Applied humanities examined in Jan. 17 talk by Peter Tokofsky

Peter Tokofsky, an education specialist at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, will discuss "Applied Humanities: Revisiting the Divide" at 4 p.m. on Jan. 17 in Knight Library’s Browsing Room.

Economic and employment realities are prompting some leading humanities programs to reconsider the training of graduate students with a goal of preparing them for a variety of employment options in applied humanities fields, such as museums. The debate between “pure” humanities and “life beyond the tenure track” has dominated discussions at recent meetings of the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association, and within various other fields.

In the UO talk, Tokofsky revisits debates over distinctions between the two spheres, which played out in disciplines such as folklore studies and art history in the 1980s and 1990s, and he reflects on current arguments from the perspective of someone whose own career straddles the academic and applied humanities divide.

Tokofsky directs academic programs and the public speaker series at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He is also adjunct associate professor of Germanic languages at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has published extensively on the history of folklore studies and carnival celebrations in German-speaking Europe. He directs UCLA’s summer travel study program to Vienna, Munich and Berlin.

The talk is presented by the UO Folklore Program and sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of Academic Affairs, UO Libraries, Comparative Literature Program, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Humanities Program, Department of History, Arts and Administration Program, and Department of English.

- from UO Libraries