This piece by Stephen Brockmann, professor of German at Carnegie Mellon, from the Chronicle of Higher Education on job candidates' language incompetency. What do you think?
Lire la suite de On Language Proficiency.
Récemment dans la catégorie The Metaconversation
Corbin Treacy writes about his experience developing a class for and teaching a two-day workshop for middle- and high-school French teachers through the Institute for Global Studies
Lire la suite de "Throwing out Postcards" Notes on teaching by Corbin Treacy.
From the marvelous resource Fabula, a dossier on recent writings defending literary studies. References span the Atlantic Ocean, from Martha Nussbaum to Yves Citton.
From yesterday's Chronicle, by Don Troop:
Lire la suite de Paranoid? You must be a graduate student!.
Dan Berrett's report on the Symposium on the Future of the Humanities is worth a read:
Lire la suite de "Humanities, For Sake of Humanity:" Inside Higher Ed.
I asked Prof Judith Preckshot about what she's working on right now, and she told me about a fascinating and timely graduate seminar she's preparing for next semester:
Lire la suite de Dépêche de Klaeber Court: Prof. Judith Preckshot.
From today's Guardian, one academic's perspective on how French literature has created for him "a new mental landscape..."
Lire la suite de "French is too important to be left to middle-class Francophiles".
December 8, 2010
The faculty of the Department of French and Italian wish to express our unwavering support of the University Administration, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and the Center's director Bruno Chaouat, in light of the recent lawsuit filed against them.
Lire la suite de A Letter from FRIT Faculty.
Cuts To University's Humanities Program Draw Outcry
by MARGOT ADLER
As a colleague quipped, referring to SUNY-Albany's motto The World Within Reach", "I guess that is a literal expression nowadays, e.g., within arm's length..."
But the question remains, what are we doing, and what are we not doing, to make visible the connections we know should be apprent to our culture?
Among those of us engaged in international education, it is considered a basic premise that, in today's knowledge-based global economy and society, a full command of at least one second language is a core competency that should become mandatory for all graduates of higher-education institutions.
"Deficiency in Foreign Language Competency: What Is Wrong with the U.S. Educational System?" -- November 9, 2010, 2:45 pm
By Francisco Marmolejo
Jean-Luc Nancy, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg and the European Graduate School, has written a rather snarky critique of Albany that pretty much sums up what is at stake here. Since it is short I have reposted the entire response...
Lire la suite de J-L Nancy responds to Albany.
There have been a lot of posts about the demise of the humanities, and relatedly the massive disconnection between those who practice humanistic inquiry and their administrators. Here's a different take on the situation, covered by the Boston Globe:
"Colleges Aim to Revive the Humanities"
I like the change of tone, but there are a lot of aspects to what this article covers that make me wonder... For example, I don't think we need "reviving;" just better understanding. Am I naïve? And more crucially, check out our spokespeople:
"Colleges Aim to Revive the Humanities"
I like the change of tone, but there are a lot of aspects to what this article covers that make me wonder... For example, I don't think we need "reviving;" just better understanding. Am I naïve? And more crucially, check out our spokespeople:
the leaders of many prestigious universities -- including Cornell, Dartmouth, and Harvard -- are increasingly espousing the virtues of the humanities...Why is this happening first and foremost at the privates, or so-called "luxury" institutions. Are the humanities a luxury that public institutions really do without?
