Humanities in the small print
Written by Steven Schwartz on November 6th, 2008
Hello, this is David Myton standing in again for Steven Schwartz while he is away overseas.
In all the discussion leading up to the US Presidential elections some of you may have missed a thoughtful and confronting article that appeared in The Australian’s Higher Education section this week.
It was by Associate Professor John Armstrong, a senior […]
Let’s hope Queen History can rule in peace
Written by Steven Schwartz on October 17th, 2008
In his book The Poverty of Theory the English historian E P Thompson describes history as the “Queen of the Humanities” .
Thompson was right; all other areas of study come together in history – English, politics, economics, sociology, even mathematics and science. Because history is the story of humanity (although I’m told one Macquarie history […]
Higher education: Postmodernism rides again?
Written by Steven Schwartz on August 7th, 2008
I thought postmodernism had ridden off into the sunset after a brief sojourn on the higher education stage. But apparently not so – it seems pomo is alive and well and damaging our students.
According to this month’s Australian Literary Review postmodernism is ruining our universities. The ALR features an article – Paralysed by Postmodernism - […]
Why we need to work together
Written by Steven Schwartz on July 14th, 2008
I think it’s fair to say that academics love a good argument, and they don’t come much better than one underway now on the role of the humanities.
In his New York Times blog, Professor Stanley Fish posed the question - of what use are the humanities?”, to which he gave the answer “none whatsoever”.
He throws […]