Each month, The Stone House Center for Public Humanities interviews a humanities scholar or community member and asks them everything from why they believe the humanities are important to what they're currently binge-watching. We hope that our new blog series, Coffee & Questions, will inspire you, introduce you to a variety of people and fields, as well as create new conversations.

Our guest this month is Dr. Jason Stuart, Assistant Professor of English at Slippery Rock University. He teaches in the Professional Writing track. In addition, half of his credits are taught in first-year, Basic Requirements courses for the Liberal Studies Program. His research interests coincide only with his teaching and assessment duties. He studied Writing History and Theory at Case Western Reserve University and his course content focuses on media history - particularly book and computing history - as well as computer-mediated writing and publishing. Though Jason prioritizes his local campus community, and confers primarily with his colleagues in the PASSHE system, he is a member of several academic societies. He doesn't get to attend often, but considers Computers & Writing a valuable conference and community. He maintains his NCTE membership and attends CCCC when he is able.

What project(s) are you currently working on?
Right now I’m trying to develop more informal, web-based learning for students in our program. We’re starting to think in different ways about where you produce work, and what “counts” as academic work, because the challenges for students outside of their academic work are so different now. It’s so much more difficult to get up and running with contemporary media skills, which, if I’m honest, didn’t change all that much during the first half of this decade. But you can’t always go as deeply into the technical and representational possibilities of communications technology in the classroom as you’d like – you only have so much time.

Why do you believe that the humanities are important to everyone, and not just people in academia?
I don’t think people generally identify what’s important as part of the “humanities,” not explicitly, and so sometimes it’s hard to deliberate about what’s good. It’s not like people pick up their iPhones and say “the STEM disciplines are really just so important to me.”
 
When you think about the problems that people face, though, the stuff that’s on the phone is right at hand for many people; what kind of questions do the technicians who make those solutions ask? The only thing an app really does is make some activity more convenient to that group of people who are able to use it. When those people mistake what’s convenient for what’s good, humanistic concerns become less important. So I think people who advocate for vulnerable or under-represented communities will draw on parts of that tradition to counter those who believe that automation is important, and kind of pull public discussions back into balance.
 
What shows are you currently binge-watching?
I’m watching season 3 of Fargo right now. Spoilers ahead. There’s this scene where the bad guy, who’s more or less the literal devil, greets this sadsack character who thinks he’s doing the right thing, who thinks he’s doing good in the face of evil. The bad guy says, “The problem is not that there is evil in the world. The problem is that there is good. Because, otherwise, who would care?” Feel free to apply that quote, probably irresponsibly, to your personal position on why the humanities are important.
 
I actually watch TV in pretty much the same way I did when I was young: weekly. I remember getting together with friends every week and watching MacGyver in college. And then I went looking for friends who liked better TV and I found people who watched Twin Peaks, so, I’m excited to watch the new season of Twin Peaks. Fun fact: they rebooted MacGyver, too, and somehow made it worse.
 
What's a book you've always wanted to read but haven't gotten around to?
I should probably write something impressive, but plausible, like Infinite Jest. I don’t want to read that book, though.
 
What is the worst job that you had while working through your degree and what would you tell your past self now?
I was a dishwasher at a lot of places. It sounds bad, but it wasn’t really. One time they made me host at a Pizzeria Uno, though, and that was the worst job I’ve ever had. All I had to do was put people in tables and make the occasional Caesar salad, and somehow people managed to yell at me constantly. The jukebox played Duncan Sheik’s “Barely Breathing” 918 times per shift.
 
I would tell my past self to put ten dollars’ worth of “The Boys Are Back in Town” directly into the jukebox. I would tell him to sit back and watch. It’s really an amazing song, though.

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Check back next month for more Coffee & Questions. In case you missed our previous interview with Dr. Phil Harling, click here.    

Poems today do not get the recognition they deserve. Science, art and literature are a large part of the humanities. Poetry comes from the extensive languages the human race obtains.

Literature in itself is like poetry. There is beauty and meaning in the different way words can be intertwined.

Language is one of the main ways the human race communicates. Words hold a depth of emotion and meaning, and poetry is a powerful tool in which language can be expressed as an art form. The following poem is an excellent example of the power of the humanities:

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Want to learn more about the Stone House Center for Public Humanities and how the humanities are helping our community? Click here to learn more.

​Sources:
http://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/humanities/

Each month, The Stone House Center for Public Humanities interviews a humanities scholar or community member and asks them everything from why they believe the humanities are important to what they're currently binge-watching. We hope that our new blog series, Coffee & Questions, will inspire you, introduce you to a variety of people and fields, as well as create new conversations.

Our guest this month is Julia Null, Student Assistant at the Stone House Center for Public Humanities (CPH). Julia is an art major and graphic design minor at Slippery Rock University. She is from Canton, OH and currently a Senior at Slippery Rock University. After school, she hopes to find a position working as a Graphic Designer or Art Director. She assists the CPH in designing eye-catching event flyers, informational handouts, and program booklets. She also writes a variety of articles about the importance of the humanities. 
​

What inspires you in your current position/role?
I am inspired by the past experience of designing various types of work. Through the knowledge and skills learned over the years I am able to be inspired to invent a new approach in designs.
 
What work experiences (past or present) have been the most educational for you, and why?
The most educational experiences have been in the event where I received corrections. When I have done something incorrect or have not known how to use a certain tool, I gain the most valuable knowledge. By learning from mistakes the information sticks better.
 
What's a book you've always wanted to read but haven't gotten around to?
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. I have seen the movie and heard the story many times as it is one of my favorites. However, I have yet to read the original book. I hope to find the time within the next few years.
 
What shows are you currently binge-watching?
I am currently watching Greys Anatomy and re-watching The Office.
 
What is the worst job that you had while working through your degree and what would you tell your past self now?
The worst job I ever held during college was when I worked at Wendy’s. It was a very humbling job. I was required to learn how to thrive in a hostile environment. I had to learn ways of dealing with difficult people. I also had to deal with the labor of wash dishes and preparing food. This job taught me to be patient, respect other people and most of all that I did not want to do this the rest of my life. It gave me the motivation to want to finish my degree to better myself and create better opportunities. I did not enjoy the time I spent working at Wendy’s but it did help me realize what I did not in life.

Why are the humanities important to you?
The humanities are important to me because it pertains to everything I do. Every subject and activity leads back to being a part of the humanities. Art is a major component in the humanities in my opinion and to me art is extremely important. Science and literature are equally important in my mind. The humanities is such a broad category it is hard to not believe they are important. The humanities give meaning and purpose to our lives. 

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Check back next month for more Coffee & Questions. In case you missed our previous interview with Dr. Joshua Drake, click HERE.

Each month, The Stone House Center for Public Humanities interviews a humanities scholar or community member and asks them everything from why they believe the humanities are important to what they're currently binge-watching. We hope that our new blog series, Coffee & Questions, will inspire you, introduce you to a variety of people and fields, as well as create new conversations.

Our guest this month is Joshua F. Drake, Professor of Music and Humanities at Grove City College where he teaches a range of music and art-related courses.  His Ph.D. research, at the University of Glasgow (UK) was on 15th century motets. He is co-author of Art and Music: a Student’s Guide (Crossway, 2014).

What inspires you in your current position/role?
People believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This would be very convenient, in some ways, because it would make our tastes unimpeachable. We could no more be held responsible for our tastes in art or music than we could be held responsible for our eye color. But on the other hand, we would have little reason, and even less ability, to change our tastes. Even more alarming, we could hardly congratulate ourselves on them, as we tend already to do. No teenager who has taken an interest in a new independent rock band thinks that his delight in that music is a mere byproduct of his brain chemistry.  He thinks it is very good music and, if you ask him to, he may actually take pains to show you why. 

This suggests that tastes may actually be the sort of thing that we change based on influences from outside. But not all influences are good.  My hope—perhaps a fool’s hope—is that my influence is a good one. By confronting my students with beautiful things with which they have had little or no experience, and demonstrating how and why these things are beautiful, I can help them like what is more likable. This saves them from being condemned to whatever tastes they haphazardly have formed and gives them the skills to continue to evaluate their leisure wisely.  This will hopefully mean more pleasure for them since they will have chosen their leisure based on more than raw impulse or the brute force of popular advertisement.  

Why do you believe that the humanities are important to everyone, and not just people in academia?
The popular scientists are often reminding us of the narrow gap between humans and animals.  I cannot help but think that part of their incitement to do so is to lift from humans some of the terrible moral burden we expect of ourselves but do not expect of the beasts. But the consequences of these comparisons are often more harmful than might be imagined.  If we link our behavior to that of the beasts, we may forego pleasures that are distinctly human. Now, I well believe that animals have intense pleasures.  Everyone in the house knows when the dog is scratching a good itch.  But the pleasures are mostly sensual.  Of the pleasures that come when sensations combine to form meaning—of the delights of a Euclidian proof, of the return of a symphony’s opening theme, or the denouements of Aeschylus—the dog can know nothing. 

Sensation offers tremendous pleasures to be sure.  No human would wish to be without them for long.  But it is the distinctive blessing of being human that we can have pleasures that come from meaning and not just sensation.  Everyone, therefore, should study the humanities because it is there that we are offered so many examples of meaning made especially to please us.  The natural world is full of meaning too, but it is touching to meet meaning made by our fellow humans—and for our fellow humans.  Here I should be careful.  After all, the animals make things for one another too, as any bird’s nest will testify.  But our inventions are sometimes of a sort that please only us.  I too may make a nest—of blankets and sheets—but I can also make a string quartet.  The dog may nestle up in the first but he will fall asleep during the second.

What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you (hobby, skill, interesting story)?
I enjoy playing sailor songs on my concertina.  People imagine that they enjoy folk music when in fact they’ve likely never known it.  Folk music is the music that a discreet local group of people evolve and make for one another.  It is a music made by people you know personally, in an idiom that crops up in relative isolation, based on the various social and practical needs of the people who make it.  I should point out at once the irony:  I am not a sailor.  In fact, I have never been out to sea on a sailboat at all.  But by making a music that evolved for sailors (as opposed to a music that evolved to sell radio advertising space or to erect totemic pop stars) I feel myself a little bit more able to enjoy something that was once ubiquitous in human experience and is now nearly lost. 

What is your first thought in the morning and last thought at night?
My first thought in the morning is surprise and gratitude.  I am perpetually thankful to wake up in a world like this, next to a wife like mine, in a house full of children and a neighborhood full of life, with my books at my elbow and my work waiting for me.  It seems almost impossible, given what I know of my own wickedness, to be given such a life.

My last thought is variable and depends on whatever I was reading or doing before I fell asleep or whatever I was speaking with my wife about before we both switched off the light.  I suppose this is fairly normal.  It is the land of Queen Mab that follows, and the dreams I meet there are perhaps more interesting—though not at this juncture. 

What's a book you've always wanted to read but haven't gotten around to?
Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia.  Here is a book that delighted most of our English speaking predecessors and has fallen almost entirely into obscurity.  Sidney’s sonnets in Astrophel and Stella continue to delight, and his Apology for Poetry is a common enough text in literary criticism.  But the Arcadia is patently his most entertaining work.  I’ve taken it up several times and made it nearly halfway through but have never completed it.  It makes me wonder if there isn’t some deficiency in my literary abilities that keeps at arm’s length a work so obviously pleasant.
 
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Check back next month for more Coffee & Questions. In case you missed our previous interview with Dr. Jason Stuart, click HERE.

​What qualifies as art has not yet been defined, but the range of what is considered to be art could fill an ocean.

Art can be anything. It can be viewed as a process of organization or as a feeling. That is the beauty of art. There are no boundaries or restrictions.

Art is a form of freedom by using expressive techniques to carry out ones emotions in a physical form. People use art to describe an emotion to others without the use of words, and the humanities attempt to connect with people emotionally, physically, and intelligently. 

Art is the human need to express emotions and connect with other people. It is a language of its own with no barrier in understanding.

Humanity and the arts are connected by the process of art being made by humans to speak and be studied by humans.

With the use of art, it becomes simple to express the feeling of humanity.

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Want to learn more about the Stone House Center for Public Humanities and how the humanities are helping our community? Click here to learn more.

An article from the Stanford Humanities Center states, “The humanities can be described as the study of how people process and document the human experience.” This quote refers to the way humans use philosophy, literature, art, music, history and language as a form of expression. These subjects allow a stronger connection between themselves, others, and the world.

The humanities are what make us human and help identify what it means to be human. Without humanity, the basis of art or philosophy would be meaningless.

An article by Sarah Churchwell states, “If we agree that the humanities do not matter, or fail to challenge this assessment, we are colluding in the very practices that reduce our humanity, that impinge upon all the other ways in which we can enrich our lives, our abilities to express our creative individuality.” This quote describes how if we as a people do not realize the importance of the humanities, our lives will not be satisfactory, and in a sense become less human. Essentially, without the involvement of the humanities in your life there is a high possibility of missing out on “the good life”.

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Want to learn more about the Stone House Center for Public Humanities and how the humanities are helping our community? Click here to learn more.

Sources:
http://shc.stanford.edu/what-are-the-humanities
https://www.timeshighereducation.com

Figuring out the right career path can be a long and daunting road. If you are unsure of where to go or looking for some answers that might push you in the right direction, consider studying
​the humanities.

The study of humanities is the study of yourself and those around you. It is the study that connects rather than a study that competes. The humanities are essential to life and learning. Additionally, studying the humanities will train you to communicate clearly, think critically, and make reasonable choices. These skills are highly valued by any employer.
 
Some examples of careers that might result from studying the humanities include:

• ​Advertising
• Foreign Service
• Journalism
• Law
• Public Administration
• Publishing
• Teaching

 
The study of humanities are essential to life and learning. If you find yourself drawn to this idea, you might consider this career path. 

Want to learn more about the Stone House Center for Public Humanities and how the humanities are helping our community? Click here to learn more.

Sources:
http://www.worldwidelearn.com