By Tom McIntyre, edited by Jim Luce
Public debate is rife with questions concerning the identity and future of American culture and education, as well as its precise role in the larger global community. Just what does it mean to be an educated citizen in an increasingly integrated and technologically driven global economy? New York University will address this issue in an upcoming symposium.
Martha Nussbaum, an American philosopher and currently Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, has argued eloquently that the vacuum left by conventional ideas concerning the value of education and American identity have been filled by an instrumental conception, tied not to the notions of citizenship and moral autonomy, but to short-term economic success.
Nussbaum argues:
Nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful, docile, technically trained machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand the significance of another person’s sufferings and achievements.
The increasing scarcity of a liberal education has prompted a reassessment of the humanities’ value in contemporary society. For this reason, New York University (NYU) is proud to host an international Symposium on the future of the humanities and liberal arts in higher education. The Symposium will be held this fall, November 10- 12.
The Symposium is part of a collaborative effort investigating the marginalization of the humanities in university -- specifically public -- education. It intends to illuminate the causes of the reorganization and provide substantive solutions to it.
Arizona State University is America’s largest public university with over 68,000 students.
Additionally, the Symposium hopes to articulate innovative and effective ways local, state, and federal agencies can support humanities programming in higher education. The international component of the Symposium makes it a unique opportunity for American academics, politicians and humanists alike to brainstorm with their European Union and Middle Eastern counterparts on how exactly the humanities contribute to larger diplomatic and social issues.
NYU Abu Dhabi, a highly selective liberal arts and sciences college and world center for advanced research-scholarship, is integrated and connected through technology to NYU New York.
The humanities Symposium will be held at La Pietra, in Florence Italy. It will include participants from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It will research ways in which the humanities contribute to contemporary cultural diplomacy efforts and the proliferation of a universal ethic of toleration and respect. It will also research ways the humanities can contribute to current discussions and innovations in science, technology, engineering, and medicine.
New York University’s La Pietra campus in Florence, Italy.
In the end, public and political interest in the humanities is clearly on the wane and attempts at stemming the decline are many. What all college and university graduates are expected to share is a contentious and potentially divisive question.
While most administrators recognize the need to graduate students well equipped to adapt to the market’s demands – graduates who can easily “get a job” – most disagree on what a “well educated” graduate is or should be. Once looking to cultivate a “responsible human being and citizen” and certain “traits of mind and ways of looking at man and the world,” the goal of 21st higher education is becoming increasingly elusive.
What is not so unclear is that the social and natural based science majors are in; studies in the humanities and liberal arts are out. “Why exactly?” and “What can be done to alleviate this trend?” remain the questions.
At the request of Dr. John Brademas, former Member of Congress and New York University President Emeritus, The James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation has pledged to support this important international Symposium. The humanities play a large role in developing reasoning skills, logic and understanding and are integral to fostering young global leadership, the mission of the J. Luce Foundation.
See Stories by Jim Luce on:
Connectivity | Education | Social Responsibility