à saisir la diversité des développements à travers les humanités. Elle tente plutôt de tirer parti des efforts de pionniers comme

2004

All around us enterprises are weighing the demands of adapting or transforming their business models against the risk of ultimate extinction. Music, motion pictures, retailing, travel, telecommunications-giant changes are underway in these industries and many others. For agile players, evolving consumer demands may present new opportunities. Others will be left behind like buggy whip makers as new entrants emerge. But we're interested in scholarship, not commerce. Are the rules different here? Perhaps. But the forces driving change are the same. Technology will remake scholarship no less than industry. Publishing will adapt to or be transformed by the possibilities of a ubiquitous network. So will libraries.