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Save the Humanities!
@savethehumanities.bsky.social
Saving the Humanities [from bad takes]
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
One of the most frustrating narratives links humanities majors w poor employment prospects and outcomes. “The data really does say otherwise.” I wrote abt the new & important Humanities Indicators state level report for @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social 🗃️ scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/12/14/h...
Humanities and Jobs Data: What's the Real Story? - The Scholarly Kitchen
Escalating attacks on the humanities often cite the problem of employment for humanities majors; a new report shows otherwise.
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
December 14, 2023 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
What possible reasons could students have for thinking that the humanities aren’t important no one knows it must be the free market
Every email from the provost is like: "here is a new thing about STEM. Have you heard that we only care about STEM? STEM!!!"
December 13, 2023 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
May all who cut academic programming be visited by the three ghosts of Revenue Generation, Strategic Reductions in Expenditures, and Efficiency Enhancement this Christmas Eve.
December 11, 2023 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
French, Philosophy, Art History, Sociology & others to be cut in pursuit of the time honored educational values of “revenue generation” & “efficiency enhancement”
December 11, 2023 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
icymi, please respond to this call for comments on a forthcoming NEH grant to fund research into the state of the humanities.

Responding doesn’t take long, and I guarantee I will read every single answer personally.

www.neh.gov/ode/call-for...
Call for comments: New NEH grant program on the state of the humanities
www.neh.gov
December 5, 2023 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
universities routinely over-comply and do crap like this.

but RESISTANCE to government control of academic freedom is baked into the DNA of the modern university. administrators should listen to it!

modernmedieval.substack.com/p/medievalun...
December 9, 2023 at 6:01 AM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
In our latest newsletter, we take stock of the "history wars" raging around schools & universities and ask: what's a historian to do?
Featuring insights of
@adamlaats.bsky.social @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social
@jackschneider.bsky.social
@jeremycyoung.bsky.social.

Read/subscribe: buff.ly/41efDYP
Taking Stock of the History Wars
buff.ly
December 6, 2023 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
There's only one rule for college presidents facing ideological control by the government: don't volunteer to be censored. Don't agree to something the legislature doesn't have the votes to mandate.

That's exactly what the Wisconsin system has done here. www.wpr.org/uw-vos-reach...
UW, Vos reach compromise on DEI to release pay raises for university
The Universities of Wisconsin and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have reached a deal in the months-long blockade of pay raises for around 34,000 campus employees aimed at cutting campus
www.wpr.org
December 8, 2023 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
So angry about this. UW system head and president agree to cut 43 DEI positions, freeze new ones for 3 years, end a program to recruit minority faculty -- even though lawmakers don't have the votes to mandate it.

Biggest profile in cowardice on this issue in the last 3 years.
There's only one rule for college presidents facing ideological control by the government: don't volunteer to be censored. Don't agree to something the legislature doesn't have the votes to mandate.

That's exactly what the Wisconsin system has done here. www.wpr.org/uw-vos-reach...
UW, Vos reach compromise on DEI to release pay raises for university
The Universities of Wisconsin and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos have reached a deal in the months-long blockade of pay raises for around 34,000 campus employees aimed at cutting campus
www.wpr.org
December 8, 2023 at 11:48 PM
I actually fooled a friend by reposting this 🫠
I said that Shania Twain's real name was Shania Clemens
December 8, 2023 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
My employer is apparently about to acquire a quote-unquote “office for intellectual vitality” and an “associate dean for intellectual vitality” (as opposed say to new faculty lines and or living wages for grad students).
The jokes pretty much write themselves.
December 5, 2023 at 3:38 PM
🫠
"Shakespeare got English wrong because he didn't have a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary" is certainly a take.
December 7, 2023 at 7:48 AM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
⭐ Public Humanities news ⭐

So happy to announce that I'm going to be leading an amazing editorial team alongside Dr Jeffrey Wilson.

We will be launching an open-access, cross-disciplinary, international journal with Cambridge University Press.

Find out more:
Public Humanities: Overview.docx
Public Humanities Public Humanities is an international open-access, cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of humanities scholarship and public life. Aims and Scope Public ...
docs.google.com
November 28, 2023 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
Even if it turned out (and it actually turns out) that humanities majors are
* employable
* make similar $$ to many other majors
* get a lot of intrinsic value out of their degree
admins and governments would still cut us to the bone.
It's not evidence-based, it's purely ideological.
December 4, 2023 at 4:32 AM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
I just wish there were some conceptual tradition to help us understand how to “value” the Humanities. If only every single field of inquiry in the Humanities had come up with a coherent and fully articulated method to do just that and is literally named after that specific thing. Oh well.
December 4, 2023 at 12:19 AM
This… is not it.
December 3, 2023 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
The Royal Historical Society, of which I am a Fellow, has today issued a strongly-worded statement about the huge cuts to History at Oxford Brookes. While I cannot of course comment on the specifics, I would ask you to consider the implications and spread the word. royalhistsoc.org/history-at-o...
History at Oxford Brookes University – a statement from the Royal Historical Society | RHS
royalhistsoc.org
November 30, 2023 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
The AHA has submitted a letter to the Ohio House Higher Education Committee expressing strong objection to Ohio SB 83 in its current substitute version and grave doubts about the bill’s interventions in history education and university administration. 🗃️
AHA Submits Testimony Opposing Ohio SB 83 (November 2023)
The American Historical Association has submitted a letter to the Ohio House Higher Education Committee expressing strong objection to Ohio Senate Bill 83 in its current substitute version (I_135_0330...
www.historians.org
November 28, 2023 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
This New Yorker piece on WVU's collapse does a good job juxtaposing real pain ("sometimes I get angry, punch things too hard," says a teacher) with embarrassing gunk from admin (math, by firing profs, can “move to a more modern approach”).
An “Academic Transformation” Takes On the Math Department
A series of cuts at West Virginia University has largely affected the humanities, but any program that is not seen as marketable may get the axe.
www.newyorker.com
November 29, 2023 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
The state of higher education visualized in the email I just received from my university.
November 28, 2023 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
Please consider signing this letter to save humanities and social sciences at Massey University (New Zealand)
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Open Letter to Save the Humanities and Social Sciences at Massey University
An open letter to oppose the proposed cuts to 30% of academic staff in the Humanities and Social Science Schools at Massey University. We are seeking your support to save the humanities and social sc...
docs.google.com
November 22, 2023 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by Save the Humanities!
University admins claim to be "data-driven" and "run universities like a business," but when study after study finds liberal arts majors get good outcomes, are cheap to run, and are in fact profit centers, admins cut them anyway for ideological reasons.

ncnewsline.com/2023/11/16/n...
November 19, 2023 at 12:56 AM