policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
Oh, the humanities!
Why Australia can’t afford to
neglect the humanities.
Joy Damousi interviewed by Wade Zaglas
I
n an age where STEM disciplines receive
the lion’s share of policy attention and
funding, you can understand why those
in the humanities, arts and social sciences
(HASS) feel a bit miffed. Despite cultural and
creative activity accounting for 6.4 per cent
or $111.7 billion of Australia’s GDP in 2016–17,
the sector has been besieged by funding
cuts and a general lack of acknowledgement
from government.
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Last year, for instance, $4.2 million was
stripped from humanities applicants to the
Australian Research Council (ARC). Indeed,
grants for creative art, writing, history and
archaeology dropped a marked 62 per cent
and 44 per cent respectively.
With the OECD finding that Australia’s
innovation skills are wanting, and that
the government needs to broaden “the
scope of subsidies for innovation-related
subjects beyond STEM”, the national body
for the humanities believes Australia is
“at the crossroads”.
The Australian Academy of the Humanities
has released an eight-point plan to address
this situation. It sees the humanities as not
only a custodian of a country’s cultural
literacy (the assumed knowledge one needs
to engage successfully in a culture), but
the provider of the “foundational skills of a
competent and agile workforce: problem
solving, adaptability and creativity, critical
thinking, ethical judgement and the ability to
appreciate multiple points of view”.
In broad strokes, the plan urges the next
government to discard the ‘silo’ approach
that has demarcated STEM from HASS in
policymaking. It also calls for funding levels
to be restored, super-charged infrastructure
investment, a renewed focus on language
education, and more industry development
programs in the creative, cultural and
digital sectors.
In a globalised world, cultural literacy is
vitally important: as more of us seek careers
in far-flung countries, and greater numbers
of migrants join our workforce, our ability to
navigate differences in language, world views
and cultural practices cannot be understated.
The academy also believes the humanities
are integral in developing “a human-centred
approach to policymaking”, one “informed
by ethical, historical, creative and cultural
expertise”.
It is urging the next government to
drastically reconsider the importance of
HASS and adopt the eight-point plan.
The academy’s president, Professor
Joy Damousi, spoke to Campus Review
about the languishing state of humanities
funding in Australia and what can be
done to improve it.