Humanities Futures Response | Sumathi Ramaswamy and Beth Holmgren
Duke Prof.'s Sumathi Ramaswamy and Beth Holmgren both share their views of the paper, "The Humanities After Humanism," written by University of Oxford Professor Faisal Devji. Touching upon the university, liberal society and the globe as sites in which the humanities locate themselves, this essay argues that the traditional subject of humanist reflection needs to be rethought. How might an esoteric approach to scholarship constitute a productive necessity for the humanities, serving to question the academy’s public role as much as its traditional duty of cultivating a private individual? Humanities Futures is a multi-faceted exploration of the states and directions of the humanities, in light of the interdisciplinary developments of recent decades. Supported by a general grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Humanities Futures is a 3.5-year initiative running from Fall 2014 through Fall 2017.
