Hem / Att delta i NSU / Förslag till nya studiekretsar / 2007 / D. Studies in the humanities


Forslag til stående studiekreds ved Nordiskt Sommeruniversitet 2008-2011

Studies in the humanities - an interdisciplinary approach

In resent years the knowledge society agenda has gained strength in sociological, politological, historical and educational research. A new approach to research, teaching and learning has developed – with the crossing of boarders between politics and research. The sociologist Aant Elzinga has coined this development an epistemic drift, where criteria of relevance have moved from the society of scholars to the political spheres or from internal criteria of relevance to external. More and more research is asked to show its relevance in more or less economic terms. But what about the humanities? Can they directly contribute to economic growth? Or should they be considered to offer other and wider benefits to society? The field of studies in the humanities has tried historically, philosophically and sociologically to answer the questions of what exactly the humanities have been and are now? – And what societal benefits have been gained from these fields of scholarship? The political relevance of this theme is obvious – in a new knowledge regime knowledge of past and present in the field is a strong starting point for a political discussion. But also from an academic point of view it is important to coordinate studies in the humanities between historians of ideas, university historians and sociologists. Questions that should be raised in the study circle in the coming years include:

  1. How has the professional ethos of the humanities developed through the last centuries? Preliminary studies show that the humboldtian ethos has indeed influenced the Nordic countries through the last two centuries. The questions arising are what local diversions from this main current that can be seen both in the professional selfperception of the humanistic scholars and in the moral positioning of humanistic scholars in society?
  2. What frames of relevance have governed choices of topics and methods in the humanities? The selfperceptions of the humanistic scholars has off cause influenced the choices of topics and methods in the humanities – a neohumanist anno 1920 did not study the same topics or use the same methods as a post WWII structuralist etc. What developments in selfperceptions have influenced these trends? And what frames of relevance have guided individual scholars and institutions in their development
  3. How has the institutionalisation of these studies, mainly in universities, influenced the practice of research and learning? University historians have pinpointed the university as the “axial institution of modern society” (Perkin). How has the university shaped and been shaped by modern society – and what specific roles has the humanities had in this respect?
  4. How can a new argumentation for the wider benefits of the humanities be established with due regard to both the academic traditions and the challenges of the knowledge society agenda? How do humanists currently respond to this challenge?
  5. And not least: how do these currents differ in a Nordic and an international comparative perspective? As suggested under question one the humboldtian tradition has been a point of departure in the Nordic countries. But certainly after WWII this tradition has been supplemented by the influence from America. This opens a whole field of questions such as the reception of foreign trends in a Nordic context – the conglomerate institutions arising as a result of these developments not to speak of the results of the current Europeanization of higher education and research.

As a preliminary outline this list is not intended to be chronological for the subsequent meetings but all questions can be addressed at any of these meetings.

  • Coordinators
    Ekstern lektor, Ph.D. Jesper Eckhardt Larsen, Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsskole, Århus Universitet. Member of Humanistisk Forum in Denmark.
  • Dr. Sverre Blandhol, idehistoriker, Juridisk fakultet, Oslo Universitet

The suggested circle is supported by the following group of academics:
Professor John Peter Collett, Forum for universitetshistorie, Oslo Universitet
Professor Ingrid Markussen, Institut for idehistorie, Oslo Universitet
Lecturer, Dr. Phil. Victoria Höög, Institut for idehistorie, Lunds Universitet
Lektor Jens Erik Kristensen, Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsskole, Århus Universitet
Docent og Forskningsdirektør, Henrik Stenius, Center for Nordiske Studier, Helsinfors Universitet
All members of Humanistisk Forum in Denmark that consists of about 60 academic members with special interest in the field are highly relevant as participants in this study circle. For information about this organisation see: http://www.humanistiskforum.dk/

Suggested readings:
Blomquist, Göran. (1998). De Nordiska Universiteten och staten efter 1945. In Sten Högnäs (red.), Nordiska universitetskulturer. Lund: Avdelningen för Idé- och lärdomshistoria vid Lunds universitet.
Bollenbeck, Georg. (1996). Bildung und Kultur; Glanz und Elend eines deutschen Deutungsmusters. Frankfurt am Main und Leipzig: Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag.
Elzinga, Aant. (1985). Research, Bureaucracy and the Drift of Epistemic Criteria. In Björn Wittrock & Aant Elzinga (red.), The University Research System. The Public Policies of the Home of Scientists. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Frühwald, Wolfgang. (1991). Humanistische und naturwissenschaftlich-technische Bildung: die Erfahrung des 19. Jahrhunderts. In Wolfgang Frühwald, Hans Robert Jauss, Reinhart Koselleck, Jürgen Mittelstrauss & Burkhart Steinwachs (red.), Geisteswissenschaften Heute. Eine Denkschrift (s. 73-111). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Gumbrecht, Hans Ulrich. (2004 (2001)). The Task of the Humanities, Today. In Hans Julio Cassado Jensen (red.), The Object of Study in the Humanities. Proceedings of the Seminar at the University of Copenhagen, September 2001. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. (1964 (1810)). Ueber die innere und äussere Organisation der höheren wissenschaftlicen Anstalten in Berlin. In Andreas Flitner & Klaus Giel (red.), Wilhelm von Humboldt. Werke in fünf Bänden (Vol. IV, s. 255-266). Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung.
Kimball, Bruce A. (1986). Orators & Philosophers. A History of the Idea of Liberal Education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Larsen, Jesper Eckhardt. (2006). "ikke af brød alene." Argumenter for humaniora og universitetet i Norge, Danmark, Tyskland og USA 1945-2005. Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitet, København.
Newman, John Henry. (1996 (1899)). The Idea of a University. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Rothblatt, Sheldon. (1993). The limbs of Osiris: liberal education in the English-speaking world. In Sheldon Rothblatt and Björn Wittrock (red.), The European and American university since 1800. Historical and sociological essays (s. 19-73). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Scholtz, Gunter. (1991). Zwischen Wissenschaftsanspruch und Orientierungsbedürfnis. Zu Grundlage und Wandel der Geisteswissenschaften. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Snow, Charles Percy. (1964 (1959)). The Two Cultures: and A Second Look. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sörlin, Sverker, & Hebe Vessuri (red.). (2007). Knowledge Society vs. Knowledge Economy: Knowledge, Power, and Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thue, Fredrik. (1996). Det humanistiske fagfeltets historie. In Universitetet i Bergens historie (Vol. II). Bergen.
Wittrock, Björn. (1996 (1993)). The modern university: the three transformations. In Björn Wittrock & Sheldon Rothblatt (red.), The European and American University since 1800. Historical and sociological essays (2 ed., s. 303-362). Chippenham, Wiltshire: Cambridge University Press.
 Perkin, Harold. (1984). The historical perspective. In Burton R. Clark (red.), Perspectives on Higher Education. Eight Disciplinary and Comparative Views (s. 17-55). Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.

Bilaga Studies in Humanities