Over the past few months, I have read countless articles on why the humanities still matter. Even President Christina Paxson wrote a piece titled, “The Economic Case for Saving the Humanities,” published in The New Republic, in which she declared that “support for the humanities is more than worth it. It is essential.”
The reasons given for supporting these fields are vague and scattered. I’ve read many articles that state the humanities make people more empathetic and analytical. These are the people that become better chief executive officers, they say. These are the people who are nicer, more thoughtful and more caring.
While these things may be true, I think Adam Gopnick, columnist for the New Yorker, said it best when he wrote, “the reason we need the humanities is because we’re human. That’s enough.” In his article “Why Teach English?” Gopnick asserts that studying the humanities will not change the world, but it will change our understanding of it.
Though the humanities are integral to society as a whole, the number of college students studying them is dropping dramatically — especially here at Brown. A Herald article reported that “English degrees declined from 66 to 43 from the class of 2012 to the class of 2013” and that the “number receiving history degrees dropped from 141 in the class of 2004 to 62 last year” (“Humanities falter, sciences see growth,” Nov. 11). Meanwhile, the number of concentrators in a variety of science fields has increased.
In today’s slow economy, many are beginning to view the humanities as impractical. With a humanities degree, there are no obvious, assured career paths to immediate wealth. Consequently, many are under the false preconception that there are no jobs for those in the humanities, which may explain the migration from the humanities to the sciences. But support for the humanities is needed now more than ever. If Brown is going to continue to be an institution that places all concentrations on equal planes, the humanities will need a little help, and so will humanities students.
The curricula, assignments and professors within the humanities departments here at Brown are all organized to leave enough room for exploration with every requirement. But I have often found myself wishing for a few more pre-professional classes. For example, the Department of English offers just a few classes specifically on journalism. At other schools, journalism is a separate major.
Why is there a line drawn between the liberal arts and pre-professional courses when the two do not need to be mutually exclusive? In such a career-focused world, it would benefit a few departments to expand and evolve while maintaining a liberal arts core. Much of the work done in humanities courses builds skills that are widely applicable in many careers — developing and defending an argument and critically reading texts, to name a couple.
The humanities should expand beyond their concentration threshold. University programs such as Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards remain dominated by science students. Why is that? Perhaps because many humanities students do not even realize they can apply for UTRAs. We should make an effort to increase the number of humanities students who apply for these opportunities. This is a chance for hands-on, real-world experience in a specialized field. This is a chance for these students to find direct pathways to hidden career choices.
As we all know, real-world experience is key. The past few years have seen increased emphasis on internships within the humanities. To counter the lack of opportunity in the job world that is driving students away from the humanities, perhaps we need close internship advice and matching for humanities students, like those of the Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations program, which has a few structured internship programs. Though the CareerLAB exists to revise resumes and help guide students, programs for students within the humanities would be both beneficial and constructive.
The humanities are not dead, nor are they dying. While the number of students within the humanities are dropping nationwide, unemployment among all college graduates remains persistently high. According to a recent Georgetown University study, there is no clear answer to whether a science, technology, engineering or mathematics — STEM — or humanities degree will assure a secure job. National unemployment rates for students coming from all departments closely align. Computer science majors were found to have an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent and English majors were found to have one of 9.8 percent. Does one percentage point mean that a field is dying?
And yet the stigma of the humanities still exists. Within a culture of immediate gratification, where college tuition often approaches $60,000 and jobs are scarce, the humanities are being forced to grow. Only through development and expansion will they be able to retrieve the foothold they once possessed. Let’s make Brown a leader in this effort to revitalize the humanities.
Jessica Montes ’16 can be reached at jessica_montes@brown.edu.
ADVERTISEMENT
