Building Blocks for a New Academy Featured in LA Review of Books

In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Heather Hewett and Stacy Hartman examine how the humanities are being reimagined in departments and programs across higher education through the lens of their research for ACLS Building Blocks for a New Academy.

As part of the initiative, they interviewed people engaged in the work of thinking about how the academic humanities should position themselves in the rapidly shifting landscape of higher education. These interviews developed into Innovation in Action, a series of case studies for creating change in higher education.

In the article, they share four “alternative narratives” that tell a new story of the humanities as they are and as they might be in the future:

1. Humanities faculty value teaching and want to teach for the future.
2. The humanities are well positioned to help students find and develop their own sense of meaning and purpose, applicable to any career.
3. A PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences opens doors beyond the academy.
4. The academic humanities contribute to the public good through project-based and experiential learning in their communities.

Heather Hewett is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and previously served as ACLS Program Officer in Higher Education Initiatives.

Stacy M. Hartman is an independent researcher, writer, and consultant who was previously director of the PublicsLab at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and the inaugural program manager of Connected Academics at the Modern Language Association (MLA).