Paula Krebs: We Aren't (But Could Be) Supporting Languages and Literature, and Culture

The US does not support humanities research. Christopher Newfield has noted that the US funds humanities research to the tune of 1/20 of one percent of its national research budget. That's a problem for both faculty and students. But how can we expect the government or the culture in general to recognize the value of expertise in language, literature, writing, and culture if we cannot articulate what that expertise is or does? To do this definitional work, we need to grapple with the differences between applied research, especially what we call public or community-engaged research, and basic research, or specialized research that aims at contributing to an ongoing critical conversation. This talk will focus on the varieties of knowledge creation in our fields and how we can both champion them and institutionalize support for them.

Paula Krebs is the Executive Director of the Modern Language Association, the largest scholarly organization in the humanities, with 24,000 members from more than 100 countries. Her role includes national advocacy work for the humanities and humanities education. She has written on higher education and humanities issues for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, CNN, the Washington Post, Slate, and other publications, and she serves on the board of the National Humanities Alliance. She is a Victorianist by training and inclination, and her doctorate is in nineteenth-century British literature and culture from Indiana University. She was an English professor and department chair at Wheaton College in Massachusetts and dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Bridgewater State University.

This hybrid event is hosted by Humanities Institute.