Il triste declino delle discipline umanistiche

Indeed, Russian culture itself has become a target. Russian artists who lived long before the birth of Putin, or the creation of the Soviet secret police that trained him, have been cancelled. In Italy, writer Paolo Nori’s lectures on Dostoevsky were “postponed.” “This is to avoid any controversy,” explained the email he received, “especially internally, during a time of strong tensions.” Nori responded: “I realize what is happening in Ukraine is horrible, and I feel like crying just thinking about it. But what is happening in Italy is ridiculous. . . . Not only is being a living Russian wrong in Italy, but also being a dead Russian. That an Italian university would ban a course on an author like Dostoevsky is unbelievable.” After a backlash, the university reversed its decision.

But numerous cancellations have not been reversed. Gary Saul Morson, First Things

io credo che continuare a studiare la letteratura russa, così come tutte le letterature, sia un modo di combattere i dispotismi. E' questo che dico ai miei studenti. Dobbiamo rivendicare il ruolo fondamentale delle materie umanistiche nella formazione di cittadini pensanti e pacifici. Invece le cose stanno andando diversamente, purtroppo, come si vede da questo articolo:

Hiring in the humanities last peaked in 2007-2008, when the MLA’s jobs report recorded 3,506 openings across English and other languages. By 2019-2020, that number had fallen to 1,411. Jacob Brogan, The Washington Post Magazine