Rethinking the Human Sciences

Panel discussion at Rethinking the Human Sciences conference, March 30, 2012, at Columbia University in the City of New York.

Chair: Aunpama Rao (History and ICLS, Columbia University)
"The Problem of Scale: Narrative Universals in the Human Sciences"

Srinivas Aravamudan (English, Duke University)
"What is 'the Human' about the Humanities today?"

Rosi Braidotti (Centre for Humanities, Utrecht University)

Respondent: Lydia Liu (East Asian Languages and Cultures and ICLS, Columbia University)

The Prisoners

Keith Windschuttle introduces Swedes to Aboriginal his-story

Between 22:00-23:00 on Monday 4th February 2008 the program 'Historiens Fångar' (History's Prisoners) (streamed online now) by Danish film maker Poul-Erik Heilbuth was shown on Swedish Television Channel 1 with a repeat planned for next Sunday 10th February 2008 at 14:25 on the same channel.

I have registered a complaint with the Swedish Broadcasting Authority about the way the program 'Historiens Fångar' was presented without any discussion or dissenting opinion to those expressed by the main figure interviewed in the film. This man is well known in his homeland, Australia as holding extreme and controversial opinions when it comes to the exact subject matter the film dealt with, indigenous peoples. While many of the opinions expressed in the program do have basis in the situation experienced by many indigenous Australians (the area I am most familiar with, although the program dealt with indigenous North Americans, Sami and Inuit peoples) they were presented to viewers without any counter arguments or alternate opinion.

The most notable voice in the program was from Keith Windschuttle, a controversial figure to say the least in the debate around the history of white colonization in Australia and the Aboriginal people. Windschuttle is widely recognized as being a revisionist historian with a political agenda that is inevitably fulfilled by his research. To quote the respected Australian journalist and critic Gerard Henderson:

The problem with Windschuttle's work is that, at times, you get the impression that he is a former Marxist - turned political conservative - who is waging a personal war on the very left-wing interpretation of Australian history that he once both embraced and proclaimed. His revisionism is essential reading for anyone who wants to join the debate on Australian history. Yet, because his history contains a substantial degree of personal polemic, it sometimes lacks empathy.
The Trouble with Windschuttle, The Age Dec 7 2004.

Due to the one-sided nature of Mr. Windschuttle's account of Black-White relations in Australia and the way this was presented as a general reference point in the program for indigenes of the USA, Greenland and even Scandinavia, there should have been some counter balance provided in the documentary 'Historiens Fångar'. There was not. I suggest that the Australian current affairs program Four Corner's edition The Cape Experiment is one example that could lend an element of balance to some of the more ideologically motivated claims made by Windschuttle in 'Historians Fånger'. Windschuttle's books are self-published through his Macleay Press. By a even a quick review of the total published titles from MacLeay one can easily detect the ideologically narrow approach taken by the company:

The Invention of Terra Nullius: Historical and Legal Fictions on the Foundation of Australia by Michael Connor

The White Australia Policy: Race and shame in the Australian history wars by Keith Windschuttle

Washout: The academic response to the fabrication of Aboriginal history by John Dawson

The Killing of History: How a discipline is being murdered by literary critics and social theorists by Keith Windschuttle

Corrupting the Youth: A history of philosophy in Australia by James Franklin

The Multicultural Experiment edited by Leonie Kramer

HUMlab Seminar: Actually Bridge the “Two Cultures” in Techno-Science

I have just returned from Professor David Hakken's seminar in HUMLab, Transdisciplinarity in Cyberspace Ethnography, or Can We Leave Off Mere Toleration and Actually Bridge the “Two Cultures” in Techno-Science? (nice short title). I really enjoyed Prof. Hakken's summary of a line of technological thought and action beginning with the writings of Norbert Weiner (who I have read about but never actually read, but I think I will). Being a literary/language person (if we are going to talk disciplines here) and from my recent stumbling in the field something clicked from the seminar.

In the last few days I have been enjoying From Modernism to Postmodernism American Poetry and Theory in the Twentieth Century by Jennifer Ashton. The life and work of Gertrude Stein is a major topic in Ashton's text (a fascinating one I think). Within this Ashton devotes pages to the connections between the work of William James and Stein's system of images and tropes. Taken up in Ashton's critique of Stein's The Making of Americans (1925) are mind, self, repetition, remembering, and plasticity ("plasticity means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once. Each relatively stable phase of equilibrium in such a structure is marked by what we may call a new set of habits" William James Pychology a brief Course 1892:126). This conneted for me in Hakken's discussion on the transdisciplinary possibilities in relation to IT (writing, language, novels are all forms of IT, as are computers and so on). According to Ashton, Stein was attempting to describe "everything" to come to a point of knowledge (that which is knowledge) where one does not need to describe the thing any more. Having no need of description (representation) is to have knowledge.

The streamed video of David Hakken's seminar should be online soon. I am going to Helen Petterson's thesis defence tomorrow where he is to be the opponent (congratulations Helena!!! UCLA awaits). It should be interesting.

Humanist Offensive

Today I had no time to blog or read or write. Today was spent listening to the dean for my faculty outline the plan to bring the budget back into balance. It involves a 30% reduction in costs...not a fun subject. The whole faculty was supposed to be there (300 approx) but maybe 2/3 turned up. We saw the plan as it is at the moment. The admin is going to be cut, teaching is going to share the admin and research is going to be encouraged. From my perspective as a PhD it will be relatively painless (but somewhat chaotic as it will be implemented in one term: next term) but the chances of employment once I finish my thesis look very patchy.
So...it was nice to meet new people as we did group feedback and I was put into a group with people I had seen around a lot but had not spoken to so much. I can't help but think of the (marginal??) place the humanities take in contemporary society, how important critical thinking, langauge, history, literature and the economy of ideas are and how little they receive. Our suggestions were passed on to the higher orders. Not sure if they will ever see the light of day again. Rationalization makes me sad......
As a consolation: I told some of my group about the Best Online Documentaries, dozens (so far) of films online for free. My pick so far in the doco on Arundhati Roy.