The Matter of the Humanities
The Matter of the Humanities
“When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressors.”
Paolo Freire
“The future has arrived, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
William Gibson
As academia accelerates headlong into an uncertain future where the value of education is increasingly defined by its direct relationship to the job market, and the perceived value of research often rests on how quantifiable its output is, humanities academics are often quick to adopt a defensive posture. This posture stands in stark contrast to a 2023 study from Oxford University showing that humanities graduates are more resilient, more flexible, more ethically and strategically adept, and sharper at both critical analysis and creative problem-solving.[1] This symposium aims to sidestep such defensiveness by beginning from the premise that the role and relevance of humanities education has only become more critically important for graduates in the information age.
Since 2020, humanities education has been forced to adapt its methods to the emergence of unforeseen challenges. The coronavirus pandemic and the advent of LLM technologies such as ChatGPT have generated pressure on humanities educators to change the way we work. These pressures have produced a flourishing of innovative practices in humanities pedagogy that build on the enduring value of established pedagogical research in often unexpected ways.
We invite scholars, educators, and practitioners to join us at LUMS in Lahore, Pakistan, on September 27-28, 2024, for “The Matter of the Humanities”, an interdisciplinary symposium that will explore the enduring value and innovative pedagogy that humanities scholarship offers. We seek papers that address the following dual themes:
1. The Massive Value of the Humanities
How do the humanities contribute to our comprehension of the complexities of our data-driven future condition? How does a humanities education promote and cultivate key analytical skills such as critical thinking, empathy, and media literacy, and what is the role of a humanities education in addressing the new challenges of a modern world increasingly shaped by algorithmic processes. We welcome submissions that demonstrate the transformative potential of the humanities in addressing urgent issues at the global and local level such as social justice, climate collapse, decolonization, and the ethical dimensions of emerging technologies.
2. Pedagogy and Practice in the Humanities Classroom
What are the innovations, in both practice and theory, that make humanities pedagogy uniquely engaging and invigorating? How are humanities educators bridging the gap between the traditional classroom setting and a rapidly evolving digital sphere? We encourage submissions that explore radical and creative approaches to thinking about and conducting the work of teaching, including interdisciplinary collaborations, experiential learning, and the integration of digital technology to the classroom.
We are particularly interested in proposals that:
- · Engage in critical dialogue across disciplines, fostering fruitful inquiries and connections between humanities scholarship and research in other academic fields (business, STEM, law, medicine, and computer science), that deepen our understanding of the issues we hold in common.
- · Explore the intersections of humanities scholarship with contemporary issues of local and global importance, and highlight the specific relationalities of humanities education to questions of justice, ethics, literacy, and culture.
- · Report on experiments with decolonizing curricula and reshaping classroom dynamics or otherwise engaging students with the materiality of history as it emerges in the context of humanities education.
- · Present pedagogical case studies that demonstrate the integration of new techniques and technologies in the humanities classroom to engage students with course material.
- · Analyze the role of the humanities in cultivating ethical decision-making and responsible citizenship beyond the spaces of the university itself.
- · Examine the role of the humanities in shaping public discourse across media, culture, and politics.
Proposals for papers should be no more than 300 words in length and be accompanied by a brief bio of the author, and three keywords that indicate the specific focus of the proposed paper.
Proposals should be submitted to tom.sewel@lums.edu.pk with the words “Symposium proposal” in the subject line of the email.
Proposals should be submitted by August 20, 2024.
We eagerly anticipate a thought-provoking and generative exchange of ideas as this symposium explores the possibilities that interdisciplinary scholarship affords to challenge, inspire, and cast light on the matter of the humanities.
[1] https://www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/article/the-massive-value-of-the-humanities https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/Oxford%20U%20Value%20of%20Humanities%20report.pdf
The Matter of the Humanities
“When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressors.”
Paolo Freire
“The future has arrived, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
William Gibson
As academia accelerates headlong into an uncertain future where the value of education is increasingly defined by its direct relationship to the job market, and the perceived value of research often rests on how quantifiable its output is, humanities academics are often quick to adopt a defensive posture. This posture stands in stark contrast to a 2023 study from Oxford University showing that humanities graduates are more resilient, more flexible, more ethically and strategically adept, and sharper at both critical analysis and creative problem-solving.[1] This symposium aims to sidestep such defensiveness by beginning from the premise that the role and relevance of humanities education has only become more critically important for graduates in the information age.
Since 2020, humanities education has been forced to adapt its methods to the emergence of unforeseen challenges. The coronavirus pandemic and the advent of LLM technologies such as ChatGPT have generated pressure on humanities educators to change the way we work. These pressures have produced a flourishing of innovative practices in humanities pedagogy that build on the enduring value of established pedagogical research in often unexpected ways.
We invite scholars, educators, and practitioners to join us at LUMS on September 27-28, 2024, for “The Matter of the Humanities”, an interdisciplinary symposium that will explore the enduring value and innovative pedagogy that humanities scholarship offers. We seek papers that address the following dual themes:
1. The Massive Value of the Humanities
How do the humanities contribute to our comprehension of the complexities of our data-driven future condition? How does a humanities education promote and cultivate key analytical skills such as critical thinking, empathy, and media literacy, and what is the role of a humanities education in addressing the new challenges of a modern world increasingly shaped by algorithmic processes. We welcome submissions that demonstrate the transformative potential of the humanities in addressing urgent issues at the global and local level such as social justice, climate collapse, decolonization, and the ethical dimensions of emerging technologies.
2. Pedagogy and Practice in the Humanities Classroom
What are the innovations, in both practice and theory, that make humanities pedagogy uniquely engaging and invigorating? How are humanities educators bridging the gap between the traditional classroom setting and a rapidly evolving digital sphere? We encourage submissions that explore radical and creative approaches to thinking about and conducting the work of teaching, including interdisciplinary collaborations, experiential learning, and the integration of digital technology to the classroom.
We are particularly interested in proposals that:
· Engage in critical dialogue across disciplines, fostering fruitful inquiries and connections between humanities scholarship and research in other academic fields (business, STEM, law, medicine, and computer science), that deepen our understanding of the issues we hold in common.
· Explore the intersections of humanities scholarship with contemporary issues of local and global importance, and highlight the specific relationalities of humanities education to questions of justice, ethics, literacy, and culture.
· Report on experiments with decolonizing curricula and reshaping classroom dynamics or otherwise engaging students with the materiality of history as it emerges in the context of humanities education.
· Present pedagogical case studies that demonstrate the integration of new techniques and technologies in the humanities classroom to engage students with course material.
· Analyze the role of the humanities in cultivating ethical decision-making and responsible citizenship beyond the spaces of the university itself.
· Examine the role of the humanities in shaping public discourse across media, culture, and politics.
Proposals for papers should be no more than 300 words in length and be accompanied by a brief bio of the author, and three keywords that indicate the specific focus of the proposed paper.
Proposals should be submitted to tom.sewel@lums.edu.pk with the words “Symposium proposal” in the subject line of the email.
Proposals should be submitted by August 20, 2024.
We eagerly anticipate a thought-provoking and generative exchange of ideas as this symposium explores the possibilities that interdisciplinary scholarship affords to challenge, inspire, and cast light on the matter of the humanities.
[1] https://www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/article/the-massive-value-of-the-humanities https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/Oxford%20U%20Value%20of%20Humanities%20report.pdf