Drawing on empirical research done in the early 1980s, Donald Schon developed the theory of "reflective practice", putting forward the idea that the design studio teacher is a "coach" who helps students align with disciplinary norms and start to "think like an architect". Drawing on actor-network theory as a tool of analysis and way of thinking,…

Using mythology as a generative matrix, this article investigates the relationship between knowledge, words, embodiment and gender as they play out in academic writing's voice and, in particular, in doctoral voice. The doctoral thesis is defensive, a performance seeking admittance into discipline scholarship. Yet in finding its scholarly voice,…

Support for writing instruction amongst lecturers in UK Universities is high, but they often prefer it to be provided by dedicated study skills specialists operating outside subject curricula. Yet because of the well-documented problems with the skills approach (where literacy support frequently becomes a generic add-on), American models such as…

This article considers the ways in which entry-level graduate students in the discipline of English begin to understand themselves as researchers within a particular disciplinary formation. Analysing data from student and staff reflections on the experience of undertaking a supervised research project, we argue that the ontological shifts and…

In disciplines with long histories in higher education, academic literacies, including writing practices, are less contested than in newer academic fields such as art and design. The relatively recent incorporation of such fields and schools into the university sector has required these fields to create academic writing practices consistent with…

What does it mean to engage deeply with conservatism in the classroom? Are classroom politics determined by a professor's personal political opinions or by course content? Historian Paul Lyons takes up these timely questions in his slim but intriguing book "American Conservatism: Thinking It, Teaching It." The book is divided in two parts. Part…

Given the academic specialization endemic today in humanities disciplines, some of the most important work of humanities centers has become promoting education about the humanities in general. After charting the rise of humanities centers in the US, three characteristics of centers that enable their advancement of larger concerns of the humanities…

The article discusses the nature of humanistic knowledge. Analyzing the relation between aesthetic judgment, literacy and knowledge as defined by the French seventeenth-century Jansenist school of Port-Royal, the article argues that Port-Royal's interpretation of the enthymeme can be used to define the cognitive basis of aesthetic judgments in the…

More collaborative work in the humanities could be instrumental in helping to break down the traditional rigid boundaries between academic divisions and disciplines in modern universities. The value of the traditional model of the solitary humanities scholar or the collaborative science paradigm should not be discounted. However, increasing the…

In the past, humanists and scientists have held very different views about the role of collaboration in scholarly research. From the point of view of a Principal Investigator in a scientific laboratory, this article examines the increasingly dominant role of collaboration in scientific research. In contrast to the "consensus research" model of the…

This article begins by acknowledging the general worry that scholarship in the humanities lacks the rigor and objectivity of other scholarly fields. In considering the validity of that criticism, I distinguish two models of learning: the covering law model exemplified by the natural sciences, and the model of rooted particularity that…

The calling of public scholarship is inherently multifaceted, and often inherently controversial; public scholars have to accommodate different spheres of society, different cultural values and goods, and even different political agendas in their work. Unlike academic workers, public scholars rarely have the opportunity to do work that is driven…

Humanistic studies cultivate types of conceptual fluency and modes of awareness important to thought concerning values. Not all knowledge is scientific knowledge. There is genuine comprehension of some valuative matters--they are not all to be interpreted in expressive or subjective terms. Education in the humanities can encourage value-relevant…

In an era in which the imperatives of global economic competition prompt institutions of higher education to promote vocational practicality and efficiency over all else, advocates of the humanities have struggled to articulate the distinctive value and contribution of our disciplines. This article seeks to develop an argument directed not at…

This article raises a number of questions that the author believes need to be addressed in order to defend and justify the teaching and practice of the humanities in an age when they continue to face swingeing cuts and unreasoned attacks from many quarters, both inside and outside the Academy. They are questions that have to do with the uniqueness…