A plea for the humanities

Chris Else.

To: Harlene Hayne vice-chancellor, Otago University, Tony Ballantyne pro-vice-chancellor (humanities), Otago University.

We, the undersigned, want to express our distress at the proposed staff cuts in the humanities division at the University of Otago.

These changes threaten our wider artistic and cultural communities, and compromise Dunedin’s recently acquired status as a Unesco City of Literature. Beyond the humanities, the subsequent effects on our local economy will be felt acutely not only by our artistic communities, but the larger municipality. The cuts will also have a desiccating impact on the wider national culture, given Otago students are drawn from all around Aotearoa.

The essence of a Unesco city of literature is its fostering and promotion of writing and the literary imagination; for Otago University to cut its scholarly literary departments is totally counter to this spirit and undermines Dunedin’s special status. Writers need a robust creative and critical environment to flourish in. The role of English, linguistics and language scholars, not to mention historians, anthropologists, musicians and musicologists is essential to any vibrant, living, progressive culture.

The humanities train students in the ability to question, expand, inquire, educate, create, imagine, and also to resolve pressing social dilemmas. Crucially, the humanities, and literature in particular, are touchstones for teaching and expanding the powers of empathy. Through criticism the values inherent in our literature and our culture are articulated and made conscious so that they can be applied in all walks of life.

The university’s role by definition is to serve the public good. It has responsibilities to teach critical, ethical and imaginative thinking, to help develop citizens who don’t merely act as consumers but who actively analyse, question and innovate. 

The contribution of our humanities academics goes far beyond the university campus. Often highly specialised practitioners — lured to our city by the prospect of an academic posting at our world-class institution — take their medium to the larger community. Imagine our city without a symphony orchestra, without the Dunedin Sound, without monthly poetry readings, without the Fringe and Otago arts festivals, without French tuition for your teenage son or daughter, without private cello lessons, without the Otago Museum, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Otago Settlers Museum, the Fortune Theatre, the Globe Theatre, etcetera etcetera.

By cutting the humanities our university not only compromises its own ability to provide resources to future students who seek an arts degree. It also chooses so-called economic growth over cultural, ethical and humanistic engagement and enriching our civic landscape.

The arts provide a mirror to society. Without them, our capacity to understand the world we live in is massively limited. We, the writers and extended literary community of Dunedin and New Zealand, demand that the University Council rethink these short-sighted and economically focused cuts to the humanities division. Saving a few dollars now will result in immeasurable cost to our community in the years to come.

● The signatories are: Chris Else,  Maurice Gee, Owen Marshall, Alison Wong, Christine Johnson, Elspeth Sandys, Philip Temple, Catherine Chidgey, Emma Neale,  Fiona Farrell, Brian Turner, Cilla McQueen, David Eggleton, David Howard, James Norcliffe, Jo Randerson, Louise Wallace, Lynley Hood, Michael Harlow, Nick Ascroft, Paula Boock, Rawiri Paratene, Bill Manhire, Diane Brown, Lynley Edmeades, Neville Peat, Vincent O’Sullivan, Barbara Else, Brigid Lowry, David Elliott, Diana Noonan, Ella West, Fleur Beale, Jack Lasenby, Kyle Mewburn, Penelope Todd and Robyn Belton.