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The question: “Why Study the Arts and Humanities?”…
….haunts our disciplines every day. This is not an easy question to answer because the language and the outcomes of fields such as classics, philosophy, ethics, literature, art history or theater are often broad, abstract, and by some accounts, even elitist. What are the humanities? What is humanistic and artistic study anyway? And why should you care or, even worse, make a career out of one or more of these fields? Instead of trying to convince you of the value of these fields in a traditional way, let me propose for one minute that William Shakespeare was right and “all the world’s our stage.”
Imagine, then, that we become the actors and directors of the plays of our lives on this world stage. Similar to the production of a play, we would begin to envision the history and the social and cultural context within which this play took shape, with you as the protagonist. Where were you, our character, born? What language do you speak? What is your style in speech and dress? How does this style coincide with your life experiences, your background and ethnic heritage? What experiences might contribute to the way in which you view the world? What motivates you? What do you fear? What is your life story?
To stage this play, we would need to adopt, as Technical Director Steven Michalek explains, a host of different roles. We’d need to become technicians and “know science to understand the physics of lighting or the chemistry of cooking fake glass. We would need to know math to layout and construct an archway or something as simple as reading the fractions on a tape measure. We would need to know engineering to choose appropriate materials when building sets or flying performers. Designers would need to know about and be skilled in the myriad conventions of visual artists and sculptors in order to convey the appropriate moods and feelings in their sets, lights and costumes.”
If our lives may indeed be compared to a finely tuned theater production, then, as Michalek further explains, “the skilled theatre professional must also possess finely tuned creative problem solving and collaborative skills. Learning not just to succeed but excel within tightly defined parameters is the daily fodder of directors, actors and technicians.” To the extent that the theater serves as a metaphor for our lives, we do indeed need creative thought when times get tough, we need to engage positively and ethically with our neighbors and colleagues, even our enemies, we need to recognize that each and every one of our lives is determined by “tightly defined parameters,” such as family, class, and race. And each time an element in these and other parameters change, the entire world begins to change with it on what seems like an ever-moving stage of events. Were we to remove one of the above ingredients, say our ability to place life into context or talk about who we are, our ability to show what we do and what we stand for, then our play may be reduced to awkward pauses, silences, and absences. For us to remain on the world stage, retain an audience that witnesses our life’s play, we must find a healthy balance between thinking and acting as historians, engineers, lighting technicians, scientists, psychologists, writers, and literary analysts. Remove one of these components, and our sets might well fall apart. Lights out.
Why study the arts and humanities? Just imagine your play without them.
Articles
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Counting (on) Success: Does an Education in the Humanities Count in Today’s Day and Age?
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One of “the most significant survey related to innovation was conducted in 2011 by GE, which interviewed a thousand senior business executives in twelve countries. They found that ‘95% of…
Talking to Current College Students About Their Choice of Major
As part of my fellowship project, I met with several students to discuss their decision to major in the arts/humanities. Their responses to my questions were fascinating. Here are the profiles of the students I talked to, along…
Debunking Two Common Myths About a Degree in the Arts/Humanities
Myth #1: A degree in the arts/humanities will lead to unemployment. Truth: According to a study conducted by Georgetown University in 2013, overall unemployment rates for recent college graduates ranges from 4.8-14.7 depending on major. Information systems majors…
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As a New York Six Think Tank Fellow, my project focused on exploring the connection between an education in the arts and/or humanities and success outside of academia. Prior to beginning my project, I had seen for myself…
Health, Humanities, and Medicine: A Student’s Journey
Why is the threesome of the HHM important? Growing up, one of the first words I remembering uttering was ‘hypertension,’ as my father (the MD, PhD) had plenty scientific journals laying around the house. From a very young…
Biology & Philosophy: How Our Culture Shapes Our Knowledge
Originally posted posted on April 23, 2015 on “Arts and Humanities Connection.” Science differs from arts and literature, in that the knowledge gathered would exist whether humans studied it or not. Paintings, music, and novels require artists. DNA…
The Death of the University as a Center of Humane Critique
“A few years ago, I was being shown around a large, very technologically advanced university in Asia by its proud president. As befitted so eminent a personage, he was flanked…
“Reaching For That Which Is Not Me”
“I think of what language is and does and can do,” said Smith in an interview prior to her dynamic, performance-style lecture featuring portrayals of various people she’s interviewed as…
How Music Led to the Creation of Google
On November 18th, 2014, Fortune published an article on Larry Page, co-founder of Google, titled “How music education influenced Larry Page.” Here is an extract from the article: “As Google…
NY6Think Tank Fellow Launches Exciting Instagram Project
Student Fellow, Miri Reinhold (Colgate University) has launched her new Instagram feed for her project titled “Humans of the Humanities.” Mission: “Think the humanities aren’t a practical academic pursuit? Think you’ll get nowhere with a degree in arts…
On the Edge of Unemployment and the (Liberal) Arts: The Arts Edge Program at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia
Despite being one of the centers of Australian tourism, with its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef and the World Heritage listed Daintree Rainforest area, the vicinity around the Cairns campus at James Cook University, in Queensland, Australia,…
The Humanities….
….shed light on and question the tacit assumptions upon which our societies are based, outline the history of these values, and identify alternatives to the status quo.
Employers Care About How Well You Talk and Think
The usual sneers about whether Aristotle is going to “come in handy on the job” are so utterly misguided. “After college,” says a young woman who dropped out after all…
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