The Humanities at a Crossroads: Challenges and Prospects in the (Post-)COVID-19 World

• Authors: Teodora Todorić Milićević

Title variants

PL

Nauki humanistyczne na rozdrożu – wyzwania i perspektywy w świecie po pandemii COVID-19

Abstracts

PL

Szeroko zakrojone zmiany społeczne i polityczne pod koniec XX wieku przekształciły szkolnictwo wyższe, a co za tym idzie, badania i pozycję nauk humanistycznych na uniwersytetach na całym świecie. W niniejszym artykule analizie poddany został szeroko dyskutowany kryzys w humanistyce oraz postawiono pytania o jego przebieg w świetle globalnej pandemii COVID-19. Autorka przekonuje, że pandemia COVID-19 może być okazją do refleksji prowadzącej do zmian w szkolnictwie wyższym, które mają na celu ożywienie badań humanistycznych, dostarczających ludziom narzędzi, takich jak krytyczne myślenie, będące kluczowym w czasach kryzysu (np. pandemii). Analizie poddany został przykład Wydziału Filologicznego Uniwersytetu w Belgradzie, najwybitniejszego miejsca badań nad językiem, kulturą i literaturą w Serbii. Wybór ten został podyktowany faktem, iż jest to instytucja, która stoi przed wieloma wyzwaniami, przede wszystkim związanymi ze spadkiem liczby zapisów na niektóre kierunki. Na koniec analizuję strategie tego Wydziału w zakresie radzenia sobie zarówno z problemami wewnętrznymi, jak i zewnętrznymi oraz ożywienia zainteresowania przyszłych studentów studiami filologicznymi.

EN

The widespread social and political changes at the end of the 20th century influenced and reshaped higher education and, consequently, research in and the position of the humanities at universities around the world. This paper examines the much-debated crisis in the humanities and poses questions on its course in the light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the COVID-19 pandemic might be an opportunity for reflections that may lead to changes in higher education that aim to revive humanistic research, which provides people with tools such as critical thinking, which has proved to be crucial in times of crisis, like pandemics. We consider the example of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, the most prominent place for language, culture and literature research in Serbia, as this is an institution that faces many challenges, primarily a decline in enrolment in certain programmes. Finally, we analyse this Faculty’s strategies to cope with both internal and external problems and to revitalize the interest of prospective students in philological studies.

Keywords

EN

humanities; crisis; COVID-19 pandemic; higher education; Serbia; Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade

PL

humanistyka; kryzys; pandemia COVID-19; szkolnictwo wyższe; Serbia; Wydział Filologiczny Uniwersytetu w Belgradzie

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Slawistyki PAN
• Journal: Slavia Meridionalis
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 22

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Teodora Todorić Milićević

• Универзитет у Београду [University of Belgrade], Београд [Belgrade]

• https://orcid.org/0000000219405265

References

• About the Faculty – Faculty of Philology. (n.d.). University of Belgrade. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from http://new.fil.bg.ac.rs/lang/sr/fakultet/o-fakultetu
• Altbach, P. G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. E. (2009). Trends in global higher education: Tracking an academic revolution: Report prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004406155
• Arandarenko, M., Krstić, G., & Žarković Rakić, J. (2017). Dohodna nejednakost u Srbiji: Od podataka do politike. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
• Borio, C. (2020). The Covid-19 economic crisis: Dangerously unique. Business Economics, 55, 181–190. https://doi.org/10.1057/s11369-020-00184-2
• Brown, W. (2011). The end of educated democracy. Representations, 116(1), 19–41. https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2011.116.1.19
• Collini, S. (2012). What are universities for? Penguin UK.
• Collini, S. (2017). Speaking of universities. Verso Books.
• The cost of knowledge. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2021, from http://thecostofknowledge.com/
• Costa, R. C. (2019). The place of the humanities in today’s knowledge society. Palgrave Communications, 5(1), Article 38. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0245-6
• Crnjanski Spasojević, V. (2021, July 3). Nula na testu dovoljna za književnost: Na tri najveća univerziteta samo 149 prijavljenih na nekada popularne studije. Večernje novosti. https://www.novosti.rs/vesti/drustvo/1012933/nula-testu-dovoljna-knjizevnost-tri-najveca-univerziteta-samo-149-prijavljenih-nekada-popularne-studije
• Dolgin, E. (2021). The tangled history of mRNA vaccines. Nature, 597(7876), 318–324. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02483-w
• Eagleton, T. (2016). Culture. Yale University Press.
• Filološki fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu. (n.d.). Vodič za buduće studente: Osnovne akademske studije. http://www.fil.bg.ac.rs/wp-content/uploads/obavestenja/zabuduce/Filoloski%20fakultet%20brosura%20-%20final.pdf
• Filološki fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9RviwBlqDmTvdUd7zNBMDA/videos?app=desktop
• Fish, S. (2010, October 11). The crisis of the humanities officially arrives. New York Times. https://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Fish-The-Crisis-of-the-Humanities-Officially-Arrives-.pdf
• Government of the Republic of Serbia. (2018). Third National Report on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction in the Republic of Serbia: The Status of Social Exclusion and Poverty Trends in the Period 2014–2017 and Future Priorities. https://socijalnoukljucivanje.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Treci_nacionalni_izvestaj_o_socijalnom_ukljucivanju_i_smanjenju_siromastva_2014%E2%80%932017_eng.pdf
• Ilić, D. (2021, July 8). Ćirilica na akademskoj rasprodaji. Peščanik. https://pescanik.net/cirilica-na-akademskoj-rasprodaji/
• Jay, P. (2014). The humanities “crisis” and the future of literary studies. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137398031
• Jokić-Stamenković, D. (2021, October 7). Filološki fakultet ne zaboravlja akademika Nikolu Miloševića. Politika. https://www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/489281/Drustvo/Filoloski-fakultet-ne-zaboravlja-akademika-Nikolu-Milosevica
• Mathematics at the University of Leicester. (2021). London Mathematical Society. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.lms.ac.uk/news-entry/09022021-1444/mathematics-university-leicester
• Milanovic, B. (2020, March 28). The world after corona. Globalinequality. https://glineq.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-world-after-corona.html
• Nastavnici i saradnici Filološkog fakulteta najavili protestnu šetnju za 29. septembar. (2020, September 26). Danas. https://www.danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/nastavnici-i-saradnici-filoloskog-fakulteta-najavili-protestnu-setnju-za-29-septembar/
• Nussbaum, M. (2010). Not for profit: Why democracy needs the humanities. Princeton University Press.
• OECD. (2021). Education at a glance 2021: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/b35a14e5-en
• OECD statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://stats.oecd.org/
• Our world in data. (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2022-01-16&facet=none&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=People+fully+vaccinated&Interval =7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=SRB~EST~BGR~ROU~HRV~SVK
• Pollitt, C., & Bouckaert, G. (2017). Public management reform: A comparative analysis – into the age of austerity (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Program IDEAS: 105 projects supported for funding. (n.d.). Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia. http://fondzanauku.gov.rs/2021/12/program-ideas-105-projects-supported-for-funding/?lang=en
• Programs. (n.d.). Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from http://fondzanauku.gov.rs/programs/?lang=en
• PROMIS – konačna rang lista projekata odobrenih za finansiranje. (2020, March 2). Fond za nauku Republike Srbije. http://fondzanauku.gov.rs/2020/03/промис-коначна-ранг-листа-пројеката//
• Reitter, P., & Wellmon, C. (2021). Permanent crisis: The humanities in a disenchanted age. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226738376.001.0001
• Schmidt, B. (2018, August 23). The humanities are in crisis. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/the-humanities-face-a-crisisof-confidence/567565/
• Todorić Milićević, T. (2019). Od ulice do učionice: Feministički aktivizam i teorija u Srbiji u 1990-im i 2000-im. Genero: Časopis za feminističku teoriju i studije kulture, 23(1), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.18485/genero.2019.23.1.9
• V. A. (2021, February 11). Iva Draškić Vićanović dobila podršku većine na izborima za dekana Filološkog. Danas. https://www.danas.rs/drustvo/filoloski-podrzao-ivu-draskic-vicanovic/
• Zakon o nauci i istraživanjima. (2019). Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije, 2019(49/19). https://www.mpn.gov.rs/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Zakon-o-nauci.pdf

Identifiers

DOI

10.11649/sm.2695

Biblioteka Nauki

33301241