Humanities in the News, great page (curated and updated) from the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto
Bottom line shows humanities really do make money
An open letter from a biochemist to the president of SUNY Albany
A site organizing a campaign in support of funding for the humanities and social sciences in UK universities
A blog post discussing a recent book about undergraduate learning
Bad Job Market: Why the Media is Always Wrong about the Value of a College Degree - The New Republic
Michael M. Crow, President of ASU, on why we must strengthen the humanities, along with the sciences
Steve Jobs' Liberal, Hippie Education
A piece in Forbes that argues that a liberal arts education is the only way that someone like Steve Jobs could have become not just a leading technological innovator, but a person who created objects that inspired laymen and swept through the world
The Epic Fail, or Failure as the Ultimate Four-Letter Word
This blog post raises some concerns about the very assumption of "failure" in higher education. (Language warning.)
Argues that we should not forget that higher education is primarily about the nurture of an intellectual culture, "a world of ideas, dedicated to what we can know scientifically, understand humanistically, or express artistically." Also suggests that students should remember that a college education is "above all a matter of opening themselves up to new dimensions of knowledge and understanding."
How art history majors power the U.S. economy
Actually argues that naysayers are missing several points about what those fabled dreamers are really studying and which ones are employed after graduation. Perhaps most important, however, is this excerpt: "The most valuable skill anyone can learn in college is how to learn efficiently -- how to figure out what you don’t know and build on what you do know to adapt to new situations and new problems."
A relatively lengthy essay arguing for a new way of defending the humanities, via "critical vocationalism," which the authors define as "an attitude that is receptive to taking advantage of opportunities in the private and public sectors for humanities graduates that enable those graduates to apply their training in meaningful and satisfying ways." I would note as a very small addition that David Brooks seems not to realize that many, if not most, of the students in the libraries on the campuses where I have taught are, wait for it, science students, not English majors. Okay, most of the students that I have observed.
A lengthy but very interesting discussion of the Drummond report on higher education in Ontario.
Very useful discussion of the difficulties involved in planning and evaluating programs of higher education.
The Neuroscience of your Brain on Fiction
The kinds of metaphors and descriptions that are often labelled 'evocative' actually seem to activate the parts of your brain that control motion, smell, or other relevants functions. Moreover, those who read a lot of fiction appear to have a more developed ability to empathize with and understand the motivations of those around them.
Scanning Fiona Shaw's brain while she reads The Waste Land, researchers can see that she is using very different parts of the brain to perform as an actor than when she is simply counting. Moreover, both leisure reading and close reading stimulate increased blood flow to your brain - but in different areas of the brain. Close reading could serve "as a kind of cognitive training, teaching us to modulate our concentration and use new brain regions as we move flexibly between modes of focus."
Revenge of the Liberal Arts Major
Employers are showing more interest in liberal arts majors than in finance or accounting majors, though more still look for engineering or similar backgrounds.
Forbes: A Liberal Arts Degree is More Valuable Than Learning Any Trade
The ability to "think and look at lots of information and connect dots" will be more important than a trade, which may become obsolete in a few years.
What Will You Do with an English Degree? Plenty
"Well, strange as it may sound, if you’re an employer who needs smart, creative workers, a 50-page honors project on a 19th century French poet might be just the thing you want to see from one of your job applicants. Not because you’re going to ask him or her to interpret any poetry on the job, but because you may be asking him or her, at some point, to deal with complex material that requires intense concentration - and to write a persuasive account of what it all means."
"Students showed improvement in 'critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills' largely to the degree that their courses required them to read at least 40 pages a week and write at least 20 pages in a semester. The more reading and writing they did - serious reading, analytical writing - the more they learned."
Employers Want Broadly Educated New Hires, Survey Finds
"More than half of employers indicated that recent college graduates should have 'both field-specific knowledge and skills and a broad range of skills and knowledge.' (The report is based on an online survey of 318 employers conducted in January.)"