The effect that dwindling support for the humanities could have on America's future is the topic to be addressed at an upcoming lecture sponsored by the GVSU Arts and Humanities Department.
J. Paul Hunter, director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities and a professor at the University of Chicago, will present Going Downtown: Why Humanities Must Explain Themselves to the Public, in which he explores the long-range implications of diminished support for humanistic enterprises in American society.
The lecture will be delivered at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 19 at the Loosemore Auditorium at the DeVos Center in Grand Rapids. The event is free of charge and open to the public. A reception will follow.
Hunter holds a Ph.D. in literature from Rice University. He has written several books, including The Reluctant Pilgrim and Occasional Forum.His book, Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth-Century English Fiction, won the 1991 Louis Gottschalk Prize. Hunter is also the editor of numerous textbooks, including two widely-used college textbooks, Norton Introduction to Poetry and Norton Introduction to Literature.
Thursday's event also includes the awarding of the second annual Grand Valley Humanities Award.
