In a world increasingly driven by science and technology, it came as no surprise to read in The Chronicle recently that only a small fraction of the research funding at the nation’s top universities is directed toward the humanities. After all, the vast majority of breakthroughs that benefit society come from the scientific, medical, and engineering disciplines; these also are the areas with the most expensive space, infrastructure, equipment, and program costs. No one argues that the humanities require as much funding as these other disciplines. Even so, I found the numbers disappointing.
According to The Chronicle’s summary of its survey:
“Only two of the top 50 public institutions for research-and-development spending in the humanities in the 2016 fiscal year devoted more than 5 percent of their overall R&D spending to the humanities, while 19 of the top 50 private nonprofit institutions did. Median R&D spending on the humanities among the 388 academic research institutions that reported such spending that year was $224,000.”
This is simply not enough as we look to a future that will be heavily influenced, if not largely determined, by technology, including autonomous systems, big-data analytics, and artificial intelligence. The need to understand the human dimensions and impacts of those advances, as well as the basis for making many of the ethical decisions that should guide their use, has never been greater. We are beginning to face basic questions about what it means to be human and may soon face questions of whether some of the technologies of the future will have human rights.
Vexing questions about personal privacy, liberty, equality, and accountability are but a few of the myriad technology-related issues for which our society is ill-prepared. In just the past few weeks, we have witnessed events that should give us pause, including the death of a pedestrian caused by a robotic self-driving car in Arizona and the unethical sharing of personal information of millions of people that may have been used to influence the electorate. As is often the case, rapid technical progress occurs first, and consideration of its human and societal impact is forced to catch up, if it can.
Even at my institution, the University of Notre Dame, which ranked second among private universities in the dollar amount of its research-and-development spending on the humanities, we should do more. Rather than shun the “tyranny of relevance” — a concept within the liberal-arts community that refers to the need to demonstrate tangible benefits of humanities-research funding — we should embrace it. If we, like many others, believe in the vital importance of the humanities in grappling with basic questions of truth, the essence of humanness, and the importance of ethical decision-making, among other crucial issues, we must invest more.
If we do not, the humanities will be marginalized by the false premise that they provide nice flourishes but are not effective in dealing with the exciting and challenging advances made possible by the latest technologies. The humanities are neither opposed to technological progress nor indifferent to it; they are valuable partners in it, and must be adequately supported to perform that role.
How can humanists better advance their cause when the value of the humanities is so difficult to prove through return-on-investment metrics? First, we in academe must do a better job of articulating the intrinsic value and capacity of the humanities to address values-based policy and societal questions. Second, students and scholars should work creatively and collaboratively to discern the humanities’ intrinsic value in fields such as medicine, technology, and innovation. If we rely on the notion that the value of the humanities is self-evident, cannot be explained, or is detached from real life and its challenges, we will fail as educators and as a society.
There are signs that the value and increased relevance of the humanities are becoming evident. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ recent report, “The State of the Humanities 2018: Graduates in the Workforce & Beyond,” undermines many longstanding assumptions that have led to reduced support for the humanities. To the surprise of many, the report indicates that graduates in the humanities are landing good jobs, in positions of authority, and often are more satisfied with their work than are their counterparts who work in higher-paying science and technology fields.
Now is the time to embrace this momentum — the cost of failing to do so and falling behind the technology curve will be significant. Humanities provide the foundation of an informed society, and without that, our democracy is in serious peril.
Thomas G. Burish is provost at the University of Notre Dame.