Marking the first fully graduate student-run initiative of the Penn Humanities Forum, the Graduate Humanities Forum held a symposium on "Thinking with Style" late last month.
Organized by a committee of graduate students in various Penn humanities departments, the event lasted almost the entire day. The 25-member audience and panel gave attention to the future of interdisciplinary studies and the importance of humanities to the public.
"Humanists are loners," said Eugene Narmour, acting director of the forum. He noted that this type of wrong attitude has long alienated academics within the field of humanities.
Throughout the April 21 event, 12 graduate students spoke on subjects within their perspective fields, from Art History to Asian and Middle Eastern studies, with topics of interest ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater architectural masterpiece to evolutionary theory.
The talks served to show the overlap between different departments and the need for cooperation and open discussion among the humanities.
Philosophy Professor Gary Hatfield said that study both within his department and across the humanities was "by nature interdisciplinary," but has "grown inward looking over the years," noting that fields have stopped communicating among each other.
Other members of the panel agreed there is a need for change in humanities departments, between departments and in relations with community outside academia.
Sixth-year Art History graduate student James Hargrove said that Penn has been "one of the exceptions," in that there have always been interdisciplinary pursuits.
However, Narmour stressed that there needs to be "ongoing dialogue" across departments -- especially at Penn, "a place known for it."
University President Emeritus Sheldon Hackney, currently a Penn history professor, added that "the blurring of lines between fields" makes Penn "a very exciting place to be." He encouraged the graduate students to apply their studies in a way that would benefit the community.
As former director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Hackney said that if students communicate the validity of their studies -- which are often viewed as elitist and esoteric -- to the community, grant-making foundations will be in a better position to give them funding.
