As a scholar of the Roman Empire, I’m often asked what the point is in studying a long-dead society so remote from our own. This question often comes from parents whose child has expressed an interest in studying Rome, or philosophy, or some other humanities field: “What will she do with that?” they ask. I understand and appreciate their concern, but, as a humanist myself, and an advisor of several generations of humanists now in the workplace, I have abundant evidence of the importance and usefulness of study in the humanities. Not just for its own sake, but because the humanities are an incredible complement to any field.
I greatly admire the applied sciences and engineering, for example, for their excellence at creating and improving systems, at responding to problems. Training in the humanities complements such fields, offering exposure to the kind of intellectual risk-taking that begins with the question “What if?” which is good for considering novel ideas. Those in more technical fields may work on a device shaped like a box, but a humanist asks WHY is it shaped like a box? Does it have to be shaped like a box? Should it be shaped like a box? Such scrutiny goes beyond solution, it asks whether the right problem is being addressed, or if the problem being considered exists to begin with.
Right now, the humanities are an even more pressing necessity because they enable us to look with empathy at other ways of thinking and doing, to take that leap of logic that helps us understand how people so different from us can get from point A to point B. We are better equipped to apply the humanities to our lives and work because they provide a set of alternate possibilities that can stop us from being too fixed on one path or falling prey to polarization.
But more than that, studying the humanities gives us insight into and understanding of the human condition, its possibilities and limitations, and the big questions of civics and ethics with which we grapple every day.
—Emma Dench, Dean of Harvard Griffin GSAS
