“What does it mean to refuse a narrative of besiegement?” 

This is the question that Heather Hewett and I ask in “Rejecting the Siege Mentality in Higher Education,” published in the LA Review of Books in late November 2024. The essay, based on research we did for the ACLS Innovation in Action case study series, looks at a wide range of innovative programs and strategies across the humanities and social sciences. In lieu of narratives of crisis and besiegement, we offer four forward looking, alternate narratives about the humanities:

  • “Humanities faculty value teaching and want to teach for the future.” 
  • “The humanities are well positioned to help students find and develop their own sense of meaning and purpose, applicable to any career.”
  • “A PhD in the humanities or humanistic social sciences opens doors beyond the academy.”
  • “The academic humanities contribute to the public good through project-based and experiential learning in their communities.”

Although all of the research and most of the essay was completed before the 2024 election, we acknowledge the less-than-ideal circumstances under which we will all be doing this work in the next four years. However: “There is never going to be a better time to do the work that needs to be done. We must, collectively, refuse a narrative of besiegement because such a mindset is inherently reactive, seeking to conserve the status quo. We cannot behave as though survival is the only goal; we have to create the conditions where the humanities—and its practitioners—can flourish.”

We cannot wait for a better time to tell ourselves and our students a better story about the humanities. And what is inspiring about the Innovation in Action stories is that they are, collectively, stories about people not waiting for the right circumstances to arrive but rather creating those circumstances where they already are. 

“Rejecting the Siege Mentality in Higher Education”
Read the Full Essay

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