Category: +Humanities

U.S. News reports that due to the global economy careers in translation will be taking off in the near future. Excerpt from article: “Employment of interpreters and translators is projected to increase 22 percent between 2008 and 2018, much faster than the average for all occupations, according to the Labor Department. Demand is driven by an…

A co-sponsored NYT / Chronicle of Higher Ed article describes business majors as being among the least engaged and least curious students on campus. Humanities majors, on the contrary, came out near the top in terms of intellectual curiosity and academic gain:  “Business majors spend less time preparing for class than do students in any other…

This is the title of an article published last week by Tony Golsby-Smith in the Harvard Business Review blog. Golsby-Smith, the founder and CEO of Second Road, a successful business design and transformation firm in Australia, observes that humanities majors are excellent problem solvers and leaders. Companies, in general, are not lacking in people with…

In an article in the New Republic (December 13, 2010), John McWhorter argues for dramatic changes to university language study while brushing aside concerns over the recent closures of the French, German and Italian departments around the country. The shuttering of these units is merely a sign of the times, affirms McWhorter, as the new global economy displaces Europe‘s–and especially France’s–former cultural…

Mark Bauerlein reprinted in the Chronicle of Higher Ed this response to his recent contribution to the Jobs vs. Gates debate in the NYT : “Professor Bauerlein: “Having retired after 36 years as an engineer/physicist, I can lookback and honestly say that the liberal-arts courses I took amplifiedmy effectiveness as an engineer.  They could be…

David Brooks makes the argument that the Enlightenment view of human nature has taken scientists and government policymakers down a number of blind alleys by focusing on human rationality and ignoring or downgrading the role of moral sentiments in animating human behavior. He is describing, in fact, what humanists and professors of great literature have…

University College London is doing what several business schools have chosen to do in the wake of the economic downturn: infuse their business program with humanities study. They find that the humanities can help with communication, writing, critical thinking, leadership and innovation. But the benefits work both ways: humanities students stand to gain from learning…

Many recent posts have discussed how business leaders are noticing a gaping lack in the basic critical thinking and leadership skills of recent graduates.They’re saying that technical know-how is necessary, but so is a grounding in the liberal arts traditions. Many prestigious schools are encouraging their students to return to those traditions. The NYT recently…

In spite of some bad news (for example, announcing the closure of some classics and philosophy departments around the US), this article exposes the importance of the humanities to the marketplace. The key, the author argues toward the end of the piece, is to know what skills are valued, develop them to their fullest, and…

Here’s an excerpt from an excellent article on the decline of leadership skills in American institutions by William Deresiewicz. It’s from a graduation lecture given at Westpoint and reprinted in the current volume of The American Scholar: “We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations…