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