Humanities, Culture, And Interdisciplinarity: The Changing American Academy

279 Pages·2005·0.88 MB·English

by  Julie Thompson Klein

Humanities, Culture,
and Interdisciplinarity
The Changing
American Academy
julie thompson klein
HUMANITIES,
CULTURE, AND
INTERDISCIPLINARITY

HUMANITIES,
CULTURE, AND
INTERDISCIPLINARITY
The Changing American Academy
JULIE THOMPSON KLEIN
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2005 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a re-
trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including elec-
tronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
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For information, address State University of New York Press,
194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2365
Production by Kelli Williams
Marketing by Susan Petrie
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Klein, Julie Thompson.
Humanities, culture, and interdisciplinarity : the changing American academy/Julie Thompson Klein.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-7914-6577-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) — isbn0-7914-6578-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Humanities—Study and teaching (Higher)—United States. 2. Humanities—Philosophy. 3. Culture—
Study and teaching—United States. 4. Education, Humanistic—United States. 5. Interdisciplinary
approach to knowledge. 6. Learning and scholarship—United States. 7. Learned institutions and
societies—United States. I. Title.
az183.u5k57 2005
001.3'071'173–dc22 2005001021
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For George Klein
who embodies the vitality of humanities in public life
through his commitment to music and American culture

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Humanities, Culture,
and Interdisciplinarity 1
Part I. Historical Warrants
Chapter 1. Forming Humanities 11
Chapter 2. Changing Humanities 34
Chapter 3. Forging Theory, Practice, and Institutional Presence 55
Part II. Inter/disciplining Humanities
Chapter 4. Rewriting the Literary 83
Chapter 5. Refiguring the Visual 107
Chapter 6. Retuning the Aural 128
Part III. Interdisciplining “America”
Chapter 7. Reconstructing American Studies 153
Chapter 8. Defining Other Americas 176
viii contents
Conclusion: Crafting Humanities for a New Century 203
Works Cited 221
Index 251
acknowledgments
I am grateful for the conversations and resources that nurtured this book.
Barbara Ashbrook and the recently departed Enayet Rahim hosted me on
several trips to the National Endowment for the Humanities, affording ac-
cess to the Endowment’s library and in-house materials. Fred Schroeder of
the University of Minnesota at Duluth supplied the entire backlist of the
journal of the National Association for Humanities Education, providing
a rare glimpse of sustained deliberation on the nature of interdisciplinary
humanities. In conferring on me the post of Senior Fellow in 1997–98, the
Association of American Colleges and Universities gave unparalleled ac-
cess to leading thinkers on higher education. I especially thank the presi-
dent, Carol Geary Schneider, and senior scholar and former vice president,
Jerry Gaff.
For offering valuable suggestions on parts of an earlier draft, I thank
William Newell of Miami University, Fran Shor of Wayne State University,
and the anonymous reviewers. Beth Babini provided welcome secretarial
help in preparing the manuscript, and Wayne State University granted me
the most precious resources: time to complete the project, in the form of a
sabbatical leave, and a rare academic home. The opportunity to incubate
the ideas in this book with the Interdisciplinary Studies program’s diverse
adult student population has been vital to its development. They continue
to teach me about the meaning and value of humanities in American life.
Finally, I am grateful to Kelli Williams, for valuable help as production
editor, and James Peltz, for his generous and steadfast support of the book
as Editor-in-chief of the Press.
Parts of chapters 3, 4, 7, and 8 are adapted from my previous book, Cross-
ing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the original publisher, the University
of Virginia Press.