An anecdote: this year at UMass, the College of Humanities & Fine Arts slashed our funding to attend domestic conferences to $300, & if we apply to the union for funds first. But if we want to collaborate with the College of Computer and Information Science, then we are eligible for a $20k grant. - ThreadSky

An anecdote: this year at UMass, the College of Humanities & Fine Arts slashed our funding to attend domestic conferences to $300, & if we apply to the union for funds first. But if we want to collaborate with the College of Computer and Information Science, then we are eligible for a $20k grant.

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profmarylewis.bsky.social•62 days ago

$300 gets you maybe one or two nights in the conference hotel. No airplane, no registration fees. Horrible, I’m so sorry.

pherman.bsky.social•62 days ago

not even that much.

hleisthen.bsky.social•62 days ago

Yeah. Scientist here. In grant budgets, I figure about $2k per person per year to go to 1 conference each. And that’s because I know we can tap into institutional funds to cover any shortfall.

lawrencecphd.bsky.social•59 days ago

$300 is a joke. And conferences and travel have only gotten more expensive. They are how you present research, make connections, talk to editors, publish, and get book contracts. Humanities research also often involves travel to archives, etc., and there’s little or no funding for that either.

mwduff.bsky.social•62 days ago

Conferences are so expensive— reg could be $300 and if it is across country and a flight and nights at a hotel are required that’s $1k more

doctorcarrie.bsky.social•62 days ago

And conferences wonder why physical attendance is down.

homophonous.bsky.social•62 days ago

😡

doctorcarrie.bsky.social•62 days ago

Sounds about right. My communication arts and sciences department is about to merge with a school of information studies and college of business to stay more relevant at the university.

laurafurlan.bsky.social•59 days ago

And yet we are expected to attend conferences to present our work.

drsurekhadavies.bsky.social•62 days ago

Nuclear-level toxic policy.

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•62 days ago

Link to the paper: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/article/humanities-decline-in-darkness-how-humanities-research-funding-works/54F12CB0DB7D07F93C2B28CDBDB70453

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•62 days ago

Public universities have choices as to how they allocate research funds, and this is the choice my university has made.

sonjadrimmer.bsky.social•62 days ago

I will be attending one conference this year so the $300 will over the cost of my registration. I will drive there, give my paper, come home. I will not get to support the work of early career scholars. I will not get to benefit from the sharing of knowledge that happens at these conferences.

monniauxd.bsky.social•62 days ago

May I ask a naive question? I'm not in a US university, but I often see this opposition between humanities and STEM. Aren't business/economics/management/law also very well funded?

merleeisenberg.bsky.social•62 days ago

In the US generally: econ is part of social sciences (and not large as a dept now) and law doesn't exist as undergrad. Business is usually in its own College with its own funding, which is quite high even as their costs are more like the humanities (small grants, often slower pace of work).

merleeisenberg.bsky.social•62 days ago

Business profs are paid way more (75k-90k for arts/sciences vs. 200k for business), but I think there is a perspective that what business profs do is far more professional than academic so hence the comparison with STEM. So humanities people see themselves like a biologist not a management prof.

adrienscarso.bsky.social•62 days ago

TYVM, Sonja. Well done. I have been looking for some *"Herbert Marcuse Center and/or Institute"* out of a galaxy of yours, and all that I discovered remained an archive from a Southestern country side: https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb3755w522b; not to mention: https://sites.google.com/site/marcusesociety/Home.

adrienscarso.bsky.social•62 days ago

Not to mention CHARLES REITZ 2024
reviews The Marcusean Mind (2024)

in Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

Eduardo Altheman C. Santos, Jina Fast, Nicole K. Mayberry, and Sid Simpson (eds.)
The Marcusean Mind (Routledge, London, 2025).

602 pp. [ISBN 9781032462998]

https://www.routledge.com/The-Marcusean-Mind/AlthemanCSantos-Fast-Mayberry-Simpson/p/book/9781032462998

nuitsdeyoung.bsky.social•62 days ago

Am in the UK. Similar situation.

nuitsdeyoung.bsky.social•62 days ago

I see the subjects I care abt, that I studied, being run down, or – as you say – funding made available if it's tagged to some trendy non-arts/humanities theme abt climate change or computing & c.

nuitsdeyoung.bsky.social•62 days ago

Add to that majority of students who – despite having a world of knowledge freely accessible at the press of a few keys – seem to inhabit a bubble of pop culture, with little deeper cultural hinterland.

marcelemoran.bsky.social•62 days ago

Wow. And $300 will rarely even cover the registration fees anymore

henrythe5thelement.bsky.social•62 days ago

Raise your grading-cramped hands if your institution has sent you an email like this one (be careful not to disturb the asbestos in your crumbling ceiling tiles if you are in your office)

henrythe5thelement.bsky.social•62 days ago

Here's our department reply:

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