Does studying the humanities make us more humane? That it is at least capable of doing so is the underlying premise of the medical humanities programmes – which aim to cultivate empathy among future doctors, to enable them to relate better to their patients – that have proliferated in medical schools across the US in recent years.
It is no coincidence, then, that in the reactionary period of rising fascism we’re living through, humanities courses – and all aspects of higher education that might cause students to question right-wing narratives about their nation – are under relentless attack.
Decades of anti-intellectual rhetoric from the right, along with the corporatization of the university, which involves macroeconomic changes such the expansion of administrations and the dismantling of faculty power, have come to a head.
