By Allie Grasgreen. Would a prospective engineer be more likely to pursue an undergraduate education at a liberal arts college if the college could show that there's a clear path to graduate school? What if there were also data showing that employers want to hire people with the skills that liberal arts institutions aim to instill in students, and that liberal arts grads over time earn enviable salaries, especially when they have graduate degrees? Read more...
By Colleen Flaherty. If it seems very Silicon Valley, that’s because it is. Stanford University’s Faculty Senate approved on Thursday two new joint-major programs that will allow students to study English and computer science or music and computer science starting in the fall. Nicholas Jenkins, associate professor of English and director of CS+X, as the joint major program is called, said it will likely attract humanists who want a competitive edge on the job market; computer science-minded students who want to be engaged in the humanities; and third group of students: digital natives for whom computer science and the humanities don’t seem “at opposite ends of the spectrum at all, but continuous.” Read more...
By Colleen M. Hanycz. What are the fruits of a liberal arts education? There is growing recognition that graduates are uncertain of what they have learnt. Students completing a degree in history, as I did many years ago, seem unable to express not only a mastery of the content of that degree, but also of the bundle of competencies often referred to as soft skills that have been acquired. These typically include communication, rational analysis, critical thinking and problem solving. These and other competencies combine to build good citizens and strong employees. More...
By Will Fenton. Conversations about the future of humanities tend to follow a predictable recipe: begin with a spoonful of anxiety (see also: fear, despair); add a smattering of nostalgia (for a bygone era when distinguished faculty members landed their first jobs); bring to boil under a fire of realism (kindled by junior faculty); and garnish with pride (enjoyed by all).
Peter Brooks’ seminar at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus was one of the more unpredictable conversations I have attended on the future of the humanities, aided in no small part by Brooks’ superb book, Humanities in Public Life, and an eclectic cadre of graduate students, faculty, deans, administration, and interlocutors from business, law, and the sciences. More...
NEW YORK, February 24, 2014 — The Graduate Center, City University of New York, has announced that leading interdisciplinary and technology scholar Cathy N. Davidson will join its faculty effective July 2014. Professor Davidson is currently the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke University. She is also cofounder of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory), a coalition of individuals and institutions dedicated to collaborative thinking about teaching and learning innovation. She and HASTAC cofounder David Theo Goldberg, director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute, lead the HASTAC/John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competition. More...
By Nigel Thrift. I recently visited the CERN research facility in Geneva, where a number of faculty members from the University of Warwick work. There, four great experiments spaced around the almost 17-mile ring of the Large Hadron Collider are being put to work on questions like what happened after the Big Bang. In such work it is normal to think not only in terms of large spans of time but also in picoseconds. Indeed, much of today’s science is conducted in the realm of the very small and sometimes vanishingly small times. But what is interesting is how this focus has transferred to the social realm. Read more...
By Alya Mishra. There has been a spate of new universities in India championing the cause of liberal arts education. While most are in the private sector, they all share certain characteristics – they claim to provide a multidisciplinary approach, state-of-the-art infrastructure, international collaboration and student exchange, and freedom for academics to innovate. Read more...Cathy Davidson, a major player in the digital humanities and discussions of new models of higher education, is leaving Duke University for the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Davidson is currently the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke University. She is also co-founder of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory), and the Graduate Center will become the main home of the organization. At CUNY, Davidson will be a professor of English at the Graduate Center and will direct the Futures Initiative, a CUNY-wide program to promote collaborative and participatory innovation in higher education. Read more...
SHANNON LUBIANO never dreamed she could send her children to the Duke School, an independent elementary school in Durham, N.C., where the tuition is $15,000 for prekindergarten, rising to nearly $18,000 for eighth grade. But then a friend told her about the school’s indexed tuition plan — essentially a pay-what-you-can model for a private education — and that made all the difference for her. More...
By Luisa D'Amato. If you're studying history, English, anthropology or other arts subjects in university, chances are you're under a lot of pressure./https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
