STEAMed Up: Or, A Defense of the Humanities through African Art History

"More welders and less philosophers." Thus spake former presidential candidate Marco Rubio in a 2015 Republican debate,describing his approach to improving the economy and reforming higher education. His strategy: increased investment in vocational training and (implicitly) decreased support for liberal arts education, epitomized by the study of philosophy. Many other US politicians and policymakers share his approach, each holding up a different liberal arts field to make their point. There's anthropology: Florida governor Rick Scott declared in 2011 that the state "doesn't need a lot more anthropologists," as he advocated for science, technology, math, and engineering degrees. More programmers, fewer anthropologists. Languages and literature, too ,have been the exemplars of financially fruitless majors; Kentucky governor Matt Bevin described his approach to reform: "There will be more incentives to electrical engineers than French literature majors. There just will." More engineers, fewer comp lit professors. And we can reach over to the other side of the aisle and right into our disciplinary home for another example of the political discourse on liberal arts. In 2014, President Obama used art history as his example in an off-the-cuff remark about earnings potential: "Folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." More technicians, fewer art historians. Fortunately, he wasn't advocating for differential tuition or decreased funding for the humanities, but the president's comment struck a nerve. We're on the defensive. And, as I'll describe, while my vantage point is the United States, this pressure on the humanities is not limited to the US.