Scholars must have faith in the importance of the humanities: Opinion

Scholars should avoid overselling the value of the humanities and instead have faith that the humanities matter, writes Joe Moran. Moran argues that the humanities currently defends itself as being impactful, transformative, and game-changing, but these qualities are idealistic and show a lack of confidence and differentiation, as other fields have these qualities as well. The author writes that humanities “explore something essential about the human species” and that they hold particular benefit to the students who are most likely to miss out if the humanities become only a part of an elite university education. The loss, he adds, would be unquantifiable if the humanities ceased to exist. “We have to keep telling ourselves that, just because what we do is slowly accruing and often too ineffable to turn into data, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, or doesn’t matter,” writes Moran. Times Higher Ed (Acct. Req.) Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.