Humanities: Home

This pioneering textbook explores the theoretical background of cultural variety, both in past and present. How is it possible to study 'culture' when the topic covers the arts, literature, movies, history, sociology, anthropology and gender studies? Understanding Culture examines the evolution of a concept with varying meanings depending on changing norms. Offering a long-duration analysis of the relationship between culture and nature, this book looks at the origins of studying culture from an international perspective.Using examples from the several scholarly traditions in the practice of studying culture, Understanding Culture is a key introduction to the area. It identifies the history of interpreting culture as a meeting point between the long-standing historical investigation of 'humanism' and 'postmodernism' and is a comprehensive resource for those who wish to further their engagement with culture as both a historical and contemporary phenomenon.

This book locates the origins of the modern humanities in the philological practices of late 18th-century British scholars in colonial India, offering a radical reappraisal of a range of disciplines and excavating hidden pre-colonial practices that might well help the humanities move beyond their current methodological and political impasses.

Following the metaphor of ""the world upside-down, "" this essay collection highlights the importance of the humanities in addressing, along with the sciences, pressing challenges in today's rapidly changing world. Crossing across a variety of disciplines, historical periods, and regions in the world, this volume represents a useful tool for humanities scholars and students exploring the key role of our disciplines in public debates about pressing issues, such as the refugee crisis, climate change denialism, environmental justice, racism, and the current worldwide crisis of democracy.

The humanities include disciplines as diverse as literary theory, linguistics, history, film studies, theology, and philosophy. Do these various fields of study have anything in common that distinguishes them from, say, physics or sociology? The tripartite division between the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities may seem self-evident, but it only arose during the course of the 19th century and is still contested today.History and Philosophy of the Humanities: An Introduction presents a reasoned overview of the conceptual and historical backgrounds of the humanities. In four sections, it discusses:- the most influential views on scientific knowledge from Aristotle to Thomas Kuhn;- the birth of the modern humanities and its relation to the natural and social sciences;- the various methodological schools and conceptual issues in the humanities;- several themes that set the agenda for current debates in the humanities: critiques of modernity; gender, sexuality and identity; and postcolonialism.Thus, it provides students in the humanities with a comprehensive understanding of the backgrounds of their own discipline, its relation to other disciplines, and the state of the art of the humanities at large.

Introduction / Michael F. Shaughnessy -- Music appreciation as part of the humanities: past, present and future / Jennifer Laubenthal, Jonathan Helmick and Kathleen Melago -- The humanities in Australia: past, present and future / Kevin Donnelly -- To heroically save or despairingly lose: the struggle to interpret American history in the twenty-first century vis a vis the humanities / Donald Elder III -- Literacy instruction in the past, present and future / Wally Thompson and Debra Coffey -- The humanities in the vise of the K-20 corporate education reform / Paul Horton -- Emerging technologies in humanities education / Arjun Sabharwal -- An interview with Gerald Cupchik: humanities, emotions and aesthetics / Gerald Cupchik and Michael F. Shaughnessy -- Pedagogy vs. knowledge: anti-intellectualism in American education in light of the humanities / Will Fitzhugh and Michael F. Shaughnessy -- The humanities and the search for beauty: past, present and future / Michael F. Shaughnessy and Greg Erf -- Multiculturalism vs. diversity: can the humanities become an instrument for social justice? / Geni Flores -- The interpretation of scripture: a humanities study of the development of the biblical hermeneutic / Josh Mc Vey -- The American historical theater and a glimpse through various windows / Anne Beck -- A humanities carol: what we can learn from humanities' past about the future of the university / Opal Greer -- These are the real voyages: space history as a part of the humanities / Donald Elder III -- The future of the humanities / Herbert London.

Research Methodology in Arts, Science and Humanities examines various aspects of research methodologies required in thefield of arts, science and humanities. The book is divided intothree different parts where the first part is dedicated towards theresearch methodologies used in the field of arts, following withthe methodologies used in the field of science and humanitiesas part II and Part III respectively. Provides the reader with theinsights into the three different field and the methodologies requiredto know more about the three.

Performative methods are playing an increasingly prominent role in research into historical production processes, materials, bodily knowledge and sensory skills, and in forms of education and public engagement in classrooms and museums. This book offers, for the first time, sustained, interdisciplinary reflections on performative methods, variously known as Reconstruction, Replication and Re-enactment (RRR) practices across the fields of history of science, archaeology, art history, conservation, musicology and anthropology. Each of these fields has distinct histories, approaches, tools and research questions. Researchers in the historical disciplines have used reconstructions to learn about the materials and practices of the past, while anthropologists and ethnographers have more often studied the re-enactments themselves, participating in these performances as engaged observers. In this book, authors bring their experiences of RRR practices within their discipline into conversation with RRR practices in other disciplines, providing a basis for interdisciplinary cross-fertilization.