7:00pm |
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How America Invented the Humanities
(Diversity)
Geoffrey Harpham, President and Director of the National Humanities Center, will present a lecture entitled How America Invented the Humanities on Tuesday, March 15, at 7 pm in Hancock 100. This talk is based on his new book, The Humanities and the Dream of America. A reception and book signing will follow.
Although the humanities have long been associated with the global heritage of human creative activity, Harpham makes the case that the concept of the humanities--as a collection of academic disciplines--is a recent invention of the American academy, during the post WWII culture of the United States. A central element in liberal education for a growing population, the humanities were also understood as a means of advancing American values and interests. How does this context of emergence affect the character of humanistic study today?
The National Humanities Center is the only independent institute for advanced study in the world dedicated to the humanities. Under Harpham's leadership, the Center has sponsored a major initiative bringing humanists and scientists together to assess the impact of recent empirical work on our understanding of the human. Harpham is the author of nine books, including The Ascetic Imperative in Culture and Criticism (1987); One of Us: The Mastery of Joseph Conrad (1996); Shadows of Ethics: Criticism and the Just Society (1999); and The Humanities and the Dream of America (2011). He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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