Episode 65: Robert Townsend on the Professional Value of the Humanities

Welcome back to Yeah, I Got a F#%*ing Job With a Liberal Arts Degree, a show that takes a deep look at the humanities and higher education more generally. Join professor of history and humanities Dean Jeff Crane as he interviews a range of guests about the value of the liberal arts and education as a personal and public good. Robert Townsend is the Program Director for Humanities, Arts, and Culture at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prior to the Academy, he spent 24 years at the American Historical Association, in positions ranging from editorial assistant to deputy director. He is the author of History’s Babel: Scholarship, Professionalization, and the Historical Enterprise in the United States, 1880-1940 (University of Chicago Press, 2013) and author or co-author of over 200 articles on various aspects of history, higher education, and public humanities. He received his PhD in history from George Mason University. The Academy conducts research and develops policy recommendations to advance the humanities in academic scholarship and in the public sector, to display the importance of the arts in society, and to enrich the nation’s cultural life. Academy programs in the Arts & Humanities put practitioners and scholars in conversation with individuals from other disciplines, ensuring that the arts and humanities are valued in all areas of civic life to enrich the health of communities and the daily lives of their citizens.Please subscribe to the show, share , rate and review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by Silverman Sound Studios⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yeah, I Got an F#%*ing Job with a Liberal Arts Degree is produced by Abigail Smithson. You can email the us with any questions @ [email protected] show is created and supported by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Cal Poly Humboldt and is recorded on campus in beautiful Arcata, California.Works Cited: History's Babel: Scholarship, Professionalization, and the Historical Enterprise in the United States, 1880-1940 by Robert Townsend Not for Profit by Martha NussbaumBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson