Every journalist that we have read from thus far has had their own unique take on what the problems are that have caused the humanities crisis, as well as what solutions should be put into action in order to solve them. According to Alexandra Vollman in her article “Modernizing the Humanities”, the main cause of the crisis is the fact that universities are contradicting themselves in regards to their desire for diversity. Essentially, those in charge keep cutting out portions of the humanities that promote diversity within the curriculum (art, history, culture, etc.). Her solution is to restore these parts of the humanities that have been lost and to introduce more courses to the curriculum that encourage diverse ways of thinking. Adding more diversity to the humanities in a variety of ways will encourage those who were disinterested before to take them into consideration. It will also reinforce and strengthen the true purpose of the humanities: to promote new ideas and previously unconsidered perspectives on the world and what it means to live in it.
In her essay, Vollman states, “Drastic cuts to humanities programming has led some to question how colleges and universities can welcome increasingly diverse student bodies without also emphasizing the study of language, art, and culture” (2). With this statement, she is in a way calling out university higher-ups for not practicing what they preach. Any leader within a college will say that inclusion and diversity are among the most prominent values of their institution. Despite this, they subsequently choose to cut funds to the humanities, which is the branch of the university that has the most potential to honor these values.
Some may say that a lack of diversity is among the least of the humanities’ problems right now. I thought this way as well before reevaluating and reconsidering Vollman’s ideas. However, what does not seem like a high priority issue in the grand scheme of the humanities crisis could ultimately be the key to their salvation. A lack of diversity within the curriculum is a legitimate problem in regards to the humanities because diversity and inclusivity are issues inherent to universities as a whole. As I touched on previously, colleges pride themselves on being as culturally diverse as possible, at least in the eyes of the general public. Their reputation will suffer if they do not openly promote these values. Though as Vollman points out, their cuts to humanities programs go against their supposed values. If universities cannot be convinced to invest in the humanities for the same reasons that they would invest in STEM programs, perhaps we need to consider the idea that they may be convinced to do so for the sake of their ideals.
There are a variety of ways in which the humanities could be expanded if colleges want to prove their commitment to diversity and inclusivity. The most obvious way is that which Vollman discusses: adding content from a larger variety of cultures into the curriculum. Beyond just cultural diversity, it could also be worth considering adding content from more recent sources, instead of just content from the distant past. Additionally, a wider variety of media to study could also be a worthwhile idea. Lastly, the humanities could possibly benefit from introducing some new majors that might be of interest to modern college students.
If the humanities want to be truly inclusive and open to all types of ideas and perspectives, then they must expand their course materials to include content from sources beyond Western Europe. What about writers and thinkers from places like Asia, South America, or Africa? What they have to say is just as valuable as what those in North America and Europe do. There would be so much content worth exploring in the humanities if we were willing to shift to a more global perspective. The people and history of the western world have been studied to death at this point in the American education system, not just in universities but in middle school and high school as well. Personally, I would much rather study ancient Chinese history than learn about the Great Depression for the third time. Penn State is actually quite progressive in this regard, as they do offer majors like Asian Studies and African Studies. I do not know how popular these majors or their respective classes are, but they do exist.
A common complaint about the majority of the literature that we study in American education is that most of it was written by “dead guys”. Content from more contemporary authors and thinkers can have just as much value as that of the past, so it should be considered for inclusion within the humanities. I recently overheard a classmate (she said she was an English major) mention that she has to take a class entirely about the works of Shakespeare. Why does one author, who most people do not think about beyond his presence in education and has been dead for centuries, get an entire course devoted to him while more contemporary and relevant authors get nowhere near as much attention? It is almost as if decades ago, when our education system was solidifying into what it is today, those in charge of the curriculum just picked the most acclaimed writers and thinkers of the time for their students to study. Over the years, we have just stuck with this small collection of renowned writers to gain ideas and inspiration from, adding a few new ones every so often. Perhaps we should give Shakespeare and others of his time a bit of a rest and explore some more modern and culturally relevant works? Of course, a large pillar of the humanities is history, and there will always be students who are interested in older authors from centuries past. However, I think that they are more likely to attract new students if they feature content that is a better fit for the modern times we live in.
Another potential way to create a more diverse (as well as more interesting) humanities curriculum is to include a larger variety of mediums. Right now, we mostly just study books, articles, and other text formats. However, I believe that there is material worth analyzing beyond just simple text. Forms of media like movies, television shows, music, and even some video games can be as meaningful and have just as much to say as books. All of these formats contain some form of writing, after all. Many of today’s greatest thinkers are not conveying their ideas through basic text. They are presenting their ideas to the world through movie scripts and song lyrics. Analyzing a bigger variety of media could keep the humanities interesting and engaging. As of writing this, the next assignment due in my Text Encoding class (which is a Digital Humanities course) is to encode a short story found within the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As someone who has played this game extensively, I have a deeper level of engagement with this assignment that I have not had with previous ones.
The modern humanities consist of so much more than just reading and writing, but very few people are aware of everything that they have to offer. The existence of English, History, and Art as humanities majors are obvious, but some are not as well advertised, so to speak. I had initially never heard of the Digital Media, Arts, and Technology major at Penn State. Now it is my current major and I greatly prefer it to Management Information Systems, which is what I was originally intending on pursuing. Perhaps I had not heard of it because it is still a relatively new major, but that just goes to show that more modern and fresh majors like DIGIT should be established and then subsequently advertised to both current and incoming students. In his book The Emergence of the Digital Humanities, author Steven E. Jones expresses the potential of digital humanities:
Using Computers to encode and represent, archive and preserve, make accessible and/or analyze, say, eighteenth-century historical documents remains central to DH [Digital Humanities]; but analyzing video games, for example, or other born-digital cultural objects, using combined humanities and computational approaches, is also part of the field. (Jones 6)
As can be seen, there is so much potential for the humanities to expand and flourish if we further integrate them with digital spaces. We must evolve the humanities with the times if we wish for them to survive.
In summary, offering the humanities in their original and most basic form simply will not work anymore. In their current state, they ultimately fail to be sustainable and as a result will always live with the risk of being eliminated. They must expand, change, and evolve to continue to exist within the university setting. We can now identify several ways in which we can make this happen. Vollman’s push for higher diversity is a good start, but there is so much more that can be done. I believe that pushing the boundaries of the humanities in regards to culture, contemporary works, multimedia, and technology will lead to them experiencing increased enrollments and thriving in the modern age. Journalist Simon Mahony says it best in his article “Cultural Diversity in the Digital Humanities”:
Humanities itself is difficult to define but can, in my view, best be described as the study of the human condition, and of human achievement, and alternatively, as the study of that which makes life worth living. DH [Digital Humanities] commonly works and builds partnerships at the intersection of cultural heritage, human achievement and the computational sciences, exploring new areas that were not possible previously. (Mahony 372)
This all circles back to Vollman’s original problem with the humanities. Universities, at least according to the ones in charge, strive to promote diversity in every aspect of the education they offer. If this is truly among their goals, then it would be of great benefit to them to approach the humanities with this philosophy in mind, instead of only considering their value to be the number of students that pay to study them. I think that there is absolutely a large interest in the humanities, just not as they are now. A successful future for them lies within diversification of the content in the curriculum, along with new, more engaging programs like DIGIT. If we in the humanities can use our talents in communication to convince university leaders that this is what needs to be done for the sake of diversity, then I believe that the humanities have a bright future ahead of them and can reach greater heights than anyone has ever imagined they could.
Jones, Steven E. “Introduction.” The Emergence of the Digital Humanities, Taylor & Francis, 2013, p. 6. OAPEN: Open Access, http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/25883. Accessed 10 Nov. 2022.
Mahony, Simon. “Cultural Diversity and the Digital Humanities.” Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 11, no. 3, 8 Mar. 2018, p. 372. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-018-0216-0. Accessed 11 Nov. 2022.