The Pryvat Spyrit of America, from Dissent to Interpretation

Prof. Harpham’s talk seeks to understand the singular place of privilege that America has accorded to the humanities. In other countries higher education was shaped by the needs of the professions and of the civil service; by contrast, the political and moral commitments of America’s self-understanding created a system of education in which the interpretation of literature held pride of place and made English synonymous with the humanities. Geoffrey Harpham is an American academic who currently serves as the fifth President and Director of the National Humanities Center, succeeding Charles Frankel, William Bennett, Charles Blitzer, and Robert Connor. One of the characteristics of his tenure has been the encouragement of dialogue between the humanities on the one hand and the natural and social sciences on the other. Please RSVP by September 24th here: http://ter.ps/harpham