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The Power of the Humanities: Why They Matter
VHC Fall Conference
November 11-12, 2011
Stoweflake Mountain Resort and Spa, Stowe, Vermont
The humanities "reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of a world in which irrationality, despair, loneliness, and death are as conspicuous as birth, friendship, hope, and reason."
According to the 1980 Rockefeller Commission, the humanities are how we come to terms with those poles of the human experience, and how we reconcile our better angels with our fears and failures. And yet increasingly the humanities are under attack, in part because of the difficulty in measuring their utility in quantifiable -- even economic -- terms.
At a time in which the value of the humanities is not broadly understood, and even called into question, we invite you to join us in exploring and experiencing the power of literature, history, an understanding of the arts, the study of religion, and the other humanities disciplines. In the process, we'll seek to come to a keener understanding of how and why the humanities matter -- to both individuals and society.
Featuring
- James Cuno, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust on the role of art museums in preserving and transmitting culture.
- Richard Kogan, MD with a one-of-a-kind lecture-performance linking stories of Beethoven's life with exquisitely performed excerpts from Beethoven's work. (Tickets to this event are available to those not attending the conference as a whole.)
- Dr. John Stauffer, chair of the Program in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University, on the American Civil War and American racial history.
- Diana Eck, professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, on the significance and the challenges of understanding religious beliefs and practices across cultures.
- Breakout sessions on a variety of topics:
- Civic Reflection through Reading and Discussion
- How Primary Sources Reveal Why History Matters
- Religious Pluralism in America
- The Power of Literature to Help and to Heal
- The Promise and Challenges of Art Museums in the Contemporary World
- The Public Humanities in America:
A Movement and Its Meanings
- Welfare Brat: Literature Changing Lives
- Why Do the Humanities Matter to You?
Learn more and register online today!
