Ron Srigley’s jeremiad (Bulletin, December 2012) obscures the fact that the humanities are very much alive and flourishing in Canadian uni­versities. They certainly face challenges, as they should — complacency would threaten otherwise. But departments of English, history, philosophy, religious studies, classical studies and others, continue to enrol and engage large numbers of students and pursue important and interesting research.

Humanities are conceived much more broadly now than Cicero’s artes quae ad humanitatem pertinent, which may lead some to lose sight of their presence also in less obvious corners of campus, and even the traditional disciplines themselves are conceiving humanitas in new and exciting ways.

Turn back the clock 50 years? No thanks.

David Mirhady
Chair, Humanities
Simon Fraser University

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