CONNECT YOUR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
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Asking “Big Questions” in College
Popular courses at Yale and Suffolk universities explore “the life worth living” by reading and discussing religion, art, philosophy, and fiction. Both courses encourage a more reflective approach to education, one that has always been a hallmark of the liberal arts tradition. The course at Suffolk was developed with support from an NEH “Enduring Questions”…
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NYT on Humanities in the Computer Age
New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks argues that the dramatic increases in computing power will place a greater premium on relational work in the future. David Brooks on The New Romantics *Thanks to Lindsay Johnson for the link.
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A Liberal Arts Degree Offers Long-Term Value
Peter Cappelli, Professor of Management at the Wharton School, argues in a recent editorial on CNBC that students who spend their college careers in so-called “practical” majors may be on a riskier career path than their counterparts in the humanities. Using college to learn a narrow sub-specialty can make you vulnerable to the ever changing…
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How a Liberal Arts Degree Became “Tech’s Hottest Ticket”
A recent issue of Forbes surveys an array of companies in the high tech sector that are discovering how “liberal arts thinking makes them stronger.” The article also challenges conventional thinking on labor statistics which has prioritized narrow technical training as the best professional preparation. As technical skills become more easily automated, industries such as…
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Top Medical School Calling for “Well-Rounded Humanists”
A recent NPR story highlights efforts by Mt. Sinai School of Medicine to attract humanities majors. Mt. Sinai’s HuMed program addresses the problem of an overly homogenous student body consisting of students from narrowly-defined science backgrounds. Lack of diversity in education and interests, known as “pre-med syndrome,” actually produces less effective doctors. According to Mt.…
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The Digital Convergence of the Sciences and Humanities
Brown University professor Elias Muhanna offers an account of how a digital humanities project with a cross-disciplinary focus altered his relationship to his work. He draws upon this experience to generalize about the role of digital scholarship in the future of the Humanities. Muhanna’s piece appeared in The New Yorker linked below.* Hacking the Humanities…
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Fareed Zakaria on Thinking Beyond STEM
In a recent Washington Post Op-Ed, Fareed Zakaria challenges our country’s obsession with STEM fields at the expense of the humanities. Zakaria suggests that minimizing liberal arts education actually undermines our capacity to innovate. He brings his characteristic interest in international comparison to bear in arguing the America’s historical advantages in fostering a culture of…
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NYT Op-Ed Sees Complementarity between Liberal Arts and Sciences
In a recent Op-Ed Nicholas Kristof makes the case for why the humanities offers an essential skill set in the modern economy. Kristof references the work of labor economist Lawrence Katz in claiming that the “economic return to pure technical skills has flattened, and the highest return now goes to those who combine soft skills…
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New Report Suggests ongoing Strength in Humanities
The Chronicle of Higher Education highlights findings in a recent Academy of Arts and Sciences report that challenge the images of the humanities in decline. While the number of humanities degrees awarded declined over the span of the recent financial crisis, the report notes signs of strength across an array of indicators. These include high…
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NYT Op-Ed on “Transformative Education”
In a recent Op-Ed New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni, recalls a defining moment from his undergraduate experience in order to take on the reductive thinking that equates college with the need to meet “work force needs.” Bruni recalls a specific lecture on King Lear at the University of North Carolina as “the steppingstone to…
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