{"id":20961,"date":"2010-09-13T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T17:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=20961"},"modified":"2012-02-29T14:51:06","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T19:51:06","slug":"citizenship-marriage-and-mosques-problems-in-the-applied-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/09\/citizenship-marriage-and-mosques-problems-in-the-applied-humanities\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizenship, Marriage, and Mosques: Problems in the Applied Humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"<p>Jeremy<\/a>
Jeremy Teitelbaum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This blog entry is based on remarks made at the event welcoming new fellows to the 2010-2011 academic year at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute<\/a>. This is the Institute\u2019s 10th anniversary, and its distinguished decade will be celebrated by a conference in April at which author Toni Morrison will speak.<\/h3>\n

By Jeremy Teitelbaum, Dean<\/a>
\nCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps because of the budget woes that continue to afflict universities in this country, and the sober fact that the job market for new Ph.D.\u2019s, especially in the humanities, is so dismal, the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> has published a steady run of gloomy articles about the future of the humanities. You can find all kinds of criticism of the study of the humanities, but there\u2019s a common theme: the study of the humanities doesn\u2019t teach you anything practical, and as a result it\u2019s a waste of time.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is just absurd. We spend our daily life immersed in a sea of what I would like to call problems in the \u201capplied humanities.\u201d Here, I mean problems in the sense mathematicians use the word, meaning a well-defined question, worth investigation, but not yet fully understood. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean. I would like to begin with what I consider to be one of the most beautiful pieces of text in the English language. It reads as follows:<\/p>\n

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.<\/p>\n

\"<p>CLAS<\/p>\n

This 14th amendment to the Constitution has recently become the focus of contentious public debate in a number of spheres. Sen. Lindsey Graham is only the most prominent individual to propose modifying the first sentence<\/a> that promises birthright citizenship. How are we to react to this proposal? We could fall back on an emotional response, whether for or against. But such an emotional reaction utterly disregards the available resources provided by history, philosophy, and literature, each of which can illuminate the question in different ways. Formulating a reasoned position on birthright citizenship is an example of what I am calling a problem in the applied humanities. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the only recent development involving the same amendment. Federal District Court Judge Walker invalidated California\u2019s Proposition 8<\/a> banning gay marriage, citing the \u2018equal protection\u2019 clause of the same amendment. It is from the humanities that we can gain a perspective, not only on the narrower question of weighing the democratic principle of majority rules against the protection of minority rights, but also on deeper questions like: How does religion guide moral thinking? And what are the different experiences of love?<\/p>\n

I could go on: The debate swirling around the so-called \u201cGround Zero Mosque\u201d is another situation where a careful application of reason informed by scholarship is surely called for. The phrase \u201challowed ground\u201d that is used for Ground Zero echoes Lincoln\u2019s words \u201cwe cannot dedicate \u2013 we cannot consecrate \u2013 we cannot hallow this ground\u201d in the Gettysburg Address<\/a>. And it is an interesting exercise to ask how the values expressed in the Gettysburg address would inform our reaction to honoring Ground Zero.<\/p>\n

Finding clarity on these issues is important because, fundamentally, we must live together peacefully in a functioning society.<\/p>\n

One of the most important lessons I\u2019ve learned from my education as a mathematician is that the world is filled with problems amenable to mathematical analysis. If you don\u2019t know any mathematics, then those solutions are hidden from you. For example, it\u2019s not obvious that mathematical statistics provides an amazingly successful approach to recommending music or movies; but in fact, that is the case<\/a>. I would argue that a wide range of societal problems are naturally amenable to analysis using the resources provided by scholarship in the humanities; but this fact isn\u2019t obvious to someone who hasn\u2019t had basic training in the field.<\/p>\n

If I\u2019ve learned anything from my own liberal education, it is that I need not approach difficult questions of values as though they were entirely new. There are profound resources available from scholars of the humanities that illuminate those questions. I sincerely hope that we are educating our students to appreciate this fact.<\/p>\n

I concede that I\u2019ve focused here on \u201capplied problems.\u201d Certainly not all learning needs to be justified in utilitarian terms. The powerful mathematical tools that help us find movies we will like among the millions that we won\u2019t have their origin in pure research. Similarly, it\u2019s in the accumulated scholarship of the humanities, conducted for its own sake, that we can learn enough about our fellow human beings and about habits of thought and expression to enable us to take an approach informed by both empathy and rational thought to problems like \u201cWho should be a citizen?\u201d and \u201cWhen should majority preference trump individual rights?\u201d<\/p>\n

To take a UConn perspective on all this, that\u2019s why we need a Humanities Institute, and why it\u2019s worth celebrating the Institute\u2019s 10th anniversary and the many more to come.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Comments? Send them to: dean@clas.uconn.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has 23 departments in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences, ranging from physics to philosophy, and more than 15,000 students, 600 faculty, and 83,000 alumni. Check out our three initiatives: Health and Human Behavior<\/a>, the Environment<\/a>, and <\/em>Culture and Society<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other CLAS Blog posts:<\/h4>\n

On Not Buying an iPad<\/a><\/p>\n

A Step Closer to Science Fiction?<\/a><\/p>\n

Academic Freedom Meets Freedom of Information<\/a><\/p>\n

Ambition and Intrigue in the Court of Henry VIII<\/a><\/p>\n

A Civil Conversation on Contentious Issues<\/a><\/p>\n

Academically Anchored<\/a><\/p>\n

Meditations on A(nother) Snow Day<\/a><\/p>\n

Coming to Grips with Climate Change<\/a><\/p>\n

Ideas — The Psychological Currency of the University<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Just Hire the Best’?<\/a><\/p>\n

Will ‘Crowdsourcing’ Revolutionize Scholarship?<\/a><\/p>\n

Hidden Symmetries<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Spectacular Storrs<\/a><\/p>\n

Of Deans and English Professors<\/a><\/p>\n

The Joys of Jamming<\/a><\/p>\n

Slick Calculations<\/a><\/p>\n

The Road to Agra<\/a><\/p>\n

UConn Over Yale and Other Tales from Jim Draper \u201941<\/a><\/p>\n

The Amazon, Avatar, and Smallpox<\/a><\/p>\n

The Value of Curiosity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pressing social issues are illuminated by scholarship in the humanities, says the CLAS dean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[66],"class_list":["post-20961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 05:50:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20961"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55740,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20961\/revisions\/55740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20961"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=20961"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=20961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}