Sidnie White Crawford, Willa Cather Professor of Classics and Religious Studies and WGS affiliate faculty, has agreed to chair the Humanities Symposium Committee, an intiative of the College of Arts and Sciences, which is charged with planning and facilitating robust discussions on the future of the humanities.
The future of the humanities in a globalized world is a question of vital importance. The humanities promote development of the aesthetic, critical and analytical abilities required for today's work environment. They also encourage the type of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary thinking our increasingly global world demands.
In recent decades, however, many colleges and universities have reorganized or restructured their curricula in order to offer more practical or marketable majors with a preference toward studies in the natural and social sciences. To that end, the Humanities Symposium will bring to campus a set of internationally recognized scholars who have been engaged in charting future paths for scholarship and post-secondary education in the humanities. Speakers include scholars from across the country as well as our own campus, directors of humanities institutes and foundation programs, deans, industry experts, and scholar-activists.
The symposium will facilitate a meaningful exploration of the nature, scope, and future of the humanities in an educational environment that is increasingly accountable to interests beyond, simply, the pursuit of new knowledge. It will examine the state of the humanities across the country with a view toward reimagining possible relationships between the humanities and the various arenas that have critical influence on the future of the world. Multiple opportunities for discussion throughout the symposium will allow for dialogue and strategic thinking about future directions for humanities at UNL.
