“What is it that you do in the English Department?”

“What can you actually do with an English Degree?”

“Don’t you all just end up as high school teachers?”

These questions are ones that all English majors endure every time they dare talk about their studies. For decades, the Humanities have been the punch line of any joke regarding liberal arts education. It’s something that has always been taken in stride and brushed off. But recently, the perception of the nation’s Humanities departments has gone from annoying, to catastrophic. The running jokes have worked their way into budget cuts, enrollment deficits, and unprecedented levels of scrutiny. This turn does not speak to some mass degradation of Humanities colleges nationwide, it illuminates a profound cultural blindness.

The OED defines “relevate” as the act of “elevating, or lifting up (a person or thing) literally or figuratively.” More specifically, it is to do so again—it is to re-elevate that which has been forgotten or lost. Relevation is precisely what we do in Humanities research. We find those things that have been lost to time, ignored, or simply under-analyzed, and we bring them back into the discourse.

So that’s what this podcast aims to do. It aims to enlighten and to correct the discourse—to relevate the relevation that is being done in Humanities departments all across the country.

Every Monday, we are going to talk to either a student, a grad student, or a faculty member from a Humanities department. We are going to discuss the groundbreaking research they are doing, what changes they are making in their communities, what discoveries they have made in their research, and why their work matters for everyone. We are going to pull the curtain back on the humanities, show how important the field really is, and explain what people can actually do with their studies.