Humanities of the future

A series of seminars by Michał Kuziak

With increasing frequency and intensity we are beginning to sense that existing tools for understanding and describing the world are no longer enough. They do not fit the reality we experience. They don’t let us explore and shape it. It is similar with modern institutions of knowledge. At the same time, humanities seem to be even more necessary than ever, even though they are being exorcised in the world governed by neoliberal economy. After all, humanities are ruled by a different kind of economy which defies the logic of quick profit, achieved at the lowest possible cost. It develops empathy, imagination, enables the understanding of complex processes of very late modernity. Linking together what seems to be unlinkable.

The project “Why do we need humanities today?” stems from the acknowledgment of the present day as the time of the shift, where a new shape of the world emerges, which requires new language to describe and manufacture it. We want to show both traces of the new, and ask questions about the directions of the future development. Our guiding assumption is the need for humanities, political (which does not mean party politics) and performative in nature. Humanities allowing for a fundamental reconnaissance of the surrounding world as well as its shaping.

We will ask particularly about the agency aspect of various humanistic projects and how they translate into social practices. How they allow people to think about what is coming and invent what will come. How they open the emancipatory potential. We want to link these issues with the question about the university of the future. We are interested in how new humanities emerge (could emerge) and work in Poland.

The project will be executed in various ways – in the form of lectures, seminars, debates; its particular parts conducted by invited guests. Even if Polish humanities are in crisis, undoubtedly in the recent years we have witnessed the publication of many important books that enable to understand the world around us better and think about its future shape. Among other topics, we would like to discuss these books.

Registration requires submitting an e-mail address for access to seminar materials and communication.