Besieged Humanities, Worldwide

By Scott Jaschik. DUBAI -- If it's any comfort to humanities professors who feel that their jobs, budgets and disciplines are being threatened, they have colleagues facing the same challenges pretty much all over the world. That was the consensus of a session here at Going Global, the international education conference of the British Council. A panel of scholars discussed problems that they see for the humanities (and social sciences too), and panelists agreed that the threats faced by humanities departments are quite common around the world. And they worried not only about the cuts, but about the arguments being made about the humanities. In something of a surprise for such discussions, the only optimistic comments came from the dean of a business school. Read more...