Geoffrey Harpham identifies an “American” system of education that emerged at the end of the second World War. This system–universal, general, and liberal–grew out of a triumphant national self-understanding, and was designed with the projected needs of a democratic society, rather than the professions or the civil service, in mind. Central to this system was the project of training and disciplining the mighty but potentially anarchic force of opinion, which de Tocqueville identified as the “mistress of the world” in American society.

Part of the FHI’s Mellon Humanities Futures initiative, Academic Futurology invites humanists to think proactively and creatively about the pragmatics of academic life, from "traditional" structures like the faculty meeting or lecture course to emerging forms such as the Humanities Lab.

Humanities Futures is a multi-year exploration of the futures of the humanities, in the wake of the interdisciplinary developments of recent decades.