5 min readMar 12, 2023 11:15 AM IST
First published on: Mar 12, 2023 at 07:00 AM IST
Are the humanities dead? Anecdotal evidence suggests that STEM is king and anything to do with the social and cultural aspects of human affairs are mere hobby horses. I don’t see too many youngsters asking me about studying humanities in college. Sometimes, a youngster asks me about a law career.
Law’s relation to humanities is that of a rich cousin to his poor relatives; not quite a part of the family and yet a part of it. But my responses on careers in the law tend to disappoint young people. I am a tax lawyer. Yet I talk to them about the wider and more fundamental aspects of the law, things like due process and human rights. They are usually puzzled by my response and ask me about salaries. The conversation usually ends there.
Last week the New Yorker published an article titled ‘The End of the English Major’, that discussed dramatically lower enrollment rates in the humanities in US Universities. The number of English graduates at Arizona State University fell by half over a decade. Even Harvard has not been spared this trend. The writer notes that Harvard graduates would be employable even if they do a degree in somersaults and yet their parents tell them that they are not meant to study ‘basket weaving’ there. They are meant to study STEM courses which will guarantee stable employment in the future. At some level, I am happy that American and Indian parents are similar.
The New Yorker article makes a good point about courses deriving their fashionability from the fact that universities create an atmosphere that favours STEM. A student once said, “I think the presence of big tech and consulting firms on campus are a big part of people’s perception that you can’t get a job in the humanities.” I suppose one can’t really blame the universities for jumping on the money-making portfolios.
Here’s another take on this issue. Humanities may be dead as they but might be rebirthing in other forms. Students are showing interest in film studies, journalism and music. These may not be traditional humanities subjects but they embody the values that humanities strive for: creativity, imagination, articulation and individuality. For example, I think film criticism is an excellent gateway into politics, history, language, sociology, economics, and philosophical issues about narrative and form.
Humanities will also become important in a technology-driven world because technology will need to be publicly regulated. As soon as Microsoft released their latest version of an AI-enhanced Bing, a blog by a senior employee talked about both ethical responsibility and AI technology. Seven years earlier, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in an article in Slate talked about AI and responsibility. Check out the web page of the Google-driven DeepMind project. Responsible AI figures prominently there too. What does fairness mean for an algorithm driven process? What is the relationship between technology and privacy? We will require a big tent interdisciplinary approach and people with humanities skills will flourish in such ecosystems. But what are these skills exactly?
An ability to be creative and imaginative. A talent for communicating effectively with different audiences. Possessing advanced interpersonal skills. The humanities are much better placed to impart these skills compared to the hard sciences. Perhaps an appropriate response to the question ‘Is the humanities dead’ is probably that the question is a bit hyperbolic. Traditional humanities might be out of fashion for now , but will take forms that will make the domain relevant to a new generation.
In any case, a stable career is no longer a priority for this generation. Youngsters want to explore novel but risky opportunities right from the time they graduate from university and for these people, the humanities are the crutch they need to navigate the digitised world.
The writer is Registrar, National Law School of India University, Bangalore
Law’s relation to humanities is that of a rich cousin to his poor relatives; not quite a part of the family and yet a part of it. But my responses on careers in the law tend to disappoint young people. (Representational/File) 
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