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Page 1: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

The Humanities

Brendan Rapple LIS413

Summer 2009 Simmons College

Page 2: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

What are the Humanities?

» Those branches of knowledge that concern themselves with human beings and their culture.

» Distinguished in content and method from the physical and biological sciences and, somewhat less so, from the social sciences.

» Often placed in juxtaposition to more “practical” studies, which are designed primarily to help us make a living.

Page 3: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act (1965)

» "The term 'humanities' includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life."

Page 4: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Word “Humanities” May be Misleading

» Many aspects of science deal with “humans”, with “human matters”.

» Also, people speak of the social sciences as “having humanistic content and employing humanistic methods”.

» However, these branches of knowledge and inquiry are not counted among the humanities.

» Boundaries of the humanities are often very fuzzy.

Page 5: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanities and Science

» No single world view in Humanities -- generally much more agreement in Science.

» No universally accepted network of truths.

» Humanities much more diverse than Science.

Page 6: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

No Real Linear Progress in the Humanities

» Science, Medicine etc. clearly manifest progress.

» The same sense of progress does not exist in the Humanities.

» We probably do not really know “more” about Shakespeare’s works -- in the same way that we know more about, say, DNA -- than we knew 20 years ago [Ross Atkinson, LRTS, 1995]

Page 7: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Science is Cumulative

» “Literature of science is cumulative in the sense that the important ideas and observations of the past are included in the current literature” Urquhart.

» Arguably, if all scientific literature over 30 years old were destroyed, vast majority would still exist in literature produced in recent years.

» “If you were a scientist trying to discover the structure of DNA when Watson and Crick published their article on the double helix, there was nothing you could do but pick up your marbles and go home. The structure had been discovered; nothing more need be said; and scientists moved on from there. But if you are a music scholar preparing a monograph on Bach and a book on the composer comes out, you are of course interested, but you do not burn your manuscript. You know that no one (including yourself) will ever be able to say the last word about Bach and his music” Garfield.

Page 8: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Many Different Layers in Humanities

» It is one thing to understand words in a text, it is another to

understand them in relation to a time and its culture, e.g. Ancient

Athenians on democracy.

» Ultimately the search leads to the life that stood behind the text.

Page 9: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

» Humanists study VALUE

» Scientists are concerned with:» objective, empirically verifiable data

» experimental results that can be replicated by other scientists.

» Typical scientist is primarily interested in most recent research literature/materials.

» Typical humanist may be just as interested in far older material.

Page 10: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Serious Implications for Libraries

» Unlike the sciences, the humanities do not “withdraw” older secondary materials.

» When a critical work is no longer in fashion, it becomes valuable as a work to be used in studying the history of the field.

» Also the humanities cannot summarize effectively earlier publications.

Page 11: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

» The scientist studies the structure of rainbows, not whether they are

aesthetically beautiful.

» The psychiatrist studies how a brain functions, not whether one’s

brain’s activities are morally good.

» Scientist studies technological aspects of printing, not how printing

revolutionized the world in so many manifold ways.

Page 12: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanities Mostly the Work of Individuals

» Though it is changing with computerization, humanists tend to work on their own.

» Unlike scientists, they engage in relatively little team work.

» Scientist works with colleagues, grad. students etc. in a lab.

» Social scientists spend much time with co-investigators planning and executing field work, surveys, and data analysis.

Page 13: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

» Humanist usually focuses on the less tangible, less concrete.

» Humanist relies less on empiricism of the laboratory, and more on the views of other scholars.

» Humanist seldom deals with measurable, quantitative entities.

Page 14: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Bibliographic Databases in Humanities

» Not always of great use to Humanities scholar.

» Humanities scholars often stress primary sources -- generally covered less well by bibliographic tools.

» Some Humanities databases do not include abstracts.

» Humanities concepts and terminology less standardized than those of science -- less susceptible to effective management through a controlled vocabulary.

» Science databases often updated more frequently -- scientists require more current literature.

Page 15: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanities and Scholarship

» Studies reveal that 70%-90% of citations in science are to materials 15 years old or less.

» “The Science Citation Index® consistently demonstrates that about 90 percent of the millions of references cited each year were published sometime in the past three decades. And 50% involve papers published in the last ten years. As in earlier decades, the vast majority of citations are to relatively recent papers” (Garfield & Pudovkin, 2003).

» The figures for humanities citations are 40%-45%.

» “Having retrospective coverage may be more important to the humanist than having access to current material” (Sue Stone, 1982).

» In most sciences 3%-10% of citations are to books, 90%-97% to journal articles.

» In humanities, however, 60%-75% are to books.

Page 16: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanists and Books

» Humanists like books!

» They like being surrounded by them

» They often prefer original texts to copies

» Many need all editions, all drafts, all galley proofs

» The old book may be at least as important as the current book

» They want texts in the original language

Page 17: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

How Do Humanities Scholars Identify Their Research Material?

» From references in publications they read.

» From communicating with colleagues.

» From bibliographies.

» From librarians.

Page 18: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Information Gathering Strategies

» Humanist places paramount importance on the library.

» Scientist often more dependent on personal collection.

______________________________________

» Humanist views browsing, serendipity as worthwhile (perhaps a necessity due to relative lack of organization of the materials in the field).

» Scientist is much more structured.

Page 19: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Centrality of the Library

» Laboratory often central to the scientist.

» The “field” to the social scientist.

» But the library to humanists.» The creative and performing artist are exceptions to the

“library as center” rule of humanists.

Page 20: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Still, Much Research Can be Done Remotely

» Though the author is referring primarily to social scientists, her point is increasingly applicable to at least some humanists:

“. . . with the development of digitization and the availability of numerous online full-text databases, the possibility of doing research at home, from an 'armchair,' and perhaps unschooled in the rigours of academic research, . . . exists. Libraries and archives that required researchers to schedule appointments, travel to inconvenient locations, and spend endless days researching a topic can now, in many cases, be accessed from a computer, with source materials available online (Sandra Shoiock Roff, 2005)

Page 21: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Difficult for Librarians to Satisfy Humanists

» Impossible to collect in so many languages.

» Libraries also greatly feel the pull between retrospective collecting and

buying/subscribing to latest electronic materials.

Page 22: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Very Broad Research Vistas of Humanists

[There is an] increasing acceptance among humanities scholars that any consciously created human product, any symbolic artifact, is an acceptable object of study. . . .[This] has led to the general position that virtually every symbolic creation must be considered equally worthy of study. Because any publication or human creation can have research potential, humanities scholars – and the information professionals who support them – have become increasingly unwilling and incapable of coming to terms with what should be collected and maintained, and what should not” (Ross Atkinson, LRTS, 1995).

Page 23: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanists and Libraries

» Humanities scholars tend to use reference librarians relatively little.

» Opposite is true in archives and special (rare books, manuscript) libraries.

» Greater spread of individual titles used by humanities researchers.

» Almost inevitable that they use libraries other than their institution’s.

» ILL won’t suffice for much primary material -- accordingly, they have to travel.

» The growing study of the masses and the common man creates needs for such materials as comic books, TV Guide, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Wired, and Details -- any publication can have research potential.

Page 24: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Other Humanist Characteristics

» Humanities scholars tend to be reluctant to delegate bibliographic searching to others -- perhaps due to a lack of trust.

» Humanists often believe that the search for information is important in itself -- journey is as important as the destination.

Page 25: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Barriers to Access

» Lack of books and journals.

» Sometimes lengthy delay between request and receipt of materials (e.g. ILL).

» Loss of material (theft, mutilation etc.).

Page 26: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanistic Study is Broad

» Retreat from the canon.

» Humanist’s work is diffuse.

» Hard to focus on a narrow specific area.

» Subjectivism necessarily creeps in.

Page 27: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanities not as “Precise” as Science

» Johan Huizinga once spoke of history as a loving reconstruction by the

moonlight of memory, work which can never have the clarity of work

done by daylight vision.

» Humanist’s work often opaque.

Page 28: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Brief History of Humanities Study

• Interesting that there was no article on the “Humanities” in the famous 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1910-11) though there was an entry on “Humanism” (Steven Markus, 2006).

• “The first edition of the OED, whose supplement appears in 1933, does not include [the term “Humanities”] at all. Humane, Humanism, humanist, humanity, humanitarian: these are familiar cognates of the word human, but humanities was not the term of choice for an area of knowledge and set of fields of study until after World War II. The more usual (and broader) rubric was Liberal Arts, Arts and Sciences, or Arts, Letters, and Sciences” (Marjorie Perloff, Crisis in the Humanities)

Page 29: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Brief History of Humanities Study

• Greek Paideia

• Roman Humanitas

Page 30: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Paideia

• PAIDEIA is generally distinguished from TECHNE, i.e. an education that is narrowly vocational.

• Paideia was composed of• gymnastics

• grammar

• rhetoric

• music

• mathematics

• geography

• natural history

• philosophy

Page 31: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

HUMANITAS

For Cicero, the primary function of education was the inculcation of HUMANITAS:

» The attributes of the individual whose particularly human capacities had been developed to their full potential, and who had therefore become HUMANISSIMUS.

» These capacities included the gifts of speech and reason, but also the social, moral, and aesthetic instincts that are peculiar to human beings.

His ideal of HUMANITAS gives Cicero a right to be regarded as the father of classical humanism and by extension of HUMANITIES as an educational ideal.

Page 32: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Middle Ages

» “Paideia” and “Humanitas” were adapted to a program of basic

Christian education.

Page 33: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Middle Ages

• Boethius

• Cassiodorus

Page 34: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Monastic Education Made Up of . . .

Quadrivium:

arithmetic

geometry

astronomy

and music theory

Trivium

grammar

logic

rhetoric

Page 35: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Artes Liberales

» Seven Liberal Arts were taught in the monasteries, cathedral schools, and, from the 12th century on, in the universities, they constituted the principal university instruction until modern times.

» So called liberal (Lat. liber, free) because they serve to train the free man and develop her/his humanity – they were intended to liberate man.

» In contrast with the artes illiberales, which are pursued for economic purposes.

Page 36: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Renaissance

•Umanisti: that is, professors or students of classical literature.

•The word umanisti derives from the studia humanitatis, a course of classical studies that, in the early 15th century, consisted of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy.

Page 37: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Renaissance Humanitas Ideal of Humanism:

» Qualities associated with the modern word humanity--understanding, benevolence, compassion, mercy.

» But also such more active characteristics as fortitude, judgment, prudence, eloquence, and even love of honor.

» Possessor of humanitas not just a sedentary philosopher or man of letters but also a participant in active life.

» Renaissance Humanitas called for a fine balance of action and contemplation.

Page 38: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Renaissance

» The wellspring of humanitas was classical literature.

» For Renaissance humanists, there was nothing dated or outworn about the writings of Plato, Cicero, or Livy.

» Recovering the classics was to humanism tantamount to recovering reality.

» The humanists were convinced that the study of literature (notably of the classics and their enormous source of wisdom and moral reflection) would encourage humane and civilized behavior.

Page 39: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Renaissance

» An important distinction was that the Humanities were seen as opposite to Divinity.

» Humanists struggled against the dominance of dialectics and theologians who were entangled in abstruse speculations.

» Dissatisfied with Scholasticism.

» The Middle Ages were truly over.

Page 40: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

» In the sixteenth century this line of thought was continued (by

Erasmus and Montaigne for example).

Page 41: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

17th Century

» The belief that the classics, the mainspring of Humanities, are an inexhaustible source of practical knowledge was increasingly subject to doubt.

» Francis Bacon and Science:• Mistrusted the humanist tool par excellence, the word.

• Advocated a more systematic and methodical way of thinking than the humanistic exegetists were used to.

• Was a great advocate of science.

Page 42: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Royal Society (1662)

"The Business and Design of the Royal Society is: to improve the knowledge of naturall things, and all usefull Arts, Manufactures, Mechanik practices, Engynes and Innovations by Experiments – not meddling with Divinity, Metaphysics, Moralls, Politicks, Grammar, Rhetorick or Logick."

Page 43: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Humanities versus Empiricism/Science

Essentially there was disagreement not only on which was the best method to gather true knowledge, but also on which approach resulted in the most useful knowledge to guide human action.

To this day these problems play a role in the discussion on the legitimacy of the HUMANITIES.

Page 44: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

18th C.

» Humanities and the natural sciences as complementary rather than

contradictory disciplines.

Page 45: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

19th C.

» The natural sciences gained momentum and prestige.

» Materialistic, utilitarian and biological views of reality gained

ground under the influence of the natural sciences (and

philosophical reflections on them).

Page 46: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

The Forming of Nations

» Now, the HUMANITIES constituted a great vehicle for the enthusiastic study and preservation of national cultures.

» This implied a change of course with respect to the classical HUMANITIES, which had focused on the universally human.

Page 47: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

20th and 21st Centuries

The influence of “leveling” on Humanities:

» The increasing numbers in education;

» The growing influence of mass culture (emancipation);

» Cultural pluralism;

» Change from a culture based primarily on texts to a culture based on images.

» Role of Internet

Page 48: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Classification of Disciplines

• A long history

• Many classification schemes

• Question of a hierarchy of disciplines

Page 49: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Which are the Humanities?

» A very practical problem for librarians and educators

» University Disciplines/Departments

• Often a useful way to define disciplines.

• Each university has its own characteristic departmental organization, and consequent categorization of humanities.

• More traditional, conservative colleges often don’t teach newer humanities subjects.

Page 50: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Check a Library’s Current Periodical Stacks

» A perusal of the current periodical stacks of a large research library also points to a host of innovative and esoteric research areas.

Page 51: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Disciplinary Domain of the Humanities

» English and American Studies

» Middle Eastern and African Studies

» East and South Asian Studies» European Studies

» Cultural Studies

» Linguistics

» Other Languages and Literatures

» Philosophy

» History and Philosophy of Science

» History of Ideas

» History

» Classics and Ancient History

» Archeology

» History of Art, Architecture, Design

» Law

» Theology and Religious Studies

» Communication and Media Studies» Music and History of Music

» Film Studies

» Drama and Theatre Studies

» Studies of other Performing Arts

Page 52: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Disciplinary versus Anti-disciplinary

» Some argue for distinct boundaries between subjects.

» Others want to break boundaries between subjects.

“Disciplinarians argue that keeping boundaries between fields of study maintains traditional standards and scholarly excellence. Anti-disciplinarians, on the other hand, believe in the creative influence of disciplinary cross-fertilization and see the salvation of endangered humanities in interdisciplinary collaboration” The Role and Status of the Humanities at AAU Universities.

Page 53: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Boundaries of Disciplines

• Importance of the scholarship of integration, i.e. making connections across disciplines and placing specialties in broader contexts.

• Importance of doing research at the boundaries where fields converge.

Page 54: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Growth in Interdisciplinarity

» David Marshall asks: “Imagine that one summer after graduation ceremonies, we

disbanded all of our academic departments in the humanities and told the faculty to come back in the fall organized into bureaucratic and

academic configurations of their choice. . . . What would happen?” (Marshall, Liberal Education, 2007)

» Marshall believes that far more inter- and cross-disciplinary configurations would be created

Page 55: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Arts and Humanities

VERSUS

Social & Behavioral Sciences

Page 56: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

» Generally differ in methodology: social and behavioral sciences tend to use methods that are borrowed from the natural sciences.

» Humanities disciplines generally have a longer history.

Page 57: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Traffic/Borrowing

» The main direction of information flow is from Social Sciences to the Humanities.

» Social Sciences appear to have little inclination to import ideas from the Humanities.

Page 58: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Major Problem for Libraries

• Contemporary Information Explosion

• Specialization of Knowledge

» In short, the growth of scholarship means that universities and their libraries cannot maintain a coverage of all subject areas.

Page 59: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Emergence of New (and relatively new) Disciplines

» For Example:

» Women's studies

» Gay studies

» Environmental studies

» Multicultural studies

» Different approaches to literary studies, e.g. Critical Theory

» Ethnic Studies

» Cultural Studies

» Film & Media Studies

» Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies

» American Studies and other area studies (e.g. Irish Studies)

» Medical Humanities

Page 60: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Seems to be Great Decline in

» Synthesis of knowledge.

» General understanding of knowledge.

Page 61: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

"The knowledge explosion left us ignorant of vast fields of

knowledge that every educated man or woman ought to

have known"

» Wayne C. Booth

Page 62: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

New Models of Scholarly Communication

For the Humanities scholar just as much as for the Scientist

Page 63: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Nature of Scholarly Research will also Change

Page 64: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

The Humanities Curriculum Today

» Certainly changed since the 1960s

» Inclusion of interdepartmental and interdisciplinary programs

» Globalization of the curriculum

» Proliferation of course offerings pertaining to • minority populations

• ethnic groups

• women and gender-related issues.

Page 65: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

What Skills (?) to be Learned By Studying the Humanities?

» “Critical and Creative thinking are not peculiar to the study of the humanities. The natural and social sciences and the professional disciplines also stress the development of analytical abilities, valid reasoning, good oral and written communication, and skills of inquiry generally. In manifesting these skills themselves, humanists have to be wary of the desperate contention that they develop or possess them in pre-eminent degree. So, too, for the suggestion that the intellectual skills refined in the humanities represent the core of higher education. The evidence for such propositions is elusive, for which reason a serious effect of the contention may be to isolate the humanities from the rest of the academy.”

Evan Simpson. “What are the Humanities” (talk at Memorial Univ., 26 Oct. 1999).

Page 66: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Are Numbers Studying Humanities Declining?

» The culture wars have been over a battlefield that has been shrinking for reasons that have little to do with the ways of teaching American history or literature since the 1960s and a lot to do with the perceived utility of a college education. The number of degrees in the liberal arts has been declining for a century. The biggest undergraduate major is business, which awards 20 percent of all bachelor's degrees. Education gives out 10 percent. The only liberal arts that are growing are psychology and the biological sciences.

Catharine R. Stimpson. Daedalus, Summer 2002 v131 i3 pp. 36 -.

Page 67: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Are Numbers Studying Humanities Declining?

» The number of degrees awarded is another indicator of the health of the humanities. Again, because statistics must be drawn from a number of sources, the information often conflicts or is hard to reconcile. In general, these indicators suggest that, with the exception of English, humanities at the bachelor and doctoral levels is holding steady or thriving. Unfortunately, the same is not true at the master’s level.The Department of Education's NCES, for example, collects data on degrees awarded as part of the IPEDS Completions Survey. . . .[C]harts based on these data show that while the percentage of master’s degrees awarded in the humanities has steadily dropped since the early 1990s, the percentage of doctorates and bachelor’s degrees in the humanities has actually risen in recent years.

The Role and Status of the Humanities at AAU Universities (2004)

Page 68: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Are Numbers Studying Humanities Declining?

» “But I want to suggest that the failure [to pursue BA’s and PhD’s in the humanities] also comes from within the humanities: humanities faculty have faltered when it comes to explaining why their fields matter, especially to students from families in which the parents did not go to college.” Lynn Hunt. Tradition Confronts Change: The Place of the Humanities in the University (1998)

Page 69: The Humanities Brendan RappleLIS413 Summer 2009Simmons College.

Are Numbers Studying Humanities Declining?

» “More largely, not only do the humanities seem far less surely the center of a liberal arts education, but the liberal arts also seem less surely the center of education generally, which has grown remarkably careerist.”

Robert Weisbuch, President, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (1998)