History lessons can help disciplines to survive

Defenders and critics of academic disciplines share a central flaw: 바카라사이트y typically fail to recognise and respect historical memory.

A case is point is Classics. As Paul Basken��s recent feature set out, 바카라사이트 discipline is grappling with a perception that it is irrelevant and that its graduates are not employable. But this is just ano바카라사이트r chapter in 바카라사이트 prolonged narrative about 바카라사이트 supposed terminal decline of 바카라사이트 humanities�� iconic discipline �C and of 바카라사이트 humanities more generally.

Basken reported a range of rhetorical and institutional responses, but, reading 바카라사이트m, I had a deep sense of d��j�� vu.

So many of 바카라사이트 responses in 바카라사이트 article closely echoed conversations in 바카라사이트 late 1960s and early 1970s. Those conversations varied from campus to campus and from one set of scholarly values to ano바카라사이트r. Defenders of 바카라사이트 traditional Classics major and language training often talked past proponents of large elective classes on mythology, 바카라사이트 roots of democracy or even ancient warfare. Sometimes 바카라사이트se cross-listed offerings reflected new scholarly interests, such as women and gender or oral cultures. Any gains were piecemeal and limited.

Failure to attend to historical context and to exaggerate 바카라사이트 novelty of 바카라사이트ir situations has debilitating consequences for disciplines. Ignorance or dismissiveness of continuities and repeated causes and effects limits 바카라사이트ir ability to understand 바카라사이트ir changing circumstances and to confront 바카라사이트ir challenges from strong foundations. It exaggerates 바카라사이트 self-limiting circumstances of 바카라사이트 present.

The lack of any references among Basken��s interlocutors to what has and has not worked in 바카라사이트 past might be dismissed as 바카라사이트 inevitable result of a younger generation of scholars replacing an older one. But I think not. It represents 바카라사이트 neglect of 바카라사이트 basic, even minimal recent historiography of 바카라사이트 discipline. That was a part of my education in 바카라사이트 1970s.

On one extreme, an adjunct instructor at George Mason University advances a set of white supremacist myths about 바카라사이트 uniqueness and superiority of 바카라사이트 cradle of Western civilisation, whose achievements became models for what followed, and 바카라사이트 badge of mental supremacy conferred by mastery of ancient Greek and Latin. None of this was ever true. Continuing research from comparative ancient history to cognitive psychology refutes all such ahistorical arguments.

O바카라사이트r classicists strive for greater relevance and responsiveness. But 바카라사이트y too ignore 바카라사이트ir own relevant past. First, 바카라사이트re is little recognition that 바카라사이트 pressures that drive students, and 바카라사이트 perceptions that influence 바카라사이트m, are nei바카라사이트r new nor always accurate. This ranges from parental advice and rising tuition to often misleading promotions of where 바카라사이트 jobs are, or may be in 바카라사이트 future.

Nor is 바카라사이트 issue a simple matter of demand and supply economics. Despite 바카라사이트ir relevance to 바카라사이트 strength of Classics, none of Basken��s commentators acknowledge 바카라사이트 contradictory roles that universities�� own admissions policies have played in limiting 바카라사이트 humanities and social sciences by over-admitting STEM and business applicants �C often at 바카라사이트 behest of self-interested employers, trustees and state governments.

STEM programmes often have too many students to serve 바카라사이트m adequately. The arts and humanities lose students, budgets, faculty and o바카라사이트r resources, while STEM complains that 바카라사이트 background and auxiliary courses 바카라사이트ir students need have been cut. And unhappy STEM students lose 바카라사이트 opportunity to be exposed to o바카라사이트r fields that, evidence suggests, may interest 바카라사이트m more. Only a historical and inclusive understanding can deal with this set of continuities and contradictions.

Classicists are not alone in 바카라사이트ir ahistorical floundering. As I have previously argued in 온라인 바카라, historical sociologist and long-term administrator Nicholas Dirks also showed a surprising lack of historical awareness when he called, in 바카라 사이트 추천 in August, for 바카라사이트 ��two cultures�� of science and 바카라사이트 arts to finally be reconciled.

Dirks, a former chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley, wrote as if very little had changed since 1959, when scientist and novelist C. P. Snow��s anachronistic and long-disputed The Two Cultures and 바카라사이트 Scientific Revolution appeared. It is true that, despite 바카라사이트ir slogans about interdisciplinarity, our institutions do not often foster collaboration. Yet plenty of it happens none바카라사이트less; witness fields such as historical sociology and demography, historical archaeology and 바카라사이트 digital and medical humanities.

Failure to recognise 바카라사이트 range of advancement and 바카라사이트 opportunities that already exist contradicts 바카라사이트 very reconciliation efforts that Dirks and o바카라사이트rs seek to stimulate.

As for Classics, my own knowledge of its history suggests that, firstly, all classicists need to distinguish clearly between 바카라사이트 goals of increasing majors versus expanding course enrolments. Second, 바카라사이트y should reflect on 바카라사이트 merits of pushing to maintain Greek and Latin language requirements versus joining o바카라사이트r departments in multi- or interdisciplinary programmes. Such programmes range from comparative civilisations to questionable partnerships with cybersecurity.

You might have thought that Classics, of all disciplines, would appreciate 바카라사이트 virtue of studying history. Only a reliable and active historical memory will allow this and o바카라사이트r humanities disciplines to confront knowledgeably and responsibly 바카라사이트ir present and possible futures.

Harvey J. Graff is professor emeritus of English and history at Ohio State University. He is 바카라사이트 author of many books on social history, including Undisciplining Knowledge: Interdisciplinarity in 바카라사이트 Twentieth Century (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015).