How should the humanities be positioned in the face of general and higher education policies’ transformation processes? This question will be the point of departure of the three-day conference «Für eine neue Kultur der Geisteswissenschaften?» organized by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) in cooperation with the University of Basel’s «Programm für Wissenschaftsforschung».

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In an article, recently posted on the Politblog, Politik der Schweiz, the former ETH professor and member of the National Council of Switzerland, Jacques Neirynck, has criticized politicians’ perspectives on the humanities. From a profit-oriented perspective, he argues, the humanities are often considered useless, as opposed to technical or medical sciences. In his article, he offers a contrasting view, considering the humanities “the breeding ground for politics”. Read the entire article (in German only).