Part 1: We’ve been working towards a definition of the Humanities. For your second journal entry, think about how you’d explain their significance/why the humanities matter: what do you feel you gain personally by studying and working within the humanities? What do you think you gain professionally? What do you think of claim(s) for the broader social value of the humanities? Use Helen Small’s introduction to The Value of the Humanities as a starting point for your response.
Helen Small gives the reader many claims about the true value of the humanities. Her best claim is the first, an explanation about how the humanities “study the meaning-making practices of the culture, focusing on interpretation and evaluation with an indispensable element of subjectivity” (pp 4). The understanding between humans, through time and cultures, has always been what I think makes the humanities special. By learning and working within the humanities, the understanding, finding out about these people and their cultures, worldviews, ideas;
I know the stories we tell and the way people express their own experiences. Personally, I find great joy in stories, many of which would not be around without the humanities. Professionally, I am better able to write in a way many can understand and enjoy. It helps me to have a greater appreciation for my peers and their abilities, the differences between us. The way that I feel the humanities are valuable and useful to today’s society is extremely subjective, but no less important.
Part 2: This may feel somewhat disconnected, but One of our course goals is precisely to create bridges from your academic study to your professional work. Write a brief description of the kind of work you enjoy doing and/or think you’re well equipped to do. In general, you want to think about the nature of the work, its specific responsibilities, the environment you’d work in, who you’d work with, and your qualifications and temperament/disposition.
I have a few ideas for what I want to do/would be interested in and qualified for in the future. First is an author, as I want to write fiction stories that people can enjoy and characters they can relate to. As I imagine it, writing like that would involve planning and writing, skills I’ve been studying and practicing, and spending time alone, albeit with certain deadlines. At the moment, there is little evidence that I am capable of writing and can do reliably, only a few short stories from various creative writing classes. Although, this semester I’m writing a novella, so that aspect should change soon. [E-board member for the creative writing club where we do workshops and discussion about different aspects of writing.]
My second idea would be to work in an archive of some sort. I gained experience through my internship with the Maine Women Writers Collection, and discovered how much I loved to learn and organize someone or something’s history. I’m not sure exactly what I would do, and am in the process of learning how the different parts of an archive work. Maybe I would work with documents or physical objects donated to the archive. Maybe I would be setting up displays or primarily helping researchers find the information they’re studying. Ideally, I would be working with transcriptions again. Either way, I do know I would be working in a relaxed, quiet environment by myself or with very few other people. I’ve taken over six history classes in college and plan to get a minor in history, which, combined with my internship, would hopefully show that I’m qualified to dive into that branch of the humanities.
A third idea is becoming a librarian, as I’ve been working at Ketchum Library for a few months and have been enjoying it immensely. I like helping people and organizing books and cataloging data; it isn’t so far away from the archivist idea. Working in a library would include sharing information with others, providing a safe and comfortable place to learn, and promote education and readability to the community. My undergraduate experience and my internship would show that I can reliably search for and find information, have an appreciation for history and stories, and love to learn. There’s only the social aspect that I’m not so sure about. My energy is easily drained around a lot of people. I have been thinking about getting a masters in library sciences to acquire the experience and qualifications I would need to pursue this as a career.
