Ayers joins Associate Justice Souter, Mellon Foundation president, Smithsonian chairwoman in Washington panel on future of the humanities
March 11, 2009
University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers joined Associate Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court, Mellon Foundation President Don Michael Randel and Patricia Stonesifer, chairwoman of The Smithsonian Institution, on a panel discussing "The Public Good: The Humanities in a Civil Society" March 9 in Washington, D.C.
All four speakers addressed the need for better understanding of the purpose of studying the humanities and developing broader interest in the subjects it encompasses—languages, arts, music, history, philosophy and religion.
Ayers called on humanities educators to reach out to minority, first-generation immigrant and working class students to interest them in the humanities.
"It should not be surprising that African-American students, finally given a chance at college, major in business far more often than the humanties," he said. "For first generation immigrant or working class students, pre-vocational or vocational majors make more immediate sense, even though such majors often limit long-term flexibility and opportunity."
"If these trends continue, the humanities may become the exclusive property of those with especially large amounts of personal, cultural or institutional capital. An unappreciated crisis of the humanities is that they may not reach those who would find them most useful, who would see the greatest difference in their lives as a result of seeing with the magnification and broadening they offer," he warned.
Ayers reminded the audience of American Academy of Arts and Sciences members and C-SPAN 3 viewers that the humanities "bring profoundly useful gifts of broadened vision, they prepare people to see the largest context and consequences of things, to make subtle distinctions, create new experiences, to deal with ambiguity and novelty and complexity."
"Precisely because the humanities prepare people to lead expansive and thoughtful lives, we must find a way to connect with people of all kinds, of all backgrounds and ages and aspirations, in all kinds of media and all kinds of contexts," he concluded.
Randel said that, as a subject area, "the humanities must justify themselves in tough times." He said that the humanities "contribute to leading a richer, more meaningful life, develop a quality of mind, a way of life in which the mind never ceases to be filled with wonder at the world and all of its people, in which there is an unquenchable thirst to understand more, to be moved by more kinds of beauty, and to share all of this with one's fellow human beings. And, as a result, the humanities and the sciences are, or ought to be, in precisely the same place"
Souter focused closely on the need for studying history, which he said "provides an antidote to cynicism about the past."
"If the people coming of age do develop that faculty of taking the longer view, they will at least be in a position someday to understand how the consequences of the constitutional promises can change as the nation's past recedes, and as [it is] receding, it leaves men and women able to perceive what an earlier generation could not so clearly see or face so readily."
Stonesifer agreed with Randel that scientific and cultural studies should go hand in hand. She observed that in her previous work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation fighting the AIDS epidemic, humanities-inspired activities, such as radio drama, street theater and poetry readings, helped soften society's attitudes toward the afflicted.