EUGENE–In a world where technology is the engine driving the future, are the humanities still relevant?

"Absolutely," says Russell Tomlin, an associate dean at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences. "Science can create the tools to clone a human being, but the debate over whether it should be done will fall to the humanities," he says.

"Scholars in the humanities will be called upon to explore the most fundamental questions of human values through the study of philosophy, literature, history and the classics. These are questions that are becoming more complex as science and technology make it possible to change the fundamental nature of human life."

The UO will join the national discussion on the future of the humanities this month when it plays host to a June 24-26 symposium on "Possible Futures for the Humanities" organized by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

The conference brings 35 promising and newly tenured humanities scholars from around the country to join faculty members from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Princeton and Wellesley in a discussion about the future of humanities scholarship and research in the United States.

Steven Shankman, director of the UO’s Oregon Humanities Center, says the decision to involve younger scholars in the discussion is extraordinary.

"The ACLS, a major benefactor of American humanities scholars, has invited the most successful and promising young scholars in the country to ask themselves if–despite their remarkable success–they are as fully engaged and as satisfied with the breadth, depth and boldness of their teaching and scholarship as they wish to be," he says.

The symposium is co-sponsored by the UO College of Arts and Sciences, the Oregon Humanities Center and ACLS. The three-day conference will feature sessions on such matters as defining the audience for writing in the humanities, new technological opportunities for humanities research, and the legacy of the humanities in the nation’s universities and colleges.

—30—

#F-6096/Local,OrDailies