A debate and reception is being held this evening in London to mark the publication of the AHRC-commissioned book ‘The Public Value of the Humanities’ edited by Professor Jonathan Bate.
‘The Public Value of the Humanities’ is a collection of essays and includes contributions from Mary Beard, Onora O’Neill, Mike Parker Pearson, Christopher Breward and many others. The book argues that the humanities play a vital role in our cultural, social and economic life, and details the contributions made by specific disciplines within the humanities. The crucial contribution of essays combines to form a compelling argument that is changing the landscape of learning.
Publication of the book is particularly timely during a period of cuts in public expenditure and intense debate about the future of higher education.
Speakers at this evening’s event include Minister of State for Universities and Science David Willetts; Lord Robert Winston; Jonathan Bate; David Docherty, Chief Executive of the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE); Sir Alan Wilson, chairman of the AHRC, chairing the debate.
Full highlights of the event and comments from the speakers will be issued tomorrow in a further AHRC press release.
Ends
Notes to the editor
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £112 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
The Editor: Jonathan Bate is well known as a biographer, critic, broadcaster and Shakespeare scholar. He is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick, a Fellow of the British Academy and a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2011 he will become Provost of Worcester College, Oxford. His books include English Literature: A Very Short Introduction (2010) and Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare (2009), which was runner-up for the 2010 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for the best biography of the year and was dramatized as The Man from Stratford, a one-man play for Simon Callow.
The Contributors: Jonathan Bate, Mary Beard, Iain Borden, Christopher Breward, Ben Cowell, Stephen Daniels, Nicholas Davey, Chris Gosden, Robert Hampson, Deborah Howard, Richard Howells, Matthew H. Johnson, Michael Kelly, Catherine Leyshon, Rónán McDonald, April McMahon, Francis O’Gorman, Katie Overy, Mike Parker Pearson, Mike Press, Simon Szreter, Vanessa Toulmin, Gary Watt, John Wolffe, Jürgen Zimmerer.
The Public Value of the Humanities | 9781849660624 | £20.00 | Paperback
Published by Bloomsbury Academic on 27th January 2011