The Humanities and the Rise of the Terabytes

This Academy event began with Danielle Allen (Harvard University) commenting on the humanities as a historical and contemporary practice in an age of digital superabundance. After her remarks, she joined arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown (PBS NewsHour) in conversation about the practical applications for the humanities, what works and what doesn’t for asserting their value, and their role in contemporary political debates and culture wars. The conversation was also an opportunity to consider the decade that passed since the publication of "The Heart of the Matter", the report on the value of the humanities by the Academy’s Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences: what has happened to the humanities over the past ten years, and what might we do to better support the humanities in the future? The event was a Morton L. Mandel Conversation.