Reading Novels at Medical School | New York Times | June 2016 Our busy jobs on the hospital wards require precision and efficiency, but in literature class we can slow down and explore human lives and thoughts in a different, more complex way. The class is an anatomy lab of the mind. We examine cultural conventions and conflicting perspectives, and
In Pursuit of Political Equality | Wall Street Journal | June 2016 In her latest book, “Equality and Education,” Dr. Allen calls for a renewed focus on the liberal arts, particularly in primary and secondary schools. She believes that studying philosophy, history and literature can teach students how to participate in politics in a more informed way.
When universities try to behave like businesses, education suffers | Los Angeles Times | June 2016 Universities are getting cozier with businesses and industrialists, and less discerning about the pitfalls of these relationships, which include accepting donations with strings attached. What’s worse is that universities are adopting the corporate model of profit and loss as though they’re businesses themselves. Students
If Philosophy Won’t Diversify, Let’s Call It What It Really Is | New York Times | May 2016 The vast majority of philosophy departments in the United States offer courses only on philosophy derived from Europe and the English-speaking world. For example, of the 118 doctoral programs in philosophy in the United States and Canada, only 10 percent have a
It’s the End of the Humanities as We Know It | New Republic | June 2014 Like a consumptive protagonist in a Victorian novel, the humanities have been dying for a long, long time. Earlier this week, James Pulizzi declared that English departments would soon be “extinct,” and that there was “no reversing” this decline. Although his topic was the
Philosopher Judith Butler on the Value of the Humanities and Why We Read | Brain Pickings | June 2013 “[The humanities allow us] to learn to read carefully, with appreciation and a critical eye; to find ourselves, unexpectedly, in the middle of the ancient texts we read, but also to find ways of living, thinking, acting, and reflecting that belong
Don’t Turn Away From the Art of Life | New York Times | February 2016 [The] humanistic model is sloppy. It has no bottom line. It is not geared for maximum productivity. It will not increase your arsenal of facts or data. But it rivals with rockets when it comes to flight and the visions it enables. And it will