NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER ANNUAL REPORT 2012–2013 THE STUDY OF HISTORY, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE ARTS ENABLES US TO GAIN PERSPECTIVE ON MANY ISSUES CENTRAL TO MODERN LIFE AND SO TO UNDERSTAND MORE FULLY WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE CAN (AND CANNOT) BE. THE HUMANITIES HELP US TO SEE BEYOND THE TRIVIAL AND THE SHORt–term tO THE MORE ESSENTIAL AND ENDURING.... – Robert F. Goheen, NHC board chair (1991–96) CONTENTS 4 Report from the President and Director 12 Scholarly Programs Work of the Fellows Statistics Books by Fellows THE NATIONAL 36 Education Programs HUMANITIES CENTER does not discriminate on the 40 Human Rights and the Humanities basis of race, color, sex, religion, 42 Financial Statements national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability 46 Supporting the Center or age in the administration of The Campaign for the National Humanities Center its selection policies, educational policies, and other Center– Center Supporters administered programs. 56 Staff of the Center Editor: Donald Solomon 58 Board of Trustees Copyeditor: Karen Carroll Proofreader: Jean Houston Images: Joel Elliott, Ron Jautz Design: Barbara Schneider The National Humanities Center’s Report (ISSN 1040–130X) is printed on recycled paper. Copyright ©2013 by National Humanities Center, 7 T.W. Alexander Drive, P.O. Box 12256, RTP, NC 27709–2256 Tel: 919–549–0661 | Fax: 919–990–8535 | E–mail: [email protected] | Website: nationalhumanitiescenter.org Report from the President and Director HUMANISTIC KNOWLEDGE CAN BE OBTAINED ONLY BY A HUMAN MIND THAT PATIENTLY MIXES ITS LABOR WITH THE OBJECT, STANDING IN LIVING RELATION TO ITS MATERIAL ANd—iN THE CASE OF PUBLISHED SCHOLARSHip—tO ITS AUDIENCE. Annual Report 2012–2013 were inherently antitechnological, that they all the things in this world that were essentially craftsmen locked in a struggle “go together like a horse and against more modern, but soulless ways of carriage,” few pair bonds are as understanding. A sense of doom pervades the Otight as “thef humanities” and “crisis.” After all, volume, with humanists, cast as “the artisanate love and marriage, in the words of the sweet, of cognition,” fighting the good fight against dopey Frank Sinatra song, are not inevitably the mighty forces of technology and science. conjoined, any more than peanut butter and Interestingly, the year this work appeared jelly, scotch and soda, or lox and bagels. But (1964) is considered by many to be smack in the humanities and crisis are inseparable. the middle of the Golden Age of the humani- ties, when things were really going well. To consider the terms together, as if they each represented an aspect of the other, is to clarify On those infrequent occasions when external the meaning of both. A crisis is a rupture, a threats seem temporarily to have been neutralized, sudden shattering that puts at risk or in new crises often arise within the humanities jeopardy every confident expectation we had. themselves, as if in demonstration of Nietzsche’s The crying need, in times of crisis, is for a aphorism, “In times of peace, the warlike man reassuring sense of predictability, continuity, attacks himself.” And then there are times regularity, a sense that we have not suddenly when the humanities are threatened by crises been pitched into an incomprehensible new both external and internal. We are living world, that others have encountered and through one of those times, when many are outfaced such disruptions in the past, and saying that the larger culture is morally and that we have sustaining cultural resources politically adrift, badly in need of humanistic within our grasp—a sense, in short, of the wisdom, but that the humanities—fractured, humanities. Crisis calls forth the humanities, self–interested, and out of favor—are in no which find their most compelling raison position to offer it. Will there ever be an end to d’être in crisis. cascading crises? The answer is easy: no. Many of the crises in which the humanities But if crises are part of the ordinary rhythms have been invoked involve some unpleasant of the humanities, does this mean that the feature of modernity, including mechanization, humanities are always going to flourish? The specialization, industrialization, the dominance answer to this question is surely no as well: of ideology, the erosion of long–familiar customs nothing in this world is indestructible, including or codes, the decline or loss or abandonment the world. But perhaps the real danger for the of this or that or the other. In response to such humanities, and for the society whose deeper crises, those flying the flag of the humanities interests they serve, are those developments have announced an urgent need for a renewal that arrive not in warlike garb, speaking an of heritage, history, context, nuance, singular- alien tongue (“Education is job training!”) and ity, depth, value, or character. The very first brandishing weapons, but those that come in work (of many) to appear with the title “Crisis the guise of friendship, offering managerial in the Humanities” argued that humanists assistance in the form of “increased access” or Annual Report 2012–2013 5 “economies of scale.” And even in such cases, challenge to the humanities. The recent rise of care must be taken to distinguish friend from MOOCs—Massive Open Online Courses that foe. Judgment—a specialty of humanistic can enroll many thousands of students all over learning—is required. the world—is being touted as a wave crashing inexorably on the shores, pulverizing a few Take the case of digital technology. On the sand castles perhaps, but carrying astonishing one hand, data science has demonstrated an democratizing benefits in the form of vastly undeniable capacity to aggregate, organize, increased access to famous lecturers who and present information in new and striking otherwise remain within the cloistered walls of ways, enabling scholars not just to answer expensive colleges and universities, and traditional questions with new tools but to offering institutions a thrilling way to reduce pose different, sometimes much larger their instructional budgets. The jury is still out questions to much larger “data sets,” and on that second promise, but the questions that to represent their findings in new ways. academics, students, and parents must ask Many of the prospects opened up by concern the specific impact of MOOCs on the technology are exciting even to scholars educational experience. who pride themselves on their artisanal skills and sensibility. Perhaps the “right–answer” disciplines in which the application of a teachable method On the other hand, however, some innovations leads to a single correct result can welcome associated with technology demand a more the advent of MOOCs with a clean conscience. cautious and even vigilant response from But the humanistic disciplines are different. humanists. The forms of “distance learning” in Consider a typical case: a well–known professor which many leading universities are investing offers a MOOC in, say, the political history of so heavily today, for example, pose a real France from 1789 to 1848. It’s a great set of Pamela Long SEPTember 13–25 talk entitled “Finding Ourselves: Project Talks The Humanities as a Discipline.” Shortly after Labor Day, as the The series continues monthly fellowship year begins, Fellows throughout the fall with independent gather daily before lunch to scholar Pamela Long (William present 5–minute talks on their J. Bouwsma Fellow) discussing projects. These talks not only “Engineering, Topography, and demonstrate the intellectual Knowledge in Late Sixteenth– breadth of Fellows’ research Century Rome,” Dyan H. Elliott interests but reveal common (Kent R. Mullikin Fellow) from themes and interests that Fellows Northwestern University on “The will pursue in ad hoc seminars Medieval Church as a School for and discussion groups during Scandal,” and Stefan R. Collini the year. SEPTEMBER 13 (Birkelund Fellow) from the Public Lecture University of Cambridge on NHC President and Director “Complex Words: History in Geoffrey Harpham kicks off this English Literary Criticism.” year’s public lecture series with a Annual Report 2012–2013 lectures, delivered with the style and authority number of universities, the professors working for which the professor is (increasingly) famous. in that field at those other universities suffer an But it is not the same course that the students immediate loss of status. They are reduced to at the professor’s university would receive, secondary figures offering footnotes, minor because while the students in a classroom can adjustments, little quarrels with the main line see, hear, question, and be challenged by the of analysis or argument as presented by the professor, the MOOC students—or rather rich, famous digital professor, who must customers—have no such opportunities. appear somewhat larger than life, not least Nor can online students feel the professor’s because he or she is sponsored by a large patterns of emphasis, her force and tone, her corporation scrambling for market share. slight hesitations or abrupt interventions, the Actual human beings, students and professors way she deals with unexpected questions, alike, are diminished as the scene of instruction the way she grades your papers. Moreover, is industrialized. the classroom students, being observed by the professor, are under some pressure to Since the time of Socrates, the acquisition of repay the interest, while the attention of the cultural knowledge and insight has been an customers looking at a screen in an office, a intimate and deliberate process, like slow basement, a coffee shop, can wander or depart food—for thought. Humanistic observation, without penalty, and often does. The difference analysis, argumentation—all these are conveyed between a professor and a digitized image of a if not directly, as Socrates did with the young professor is deceptively immense. men who clustered around him, then in a discourse that combines observation and Nor is the digital difference confined to the analysis with interpretation, judgment, evaluation.