“Tender Narrations”: Humanities Education in Times of Crisis

Paul Almonte; Daria Smirnova; Oleksandra Smoliar

doi:10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_14

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“Tender Narrations”: Humanities Education in Times of Crisis

Authors

Paul Almonte¹^{, *}, Daria Smirnova², Oleksandra Smoliar³^{, 4}

¹American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

²LCC International University, Klaipėda, Lithuania

³University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States

⁴LCC International University, Klaipėda, Lithuania

^*Corresponding author. Email: palmonte@aus.edu

Corresponding Author

Paul Almonte

Available Online 23 November 2023.

DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_14 How to use a DOI?
Keywords: Humanities education; Teaching pedagogy; post-COVID
Abstract: In her 2018 Nobel Prize lecture, Olga Tokarczuk emphasizes the “massive significance” of storytelling as a means to “perceive the similarities and sameness” among people. “It is a way of looking,” she says, “that shows the world as […] interconnected.” This principle of connection defines for us the value of Humanities education, especially now with social isolation and political fracture so prevalent. The past two years have seen undergraduates experience disruption or witness one catastrophe after another. Even in calmer times, incoming students often lack the means to describe their feelings while negotiating new academic and social experiences. COVID-enforced isolation has exacerbated this problem as social media often offers only superficial forms of expression. Students’ vocabularies—the words, images, and ideas they use—are shrinking. The polemic extremes of our political discourse has narrowed conversation even further. As part of the discussion of the role Humanities education, especially core curricula, has in university studies, this paper focuses on how storytelling (and attentive, compassionate listening) can help students find their own voice while also acknowledging the perspectives and experiences of others. We discuss our efforts in engaging our students, in helping them express themselves and participate in important post-COVID societal conversations.
Open Access: Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title: Proceedings of the HCT International General Education Conference (HCT-IGEC 2023)
Series: Atlantis Highlights in Social Sciences, Education and Humanities
Publication Date: 23 November 2023
ISBN: 10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_14
ISSN: 2667-128X
DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_14 How to use a DOI?
Open Access: Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

ris enw bib

TY  - CONF
AU  - Paul Almonte
AU  - Daria Smirnova
AU  - Oleksandra Smoliar
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/23
TI  - “Tender Narrations”: Humanities Education in Times of Crisis
BT  - Proceedings of the HCT International General Education Conference (HCT-IGEC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 177
EP  - 184
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_14
ID  - Almonte2023
ER  -

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