Marjorie Garber

"After the Humanities"

Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and American Literature and Language and of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University, where she is also Chair of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts Harvard University.

What is the relation of the humanities today to the sciences, the social sciences, or the creative arts? At the same time that their boundaries are being breached and expanded by adjacent disciplines, the humanities are under persistent critique for two paradoxical reasons: first, that they are not relevant to present-day concerns, and second, that their interest in relevancy devalues traditional works and approaches. How have changes in the structure and content of higher education, and, indeed, the goals and strategies of universities and colleges, affected the standing and nature of the humanities? What comes after the humanities—both within university culture, and in the professional, social, and political world?