Be Worldwise—A Guide to Exploring the Arts and Humanities in the 21st Century by umd_arhu

CREATIVITY

QUESTIONING

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HISTORY

JDIVERSITY GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING

A GUIDE TO EXPLORING THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

ETHICAL

ACTION www.beworldwise.umd.edu

GLOBAL JOY UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL

ACTION

virtual & “real,” and reimagine your own as you deepen your knowledge of

HISTORY

test

OF LIFE

DEFINE

expand your

compassion for others

DISCOVER THE RICHNESS OF

HUMAN

DIVERSITY

the values and assumptions

your own life

and

OF READING, W R I T I N G, T H I N K I N G, DISCUSSING

&, always, QUESTIONING

MEANING

DEVELOP

enter new worlds,

EXPERIENCE THE

EXPLORE THE

CREATIVITY

OPEN UP YOUR

SO TAKE THE CHALLENGE

your own community

and, by doing all of this, develop

self-knowledge

College of Arts & Humanities

MISSION STATEMENT

to create global citizens equipped to assess received

opinion, make independent judgments, and value the transforming power of the imagination.

“

You’re going to live 60 to 70 years after graduating from college. Training is preparation for the known; education is preparation for the unknown. The only thing we know about the future is that we don't know much.”—MAYNARD MACK, UMD Professor of English Welcome to the University of Maryland and

the College of Arts & Humanities, at whose center is a belief in the value of a liberal arts education. At UMD, the liberal arts—literature and the arts, languages, philosophy, history, interdisciplinary studies, mathematics, science and the social sciences—are spread among several colleges, including ARHU An education in the arts and humanities was never more important than it is in today’s rapidly shrinking, profoundly challenging world. As Professor Mack argues so powerfully above, students need to develop knowledge and habits of mind that become resources from which to draw over a lifetime. Studying the arts and humanities will open your eyes, your ears, your mind and your heart to new perspectives on the world’s wondrous variety. It will help you learn how to live a rich, generous and meaningful life as a citizen of your local community and of a larger, global society. Our goal for you is to BE WORLDWISE . As you journey through the next few years of your college career, refer to this guide to help you explore the values central to the arts and humanities. On each page, you’ll find one value surrounded by provocative descriptors, questions,

quotations and a “Try This” section. Ponder the questions. Challenge the quotations. Discover all the opportunities this campus and region have to offer. Stimulate YOUR thinking about who you want to be and how studying the arts and humanities will feed your spirit and shape the rest of your life. So take the challenge: Open up your creativity; explore the meaning of life; experience the joy of reading, writing, thinking, discussing and, always, questioning; enter new worlds, virtual and “real,” and reimagine your own as you deepen your knowledge of history; develop global understanding and discover the richness of human diversity; expand your compassion for others; define ethical action; test the values and assumptions of your own life and your own community and, by doing all of this, develop self-knowledge. This book is intended to be a living document, changing in response to the ideas of those who read it. I invite you to share your thoughts with me by visiting www.beworldwise.umd.edu. I look forward to hearing from you. Bonnie Thornton Dill Dean, College of Arts and Humanities

What are the arts and the humanities? At Maryland, the humanities and the arts are deeply engaged with each other. Not only do many humanities disciplines take the arts as their object of study, and the arts draw on the humanities, but some faculty and students are experts in both, creating new works of art and studying and writing about the arts.

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” Hamlet —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

1564–1616)

(English playwright and poet,

“Not to follow in the footsteps of the masters, but to seek what they sought.”—MATSUO BASHO (Japanese poet, 1644–1694)

The Humanities

The Arts

“The humanities take human experience and its expression in texts and artifacts as a field of reflection, investigation and creation in a search for new ways of seeing, connecting and making meaning,” explains David Sicilia, associate professor of history.

The arts you can practice at the University of Maryland include: creative writing; the visual arts such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, design and digital art; and the performing arts such as dance, music and theatre.

At the University of Maryland, the humanities include: English and foreign languages, literatures and cultures; philosophy; history; and the history, criticism and theory of the visual and performing arts. The humanities often overlap with the concerns and methods of the social sciences (for example, sociology) as they do in the interdisciplinary fields of American studies, women’s studies and communication. Sometimes they interact with the sciences and technology, as in our Department of Linguistics or the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. “As the humanities are concerned with meaning,” says Professor Kent Cartwright, chair of English, “they are the fundamental disciplines for creating and understanding human value.”

“The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it,” says First Lady Michelle Obama. “Rather, paintings and poetry, music ... design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.”

The Future At the beginning of the 21st century, we stand at a moment of amazing transformation as the digital revolution overturns accustomed ways of acting and interacting in all aspects of our lives. In digital media, the arts and humanities are finding new outlets and, most importantly, new forms of expression, which in turn are changing what the arts and humanities are. In classes and at centers of research and creativity like the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, you will participate in experiments in new media and in lively debate about their implications for society and, even, what it means to be human.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently—they're not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”—STEVE JOBS (American entrepreneur, Apple co-founder, b. 1955)

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What is creativity? Does it work in similar ways across the range of human pursuits?

2. 3.

How do we as a culture foster the conditions for creativity?

Do I think outside the box? Am I willing to try something new, and fail at it?

TRY THIS

What fires my imagination? What inspires me?

Audition for a production at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center • Reimagine your world by creating an avatar in Second Life (www.secondlife.com) • Attend a concert at Strathmore (www. strathmore.org) • Submit your poetry, fiction or artwork to Stylus (www.styluslit.org)

IMAGINATION  INNOVATION RISK  TRANSFORMATION

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(Spanish poet, UMD

professor 1948–51, 1956 Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, 1881–1958)

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself.” —ALAN ALDA

(American actor, b. 1936)

“I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones.”—JOHN CAGE (American avant-garde

“Art ain't about paint. It ain’t about canvas. It’s about ideas. Too many people died without ever getting their mind out to the world.”

composer, 1912–1992)

—THORNTON DIAL SR.

“The speed with which people can rid themselves of their imagination is as awesome as the speed of not having it. It’s amazing how much time we waste putting it away, when we could be having it.”—LIZ LERMAN (UMD alumna, dance; choreographer, founder of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, MacArthur “Genius” Award winner)

(American folk artist, b. 1928)

“If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.”—ANONYMOUS “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”—ARISTOTLE (Greek philosopher, scientist and physician, 384–322 B.C.)

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“Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, ‘I am alive, and my life has meaning.’”—KARL PAULNACK (Pianist, conductor,

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“I continue to work with the materials I have, the materials I am made of. With feelings, beings, books, events, and battles, I am omnivorous. I would like to swallow the whole earth. I would like to drink the whole sea.”—PABLO NERUDA (Chilean poet, diplomat and politician, 1904–1973)

“Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”—ANGELA MONET (unknown) “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”—RALPH WALDO EMERSON (American poet, lecturer and essayist, 1803–1882)

“

WONDER CURIOSITY PLAY HOPE

“Wisdom begins in wonder.”—SOCRATES (Greek philosopher, 470–399 BC)

“The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”—JULIA MARGARET CAMERON (British photographer, 1815–1879)

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. To him he is always doing both.”—BUDDHA (Indian Prince Gautama

ONE Where do I find joy? What makes me laugh?

Siddharta, founder of Buddhism, 563–483 B.C.)

“I like nonsense—it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”—THEODOR GEISEL (“Dr. Seuss,” American writer

How do I feed my curiosity?

THREE

and cartoonist, 1904–1991)

“The soul should always stand ajar.” —EMILY DICKINSON

TWO

(American poet, 1830-1886)

“[Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand."—MARK TWAIN (American writer, humorist, and lecturer, 1835–1910)

What gives me hope?

“The thing I hate about an that it always interrupts a —G.K. CHESTERTON

(English w

“There is a crack in everyt light gets in.”—LEONARD CO

songwriter, poet and novelist, b

“Be patient toward all that your heart and try to love themselves… Live the que you will then, gradually, w live along some distant d Letters to a Young Poet—RAIN

TRY THIS

German poet, 1875–1926)

Catch a performance of Sketchup or Erasable Inc. on the steps of McKeldin Library • Volunteer with a UMD community service-learning program (www.csl.umd.edu) • Participate in the National Cherry Blossom Festival (www. nationalcherryblossomfestival.org) • Stretch out in the sun on the UMD Mall and read for fun

[ 1. [ 2. [ 3.

n argument is a discussion.”

Do I question received opinion?

Am I always open to discussion?

How do I live with uncertainty and ambiguity?

“

writer and poet, 1874–1936)

] ] ]

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”—MARCEL PROUST (French novelist and author,

OHEN

(Canadian folk singer,

t is unsolved in e the questions estions now. Perhaps without noticing it, ay into the answers.” ER MARIA RILKE

(Austro-

“The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.” —G.K. CHESTERTON

(English writer and poet, 1874–1936)

“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. … Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.”—BUDDHA (Indian Prince Gautama Siddharta, founder of Buddhism, 563–483 B.C.)

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" Fahrenheit 451—RAY BRADBURY (American science

“The real voya seeking new eyes.”—MARCE 1871–1922)

1871–1922)

hing \ That’s how the

b. 1934)

INQUIRY OPENNESS DISCUSSION UNCERTAINTY

ing

Question

“There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.”—LEONARD COHEN (Canadian folk singer, songwriter, poet and novelist, b. 1934)

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then, gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers.” Letters to a Young Poet—RAINER MARIA RILKE (Austro-German poet, 1875–1926)

fiction writer, b. 1920)

try this Tackle a research project • Apply for an internship • Join the campus debate group (www. studentorg.umd.edu/debate) • Attend a Creative Dialogue at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu)

“Believe nothi person said i test and judg

Gautama Siddha

“We need no be really bot is it since you something im

Fahrenheit 451—

fiction writer, b.

“

“We cannot escape our origins, however hard we try, those origins which contain the key—could we but find it—to all that we later become.”—JAMES BALDWIN (American writer,

Do I seek out knowledge of the past as I form opinions about my world and the places to which I travel?

2. 3.

1924–1987)

“History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought.”—ÉTIENNE GILSON

How does my heritage affect the way I think and act? Who gets to tell history?

(French philosopher and historian, 1884–1978)

“Where we come from in America no longer signifies. It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are.” —JOYCE CAROL OATES

(American writer, b. 1938)

“The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.”—T.S. ELIOT (American poet, 1888–1965) “History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.” —KURT VONNEGUT

Try This

Visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History or Anacostia Community Museum (www.americanhistory.si.edu or www.anacostia. si.edu) • Take a history or art history course • Read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States • Interview your grandparents or an older friend about their lives (preserve it at www.storycorps.net)

(American writer, 1922–2010)

“The story … is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”—URSULA K. LEGUIN

(American science fiction writer, b. 1929)

HERITAGE  DISCOVERY  INTERPRETATION  ANALYSIS

“

UAG E  C RO

COM M U NIT

E  C ITI Z

E N S

“‘Global citizenship’ is a wonderful term, a euphoric coinage that allows one to think beyond borders, beyond ethnic ties, beyond identities to place and region.”—SANGEETA RAY (UMD professor of English) “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."—MARGARET MEAD (American anthropologist, 1901–1978)

“We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.” —MAYA ANGELOU

LTU R AL

leader, 1929–1968)

What do I need to know to live in a global community?

TWO How do I keep my sense of myself and my past in a multicultural world?

K N O

GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING

“All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.”—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (American civil rights

TRY THIS

ONE



G N A

S-

“

THREE What does it mean to be American in an age of globalization?

“What the humanities do really is give you a view of the world that allows you to think about the importance of ideas, the importance of history in peoples’ lives, the importance of culture and the way in which people work as a community and understand each other as a community.”—MARIA OTERO (UMD alumna, English; U.S. undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, 2009 to present)

“We cannot say we know something until we understand the effects of this knowledge on real people and their communities. Knowledge carries with it the responsibility to see that it is well used in the world.”—DAVID ORR (American environmental studies and politics professor, writer, entrepreneur)

(American poet, b. 1928)

Take an American studies course • Participate in a study abroad program • Enjoy the cultural activities at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival (www.festival.si.edu) • Watch a session of the U.S. Congress (www.visitthecapitol.gov/visit)

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one Do I try to understand others before making myself understood?

two Am I patient with others and with myself?

three Does studying the arts and humanities make us more compassionate?

EMPATHY  UNDERSTANDING  PATIENCE  ACCEPTANCE

“

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”—THE DALAI LAMA (head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize recipient,

“Lord, give us the wisdom to utter words that are gentle and tender, for tomorrow we may have to eat them.”—MORRIS UDALL (American congressman, 1922–1998)

b. 1935)

“You know, there's a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit—the ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us. When you think like this—when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers—it becomes harder not to act, harder not to help."—BARACK OBAMA (44th

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” —CARL GUSTAV JUNG

(Swiss psychiatrist, 1875–1961)

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”—NELSON MANDELA (South African statesman and president of South Africa, 1994–1999, 1993 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, b. 1918)

president of the United States, b. 1961)

try this

Donate your time to America Reads*America Counts (www.arac.umd.edu) • Plan an alternative spring break with Habitat for Humanity or Greenpeace (www.habitat.org or www.greenpeace.org) • Help a new friend in need • Volunteer at the DC Central Kitchen (www.dccentralkitchen.org)

diversity

AWARENESS  APPRECIATION  ENGAGEMENT  INCLUSIVENESS

1. 2. 3. 4.

What is the value of understanding multiple points of view? How do I appreciate and celebrate diversity? In my day-to-day life, how can I engage ideas that differ from mine? How can I help create a supportive, diverse community?

try thiS Attend one of the LGBT lecture series events • Join a campus MICA group (www.union.umd.edu/diversity) • Visit the David C. Driskell Center (www.driskellcenter. umd.edu) • Seek out conversation with a fellow student whose ideas and background differ from yours

“

“Make a difference about something other than yourselves.”—TONI MORRISON (American writer and teacher, 1988 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, b.1931)

“Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness."—JAMES THURBER (American writer and cartoonist, 1894–1961)

“Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? / Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?" —WALT WHITMAN

(American poet, 1819–1892)

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”—HENRY DAVID THOREAU (American essayist, poet and philosopher, 1817–1862)

“It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you.” —LANGSTON HUGHES

(American writer and poet,

1902–1967)

“There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up.”—BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON

(American musician, b. 1942)

I’m gonna catch mockingbirds. I’m gonna trap mockingbirds, all across the nation and put them gently into mason jars like mockingbird Molotov cocktails. And as I drive through a neighborhood, say, where people gotta lotta I’ll take a mockingbird I caught in a neighborhood where folks ain’t got nada and just let it go, y’know—Up goes the bird, out come the words: “Juanito! Juanito! Vente a comer, mi hijo!!”

Mockingbirds are bad-ass.

I’ll get the nitwit on the network news, saying: “We’ll be back in a moment with more on the crisis.” I’ll get some asshole at a watering hole asking what brand the ice is. I’ll get that lady at the laundromat who always seems to know what being nice is.

I’m gonna be the Johnny Appleseed of sounds. Cruising random interstates and city streets, rockin’ a drop-top Cadillac with a big back seat, packing like thirteen brown paper Wal-Mart bags full of loaded mockingbirds. And I’ll get everybody.

Mockingbirds are the MCs of the animal kingdom— they listen, and mimic, and remix what they like, they rock the mic. Outside my window every morning I can hear them sing the sounds of the car alarms like they were songs of spring. I mean: if you can talk it, a mockingbird can squawk it. So check it:

by Rives

Mockingbird Mockingbird 12

Everybody gets heard, everybody gets this one honest mockingbird as a witness.

I’ll get the last time you lied. I’ll get: “Honey, just give me the frikkin’ T.V. Guide” I’ll get a lonely little sentence some real bad judgment in it: “Yeah, I guess you could come inside—but only for a minute.”

I’ll get your postman making dinner plans

I’ll listen for what’s missing— and I’ll put it there.

And I’m on this. I’m on this ‘til the whole thing spreads with chat rooms and copycats and moms, maybe, tucking kids into bed, singing: “Hush little baby, don’t say a word—wait for the man with the mockingbirds.” And then come the news crews, and the man-on-the-street interviews and the letters to the editor—everybody asking: “Just who is responsible for this citywide, nationwide, mockingbird cacophony?” And somebody’s finally gonna tip the city council of Washington D.C. off to me and they’ll offer me a key to the city, a gold-plated, over-sized key to the city, and that’s all I need, cuz if I get that—I can unlock the air.

I’ll get uptown gurus, downtown teachers, broke-ass artists, and dealers, and Filipino preachers. Leaf blowers, bartenders, boob job doctors, hooligans, garbagemen, your local Congressman and the spotlight guys in the overhead helicopters.

Cuz I’ll get everyone’s good mornings, I don’t care how you make’em: Aloha. Konnichiwa. Shalom. A salaam malaikum.

I’ll get an ESL class in Chinatown, learning: “It’s raining, it’s pouring … “ I’ll put a mockingbird on a late-night train just to get an old man snoring. I’ll get your ex-lover wishing someone else good morning.

“

“The act of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do matters.“—GLORIA STEINEM

ONE How do I practice respect? Am I honest with others?

(American writer and activist, b. 1935)

“It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.” Nicomachean Ethics—ARISTOTLE (Greek philosopher, scientist and

TWO How can I live a moral life

physician, 384–322 B.C.)

day by day over a lifetime?

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox.” Arctic Dreams—BARRY LOPEZ (American writer, b. 1945)

“Truth burns up error.”—SOJOURNER TRUTH (American abolitionist and women’s rights activist, 1797-1883)

“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.”—H. JACKSON BROWN (American writer, author of Life's

THREE Do knowledge and reason guide my actions?

Try This Campaign for a seat on the University Senate or get involved with SGA • Try out the ICE-ometer (www.ice.umd.edu) • Apply to become an associate with the CIVICUS living and learning program (www.civicus. umd.edu) • Explore ethics and morality in an introduction to philosophy course

Little Instruction Book)

“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself.”—JANE ADDAMS (American pacifist, social worker and founder of Hull House in Chicago, 1860–1935)

ECT P S E R ESTY N O H ON R E AS ICE V R E S

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ONE How is my vision of the world shaped by my own experiences and my own personality?

TWO How can I broaden who I am?

THREE How do I develop the confidence to move boldly and remain steadfast in my purpose?

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

(Irish literary critic, playwright, essayist, 1925

Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, 1856–1950)

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”—HELEN KELLER (American educator, political activist and writer, 1880–1968)

“And since you know you cannot see yourself, So well as by reflection, I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself, That of yourself which you yet know not of.” Julius Caesar—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (English playwright and poet, 1564–1616)

“Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny."—MAHATMA GANDHI

(Indian philosopher, 1869–1948)

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” — e.e. cummings

Try This

(American poet, 1894–1962)

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”—SAMUEL BECKETT (Irish writer, 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature recipient,

Take the new I Series course “Acting Human: Shakespeare and the Drama of Identity” • Attend the First Look Fair and sign up for a number of organizations (www.thestamp.umd.edu/ firstlookfair) • Think about your purpose by watching TED talks (www.ted.com) • Meditate in the UMD Peace and Friendship garden

1906–1989)

“To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.” —JERRY POURNELLE

and blogger, b. 1933)

(American science fiction writer

self-knowledge

INSIGHT HUMILITY CONFIDENCE CHARACTER

EPILOGUE

The Arts and Humanities in the World of Work

1. 2. 3.

What kind of work do I want to do in the world? What kind of employee do I want to be? How will my study of the arts and humanities educate me for meaningful (and perhaps surprising) work in the world?

In the 1980s, Robert Beck of AT&T did two studies of success at the company, 10 years apart. His findings? The best predictor of success in its workforce was the number of liberal arts credits [and remember that the liberal arts include the sciences] the employee had, and that more credits were better than fewer. Everyone they hired had the training needed. Those who succeeded had more: They could think outside the box. “The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society—more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.” The Yellow Wallpaper—CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (American writer and economist, 1860–1935)

“The sacrifice of the liberal element in education to the immediately useful would result in the eventual disappearance of the educated person of trained intelligence and large vision who can respond with competence to a great variety of intellectual demands and is capable of estimating the world’s goods at their true value. It would result in a diminution of sanity in the national life.”—ANDREW BONGIORNO (distinguished professor of English at Oberlin College, 1900–1998)

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”—MARK TWAIN

CONTACT US College of Arts & Humanities 1102 Francis Scott Key Hall College Park, MD 20742 301.405.2090 arhu-info@umd.edu

www.arhu.umd.edu This guide is printed on Beckett Concept Text and Cover, which is certified by SmartWood to Forest Stewardship Council standards, contains 100 percent post-consumer recycled fiber and is manufactured with wind power. During the production of this brochure we saved: The equivalent of 21 trees n 7 million BTUs of net energy n 2,017 lbs. of CO 2 n 9,715 gallons of wastewater n 590 lbs. of solid waste. Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Defense Paper Calculator.

CREDITS • WRITERS Elizabeth Loizeaux, Ethan Watermeier, Monique Everette EDITOR Lauren Brown DESIGN Patti Look, Mira Azarm • A mighty thank you to the members of the WORLDWISE Committee, Kent Cartwright, Audran Downing, Susie Farr, Maynard Mack, Natalie Prizel, David Sicilia, Dan Wagner and the staff of both the Office of the Dean and the Office of Student Affairs in the College of Arts & Humanities for their invaluable ideas and input. September 2011.

FOUND LETTER hat makes for a happier life, Josh, comes to this: Gifts freely given, that you never earned; Open affection with your wife and kids; Clear pipes in winter, in summer screens that fit; Few days in court, with little consequence; A quiet mind, a strong body, short hours In the office; close friends who speak the truth; Good food, cooked simply; a memory that’s rich Enough to build the future with; a bed In which to love, read, dream, and re-imagine love; A warm, dry field for laying down in sleep, And sleep to trim the long night coming; Knowledge of who you are, the wish to be None other; freedom to forget the time; To know the soul exceeds where it’s confined Yet does not seek the terms of its release, Like a child’s kite catching at the wind That flies because the hand holds tight the line. —JOSHUA WEINER (poet, UMD professor of English)