Daedalus 151:3, Summer 2022: The Humanities in American Life: Transforming the Relationship with the Public”

by Carin Berkowitz, Norman Bradburn, Robert B Townsend

Depending on how you look at it, the humanities in America are either racing down a steep decline or entering a state of renewal and vitality. The challenges facing the academic humanities are well university humanities departments closing their doors, students increasingly turning to other fields of study, and humanities PhD recipients competing for fewer academic jobs, with decreasing pay and benefits. At the same time, there is a deep hunger for engagement with the humanities – from the major institutions that celebrate elite culture to the confrontations in the street over how to understand the country’s history. This volume looks at the public faces of the humanities, exploring the state of the humanities today, where the academic humanities are (and should be) heading, how to build bridges to new audiences and historically marginalized communities, and in what ways the humanities help us understand urgent public concerns, such as climate change, racial justice, and public health.

367 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2022