The Humanities in Crisis? A Discussion on the “State of Scholarship in the Humanities” Report

A new report commissioned by the chancellors of Vanderbilt and Washington University, Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Sciences, brought together senior scholars to assess the state of scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The report's conclusions will not surprise HxA members: scholarly standards have been distorted by political criteria; dissenting voices have been suppressed and alienated; and there may be entire disciplines in which open inquiry has been significantly displaced by ideological conformity. The politicization of scholarly standards, however, varies considerably and some disciplines face more serious challenges than others.The Report acknowledges that tools for measuring these problems remain underdeveloped. The Report thus opens the door to the harder questions: What do we actually know about the depth and pattern of disciplinary failings? What research is needed to better understand the challenges facing these disciplines? What action should university leaders and professors take in response to such findings? Join HxA President John Tomasi for a conversation with report co-author Ashley Rubin (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa) and Regina Rini (York University) to critically discuss the report’s conclusions, where it leaves work undone, and what a genuine path toward healthier scholarly norms might look like.