[ecrea] The Challenges of Arts and Humanities

The Challenges of Arts and Humanities
Conference at Aalborg University,
5 May 2015, Rendsburggade 14

10:00 – 15:30 followed by
wine reception

During the past few decades, a spectre has emerged, which is now 
haunting the Arts and Humanities in the Western world. The question 
posed by this spectre is: What is the usefulness of studying Arts and 
Humanities? A different and more constructive phrasing of the question 
would be: Which needs in society do the Arts and Humanities respond to 
and accommodate? However the question is phrased, several answers may be 
offered.

On the one hand, the usefulness of Arts and Humanities is fairly 
obvious: Without knowledge of languages, history, culture, media and 
ethics – areas which are all connected to our existence as human beings 
in a society – our society would be ill off.
The Arts and Humanities have participated increasingly in 
cross-disciplinary research and contributed to the development of 
various emergent research fields in collaboration with, for example, the 
social and natural sciences. As a result of this, new hybrid disciplines 
such as cognitive science, humanistic informatics, science technology 
and society (STS) are now transgressing the traditional divide between 
natural sciences and Arts and Humanities.

On the other hand, the legitimacy of the Arts and Humanities and the 
value of their contribution to society and their impact on the economy 
are being constantly questioned. The consequences of this have 
manifested themselves in difficulties of funding and decreasing 
acknowledgment, which has resulted in considerable downsizing, diverse 
forms of crisis management and, as a consequence, renewed questioning of 
the validity of the various subject fields, research and teaching 
methods of Arts and Humanities, as well as of the results achieved.

The debate about the challenges of the Arts and Humanities has called 
forth several scholarly contributions as well as interesting reports 
from various commissions investigating the above-mentioned questions. 
These contributions indicate that the common challenges are prompting 
different analysis results and different political solutions, depending 
on countries and contexts. This is the case even within the Scandinavian 
countries, which are otherwise so similar, and also in the UK and Germany.
The primary aim of this conference is to confront the common challenges 
of the Arts and Humanities and to compare our different analyses and 
possible answers with different political solutions within our 
neighbouring countries (Scandinavia, the UK and Germany); secondly, to 
identify and discuss societal challenges and possible objectives and 
roadmaps for the Arts and Humanities.

· The conference will provide a forum for discussion among scholars 
engaged in researching and exploring the Arts and Humanities. The 
following questions will be in focus:What are the core characteristics 
of the contributions of the humanistic sciences?

· How do we identify the common challenges and opportunities of the Arts 
and Humanities today, and what are the different ways in which they are 
met in the Scandinavian countries, the UK and Germany?

· In which ways does Arts and Humanities research contribute to societal 
impact, and what do we envision the impact and role of this research to 
be in the future?

· Why did the Humanities not succeed in the first round in Horizon 2020? 
And connected to this question: What new and more advantageous ways are 
there of organizing Arts and Humanities research?

Organising Committee

Gunhild Agger, Professor, Department of Culture and Global Studies, 
Aalborg University
Lone Dirckink-Holmfeld, Professor, Dean 2009-15, Faculty of the 
Humanities, Aalborg University
Antje Gimmler, Professor, Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg 
University
Falk Heinrich, Associate Professor, Head of Studies, Department of 
Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University
Jørgen Stigel, Associate Professor, Vice-Dean, Faculty of the 
Humanities, Aalborg University

Sponsors

The Faculty of Humanities, The Academic Council, Department of Culture 
and Global Studies, Department of Communication and Psychology, 
Department of Learning and Philosophy, and The Obel Foundation.



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