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75-469: The Chicago Humanities Festival is designed to create opportunities for people to explore the humanities . Under the aegis of the Illinois Humanities Council and its then-chairman Richard J. Franke, the notion of a "humanities day" was proposed, and then expanded into a "festival". Eileen Mackevich created the first Chicago Humanities Festival, a one-day affair, held on November 11, 1990, at

150-437: A foreign language usually include study of important works of the literature in that language, as well as the language itself. In everyday language, law refers to a rule that is enforced by a governing institution, as opposed to a moral or ethical rule that is not subject to formal enforcement. The study of law can be seen as either a social science or a humanities discipline, depending on one's perspective. Some see it as

225-429: A Tony Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. In addition, she wrote the screenplay for the 1998 film The Object of My Affection , which starred Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd . Wasserstein is described as an author of women's identity crises. "Her heroines—intelligent and successful but also riddled with self-doubt—sought enduring love

300-593: A concert staging at Town Hall in New York City on May 18, 2008. She wrote the libretto for the opera Best Friends , based on Clare Boothe Luce 's play The Women , but it was uncompleted when she died. It was subsequently completed by Christopher Durang, set by Deborah Drattell , and is in development with Lauren Flanigan . In 1996 she appeared as the guest caller "Linda" on the Frasier episode "Head Game" . Wasserstein

375-487: A degree in the humanities. By 2010, this figure had risen to 2.6%. This represents a doubling of the number of Americans with degrees in the humanities over a 60-year period. The increase in the number of Americans with humanities degrees is in part due to the overall rise in college enrollment in the United States. In 1940, 4.6% of Americans had a four-year degree, but by 2016, this figure had risen to 33.4%. This means that

450-633: A field called the digital humanities . Wendy Wasserstein Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 – January 30, 2006) was an American playwright . She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University . She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles . Wasserstein was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn ,

525-433: A little ambivalently, but they did not always find it, and their hard-earned sense of self-worth was often shadowed by the frustrating knowledge that American women's lives continued to be measured by their success at capturing the right man." In a conversation with novelist A. M. Homes , Wasserstein said that these heroines are the starting points for her plays: "I write from character, so it begins with people talking, which

600-697: A musical with fellow student Christopher Durang , When Dinah Shore Ruled the Earth . In 1989, she won the Tony Award , the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize , and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play The Heidi Chronicles . Her plays, which explore topics ranging from feminism to family to ethnicity to pop culture, include The Sisters Rosensweig , Isn't It Romantic , An American Daughter , Old Money , and her last work, which opened in 2005, Third . During her career, which spanned nearly four decades, Wasserstein wrote eleven plays, winning

675-463: A mutual contempt for one another, the former looking down on the latter as unscientific, the latter regarding the former as philistine . […] The difference comes down to the fact that social science really wants to be predictive, meaning that man is predictable, while the humanities say that he is not. For many decades, there has been a growing public perception that a humanities education inadequately prepares graduates for employment. The common belief

750-433: A particular path. In the liberal arts tradition, musicology is also used to broaden skills of non-musicians by teaching skills, including concentration and listening. Theatre (or theater) (Greek "theatron", θέατρον ) is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of

825-454: A red robe, rather than the modulations of that colour brought about by light, shade and reflection). A characteristic of this style is that the local colour is often defined by an outline (a contemporary equivalent is the cartoon). This is evident in, for example, the art of India, Tibet and Japan. Religious Islamic art forbids iconography, and expresses religious ideas through geometry instead. The physical and rational certainties depicted by

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900-421: A significant historical element —as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of science . The humanities include the studies of philosophy , religion , history , language arts ( literature , writing , oratory , rhetoric , poetry , etc.), performing arts ( theater , music , dance , etc.), and visual arts ( painting , sculpture , photography , filmmaking , etc.). Some definitions of

975-437: A social science because of its objective and measurable nature, while others view it as a humanities discipline because of its focus on values and interpretation. Law is not always enforceable, especially in the international relations context. Law has been defined in various ways, such as "a system of rules", "an interpretive concept" for achieving justice, "an authority" to mediate between people's interests, or "the command of

1050-589: A source of reliable benchmarks to guide analysis of the state of the humanities in the United States. The 1980 United States Rockefeller Commission on the Humanities described the humanities in its report "The Humanities in American Life": Through the humanities we reflect on the fundamental question: What does it mean to be human? The humanities offer clues but never a complete answer. They reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of

1125-575: A sovereign" backed by the threat of punishment. However one likes to think of law, it is a completely central social institution. Legal policy is shaped by the practical application of ideas from many social science and humanities disciplines, including philosophy, history, political science, economics, anthropology, and sociology. Law is politics , because politicians create them. Law is philosophy , because moral and ethical persuasions shape their ideas. Law tells many of history 's stories, because statutes, case law and codifications build up over time. Law

1200-481: A surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are graphite pencils , pen and ink , inked brushes , wax color pencils , crayons , charcoals , pastels , and markers . Digital tools that simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching , crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling , and blending. A computer aided designer who excels in technical drawing

1275-589: A universally accepted definition, but which has variably included all written work; writing that possesses literary merit; and language that emphasizes its own literary features, as opposed to ordinary language . Etymologically the term derives from the Latin word literatura /litteratura which means "writing formed with letters", although some definitions include spoken or sung texts . Literature can be classified as fiction or non-fiction ; poetry or prose . It can be further distinguished according to major forms such as

1350-541: A variety of settings, from small dance studios to large theaters. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social , cultural , aesthetic , artistic , and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as Folk dance ) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet . The great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the ancient civilizations, such as Ancient Japan , Greece and Rome , China , India , Greater Nepal , Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica . Ancient Greek art saw

1425-520: A veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features (e.g., Zeus ' thunderbolt). The emphasis on spiritual and religious themes in Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages reflected the dominance of

1500-512: A well-known investment banker. Her maternal grandfather was Simon Schleifer, a yeshiva teacher in Włocławek , Poland, who moved to Paterson, New Jersey , and became a high school principal. Claims that Schleifer was a playwright are probably apocryphal, as contemporaries did not recall this and the assertion only appeared once Wasserstein had won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A graduate of

1575-679: A world still ingrained with traditional roles and expectations. In 2007 she was featured in the film Making Trouble , a tribute to female Jewish comedians, produced by the Jewish Women's Archive . Wasserstein also wrote the books to two musicals. Miami , written in collaboration with Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman , was presented at Playwrights Horizons in 1985–1986, and starred among others, Marcia Lewis , Phyllis Newman , Jane Krakowski , and Fisher Stevens . Pamela's First Musical , written with Cy Coleman and David Zippel , based on Wasserstein's children's book, received its world premiere in

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1650-551: A world where irrationality, despair, loneliness, and death are as conspicuous as birth, friendship, hope, and reason. The Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences 2013 report "The Heart of the Matter" supports the notion of a broad " liberal arts education ", which includes study in disciplines from the natural sciences to the arts as well as the humanities. Many colleges provide such an education; some require it. The University of Chicago and Columbia University were among

1725-636: Is also a specialized form of fine art in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called Performance art . Most performance art also involves some form of plastic art, perhaps in the creation of props . Dance was often referred to as a plastic art during the Modern dance era. Musicology as an academic discipline can take a number of different paths, including historical musicology , music literature, ethnomusicology and music theory . Undergraduate music majors generally take courses in all of these areas, while graduate students focus on

1800-517: Is also economics, because any rule about contract , tort , property law , labour law , company law and many more can have long-lasting effects on how productivity is organised and the distribution of wealth. The noun law derives from the Old English word lagu , meaning something laid down or fixed, and the adjective legal comes from the Latin word LEX . Literature is a term that does not have

1875-529: Is also used to describe methods of non-verbal communication (see body language ) between humans or animals ( bee dance , mating dance), and motion in inanimate objects ( the leaves danced in the wind ). Choreography is the process of creating dances, and the people who create choreography are known as choreographers. Choreographers use movement, music , and other elements to create expressive and artistic dances. They may work alone or with other artists to create new works, and their work can be presented in

1950-404: Is commonly regarded as a social science . Based on current knowledge, it seems that all known cultures, both in the past and present, have some form of belief system or religious practice. While there may be isolated individuals or groups who do not practice any form of religion, it is not known if there has ever been a society that was entirely devoid of religious belief. The definition of religion

2025-450: Is contested. While the scientific study of language is known as linguistics and is generally considered a social science , a natural science or a cognitive science , the study of languages is also central to the humanities. A good deal of twentieth- and twenty-first-century philosophy has been devoted to the analysis of language and to the question of whether, as Wittgenstein claimed, many of our philosophical confusions derive from

2100-471: Is cut or shaved down to the desired form, like stone and wood. In the West, the history of the humanities can be traced to ancient Greece, as the basis of a broad education for citizens. During Roman times, the concept of the seven liberal arts evolved, involving grammar , rhetoric and logic (the trivium ), along with arithmetic , geometry , astronomy and music (the quadrivium ). These subjects formed

2175-403: Is distinguished from other ways of addressing these issues by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument, rather than experiments ( experimental philosophy being an exception). Philosophy used to be a very comprehensive term, including what have subsequently become separate disciplines, such as physics . (As Immanuel Kant noted, "Ancient Greek philosophy

2250-506: Is no formalized register of colors. However, the Pantone system is widely used in the printing and design industry to standardize color reproduction. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, collage . This began with cubism and is not painting in strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand , cement , straw or wood for their texture. Examples of these are

2325-546: Is no longer statistically significant. Humanities graduates can boost their incomes if they obtain advanced or professional degrees. Humanities majors are sought after in many areas of business, specifically for their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. While often considered "soft skills", humanities majors gain skills such as "include persuasive written and oral communication, creative problem-solving, teamwork, decision-making, self-management, and critical analysis". The Humanities Indicators , unveiled in 2009 by

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2400-456: Is not universal, and different cultures may have different ideas about what constitutes religion. Religion may be characterized with a community since humans are social animals . Rituals are used to bound the community together. Social animals require rules. Ethics is a requirement of society, but not a requirement of religion. Shinto, Daoism, and other folk or natural religions do not have ethical codes. While some religions do include

2475-415: Is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman . Literally, painting is the practice of applying pigment suspended in a carrier (or medium ) and a binding agent (a glue ) to a surface (support) such as paper , canvas or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense, it means the use of this activity in combination with drawing , composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest

2550-440: Is systematically collected information about the past . When used as the name of a field of study , history refers to the study and interpretation of the record of humans , societies , institutions, and any topic that has changed over time. Traditionally, the study of history has been considered a part of the humanities. In modern academia , history can occasionally be classified as a social science , though this definition

2625-476: Is that graduates from such programs face underemployment and that incomes are too low for a humanities education to be worth the investment. Humanities graduates find employment in a wide variety of management and professional occupations. In Britain, for example, over 11,000 humanities majors found employment in the following occupations: Many humanities graduates may find themselves with no specific career goals upon graduation, which can lead to lower incomes in

2700-469: Is why I like writing plays." Wasserstein commented that her parents allowed her to go to Yale only because they were certain she would meet an eligible lawyer there, get married, and lead a conventional life as a wife and mother. Although appreciative of the critical acclaim for her comedic streak, she described her work as "a political act", wherein sassy dialogue and farcical situations mask deep, resonant truths about intelligent, independent women living in

2775-590: The American Academy of Arts and Sciences , are the first comprehensive compilation of data about the humanities in the United States, providing scholars, policymakers and the public with detailed information on humanities education from primary to higher education, the humanities workforce, humanities funding and research, and public humanities activities. Modeled after the National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators, Humanities Indicators are

2850-1058: The Baháʼí Faith . Religions must adapt and change through the generations because they must remain relevant to the adherents. When traditional religions fail to address new concerns, then new religions will emerge. The performing arts differ from the visual arts in that the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal, or paint, which can be molded or transformed to create some art object . Performing arts include acrobatics , busking , comedy , dance , film , magic , music , opera , juggling , marching arts , such as brass bands , and theatre . Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called performers, including actors, comedians , dancers , musicians , and singers . Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting and stagecraft . Performers often adapt their appearance , such as with costumes and stage makeup , etc. There

2925-596: The Calhoun School (she attended from 1963 to 1967), Wasserstein earned a B.A. in history from Mount Holyoke College in 1971, an M.A. in creative writing from City College of New York in 1973, and an M.F.A. in fine arts from the Yale School of Drama in 1976. In 1990 she received an honoris causa Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Holyoke College and in 2002 she received an honoris causa degree from Bates College . Wasserstein's first production of note

3000-612: The Renaissance , the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature and language, as opposed to the study of religion, or " divinity ". The study of the humanities was a key part of the secular curriculum in universities at the time. Today, the humanities are more frequently defined as any fields of study outside of natural sciences , social sciences , formal sciences (like mathematics ), and applied sciences (or professional training ). They use methods that are primarily critical , speculative, or interpretative and have

3075-554: The Western academic tradition, refers to the studies of the cultures of classical antiquity , namely Ancient Greek and Latin and the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Classical studies is considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities; however, its popularity declined during the 20th century. Nevertheless, the influence of classical ideas on many humanities disciplines, such as philosophy and literature, remains strong. History

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3150-467: The comparative method and comparative research . Other methods used in the humanities include hermeneutics , source criticism , esthetic interpretation , and speculative reason . The word humanities comes from the Renaissance Latin phrase studia humanitatis , which translates to study of humanity . This phrase was used to refer to the study of classical literature and language, which

3225-425: The novel , short story or drama ; and works are often categorised according to historical periods, or according to their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations ( genre ). Philosophy—etymologically, the "love of wisdom"—is generally the study of problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, justification, truth, justice, right and wrong, beauty, validity, mind, and language. Philosophy

3300-436: The 19th-century Enlightenment were shattered not only by new discoveries of relativity by Einstein and of unseen psychology by Freud , but also by unprecedented technological development. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art. Drawing is a means of making a picture , using a wide variety of tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on

3375-699: The Art Institute of Chicago and Orchestra Hall, before an audience of 3,500 people. Eight programs addressed the theme Expressions of Freedom, including a keynote address by playwright Arthur Miller . Founding co-sponsor institutions included the Art Institute of Chicago , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , Lyric Opera of Chicago , and the University of Chicago . In 1997, the Festival formally separated from

3450-2872: The Children's Humanities Festival was renamed to Stages, Sights & Sounds to better reflect the full breadth of the spring festival. Stages, Sights & Sounds is now in its third year. The spring festival's emphasis on performance provides contrast to the fall festival's adult-centered programming, which includes more lectures and discussions in exploration of a central theme that changes each year. CHF I: Expressions of Freedom (1990) Notable Presenters: Arthur Miller , Ed Paschke , Philip Gossett CHF II: Culture Contact (1991) Notable Presenters: Toni Morrison , John Edgar Wideman , Michael Ondaatje , Sandra Cisneros CHF III: From Freedom to Equality (1992) Notable Presenters: John Updike , Czesław Miłosz CHF IV: From Communication to Understanding (1993) Notable Presenters: William Safire , David McCullough , Marlo Thomas CHF V: Crime and Punishment (1994) Notable Presenters: Tom Wolfe , Scott Turow , Sherman Alexie CHF VI: Love and Marriage (1995) Notable Presenters: Stephen Sondheim , Stevie Wonder , Diane Ackerman , Betty Friedan CHF VII: Birth and Death (1996) Notable Presenters: Edward Albee , Jane Urquhart , Stephen Ambrose CHF VIII: Work & Play (1997) Notable Presenters: Peter O'Toole , Amartya Sen , Michael Moore CHF IX: He/She (1998) Notable Presenters: Wendy Wasserstein , Edward Hirsch , Galway Kinnell CHF X: New & Old (1999) Notable Presenters: Yusef Komunyakaa , Mordecai Richler CHF XI: NOW! (2000) Notable Presenters: Alan Lightman , Harold Ramis , Alison Lurie CHF XII: Words & Pictures (2001) Notable Presenters: Leonard Nimoy , Jonathan Franzen , Witold Rybczynski , Junot Diaz , Art Spiegelman CHF XIII: Brains & Beauty (2002) Notable Presenters: Francis Fukuyama , Joyce Carol Oates , Jeffrey Eugenides , Francine Prose , Mira Nair CHF XIV: Saving + Spending (2003) Notable Presenters: Roberto Benigni , Oscar Hijuelos , Tom Wolfe CHF XV: Time (2004) Notable Presenters: August Wilson , Maxine Hong Kingston , Clive Barker CHF XVI: Home and Away (2005) Notable Presenters: Margaret Atwood , Salman Rushdie , Annie Proulx , Susan Orlean CHF XVII: Peace and War (2006) Notable Presenters: Paul Krugman , Azar Nafisi , Joel Meyerowitz , Frank McCourt , Joan Baez , Errol Morris , Wesley Clark , Garry Trudeau CHF XVIII: The Climate of Concern (2007) Notable presenters: Wangari Maathai , E.L. Doctorow , Philip Pullman , Majora Carter , Peter Singer , Roger Payne , Terry Tempest Williams , W.S. Merwin , Edward Burtynsky , Maya Lin , Dave Eggers , Colin Quinn , Cat Chow , Greil Marcus , Amartya Sen , and

3525-408: The Illinois Humanities Council and established itself as an independent, nonprofit organization. Under Eileen Mackevich's leadership, by 2006, the independent Festival had expanded to nearly 150 programs over 16 days, in more than 30 venues, involving nearly 40 partner institutions and several hundred site volunteers, and attracting a combined audience of nearly 50,000. A Children's Humanities Festival

3600-437: The West, but elsewhere white may be. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe , Kandinsky , Isaac Newton , have written their own colour theories . Moreover, the use of language is only a generalization for a colour equivalent. The word " red ", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the spectrum. Unlike music, where notes such as C or C# are universally accepted, there

3675-423: The bulk of medieval education, with the emphasis being on the humanities as skills or "ways of doing". A major shift occurred with the Renaissance humanism of the fifteenth century, when the humanities began to be regarded as subjects to study rather than practice, with a corresponding shift away from traditional fields into areas such as literature and history ( studia humaniora ). In the 20th century, this view

3750-405: The church. However, in the Renaissance , a renewed focus on the physical world was reflected in art forms that depicted the human body and landscape in a more naturalistic and three-dimensional way. Eastern art has generally worked in a style akin to Western medieval art , namely a concentration on surface patterning and local colour (meaning the plain colour of an object, such as basic red for

3825-417: The concept of deities, others do not. Therefore, the supernatural does not necessarily require the existence of deities. Rather, it can be broadly defined as any phenomena that cannot be explained by science or reason. Magical thinking creates explanations not available for empirical verification. Stories or myths are narratives being both didactic and entertaining. They are necessary for understanding

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3900-420: The daughter of Morris Wasserstein, a wealthy textile executive, and his wife, Lola (née Liska) Schleifer, who moved to the United States from Poland when her father was accused of being a spy. Wasserstein "once described her mother as being like ' Auntie Mame '". Lola Wasserstein reportedly inspired some of her daughter's characters. Wendy was the youngest of five siblings, including brother Bruce Wasserstein ,

3975-487: The early stages of their career. On the other hand, graduates from more career-oriented programs often find jobs more quickly. However, the long-term career prospects of humanities graduates may be similar to those of other graduates, as research shows that by five years after graduation, they generally find a career path that appeals to them. There is empirical evidence that graduates from humanities programs earn less than graduates from other university programs. However,

4050-405: The empirical evidence also shows that humanities graduates still earn notably higher incomes than workers with no postsecondary education, and have job satisfaction levels comparable to their peers from other fields. Humanities graduates also earn more as their careers progress; ten years after graduation, the income difference between humanities graduates and graduates from other university programs

4125-456: The expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting has been used throughout history to express spiritual and religious ideas, from mythological scenes on pottery to the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel , to body art. Colour is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in

4200-474: The first schools to require an extensive core curriculum in philosophy, literature, and the arts for all students. Other colleges with nationally recognized, mandatory programs in the liberal arts are Fordham University , St. John's College , Saint Anselm College and Providence College . Prominent proponents of liberal arts in the United States have included Mortimer J. Adler and E. D. Hirsch, Jr. In 1950, 1.2% of Americans aged 22 had earned

4275-2667: The head writers of The Onion CHF XIX: Thinking Big! (2008) Notable presenters: David McCullough , Jeffrey Sachs , Robert Darnton , Wendy Kopp , Erika Doss , Robert Irwin , Naomi Klein , Lawrence Lessig , Amitav Ghosh , Colonel Eileen Collins , Jonathan Alter , Ronald Mallett , and Laurence Tribe CHF XX: Laughter (2009) Notable presenters: Matt Groening , John Hodgman , Bob Sabiston , Lynda Barry , Jules Feiffer , Robert Mankoff , Barbara Ehrenreich , Paul Farmer , Claire McCaskill , Robert Reich , Billy Collins , Ronald K.L. Collins , Kay Ryan , Tim Reid , Tom Dreesen , Ian Frazier , John Adams (composer) CHFXXI: The Body (2010) Notable presenters: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , Sam Shepard , Dan Savage , Sarah Jones (stage actress) , Sherwin B. Nuland , Laura Kipnis , Frank Shorter , Alpana Singh CHF XXII: tech•knowledgē (2011) Notable presenters: Stephen Sondheim , Jonathan Franzen , Jeanne Gang , William Gibson , Michael Taussig , Cathy Davidson , Yuri Lane, Claudia Rankine , Jared Diamond CHF XXIII: America (2012) Notable presenters: Camille Paglia , Mark Helprin , Charles C. Mann , John Lewis Gaddis , Yves Béhar , Austan Goolsbee , Neil MacGregor , Nate Silver , Ian Frazier , Russ Feingold , David Brooks , Elie Wiesel , Richard Ford CHF: Animal - What Makes Us Human (2013) Notable presenters: David Axelrod , Rick Bayless , Jonathan Safran Foer , Kimberly Peirce , Martina Navratilova , Sherman Alexie CHF: Journeys (2014) Notable presenters: Anne Rice , Andrew Ross Sorkin , Cheryl Strayed , eighth blackbird CHF: Citizens (2015) Notable presenters: Ta-Nehisi Coates , Elvis Costello , Lawrence Lessig , Bob Mankoff CHF: Speed (2016) Notable presenters: Gloria Steinem , Trevor Noah , Thomas Friedman CHF: Belief (2017) Notable presenters: Al Gore , Reza Aslan , Samantha Power CHF: Graphic (2018) Notable presenters: Tom Hanks , Abbi Jacobson , Hanif Abdurraqib , Ron Chernow , Jill Lepore , Tim Wu , Phoebe Robinson , Doris Kearns Goodwin CHF: Power (2019) Notable presenters: Nikki Giovanni , Julia Louis-Dreyfus , Henry Louis Gates, Jr. , David Brooks , Stacey Abrams , Raghuram Rajan CHF: Vision (2020) Notable presenters: Tori Amos , Abby McEnany , Margaret Atwood , David Axelrod , Maria Hinojosa , John Dickerson Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture , including certain fundamental questions asked by humans . During

4350-573: The human predicament. Some other possible characteristics of religion are pollutions and purification, the sacred and the profane, sacred texts, religious institutions and organizations, and sacrifice and prayer. Some of the major problems that religions confront, and attempts to answer are chaos, suffering, evil, and death. The non-founder religions are Hinduism , Shinto , and native or folk religions . Founder religions are Judaism , Christianity , Islam , Confucianism , Daoism , Mormonism , Jainism , Zoroastrianism , Buddhism , Sikhism , and

4425-520: The humanities accounted for 15% of the bachelor's degrees awarded by colleges and universities in the United States. As of 2022, they accounted for less than 9%. Researchers in the humanities have developed numerous large- and small-scale digital corporations, such as digitized collections of historical texts, along with the digital tools and methods to analyze them. Their aim is both to uncover new knowledge about corpora and to visualize research data in new and revealing ways. Much of this activity occurs in

4500-547: The humanities and closer to the formal sciences , becoming much more analytic. Analytic philosophy is marked by emphasis on the use of logic and formal methods of reasoning, conceptual analysis, and the use of symbolic and/or mathematical logic , as contrasted with the Continental style of philosophy . This method of inquiry is largely indebted to the work of philosophers such as Gottlob Frege , Bertrand Russell , G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein . Religious Studies

4575-456: The humanities are called humanities scholars or sometimes humanists . The term humanist also describes the philosophical position of humanism , which antihumanist scholars in the humanities reject. Renaissance scholars and artists are also known as humanists . Some secondary schools offer humanities classes usually consisting of literature , history , foreign language , and art . Human disciplines like history and language mainly use

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4650-485: The humanities encompass law and religion due to their shared characteristics, such as the study of language and culture. However, these definitions are not universally accepted, as law and religion are often considered professional subjects rather than humanities subjects. Professional subjects, like some social sciences, are sometimes classified as being part of both the liberal arts and professional development education, whereas humanities subjects are generally confined to

4725-433: The other performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera , ballet , mime , kabuki , classical Indian dance , Chinese opera , mummers' plays , and pantomime . Dance (from Old French dancier , perhaps from Frankish ) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social , spiritual or performance setting. Dance

4800-457: The total number of Americans with college degrees has increased significantly, resulting in a greater number of people with degrees in the humanities as well. The proportion of degrees awarded in the humanities has declined in recent decades, even as the overall number of people with humanities degrees has increased. In 1954, 36% of Harvard undergraduates majored in the humanities, but in 2012, only 20% took that course of study. As recently as 1993,

4875-422: The traditional liberal arts education . Although sociology , anthropology , archaeology , linguistics and psychology share some similarities with the humanities, these are often considered social sciences . Similarly, disciplines such as finance , business administration , political science , economics , and global studies have closer ties to the social sciences rather than the humanities. Scholars in

4950-401: The vocabulary we use; literary theory has explored the rhetorical, associative, and ordering features of language; and historical linguists have studied the development of languages across time. Literature, covering a variety of uses of language including prose forms (such as the novel ), poetry and drama , also lies at the heart of the modern humanities curriculum. College-level programs in

5025-569: The works of Jean Dubuffet or Anselm Kiefer . Modern and contemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft in favour of concept ( conceptual art ); this has led some e.g. Joseph Kosuth to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the majority of artists from continuing to practise it either as whole or part of their work. Sculpture involves creating three-dimensional forms out of various materials. These typically include malleable substances like clay and metal but may also extend to material that

5100-568: Was Uncommon Women and Others (her graduate thesis at Yale ), a play which reflected her experiences as a student at, and an alumna of, Mount Holyoke College . The play was workshopped at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in 1977, and a full version of the play was produced in 1977 Off-Broadway with Glenn Close , Jill Eikenberry , and Swoosie Kurtz playing the lead roles. The play was subsequently produced for PBS with Meryl Streep replacing Close. While at Yale, she co-wrote

5175-403: Was appointed as associate artistic director. In the fall, after four years with the festival, Lawrence Weschler became emeritus artistic director and Matti Bunzl assumed the role of artistic director. Bunzl left in 2014 for Vienna's Wien Museum. Alison Cuddy was the artistic director from 2017 to 2021. In 2022, Lauren M. Pacheco and Michael Green were hired as Co-Creative Directors. In 2009,

5250-465: Was divided into three sciences: physics, ethics, and logic.") Today, the main fields of philosophy are logic , ethics , metaphysics , and epistemology . Still, it continues to overlap with other disciplines. The field of semantics , for example, brings philosophy into contact with linguistics . Since the early twentieth century, philosophy in English-speaking universities has moved away from

5325-796: Was hospitalized with lymphoma in December 2005 and died at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on January 30, 2006, at age 55. News of her death was unexpected because her illness had not been widely publicized outside the theater community. The night after she died, Broadway 's lights were dimmed in her honor. In addition to her daughter, Wasserstein was survived by her mother and three siblings, Abner Wasserstein (who died 2011), businessman Bruce Wasserstein (who died in 2009), and Wilburton Inn owner Georgette Wasserstein Levis (who died in 2014). The Wendy Wasserstein Papers, 1954–2006, are available to researchers at

5400-618: Was in turn challenged by the postmodernist movement, which sought to redefine the humanities in more egalitarian terms suitable for a democratic society since the Greek and Roman societies in which the humanities originated were elitist and aristocratic. A distinction is usually drawn between the social sciences and the humanities. Classicist Allan Bloom writes in The Closing of the American Mind (1987): Social science and humanities have

5475-546: Was introduced in 2000. In addition, a year-round slate of education programs is devoted to supporting classroom teachers and students. The Festival also expanded its presence year-round, offering public lectures, readings, concerts, and special events that anticipate and build interest in the November Festival. In 2006, Lawrence Weschler was appointed as the first artistic director of CHF, and in 2007 Stuart Flack joined as executive director. In January 2010, Matti Bunzl

5550-547: Was named the President's Council of Cornell Women Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large in 2005. Wasserstein gave birth to a daughter, Lucy Jane, in 1999 when she was 48 years old. The baby, who was conceived via in vitro fertilization, was three months premature and is recorded in Wasserstein's collection of essays, Shiksa Goddess . Wasserstein, who was not married, never publicly identified her daughter's father. Wasserstein

5625-522: Was seen as an important aspect of a refined education in the Renaissance . In its usage in the early 15th century, the studia humanitatis was a course of studies that consisted of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history, and moral philosophy, primarily derived from the study of Latin and Greek classics. The word humanitas also gave rise to the Renaissance Italian neologism umanisti , whence "humanist", " Renaissance humanism ". Classics , in

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