Genealogies of Our Concerns, Early (African) American Print Culture, and Transcending Tough Times

Abstract

To our common concerns we have added survival of our species as human beings and humanities scholars, not simply in terms of ecological or terrorist foreboding but also as tenured professors. Entities such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Modern Language Association give us statistics about fewer jobs, lower salaries, and increasing disrespect for humanists. “In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth” (Cohen), one of many such articles to appear in the New York Times and other prominent venues, advises that merely considering “what it means to be a human being” does not clearly convey our practical and economic value. Quiet as it is kept, such ideas exist within as well as without the Halls of Academe. We can, and do, ascribe this situation to various origins and motives. But one source is, in fact, ourselves. Sometimes, we become so caught up in our specific areas of research, teaching, and citizenship that we lose perspective on our actual responsibilities and opportunities in the university, if not the universe itself. In one of his addresses designed to foster collegiality (without, of course, abandoning competition), our president described such preoccupational circumscription as living within “academic silos.”