Milton Faculty Launch Humanities Workshop
A single issue—examined across academic disciplines in classrooms around Greater Boston—is the launching point for the Humanities Workshop, founded by English department faculty members Alisa Braithwaite and Lisa Baker.
Beginning this fall, Milton students, along with students at four other public and private schools, will focus on questions about economic inequality in their humanities classes, culminating in a May exhibition at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston.
The Humanities Workshop will follow a single social issue throughout an entire academic year, studying it through literature, history, language, philosophy and the arts. The idea sprang from “a desire to reassert the humanities in the age of STEM [science, technology, engineering and math education],” says Alisa.
The inaugural theme is especially relevant to the nearly 1,000 students participating in this pilot year, because Boston was named in 2016 by the Brookings Institution as the city with the highest income inequality in the United States.
“We very deliberately chose this theme because everyone can participate, because everyone is part of this conversation,” Lisa says.
Alisa and Lisa have been developing the program for several years. They learned of the Humanities Action Lab, a consortium of colleges and universities that examine pressing social issues through the lens of the humanities, and connected with that program’s director to discuss scaling it to the high school level. Last June, they met with other high school educators to talk about the idea of a theme-specific project.
At Milton and the other pilot schools this year, participating teachers have agreed to focus on economic inequality. Students’ work will culminate in a visual representation of their studies at the EMK Institute this spring. The other participating schools are the public Boston Latin School; Boston College High School, a Jesuit Catholic boys’ school; and two public charter schools, Boston Collegiate and the Academy of the Pacific Rim.
The public event on May 19 will showcase the Humanities Workshop and feature a curated exhibit of student work and performances, along with a keynote address, opportunities for civic engagement, and a panel of artists, activists, journalists and authors who have studied economic inequality in their fields.