Humanities

By the mid-1980s, Jane Goodall was already internationally renowned for her groundbreaking work illuminating the lives and minds of chimpanzees when she paid a visit to a research facility where the animals, humankind’s closest living relatives, were being subjected to painful and sometimes deadly medical experiments.

At the sight of one chimp in particular, called Jojo, locked in a 5- by 5-foot cage, Goodall began to weep. Upon seeing this, Jojo reached out toward her and gently wiped away her tears.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced that it will soon shut down facial recognition software on its platforms — effectively removing the facial recognition templates of more than a billion Facebook users. The software has been utilized by the social media service for over a decade, allowing people to be automatically identified in photos and videos.

Courts around the United States are starting to see an alarming uptick in tenant eviction filings, and the situation is headed toward catastrophe according to a recent New York Times article.

President Joe Biden’s extension of an eviction moratorium was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in August, and now more people are facing homelessness or are seeking cheaper rents in places they might not want to live.

Faculty members in Arizona State University's School of International Letters and Cultures have been working to integrate sustainability concepts into their language courses and overall curriculum, from vocabulary related to climate and the environment, to broader cultural themes and issues surrounding global futures.

Shaping tomorrow requires path-breaking, creative solutions. That challenge has never been more critical than it is today, as a “syndemic” of intersecting crises — the coronavirus pandemic, racial injustice and accompanying civil unrest, and cascading environmental hazards — have had a cascading effect on social systems and death rates around the world.

In August of this year, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed HB 2241, which requires students to be taught about the Holocaust and other genocides at least twice between 7th and 12th grades.

Over the past 10 years, Arizona State University’s Project Humanities has received high praise from many dignitaries around the world.

They include a Humanity 101 commendation from the Dalai Lama; an endorsement from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison; and a big thumbs up from Valley resident and former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner.

Arizona State University junior John Keane visited Iraq earlier this semester as part of a group teaching English as a second language, an experience that helped him develop skills he intends to use in his future career.

In 2021, ongoing social, environmental and economic upheavals have made sifting through the noise — sometimes metaphorical noise, sometimes literal noise — an unfortunate part of daily life. How to determine what’s worth your time? What’ll make you spiral versus make you soar? And what’s that sound?

When you step into Neal Lester’s Discovery Hall office on the ASU Tempe campus, you’ll never forget it.

You’ll see things like a box of Obama Waffles mix. A Sambo game dartboard. Plenty of “Mammy” figurines, a couple of golliwogs and racially diverse nativity scenes. That’s just a small sampling.

Lester’s office from floor to ceiling is covered in American memorabilia — the good, the bad and the unpretty. And that’s the exact effect he’s going for.