Pitching the Humanities, in a Lower Key

Abstract

This article examines the two rationales most frequently invoked in the defense of the humanities: the practical skills they teach (preparing graduates for a wide range of jobs), and the civic-mindedness they instill (preparing students for active and responsible citizenship). As desirable as these aims may be, the article juxtaposes them with a more viable account of what the humanities accomplish suggested by Stefan Collini. It describes what the humanities do as an open-ended process of understanding instances of human meaning-making that affords a kind of gratification that cannot be quantified. Arguably, this redescription will not fix the institutional challenges faced by today’s academic humanities. It does point the way, however, to a more promising, less defensive future, in the form of public humanities, countering the diminished status of the scholarly-academic humanities by expanding into new venues and engaging with new publics.