Remapping the Humanities

Book excerpt: An innovative collection demonstrating the rich potential for interdisciplinary learning found within the network of university-based humanities centers. Remapping the Humanities celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Wayne State University Humanities Center by bringing together essays that illustrate the richness of public conversations developed in interdisciplinary humanities centers. The contributors to this collection represent more than a dozen disciplines--including philosophy, English, political science, history, law, comparative literature, and Spanish--and, taken together, their essays illustrate an ongoing remapping of the intellectual landscape as scholars from across university departments engage one another in unpredictable ways. This volume is divided into four thematic sections: Identity and Community, Remembering and Forgetting, Nationalism and Globalism, and Toward (Post)Modernity. Yet the essays deliberately represent a range of theoretical perspectives that interact synergistically, such as feminism and postcolonial studies, or literary criticism and art history. They also tackle topics as varied as the formation of the modern family in France and the inculcation of civic virtue in American cities, and they draw freely from different sources of evidence like newspaper accounts, popular literature, paintings, and diaries. Remapping the Humanities includes unique touches such as a portfolio of full-color images and an audio CD of Celtic-inspired jazz. In addition, a preface by Walter Edwards, academic director of the Humanities Center at Wayne State University, gives some background on this institution and the work being done there. The importance of Remapping the Humanities ultimately lies in its refusal to say that learning has ended and the example it provides of the value of calculated ferment and intellectual instability. Educators involved with or wanting to learn more about interdisciplinary research will appreciate this unique collection.