Plenary Session Six

Has Something Gone Wrong with the Humanities?

University students used to study humanities subjects such as literature, philosophy and history, to learn about the greatest books, the best ideas and the most important social, political and scientific achievements.

Due to the rise and spread of postmodernism and critical theory in humanities disciplines, contemporary students are more likely to receive an education heavy on tales of oppression based on class, race, and gender, and light on the appreciation of what would once have been called the cultural glories of Western and other civilisations.

Grand narratives of civilisational progress may have been rightly disrupted – and enriched – by including the stories of those who used to be excluded from such narratives.

To what extent has a degree in the humanities been diminished by the reduction of the study of all aspects of culture and society to the simplistic insights of identity politics?

Lionel Shriver

Internationally acclaimed novelist and journalist, (US)

Claire Fox

Director and Founder, Academy of Ideas, London (UK), Brexit Party MEP

Professor Michael Ondaatje

Pro Vice-Chancellor Arts and Academic Culture, and Professor of History, Australian Catholic University

Associate Professor Salvatore Babones

Sociologist, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney. Author of The New Authoritarianism

Director and Founder of the Centre for Independent Studies

Professor of Public Policy and Director, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University

 

Sociologist, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney.
Author of The New Authoritarianism

Director, Free Market Foundation, (Hungary)

Health Director, Health and BioSecurity, CSIRO

Director and Founder, Academy of Ideas, London, (UK)

Founder and CEO, Cognoscenti Group

Executive Director, The New Zealand Initiative (NZ)

Australian writer and columnist for the News Limited Press

Research Director, CIS

Programme Co-ordinator of the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Western Australia

Chinese Canadian human rights advocate

Senior Research Fellow, Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society Program, CIS

CEO and Founding Director, China Matters

Former Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives and Cabinet Minister

Pro Vice-Chancellor Arts and Academic Culture, and Professor of History, Australian Catholic University

Cancer researcher and clinical oncologist, with Genesis Care Newcastle

Founder and President, Middle East Forum, publisher Middle East Quarterly Journal, (US)

Professor of Economics, University of Melbourne

Senior Research Fellow and Director, Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society Program, CIS

Internationally acclaimed novelist and journalist, (US)

Head of Economic Research, Reserve Bank of Australia

Executive Director, CIS

Professor of Economics at Stanford University; Senior Fellow in Economics at the Hoover Institution and Chair of the Working Group on Economic Policy, (US)

UQ-CSIRO Chair in Personalised Nanodiagnostics, Professorial Research Fellow, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland

Diplomat, American Board of Pathology

Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure

Liberal Party Member for Berowra

Australia’s Ambassador to China from 2007 to 2011, Chairman & CEO of Geoff Raby and Associates Ltd based in Beijing

Director of China and Free Societies program, CIS

Senior Research Scholar, Marron Institute of Urban Management, New York University, (US)