mu-doss.jpg
An Object for Future Study

In the first part of this essay, Michael Doss traces the histories of thing theory and affect studies, which together can be understood as offshoots of a parent trend in the humanities: a demand for renewed methodologies that promise values such as equity, inclusion, decolonization, and political utility. The second part of this essay explores Rachel Kushner’s 2013 novel, The Flamethrowers, specifically its orientation toward the future, conveyed by the way it stages the futility of total self-renewal.

Why the Humanities are Indispensable
I wrote this at the request of a colleague of mine here at Stanford.  She simply asked me to give her my thoughts on why the humanities are important, and, in particular, what the humanities teach students that they cannot be taught in other disciplines.