"Rethinking the Humanities" is an academic dialogue concerning the role of humanities in higher education. The project, which began with an initiative at the University of Michigan, aims to include participants from various backgrounds and from around the world. The dialogue is presented in a variety of forms (of which this Web site is only one). The project also operates an online conference discussion and will be holding a conference, "Body/Bildung" at the University of Michigan, 8, 9, and 10 October 1999.
OCTOBER 8, 9, and 10
Meetings in Room 1636 School of Social Work
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LINKS
TO CONFERENCE PAPERS
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As well as involving scholars from many different departments and disciplines within the humanities, the Rethinking the Humanities Project seeks to explore criticism in a variety of spaces and forms. The digital 'cyber' spaces (the online conference discussion and this site) are intended to function alongside a number of other activities, including the "Body/Bildung" conference. The organizers of the conference will also be offering a graduate seminar (CL 770) during the University of Michigan's Fall 1999 term, entitled "Rethinking the Humanities: Models of Discipline and Desire".
The RTH project also hopes to stimulate recognition and cooperation between the many ongoing efforts to reconceptualize the humanities, bringing scholars together (the conference) and also information nodes (see our Page of Links).
It is becoming increasingly clear that the traditional Western model of the role of the humanities in university education, inherited from the 19th century, needs rethinking. The most obvious changes that need to be addressed are (1) within universities, the rise of the social sciences, and especially the recent development of cultural studies; (2) in the relation of universities to society, increasing multiculturalism within Western societies and the globalization of academic discourse. The University of Michigan, with its strong tradition of interdisciplinarity, a new administration concerned with academic values, and its new International Institute, seems to be an ideal site for initiating debate on this topic.