Are the Humanities Doomed?

[mamselle]

Possible future?
IHE article: Elevating Engineering Over the Liberal Arts and Sciences
"Administrators at Texas A&M University have proposed a sweeping reorganization of the liberal arts and science programs at the Qatar campus that would dissolve existing faculty contracts in favor of nine-month teaching- and service-focused appointments and would prohibit faculty members in those fields from applying as lead principal investigators for research grants, essentially relegating them to second-class status."
"Faculty who oppose the plan say the proposed changes would undermine the quality of education that the campus's approximately 600 engineering students receive."

Does a political science class from a tenured professor instead of an instructor make one a better engineer?

To the last question, "Yes, where the tenured professor is safer in making political observations about that particular country, precisely because of protections within their tenured status.

A friend, as I've said before, went to a similar place, he thought on a lark, to teach calculus to undergrads, and HE was followed, his rooms searched, and his passport held against his displeasing the PTB.  (He finally got out.)

But. Calculus. Not even Poli Sci, but Calculus.

If they see a threat in a simple advanced math class, they'll definitely be impairing the freedom of discussion in a Poli Sci class, or a History class, or even a Global Affairs and Events class. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to say. Guys with guns sat in the back of his classroom.)

An adjunct, like my friend, is too easily in a position to be intimidated, and thus the quality of their teaching is, most directly, affected.

They wouldn't dare, for example, teach a class on, say, "fake news"...

M.

[marshwiggle]

Possible future?
IHE article: Elevating Engineering Over the Liberal Arts and Sciences
"Administrators at Texas A&M University have proposed a sweeping reorganization of the liberal arts and science programs at the Qatar campus that would dissolve existing faculty contracts in favor of nine-month teaching- and service-focused appointments and would prohibit faculty members in those fields from applying as lead principal investigators for research grants, essentially relegating them to second-class status."
"Faculty who oppose the plan say the proposed changes would undermine the quality of education that the campus's approximately 600 engineering students receive."

Does a political science class from a tenured professor instead of an instructor make one a better engineer?

To the last question, "Yes, where the tenured professor is safer in making political observations about that particular country, precisely because of protections within their tenured status.

A friend, as I've said before, went to a similar place, he thought on a lark, to teach calculus to undergrads, and HE was followed, his rooms searched, and his passport held against his displeasing the PTB.  (He finally got out.)

But. Calculus. Not even Poli Sci, but Calculus.

If they see a threat in a simple advanced math class, they'll definitely be impairing the freedom of discussion in a Poli Sci class, or a History class, or even a Global Affairs and Events class. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to say. Guys with guns sat in the back of his classroom.)

An adjunct, like my friend, is too easily in a position to be intimidated, and thus the quality of their teaching is, most directly, affected.

They wouldn't dare, for example, teach a class on, say, "fake news"...

M.

Do you really think tenure would have made a big difference in that case? It seems to me, in a place like that, the PTB aren't going to have any problem dealing with any foreigner who rubs them the wrong way.

[mamselle]

But a tenured person (foreigner or not)--IF such a system had such a category--would matter.

I agree, it might not exist there to begin with.

But it is one of the ways that tenure does influence quality of instruction where ideological pressures might otherwise be brought to bear.

Which was the whole idea to begin with, right?

M.

[Durchlässigkeitsbeiwert]

But a tenured person (foreigner or not)--IF such a system had such a category--would matter.

I strongly doubt so:

If they see a threat in a simple advanced math class, they'll definitely be impairing the freedom of discussion in a Poli Sci class, or a History class, or even a Global Affairs and Events class. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to say. Guys with guns sat in the back of his classroom.)

Discussion requires students to participate. Having a tenured expat professor in front of them is not a sufficient condition (even it being a necessary condition remains unproven)

[Durchlässigkeitsbeiwert]

This would mean no research in math, chemistry, geology, physics, and more. I would imagine that this might be of interest to an aspiring petrochemical engineer.

Cursory review of the faculty directory indicates that relevant faculty resides in engineering departments.
E.g. geology courses are taught by petroleum engineering person with relevant background.

Alternately, you might argue that engineering courses are just as well taught by adjuncts and term faculty.

Indeed. So, a [relatively] privileged position of the engineering faculty here is likely to simply reflect their labour market power. Hence my question about this being a possible future for other places, where the same power dynamics apply.

[mleok]

A friend, as I've said before, went to a similar place, he thought on a lark, to teach calculus to undergrads, and HE was followed, his rooms searched, and his passport held against his displeasing the PTB.  (He finally got out.)

But. Calculus. Not even Poli Sci, but Calculus.

If they see a threat in a simple advanced math class, they'll definitely be impairing the freedom of discussion in a Poli Sci class, or a History class, or even a Global Affairs and Events class. (Oh, yeah, I forgot to say. Guys with guns sat in the back of his classroom.)

I'm curious as to why calculus was perceived as a threat, what was the class supposed to be about?

[mamselle]

It was for engineers.

Think a country with a well-to-do oil-based economy in the 1990s, with a strong military, somewhere around the Mediterranean.

He had a background in electronics and physics as well (and was working on some thingummy here in the states for a contractor; the whole team was laid off after they delivered the designs that were wanted), and he was footloose, so he decided, against several friends' advice, to sell up everything-- including his house to his long-time renters--and see where the wind would blow him.

However, there were several things that my friend was not told when he signed on. Or, more accurately, things he stipulated he did not want to have happen, that did.

He specifically said he would not teach in a military school, wanted nothing to do with guns or other weapons, and expected to be housed privately, since he could afford to pay for a place himself. He wanted to teach professionals, not draftees who had to be there, and he wanted to set up his syllabus himself.

Instead, they put him in an apartment they controlled (and bugged it), they followed him around openly on the streets going to and from class, or to dinner, or anywhere else, and they had these goons in the back with their guns. They dictated the syllabus, and the goons-with-guns would (he knew) have reported him if he'd gone away from it...and they had no sense of humor, so even jokes made them restive...their English was mottled at best.

It was clear from the students' attitudes (and the fatigues they wore to class each day) that they were the very draftees he'd asked to avoid, and they definitely didn't want to be there. He'd been told he'd get his passport back the day after he handed it in "for processing," and then had a three-month hassle getting it back (because within a couple of weeks he'd decided to break his contract and get out).

He wasn't even teaching (or apparently ever asked for) the kinds of seriously savvy stuff he could have taught, which had low-grade munitions uses, apparently.

They were just into control, and that meant in every way, and he couldn't teach a thing on his own, really.

He did get out, finally, came back with nothing, and fortunately, his long-term-renting-house-buyers let him stay with them while he got back on his feet.

M.

[Durchlässigkeitsbeiwert]

Tenure does not protect against apartment being bugged or against being followed by security officers.

So, I still don't understand how this story supports the notion that

But a tenured person (foreigner or not)--IF such a system had such a category--would matter.

[Golazo]

Texas A&M needs Qatar more than Qatar needs Texas A&M. I suspect Georgetown would never agree to this.

I'm not sure tenure has protected people in say Singapore when they are blacklisted from the country. But it does protect against silly administrators.

[downer]

Here's one way to boost the Humanities.

Make classics a shelter for neofascists and create jobs for far right wing academics.
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/31/exclusive-now-the-far-right-is-coming-for-college-too--with-taxpayer-funded-classical-education/

[Parasaurolophus]

Here's one way to boost the Humanities.

Make classics a shelter for neofascists and create jobs for far right wing academics.
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/31/exclusive-now-the-far-right-is-coming-for-college-too--with-taxpayer-funded-classical-education/

Now, now. They earned those jobs, and it's not their fault the women and Black people stole all the regular jobs.

[mamselle]

This from an Australian paper:

   https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-simon-during-on-the-demoralisation-of-the-humanities-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-186111

M.

[marshwiggle]

This from an Australian paper:

   https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-simon-during-on-the-demoralisation-of-the-humanities-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-186111

M.

From the article:

As George Orwell noted decades ago in The Road to Wigan Pier, there is something repugnant about a progressivism embraced by those who have no experience of the struggles and the sheer physical grind of those who don't hold the right certificates. Or about those who want to decolonise the culture while enjoying all colonialism's fruits. In the popular view, the humanities academic embodies such gilded radicalism.

Of course, it is not as though all humanities academics have signed up to the whole post-sixties left program. In the old humanities at sandstone universities, courses such as those on Elizabethan drama, the history of medieval Korea, or the grammatical structures of Indo-European languages are still taught. Such courses need not be organised around progressive sensitivities.

Nonetheless, those academics – a small fraction – who wish to push back on, say, denunciations of the white man's historical role, or who wish to praise the "great books" canon, tend not talk in public or even in the classroom. They are afraid to.

[Hibush]

The same old theme in WaPo today. "The most-regretted (and lowest-paying) college majors. Almost half of humanities and arts majors regret their choice — and enrollment in those disciplines is shrinking rapidly".

The story itself isn't all doom and gloom, but points in directions where there is growth and satisfied graduates.

On the upside, in the old vocational vs liberal-arts dimension, "A substantial majority of vocational and technical students (60 percent) wish they'd gone for more schooling".

One graph shows that humanities bachelor degrees have dropped from 9% in the 1980s to 7% today. that  is  a drop but hardly the cliff it is described as. Comater that to the burgeoning Computer Science which is up from 5% to 6 1/2%. That's right, the major that is blowing everything else out of the water has almost caught up with the humanities. (The last 10 years look worse, and there is a graph of that as well.)

[Caracal]

The same old theme in WaPo today. "The most-regretted (and lowest-paying) college majors. Almost half of humanities and arts majors regret their choice — and enrollment in those disciplines is shrinking rapidly".

The story itself isn't all doom and gloom, but points in directions where there is growth and satisfied graduates.

On the upside, in the old vocational vs liberal-arts dimension, "A substantial majority of vocational and technical students (60 percent) wish they'd gone for more schooling".

As the article points out, there's a feedback loop problem. If you ask people if they regret doing something, what they tell you isn't necessarily going to be based on an objective examination of their past choices and current situation. Instead, people are influenced by all these stories about how getting a humanities major is a bad idea and believe that if they had majored in something else they would be making more money. I suspect they are often wrong. It's easy to imagine you could have been a computer science major, but that doesn't mean you would have been successful if you didn't have the skills.

There's a feedback loop with the earnings as well. If college students believe that majoring in the humanities is going to mean they can't get higher paying jobs, than those who value that highly will major in other things. The students left in the humanities are going to be those who have other priorities, and when they graduate many of them will become teachers, go into the non profit sector or do other things that aren't likely to pay terribly well. That doesn't mean that a student who majors in business instead of philosophy is actually going to earn more money because of their degree.