“The humanities may seem pointless, but that is the point”

“…The humanities should be studied for their own sake. One reads The Great Gatsby in order to enjoy the novel, to live within its imaginary world and to learn about our own world through its refracted image of the same. There is a sense in which the humanities are useless because they are not practical, at least not in a way that can be measured with statistics. They build up the human soul only indirectly and over the period of a lifetime (as any teacher who receives appreciative emails from students several years after their graduation could attest). This building up of the soul is often part of a spiritual birth or a political awakening…”

Santiago Ramos explores the notion of ‘utilitarian value’ and its precedence over the humanities and the need to refute this position.  Read more here

Published: November 04, 2019,  America: The Jesuit Review

5 Shakespeare Scholars on the Past, Present, and Future of Theater Amid COVID-19

A discussion between Emma Smith, James Shapiro, Jeffrey Wilson and Vanessa Corredera.  Moderated by Scott Newstok.

“It’s strange to think that on the day we began contemplating a roundtable to mark William Shakespeare’s 456th birthday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo created a containment zone in the city of New Rochelle, formerly the epicenter of the state’s coronavirus outbreak. We were on the eve of the pandemic declaration and approaching the day Broadway would go dark for the first time since 9/11. It became apparent that just as the death toll would rise, so too would there be consequences for the social and cultural fabrics that bind us to one another.

Briefly, the prospect of a conversation centered on the Bard seemed, at best, like a convenient escape. But the following discussion, between five scholars who have devoted their careers situating Shakespeare alongside issues of performance, education, identity, partisanship and more, feels uniquely primed to our moment. It is an essential guide to the possible futures of our collective engagement with theater…”

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First published on Literary Hub, April 23, 2020