Since the Ronald Reagan era, we have heard arguments that studying liberal arts or the humanities is a waste of time or, at the very least, hardly the most sagacious path for college students to pursue. I am a Gen Xer, a teenager during that era, and this dispiriting message was inculcated in my peers and me. A decade later, as a humanities graduate student, my wariness toward such demoralizing rhetoric increased. Now, decades later, as a tenured professor deeply engaged in humanities scholarship, I see that my ongoing skepticism has proven well-founded.
Former National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Shelly Lowe , the first Native American to lead the organization, who was unceremoniously pushed out by President Donald Trump in March , urged participants at the 2024 National Humanities Conference to find hope in dark times by turning to poetry. Riffing on Seamus Heaney’s “The Cure at Troy,” she urged those of us present to “believe that further shores exist, even if they are out of sight.” Art and culture provide avenues for expression, beauty, understanding, and meaning, especially when our world feels like it’s crumbling.
At a conference in June, CEO Bill Winters, who ran JPMorgan Chase’s investment bank, opined that his MBA was nowhere near as beneficial to his career as his undergraduate humanities courses. “I learned how to think at university, and for the 40 years since I left university, those skills have been degraded, degraded, degraded,” Winters said. “They’re coming back now . . . The technical skills are being provided by the machine, or by very competent people in other parts of the world who have really nailed the technical skills at a relatively low cost. I’m going to go back to curiosity and empathy. Really, really understand the audience that you’re dealing with and anticipate those needs beforehand.”
Lindsey McInerney, marketer and tech founder, raised similar sentiments in a recent TEDx Talk. “The humanities are not disposable, and the technical degrees are no longer safe choices . . . In maybe one of the greatest comeback stories ever told, the crazy little twist of fate, we’re entering a world where the skills acquired in the pursuit of the humanities are not only going to be the most indispensable, but some of the most highly sought-after,” she predicted. Notably, right before the 2020 pandemic, identical commentary was echoed by Dan Schawbel, a New York Times best-selling author and CEO of Millennial Branding, and George Arson and Toby Russell, Co-CEOs of Shift.com.
Each of these individuals convincingly argues that corporations now realize that relying solely on business and STEM-based education denies them a competitive advantage. As technology evolves and grows more complex, companies will no longer be able to rely on black-and-white approaches to solving problems. Instead, the ability to theorize and conceptualize will become more critical.
These influential voices are not the only ones arguing that innovation will increase demand for the critical thinking and communication skills one learns in the liberal arts. Many other tech CEOs with humanities-based academic backgrounds are happy to testify to the usefulness of these often-ridiculed degrees. The truth is that for quite some time, businesses and employers have actively sought graduates who demonstrate the ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and solve complex problems. It goes without saying that these skills are honed through the study of the humanities.
I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat when I came across this inspiring news. I cannot tell you how many times I have sparred with engineers, businesspeople, accountants, chemists, and others at coffeehouses, conferences, symposiums, and other venues who have decried and derided the “worthlessness” or “irrelevance” of the humanities. Some have been friends, others strangers. They were so convinced of the supremacy of medicine, business, technology, and the hard sciences that they were blind to the crucial impact the liberal arts have had on society.
Many of these humanities detractors cite (or, more likely, have been seriously misguided by) studies (now discredited to a notable extent) claiming that college grads with nontechnical degrees tend to have higher unemployment rates than those with technical degrees.
I have made the case to these naysayers that reducing the humanities to a means of earning a good salary misunderstands the purpose of education. Moreover, for the record, data from higher education consultant Katina L. Rogers dispel these assumptions.
“Those who support these actions tend to cite declining numbers of humanities majors as evidence that students don’t care about the subject matter, or that they think a humanities degree is a financial dead end,” Rogers noted. “However, even the economic piece of this argument is not borne out by the data. Recent research from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences shows strong state-by-state employment trends for humanities graduates, with advanced degree holders earning a median salary of about $84,000. Their research shows that a remarkably high 87 percent of all humanities majors feel satisfied with their careers — and that percentage climbs to 91 percent for advanced degree holders.”
A classic liberal arts education introduces students to the arts, languages, literature, history, and the study of race and gender, as well as philosophy, the sciences, and other disciplines. More importantly, such an education fosters the ability to think critically and holistically about issues, including business, science, and technology. Salaries and income levels aside, exposure to a wide range of subjects and deep critical inquiry are what the humanities are all about. Let’s be honest, many individuals on the Right — politicians, businessmen, and citizens—view the humanities as dominated by liberals, Marxists, and leftist radicals. Exaggerated and misguided as such beliefs may be, many Americans across the political spectrum harbor similar assumptions. It is a perception that ought to be resisted and dispelled.
The Washington Monthly has long believed that the humanities should be cherished and can be part of an education that centers on STEM or trades. It’s something that comes up in our broad annual College Guide. See here how one school did it. See more on when the gap narrows between STEM and humanities majors here. It’s worth checking out this fascinating blog by Zeenat Fayaz here for more on why AI may make the humanities even more essential, and this piece on AI and skills in the Monthly that makes a similar case.
At the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, we have a front-row seat to a well-organized, methodical effort to target the humanities. Ruthless cuts to cultural institutions, habitual attacks on education, book bans, departmental closures, and strategic rhetoric have been engineered to diminish the humanities. These efforts have deprived students and society at a time when the situation calls for greater investment in the humanities, not their curtailment or removal from broader curricula.
Of course, no one should dismiss the importance of science, math, technology, engineering, and other STEM areas. These disciplines are paramount and crucial to the continued strength of our society and will remain so. That said, one does not become successful or proficient in any endeavor or profession (including STEM fields) without a solid grounding in critical thinking skills, which a liberal arts education provides. In short, the humanities are the cornerstone of a well-rounded education.
