While the humanities have suffered what a US Congressman calls a triple whammy, he sees value in these studies. James A. Leach was appointed by President Barack Obama last year to head the National Endowment for the Humanities. In a November/December issue of the agency’s Humanities magazine, he admitted that the economy, reduced government capacities and a focus on more job-intensive vocational training have affected studies in the humanities.
Leach told the publication that he sees the National Endowment for Humanities proceeding with a “bridging cultures” initiative in the United States and internationally. He sees culture as coming first, with politics following, the publication noted. Foreign languages, he added, would be helpful for Americans to study. Culture and languages often are part of humanities degrees online and on campus. Additional subjects might include history, philosophy, English and ethics. These areas might help individuals gain a better appreciation for their own cultures as well as others, particularly as a global economy becomes more intimate through technology. Students who enroll in on-campus and online degrees in humanities, however, might not have careers in mind.
With budget cutbacks, however, humanities degrees can give way to other programs. Students these days might even be hard pressed to find degree programs in the subject area. “Programs that are engaged in the production of knowledge that is readily turned into money are the targets of investment, while the rest are to be downsized into… credits and a degree factory,” classical and Near Eastern studies professor Eva von Dassow told a regents board in a video broadcast on YouTube.
Earning a humanities degree or majoring in a foreign language can actually help with an array of careers, information on the Utah university website report. Most humanities degree recipients at this institution in 2007 actually went into business and finance and education at the K-12 level, followed by the legal profession. Most Asian and Near Eastern Languages majors there entered business and finance fields, followed by management and the legal profession.
“The humanities elicit and exercise ways of thinking that help us navigate the world we live in”, National Humanities Center President and Director Geoffrey Galt Harphan wrote in a 2009 edition of The Chronicle. Harphan suggested that studies in the humanities could have helped predict human behavior as it related to lenders, borrowers, the stock market and more that got the country into an economic crisis. “When we read a novel, watch a play or a film, listen to a concerto or read a historical novel, we’re not just attending to the moment, but forming expectations about what will come next”, he wrote.
In addition to courses such as English and literature, humanities degrees online and on campus might include classes in history, philosophy, culture, ethics and more. The co-founders of the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory represent universities on the east and west coasts of the United States. In an essay citing the central place humanities studies have with regard to exploring the possibilities of technology’s reach and implications, they noted that the humanities involve exploring meaning, value and significance and that humanists link the old and the new and then engage the best of both.
At a Philadelphia, Pa., college, the humanities are actually being added as part of a new general studies degree program. The idea is to increase the number of students who continue their education beyond the high school level, a Business Wire news item noted. A college or university education alone, according to a business professor interviewed for Inside Higher Education, can help reduce crime values, increase contributions to the community and more. A community college instructor this year was reportedly working to bring attention both to community colleges and to poetry, a Library of Commerce news release suggests. US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, with the Community College Humanities Association, was scheduled to hold a “Poetry for the Mind’s Joy” competition. As part of the event, Ryan was expected to hold a video conference that, streamed live over the Internet, included a discussion in how to write poetry.
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