Mar. 12, 2009
By Julia Parmley

Scholars Address Outlook for the Humanities in Symposium at GW

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter was among a group of distinguished panelists who discussed humanities in the 21st century at a symposium held at GW in March.
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Along with Justice Souter, President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Michael Randel, Chair of the Board of Regents at the Smithsonian Institution Patty Stonesifer, and University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers participated in a March 9 panel, titled "The Public Good: The Humanities in a Civil Society" and held in the Jack Morton Auditorium. The panel was part of a three-day American Academy of Arts & Sciences symposium organized by the National Humanities Alliance, an advocacy coalition dedicated to the advancement of humanities education, research, preservation, and public programs.

After welcoming remarks from President Steven Knapp, Dr. Randel urged humanists to explore more innovative ways to grow awareness and support of the field. "If we really care about the humanities and believe in their importance in the lives of individuals and in society, we will need to find the ways to be part of a much larger effort that seeks to capture young minds, from birth, and then nurture them steadily," he said.

Justice Souter discussed the importance of historical knowledge when interpreting law. "We cannot dispense with the historical way of looking at the world in front of us. We have to make it an article of faith that schools should teach from history books and teachers should take the lead in developing a sense of history in every mind they can open," said Justice Souter. "If the people do develop that faculty of taking the longer view, they will at least be in a position someday to understand how the consequences of constitutional promises can change as the nation's past recedes, and, as receding, it lets men and women perceive what an earlier generation could not so clearly see or face so readily."

Stonesifer spoke about how her current work at the Smithsonian is bridging the gap between technology and the arts, while Dr. Ayers discussed the National Humanities Alliance's newest project, Humanities Indicators, a dataset that provides scholars, policymakers, and the public with a comprehensive picture of the state of the humanities in the nation.

Dr. Knapp delivered the keynote address at the symposium luncheon in GW's Marvin Center Continental Ballroom March 10. In his remarks, Dr. Knapp noted the lack of federal funding and public support for the humanities but stressed that the "perceptual gap" between the value of humanities scholarship and funding can be closed.

"What we must bring to the table is not an argument at all but a certain kind of exemplification, a bringing to life and not just a description of the way advanced and organized curiosity revitalizes the past and makes it available to students and the public alike," said Dr. Knapp. "We have to put the legislators and policymakers directly in touch with the persons who themselves most powerfully exemplify the role of advanced and organized curiosity in making and keeping the nation's heritage alive."