Warwick-Duke Humanities Project
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Project title: "Beyond utility and markets: Articulating the role of the humanities in the twenty-first century" Institutional partners: The Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick, UK, and the Graduate Liberal Studies program at Duke University, USA. The Warwick-Duke Humanities project was funded primarily by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, United Kingdom, through their ‘Research Workshops on the Impact of the Humanities Research Scheme’ with additional support from the Graduate Liberal Studies program at Duke University and the North American Travel Fund at the University of Warwick . Two research workshops were held, the first at Duke University in June 2009 and the second following shortly after in August at University of Warwick. Workshop participants included a group of about 20 scholars, practitioners, and government researchers representing the arts and humanities, the sciences and industry, and public and private sectors from the United Kingdom and the United States. Participant examined the role of the humanities in the twenty-first century from the perspectives of the academy and the wider world. Discussion focused on issues such as the social impact of the humanities, how that impact has been assessed in the past and may be in the future; on the role of ethical thought and the contribution of the humanities to ethics; and on the position and value of arts and educational organizations in market economies. The following questions were reflected upon:
The inspiration behind the project derived from the research findings emerging from an AHRC/ACE (Arts Council England) funded Fellowship in Arts Impacts Assessment (2004-8) at the University of Warwick. The resulting book by Belfiore and Bennett titled The Social Impact of the Arts: An Intellectual History (Palgrave 2008) traces the intellectual origins of various claims made about the arts from fifth century BC Athens to the present. This study attempts to reconnect contemporary policy debates with an intellectual history from which these debates have become detached, the authors argue. They suggest that the impacts of the arts cannot be properly understood, measured or evaluated without reference to this history of ideas. We suggest that the same loss of awareness of historical context may be true for the humanities as a set of academic disciplines, and more broadly, for humanism as a system of thought. To test this hypothesis, we have endeavoured to engage in a critical exploration of the past and present conditions of the production and reception of humanities research. Because US scholars have been examining the relationship between the university and industry and the role of the humanities within society for some time, we invited several scholars who have published extensively on these topics. This resulted in a stimulating cross-national transfer of knowledge between US scholars and those from the UK, where the presence of ancient universities, longer academic traditions in literature, classics, and history, and substantial government support, may have – at least until recently -- sheltered the humanities from market forces. In order to open up the debate beyond the scholarly community and to explore the question of the perceptions of the value of the humanities outside academia, we also to invited scientists employed in industry and practitioners who lead financially viable cultural organizations, government representatives and professionals from both the UK and US, in addition to humanities scholars. The project team included Dr Eleonora Belfiore, Principal Investigator, and Dr Anna Upchurch, University of Leeds, and Dr Donna Zapf, Duke University. They were assisted by a project advisory committee of Professor Oliver Bennett, University of Warwick; Dr Chris Bilton, University of Warwick; Dr. Paola Merli, University of Nottingham, UK; Dr Glenn Adamson, |
Contact: For more information about the project and its participants, please email Eleonora Belfiore e.belfiore@warwick.ac.uk |
