Did you see this article? The gist of it is: It’s worth reading, and thinking about the various factors that can inform the decision on an undergraduate major and whether to pursue graduate studies. Thanks to REL grad Chris Scott for bringing it to my attention. […]
Category: Relevance of Humanities
Posts in this category discuss the wider relevance of those tools, methods, and disciplines often grouped together and called the Humanities.
Race and Displacement
Race and Displacement, co-edited by our own Prof. Simmons and Prof. Marouan (formerly of REL and now of Gender & Race Studies), has just been published. It is based on a conference held at UA several years ago. As the University of Alabama Press’s site describes it: “it captures a timely set of discussions about the roles of race in displacement, forced migrations, nation and nationhood, and the way continuous movements of people challenge fixed racial definitions. The multifaceted approach […]
Why the U.S. State Department Should Take Mike Altman’s Introduction to Religious Studies Course
Did you hear Sec. of State John Kerry’s comment (on Aug. 7, 2013) on the importance of understanding the role of religion in international affairs? […]
“The Stories of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated…”
Seen this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education? Give it a read and ask yourself why — if this is what the public actually thinks — we all seem to assume that there’s a crisis in the liberal arts? That is, if the skills taught all across the liberal arts are so essential (read the results [PDF] of the study for yourself) then why do we all seem to agree so easily that they are so non-essential — i.e., […]
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What’s of Value to You?
Did you see this article in the New York Times‘ “Common Sense” column? A lot of people now seem to be measuring the worth of their investment in higher education in terms of the possibility of future earnings — their “return on investment.” But what would happen if the return that concerned you was something else that’s empirically measurable and that’s likely pretty relevant to people too, something like, say, life expectancy? After all, earning potential is a speculative generalization […]
Lucrative, But Defined How…?
Ladies (ok, gents too, I guess): how do you define “lucrative”? Give the story a listen. […]
Who Needs the Business School!
Ben Simmons, an REL major, graduated in 2009. Since then, he has started his own online business. This originally appeared as an article in the Department’s 2011-12 Newsletter. View the Newsletter here (PDF). I came to the University of Alabama in the fall of 2007 with an eye toward a degree in History because I enjoyed it, without considering how useful that degree would be out in the “real world.” So, I signed up for other classes that I thought would be “easy […]
Jonathan Z. Smith on the Craft of Teaching
A presentation by Jonathan Z. Smith, (2003-4 Aronov lecturer) as part of the University of Chicago’s “Craft of Teaching Seminar,” from February 2013. […]
Test-Taking Skills Do Not = An Education
Did you hear President Obama’s speech at the University of Buffalo the other day, on how to address increasing costs in higher education? Here’s the final paragraph from the response of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP): Read the AAUP’s whole statement here. […]
The Hunger Games
Did you see this article by UVA’s Mark Edmundson, a — you guessed it — Professor of English, published at The Chronicle of Higher Education? It’s a pretty good example of how some play the zero sum game called “getting majors”: we cannibalize other Departments by positioning ourselves as the best place to prep for, say, law school or, in Edmundson’s rather ambitious argument, to become a better human being. […]