The 21st Century Call of Humanities in Asia and the Pacific - Educating the Human Heart

A tentative vision sketched of an invigorated role for the "humanities" on university campuses in our troubled 21st century world. What more are the "humanities" that what we have treated them to be? What more is the role of the "humanities scholar" than what we have conceptualized it to be? What more is the role of the "humanities educator" that what we have said it to be? Have all potentially useful framings been exhausted? How much respect for the human body, human emotions, the human spirit, and for our human inter-connectedness with nature and all living systems permeates our humanities scholarship and teaching? To what extent do our humanities programs in the Asia and Pacific region foreground Western topics, methods, and content, and subordinate indigenous perspectives and approaches? Do we in the Asia and Pacific region perhaps have special contribution to make in these areas?