"Any humanist hoping to engage with a skeptical or curious public should read this book." Michael Bérubé, Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Pennsylvania State University

My most recent book, The Humanities "Crisis" and the Future of Literary Studies, analyzes the current plight of the humanities and explores ways to explain their value that push beyond the debilitating rhetoric of crisis that currently surrounds them (see the link above for information about the book). I expanded on the book's argument in "How Not to Defend the Liberal Arts" in the October 27, 2014 edition of Inside Higher Ed, and in the December, 2014 edition of Connections. Since the publication of my book I've lectured on the future of the humanities at the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Purdue Calumet University, Wayne State University (click here to watch video of my talk there), Centre College in Kentucky, and at a two-day symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in Baltimore, Maryland. In September I delivered a keynote address in Xian, China at a conference on the economic and cultural implications of China's Belt and Road Initiative. 
                                                            

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  Photo by Jessica Groen