Humanities

The economics are murky but the damage that closing departments will do to universities’ missions is crystal clear, says Peter Tregear

Editor of new collection showcases neglected major female thinkers going all the way back to ancient Greece and ancient China

White House wants ‘patriotic education’ and directly threatens Princeton

India’s National Education Policy aims to establish a seamless connectivity between humanities and science, says Rup Narayan Das

Critics underestimated the human imagination’s capacity to render concepts flexible, says Frank Furedi

Latin American university leaders tell THE summit that countries will need skills of non-science graduates as they recover from coronavirus

Universities are in a powerful position to help societies address history in a way that informs the present and shapes the future, says Andrew Thompson

Scholars put the case for experts in philosophy, narrative, literature and culture to work along the scientists in fighting Covid-19

In contrast to other countries, philosophers, historians, theologians and jurists have played a major role advising the state as it seeks to loosen restrictions

We should not be apologising for the way the humanities have been used in the Trump era, but striving to harness their force, says Sara Guyer

Even as medics scramble to address the coronavirus, research into its social and political entanglements is vital, says Robert Peckham 

Academics estimate that 32 language degree programmes have closed in the past five years

The humanities can embrace certain forms of vocationalism without betraying their essential nature and value, argues Kevin Vanzant

Prince Andrew’s fall from grace a full decade after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction underlines academia’s failure to probe modern power, says Jason Lee

Ever since it emerged from English departments in the 1970s, media studies has been routinely dismissed as the archetypal ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree. But in an era of fake news and media hegemony, has this multifaceted subject finally found its place in the zeitgeist?

Recent controversy over the future directions of both Stanford and Melbourne university presses have raised questions about the role of in-house publishing arms in a world of commercialisation, impact agendas, alternative facts – and ever-diminishing monograph sales. Anna McKie reports

The iconic dictionary’s misogynist descriptions of female genitalia were ripe for revision, say Emma Rees and Ellie Stedall

A new humanities-based major focused on how global commerce, businesses and societies shape one another points the way forward, says Karen E. Spierling

Lennard Davis’ recent THE article was wrong to dismiss the utility of subversion, says David Palumbo-Liu

Conference on subject area’s future hears warnings against making it mere ‘problem-solving for the sciences and engineering’

As in the UK and the US, universities face questions about whether their curricula feature enough non-white voices

Efforts to make college cheaper should not detract from attempts to improve the other side of the value-for-money equation, says Kevin Vanzant

Colleagues may look askance at ‘the death squad’, but while teaching and research into one of life’s only two certainties may be taxing, it is also vital, Matthew Reisz hears

The New Education Policy breaks with India’s post-independence preference for vocational avenues of upward mobility, says Saikat Majumdar

Donation from philanthropist Stephen Schwarzman is institution’s ‘largest since the Renaissance’

Experts divided over whether centre-left but anti-immigration Social Democratic Party will continue, scrap or enhance current policy restricting foreign student numbers

Data from Times Higher Education suggest some countries may be falling behind on the number of academics in non-STEM areas

England’s universities minister says arts and humanities must not be marginalised in wake of Augar review

British Academy report highlights falling student numbers and ageing academic workforce

Apparent moves to increase university autonomy will have the opposite effect given the government’s authoritarian tendencies, says Jarosław Płuciennik

In these days of virtual learning environments, face-to-face classes promote the endangered art of meaningful human interaction, says Joe Moran

The winner of this year’s Holberg Prize, worth over £500,000, on career setbacks, changing attitudes and decolonising the curriculum

Television historian on his failed attempt to ‘escape’ being a historian, Churchill’s ‘mixed’ legacy and why we need more black professors

Data from the UK, US and Australia suggest science doctorates continue to dominate expansion, but why?

Narratives of decline fail to take account of the recent revival of the liberal arts in India, says Saikat Majumdar

Turing Institute and British Library collaborate on project to use artificial intelligence techniques to analyse texts

Maintaining a breadth of curricular offerings is crucial if subjects outside the sciences are to retain their attraction in the digital age, says Dean Forbes

Dutch figures show just how little time professors get for their own research. It may be easier to pursue your intellectual interests outside the university system, says THE reporter David Matthews

Justifications of suicide may risk promoting it, but censoring one side of an ancient argument would shortchange students, says David Baumeister

Scholars should not be walled off from mainstream biography’s playground of unlicensed fun, says Richard Bradford

Cambridge fellow also calls for arts to be excluded from research excellence framework

US academics consider how the Bard can be taught to students who may feel he has nothing to offer them

Researchers as interested in the impact of supernatural belief on society as whether those views are grounded in fact or fiction

Matthew Reisz meets Andrea Pető, recent recipient of the Madame de Staël prize, a scholar at Hungary’s Central European University whose feminist probing into the dark corners of Hungary’s past is provoking strong reactions in the ‘illiberal democracy’

New president of German Rectors’ Conference thinks it is crucial that all students know the European canon

Academic Jack Davis tells John Morgan of his surprise at learning that his history of the Gulf of Mexico had won a Pulitzer prize and his hope that it will help to deliver a pro-environmental message

Seekers of dispassionate truth may be irritated by the moral passion of the likes of Dostoevsky, Zola and Chekhov, but it is a much stronger influence on public opinion, says David Aberbach  

The EU’s proposal for its next research and innovation funding framework focuses too narrowly on technology, say Gabi Lombardo and Jon Deer

Researchers criticise lack of diversity on programme of major conference

Proposals to extend open access requirements to include all long-form works beyond REF 2021 divide opinion

Ramsay Centre insists that negotiations with other institutions are under way

New book sets human history in the light of the wider trends that have shaped the universe

Although talk of crisis may be alarmist, academics in the humanities need to get out and fight their corner more effectively, former president says

A lack of intellectual and cultural willingness to open up historical discussions about the UK’s imperial past make it a difficult subject for students and scholars to get to grips with, argues Scott Anthony

If elements of society feel they have no stake in humanities and social science research, their support for it will evaporate, warns Musa al-Gharbi

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point proposes to eliminate 13 arts majors to manage deficit of $4.5 million (£3.2 million) over two years

Students’ union says major report suggests that humanities degrees are ‘not worthwhile’

The internet impedes human interactions, warps civilised discourse and aggravates misunderstandings, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto 

Academic focus on ideas from a small range of European countries would not be tolerated in other disciplines, says Lloyd Strickland

Talk of making arts degrees cheaper than science courses disregards the mix of disciplines that creative industries demand, says Bashir Makhoul