Last Saturday evening I attended our Humanities Welcome Party for new faculty members. It was held downtown near Hakata Station in the Centraza Hotel. Our faculty has about 130 members, but I bet only about half attended the party. We were welcoming NINE new teachers, three in the English Department. We were also saying farewell (two months prematurely) to two teachers who will be going away on sabbaticals, one of whom is our own department's dynamic force Catherine Matsuo, who'll be studying Bakhtine in her home country Northern Ireland for a year, from late August.
It was a good party, with a full course French meal with Japanese accents, etc., and some good people to talk with (like my English Department super colleague Mariko Hiwatashi, who was also the emcee for the whole party and one of the organizers and kept the eleven speeches moving briskly along at about 90 seconds per person). . . But it made me realize how few of my Humanities Faculty colleagues I know. Even though at our table of about seven people I knew everyone, at other tables there were many I didn't know, and each year as old colleagues retire and new ones start, the number I know decreases. . . Take last night's event: although of course I know the names and have spoken with all three of our new English Dept. teachers, I can't remember the names and faces of the other eight new teachers from other departments. . . Our Humanities Faculty is too big. And yet, as Catherine said in her inspiring mini-speech packing a big punch, "We must really fight for the humanities, because they are more important than ever today." Cause in this brave new world of fake news and rampant scientific and technological change, being able to think critically and to feel empathically and to communicate accurately, honestly, and effectively are more vital than ever! I suppose I kind of do that in my classes (especially the Introduction to American Culture and Literature and American Culture and Seminar classes), simply by trying to get students to enjoy and learn from what we do together, but . . . I bet I could fight for the humanities a bit more overtly if I tried.
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
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December 2023
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