The Value of the Humanities: Let’s Use AI to Make Change Happen
/June 18, 2024
At the turn of the 20th century, Andrew Carnegie decided to invest in public libraries. A famous proponent of self-learning, he felt education was a major component of the future success of the United States. As a result, he invested millions of dollars into building some of this country’s most beautiful and impressive libraries, all freely accessible to the general public. Some might say that benefactors like Andrew Carnegie helped shape cultural values, and I would be among them.
Today, the value of the humanities writ large—including its most basic building block, reading—is continuing to crumble in a way it never has before. Indeed, many people I listened to and spoke with at the SSP 2024 Annual Meeting feel the same way and see that unlike other points in history when people may have “cried wolf,” now we really are at a critical juncture where the engine of humanities scholarship and learning is sputtering in a significant way.
What is there to do then? I think the answer is simple, but the strategy will need to be creative. Here are a few startling statistics:
- As of 2023, 64% of 13-year-olds in the US say they don’t read at all
- In 2023, a combined average of 0.56% SAT takers want to major in English Language & Literature, History, and Foreign Language & Literature
- Between 2012-2022, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the humanities has gone down by 24%
- Between 2013-2023, 1/10 humanities faculty positions have gone away
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has a >7% funding rate while National Science Foundation (NSF) has a 26% funding rate
I think we need to put more oil in the tank in the form of funding. In order to do that, we need to convince people it’s exciting to drive the car (study and teach the humanities). In order to inspire people to pursue degrees and careers in the humanities and/or the social sciences, we need to do two things: correct the record on career outcomes, opportunities, and satisfaction; and highlight the connection between humanities and social sciences research and scholarship and major world news.
Let me start with the last point and work backward. Whenever a scientific discovery is made and reported on, people easily make the connection that this news could have only happened because scientists conducted research. However, when someone reads a touching story about long-lost family members finding each other, or a previously missing grave being uncovered, or even a quiz telling them who they are most likely to marry based on their star sign—they don’t necessarily make the connection that these tidbits of information could only have come from research being done in the humanities and social sciences.
Going back again, here are some surprising statistics:
Job satisfaction, career fulfillment, and even compensation for humanities and social sciences majors are on par with STEM, they just have a 2-3 year delay because they are trying things on for size, figuring out the best application of their degree for themselves.
I am a perfect example of this. As an International Studies major, I have paved a very winding path for myself in the decade since I graduated college. I started out as a news producer, then transitioned into the nonprofit sector first at a women’s health nonprofit, then in business school admissions, before finally landing in the world of scholarly communications at Atla.
Universities should educate and equip humanities and social sciences students for this journey. I think it would save us all a lot of grief, insecurity, time, and energy if we were inspired and excited to tackle this challenge.
So, is this just an issue of bad marketing? Do we just need a rebrand? In short, I think the answer is yes, but the strategies we need to develop to achieve this simple answer need to be creative.
If we get more young people excited to read, teach, study, and research any discipline in the humanities or the social sciences, that will be a huge success—but, we need to ensure once they decide to drive the car there is gas in the tank. So, how do we do that?
Again, I think the answer is simple—we need to find the Carnegies of our time who care about this crisis just as much as we do and convince them to fill up the tank. Easy, right? Well, probably not but it certainly isn’t impossible, and this is where we need to get creative.
Here Are Some of My Ideas
- Develop AI applications that make research fun and subtly guide young people through learning a new process of thinking. Many young people know they have to be creative in order to be successful, so let’s use AI applications to help them do that.
- Develop new academic success metrics for the humanities and social sciences. How can we demonstrate the path from research to real world application?
- Develop career services and college programming to bridge the 2-3 year work gap for college seniors in the humanities and social sciences. How can we better prepare them to use that time to explore and find their favorite professional application of their degree?
What are yours?
For more information on the state of humanities, check out the Humanities Indicators project from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
A Guide to AI
- Know thyself – Make sure you have sufficient rights to incorporate AI into your technology
- Know your worth – If you work with a vendor, know the worth of your content and price it accordingly
- Take it slow – Understand that building an LLM should be an iterative process
- Know where you want to go and how you’re willing to get there – Develop a clear understanding at the outset of what you want the result to be and the types of AI usage you’re comfortable with
- Know when to quit – Develop an exit strategy at the outset. If you don’t like where it’s going, then you can cut your losses and walk
- Get to know your neighbors – Reach out to other organizations and ask how they are adopting AI
Some great quotes from the conference:
“You can always add rights…it’s harder to take them away.”
“Meet your users with AI where they are.”
“Keep yourself engaged, relevant, and at the table.”
Thanks to Dr. Chhavi Chauhan, PhD, David Flanagan, Xiao-Li Meng for their thoughts on inspiring and teaching a new generation of thinkers and students using AI. Thanks to Dr. Asheesh Siddique, Robert B. Townsend, and Ms. Karin Wulf for sharing statistics, predictions, and proposals on reinvigorating the future of the humanities and social sciences. Thanks to Mr. Chris Broekhoff, and Ms. Phoebe McMellon for sharing their experience and very specific guidance on implementing AI in a small organization.
Enjoying the Atla Blog?
Subscribe to receive email alerts of new blog posts of a specific type. Members, subscribers, publishers, or anyone interested in the study of religion & theology are welcome to sign up to one or all alerts to keep up to date with the Atla community. If you or your institution are a member, the Atla Newsletter delivers a monthly curated email of top posts to your email inbox.