Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social)

Director, @AmericanAcad's humanities, arts, and culture programs; Humanities Indicators ( and D.C. office. Quotes and RTs ≠ opinions.

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

New: "if you care about your students and the future of the #humanities... You need to engage with AI, understand both its appeal and its limitations, and integrate that awareness into your teaching." https://t.co/S8T0p9GE0D

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"Case Western Reserve’s distinctive approach to the humanities—one that combines academic rigor, hands-on opportunities and an intensely interdisciplinary ethos—enriches the student experience and contributes to the greater good." https://t.co/pG40HHHeUe

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"the decline in History education... is emblematic of the broader challenges we face. We are increasingly illiterate, increasingly fixated on “costs” as opposed to “value,” and increasingly privileging our proverbial left-brain at the expense of our right" https://t.co/FgAwSKUYQx

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"in a world dominated by artificial intelligence and technological advancements, it is more important than ever to safeguard the uniquely human qualities which define the humanities." https://t.co/zD12Xh04ZR

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

Much like the Vanderbilt report, they are surprised to discover the humanities are only partially as bad as their caricature of it, and much like the Vanderbilt report, they might have produced an interesting report if they didn't start by shadow boxing with that caricature.

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

Since I have now heard from a few of you, I feel obliged to note that this report was not done by my team or the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: https://t.co/to47oapKud

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

Slides for a talk given at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media about how I am experimenting with AI at work and for a history research project: The good and the bad, and why it makes me more optimistic about the future of the humanities. https://t.co/7JoeuWfzEM

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"An obvious reason for valuing literature classes as a pre-med student is the opportunity to gain empathy for patients through reading their raw, emotional perspectives in novels or poetry...helps ground their science knowledge in a place of humanity." https://t.co/Uy1RKljuT4

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"the question of what it means to be human and to possess human intelligence has become more urgent than ever. That is why the humanities have never been more essential and why they need to form a central part of the education of every student." https://t.co/4VR5JoLcrT

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"The University of Oregon is considering phasing out ... some or all of the master’s and doctoral programs offered in History, Romance Languages, Folklore, Comparative Literature, Classics, and German and Scandinavian" https://t.co/TMOj0xUp35

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"The job market for humanities scholars may be bleaker than ever—except for the handful of academics who specialize in the philosophy of artificial intelligence." https://t.co/SuG8ktBAq3

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

“We should value and uphold the humanities more than we do already...Not in a way that discounts STEM and science, but in a way that makes them equal.” https://t.co/cH7DZ1r8kS

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"Stanford students in particular, he said, are wary of the absence of a clear career “escalator” in the humanities — a predictable, linear pathway to employment." https://t.co/ZXYi2IMKwE

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"Its possible that in another 10 years time, the #humanities will have proven resurgent — remaining the domain of humans rather than computers." https://t.co/KVaghraCFp

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"Many of us in the professional schools simply could not do our work without this foundational scaffolding from the humanities." https://t.co/lNEbNi7oES

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

"Things will go wrong, so we need problem-solving; people will live together, so we need collaboration; people will disagree, so we need empathy and conflict resolution; and we need resilience. The humanities prepare us for all of these." https://t.co/lcjLGhwaHQ

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

“I think #humanities have a better story to tell than most other fields in response to what AI is doing... We [humanities majors and graduates] fill in a major gap, a weakness of AI.” https://t.co/41HYDQ0gTF

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

Slides for my talk at St. John's University on the value of humanities skills in the workforce are now available at https://t.co/Nd5yUAC896 (LinkedIn). Happy to share if you would like the original slide deck.

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

“The ability to formulate an argument, the ability to evaluate an argument, the ability to read a bit of text and extract an argument from that text; I think these are really skills that … are going to come in handy” https://t.co/pLbVRfabe9

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

“AI has not rescued the humanities. What it has done is reveal, with unusual clarity, what happens when societies allow the institutions that cultivate judgement to erode.” https://t.co/TrU3yhTmEI

[Rob Townsend (also @rbtownsend.bsky.social) @rbthisted]

New: Focus groups and interviews with young people (https://t.co/x1tzyGqiRf) and the secondary teachers and counselors (https://t.co/zb1VPXmBr0) who work with them provide important insights into how the #humanities fit into students' educational journeys and development.