Did some quick researches
Did some quick researches. Only two of them are/were college professors in US:
Toni Morrison (Princeton)
Louise Glück (Williams)
He died two years too early (waiting for experimental confirmation of his theories). Penrose won in 2020 Physics Nobel for black holes too late for Hawking
I have already stated my own belief that Humanities are still relevant and that any issues are due to the vast k-12 inequities that permeate our society. I have watched my Dad and Stepmom make 6 figure salaries for the last 20+ years of their careers with humanities degrees (Sociology w/MBAs attached). I have watched teachers of all degree types in my area make a comfortable wage in an average cost of living area (lowest teacher salary is $51,600 for a 1st year teacher with a bachelor’s degree all of the way up to $104,500 for a ~30 year teacher with a doctorate). I have watched people in my rather large company with Humanities degrees of all types move into quite lucrative roles (HR, Customer Service, and Transportation leads come to mind). I have found that the ability to communicate effectively is a much sought after skill that my company pays a premium for.
The big issue for a lot of people is that the statistics show that it is harder to “monetize” a Humanities degree. I have 2 reasons why those statistics have never influenced my own decisions. I saw early on that wealth could be built by making a lot of money, but I also saw wealth built through living within ones means. Dave Ramsey often talks about a colleague who has interviewed 10,000 “everyday millionaires” and the 3rd most common occupation amongst those millionaires are teachers. No matter my household income in my adult life, I have been able to save and invest, because I am comfortable going “without” things for a greater purpose. The 2nd reason that I have never been worried about monetizing a Humanities degree was that I was raised around “hustlers”, people who could sell ice cream cones on the North Pole, or hot chocolate in the middle of the summer. I just believe that you are going to have to be very “hungry”, get up early, work late, and think very hard to bring what I am “bringing to the table”. Money and opportunities will always be around when you are “hungry”. My biggest goal as a parent (besides teaching my kids kindness and giving back to others) was to pass on that “hunger”, because it doesn’t even matter if you have a degree when you have “it”.
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I think we can all agree that the humanities are still relevant to our human experience, our culture, and our society. But the real question, I guess, is how relevant they are, or how they can stay relevant, to an average college student today, not just the students who want to pursue their academic interests in those fields. By studying the humanities, they can develop critical thinking, analytical and communication skills, but they don’t necessarily have to major in the humanities to acquire those skills. So why would they have to major in the humanities? Why wouldn’t it be enough for (or require) them to have sufficient exposures to and develop interests in the essential elements in the humanities?
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OK- so for the kid who has no aptitude in physics or computer science who just needs “sufficient exposure” to the humanities-- that kid should major in Recreation Management or Travel and Tourism?
Kids that don’t have an aptitude are not going into Physics :-).
And I would guess that for a top 50 school (maybe even a top 100), kids that don’t have aptitude won’t get into a CS program.
We can’t make an argument based on the 10-15% kids that are there due to other reasons.
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Of course not. Many of the majors in the humanities are (or certainly can be) more rigorous than many of the alternatives these kids can major in in college. Personally, I have more issues with some of the majors in the social sciences (or closer to social science). But that’s a different topic.
BTW, should colleges even have Recreation Management or Travel and Tourism majors? Shouldn’t students go to trade schools for these types of career training if they’re interested in those areas?
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Ask Cornell?
I believe the Cornell hotel school came about because of a single donor and his requirement for his donation. It’s been successful and popular (and I heard its wine-tasting course is among the most popular courses at Cornell), but that doesn’t mean it should belong there. I understand it’s now part of its business school.
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And therefore they are sending kids into banking :-). I know one.
Nothing to worry there.
Not just banking- real estate development, construction and design, sustainable urban planning.
But it’s a little unfair to use Cornell’s Hotel School as an analogue to the typical Travel and Tourism major. The typical Travel major is NOT going to produce a candidate who is attractive to Blackstone, a wide variety of REIT’s and private equity firms with large commercial real estate portfolio’s, etc. They typical travel major is hoping for an entry level job at a cruise or hotel company… and many of those jobs do NOT require a Bachelor’s degree.
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In other words, for hospitality type majors and perhaps other majors, job and career outcomes are very dependent on college prestige.
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It’s not the prestige, it’s the rigor. A random hospitality program that ramps up its graduation requirements and shifts from content towards analysis will find a corporate community eager to interview it’s graduates. Rigor.
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They don’t. It’s hardly uncommon for humanities departments to enroll far more non-majors than majors, one of the reasons the number of undergraduate majors is only one factor in gauging the vitality of a department (and rarely the most important).
Take the Spanish department at Yale, for example, which had 1173 students in 2021-22 but a mere 11 juniors and seniors majoring in Spanish.
That makes sense. Many would-be math, physics, or even engineering majors are choosing CS these days, but that doesn’t make those other departments less relevant. They can offer in their respective departments more courses that are more relevant to CS majors (or wannabes). They can also create new cross-disciplinary areas that may interest some of these students. The humanities department can do the same to stay relevant in a world constantly changed by technologies. For example, it could offer courses to explore philosophical, ethical, societal issues and more that inevitably accompany every technological advancement (many of them are probably doing or contemplating doing these things).
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What do you consider Economics? In the UK politics, philosophy and economics (aka PPE) often go together…
Usually considered a social science here, though in some places it can be thought of as STEM if sufficiently quantitative
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Interesting quote,
”In the end, the lesson is this: The heritage of the humanities is inextricably tied to ideas that become words and texts. The humanities undergird the arts, but they are not the same as the plastic or performing arts, and they are distinguishable from the physical, biological, and social sciences (except for history). The humanities encompass the vast cultural remains and written records and stories of the many peoples and societies that are in effect cultural streams that have flowed together to shape contours and inform our nation. The humanities are the ideas, words, and stories that explain who we are as individuals and who we are as a community.”
From NEH magazine article
I, Humanist
HUMANITIES, Fall 2019, Volume 40, Number 4
Published on November 1, 2019
by Dabney Park
About the author
Dabney Park is an adjunct professor of modern languages and literature at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and a member of the board of directors of the Florida Humanities Council since 2018.
As an undergrad humanities major, I can with confidence say the humanities is the study of human achievement. End stop. History, art history, literature, philosophy, etc…
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From The New Yorker:
Here’s how The New Yorker newsletter describes the article:
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