After reading that thread in the pit regarding some practices of attendance/grading , one my personal questions ended up being , what do humanities students end up doing?
What is the Humanities , short primer please.
And last , from that particular thread , what are these individuals likely to be doing for employment. Is this educational track something of a foundation for something else ,as opposed to engineering or medicine which would be the primary.
Declan
Repeat after me…
“Do you want fries with that?”
I had a double major in Political Science (concentration in American Politics & Public Affairs) and Philosophy. Do I count?
I showed up for class discussions, was expected to add something to them, politicked the teachers by asking intelligent questions after class and during office hours to demonstrate that I knew the material, wrote papers and generally had to demonstrate a mastery of a wide variety of stuff in my majors.
I’m not going to tell you it’s as rigorous as engineering or takes as much innate talent as, say, visual arts - I took a class on The Matrix, for god’s sake - but there is actually a lot of internalization, synthesis and assimilation of material that goes on.
As for me, I’m in law school.
Oh lord , lol, I really did not want this to turn into something resembling the pit.
Declan
Generally speaking they will either take jobs in some service industry where any degree is of assistance but which has little if anything to do with their major, or more likely they will attend graduate school. If they pursue advanced degrees in the humanities they will, if they’re lucky, find a teaching position; otherwise they can pursue non humanity related grad degrees (law, librarianship, business, etc.) that are more employable.
I honestly don’t know if you count , that was part of the reason for the question, regarding what exactly constitutes a humanitys education
All right , you have gone through law school, passed the bar and now your a full fledged lawyer. Since law constitutes a wide variety of things that you can actually do , from politics to criminal law , what would that humanities background better prepare you for?
Declan
I graduated in the boom years but among the jobs I did:
*Worked for a political party as a campaign organizer for a congressional candidate
*Marketing for a B2B company where I did qualitative research and technical writing on a products database we were building
*Sales Analyst for an overseas outsourcing company where I would write up presentations for important meetings with clients and wrote up analyses of different industries and their outsourcing needs and created a pretty comprehensive survey and then database based on information based on interviews I had with different businesses in different industries and how they felt outsourcing fit into their business plan
I also taught for Kaplan as an LSAT and SAT instructor.
I think “some job in a service industry” is a little weak, really. There are lots of jobs for people with good writing/communications/reasoning skills… Public relations, marketing, advertising, leap to mind. In this world, 99% of professional positions require “a degree, any degree” and they require no specialized knowledge above the ability to express yourself clearly and persuasively.
Anthropology major, myself. In class (98% were small groups around 20) I was expected to have done the reading and to discuss major concepts. Most papers analyzed some particular aspect of what was being studied, I also did some original research for certain classes and my required senior project. I was also expected to be well rounded – I took 3 years of Russian, several physics classes (not cheesy-ass ones either), Calculus, for example.
After graduation I worked in Marketing for 7 years at a Fortune 500 company. (I’m currently taking a break and working on a horse farm).
Also, in term of undergraduate work, certain “humanities” degrees like psychology, anthropolgy and sociology are considered somewhat desireable for medical school applications.
Is there any other kind?
Of course: civil law.
Whether you decide to pursue law or not (and quite a few humanities graduates do), the humanities or liberal arts, if taught properly, should teach you how to use your brain, how to think crticially and analytically, how to make an argument and defend it, how to communicate your ideas orally and in written form. While the specific subject you study is not irrelevant, in many ways it’s less important than the intellectual skills and habits that you develop.
The humanities are not as linear and progressive in their educational philosophy as some of the sciences or subjects like engineering (although i don’t claim to be an expert in those areas). In some science-type classes (mathematics, or whatever), there is a progression from one level of knowledge to the next, and learning one thing often presumes certain specific prior knowledge. For example, the stuff you do in MATH201 might assume that you have the taken MATH101. This is less the case in the humanities.
That’s not to say that there are not increasing levels of difficulty. Rather, the changing levels of difficulty have less to do with specific content, than the level at which that content is studied and the type of texts that you read to study it. For example, i cold teach a course on American consumer culture in the twentieth century to a bunch of freshmen, and i could teach a course with the same title to a bunch of seniors. At a basic level, they’re both studying the same thing, but the way i teach the course to seniors would be rather different than for freshmen. The seniors might use more advanced texts, and they might have to read more and rely on their own arguments more in class. In fact, while the freshman course might be based around a series of lectures where the professor gives the students a lot of information, a senior course might be based around seminars where the students do a lot more reading and learn through extended discussion and debate.
As for what humanities grads do, well, as Sampiro said, many of us end up in grad school with the intention of becoming professors or working in the educational field more generally. Many humanities graduates are school teachers, librarians, etc. Many work in administrative fields, especially in government. Quite a few end up in the publishing industry.
Increasingly, humanities grads are even hired by financial and business firms who recognise that the skills that come with a humanities degree are valuable, and that smart people can be trained to in the specifics of the job. I have more than one friend in the humanities who has been offered jobs in financial, business, and consulting firms, such as the Boston Group. One friend, who turned down the opportunity to work at a consulting firm, says she was specifically told at the interview that they were looking for someone who had strong critical and analytical skills; they weren’t so concerned about whether she had a background in business or finance.
Admittedly, i don’t know how widespread this sort of hiring philosophy is. I have only a few anecdotal cases to rely on.
Er, yes.
There are a variety of law specialisations. Intellectual property law, for example.
I’m not sure if all non-criminal areas fall under the general category of “civil law,” but criminal law is definitely not the only kind of law to practice.
Looking at the OP, I realize the question might be a little more basic than I originally thought.
“The Humanities” is a collective terms for the arts and social sciences. Rarely, if ever, do students study a course or major called “Humanities.” Generally, they major in something like Sociology, Religion, Art, Theater, Anthropology, English/Literature, Languages (other than English), Economics, Philosophy, Government/Political Science, History, etc. Usually, aside from knowing a lot about their major, they are expected to know a little something about some of the other Humanities and Sciences, in order to be a “well rounded thinker.”
A brief description
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanities
My college had an interdisciplinary “Humanities” major. For all intents and purposes, it was my minor field of study. Most of the required classes dealt with some aspect of philosophy, literature, fine art, music, language, and/or culture, ranging from Greco-Roman to New England Transcedentalism. Every class also touched on religion, education, and history to an extent.
In short, I’ve always definited “Humanties” as the study of man – his beliefs, practices, avocations, etc.
I loved it – it spoke, and still speaks, to the idealist within me. I loved its scholarly implications and breadth. How they intertwine still amazes me to this day.
The short version as to what I did after graduating:
Got my master’s in education and taught in an urban school system for three years. I have not since returned to the field.
Played the retail and restaurant game a lot, doing anything and everything.
Attended culinary school, got my certificate, and still doing what I’ve been doing for the past 15 or so years – baking and cake decorating.
Thanks mhendo and everyone ,that was quite an interesting set of ansewers and informative.
Declan
Well there was this one thread several weeks back that had someone comment on some sort of business deal, that had to be farmed out to over twenty different lawyers (law firms) representing twenty different subsets of law.
So it does look like it has a lot of room to specialize.
Declan
They do lots of things besides selling french fries.
My college roommate achieved a B.A. in English and has done very well in advertising. Another friend has a B.A. in History - he builds houses. I have two cousins who are V.P.s at banks; one was an economics major and the other got her B.A. in Psychology. My sister’s a stock analyst with her B.A. in Creative Writing.
My good friend, Mike, owns a heavy equipment rental company and does very well. Another college roomie with a Psych B.A. is a financial adviser. My brother futzed around as an Anthro major, but never quite finished. He owns a jewelry factory in Santa Fe.
Of those with advanced degrees in the Humanities, I know several psychologists who have their own practices and generally do quite well. A friend with a masters in Anthropology works for the Forest Service evaluating American Indian artifacts, burial grounds, etc., as does his wife.
I’m actually a licensed geophysicist in Texas with my B.A. in Psychology (I did actually take the required Geology, Math and Physics. I just took my degree in Psych - the State Board granted me a waiver).
Of the people I listed above, I’d guess most had very little of an idea what they’d be doing for careers while in school. I certainly didn’t.
And there’s probably no way to describe how to duplicate my career path or that of many listed, as the sets of circumstances that make up individual lives vary too much. In my last semester before graduating I had never even thought about working in oil and gas exploration, but when the opportunity appeared I pursued it. And I saw similar things happen with friends. That period when you’re on the hunt, either just before or just after graduating, holds the potential for unexpected new directions to appear.
They study you pathetic, weak Humans, pending our invasion of Earth.
'91 ASU Interdisciplinary Humanities 3.48 Cum Laude.
You hit the real world will a dull thud then try to recover.
I had worked fast food and waited tables to support myself while in school, so with the ink still wet on the Bachelor’s I took a stab at moving up to management. I hated it.
I quit and then gradually pulled myself back up from crazy wandering homeless adventures to apprentice to a gypsy A/C tech / restaurant equipment outfit to temp jobs and substitute teaching, to a permamnent state government position which is barely adequate, but comfortable.
I seem to wind up in more and more of these ‘true confession’ threads. Always thought I might make good Jerry Springer material, too
You’d be surprised how many computer programmers have humanities degrees. I’m not sure it’s as easy to break into the field as it used to be, though.
At which Universities are English degrees considered part of Humanities? It certainly wasn’t at mine.