What is Critique without Pessimism?: Postcritique, Neoliberalism, and the Future of the Humanities

The humanities are in peril. Declining numbers of majors, reductions in financial support, and an overall lack of understanding of the nature and value of the humanities are opening the door to a more vocationally-centered vision of higher education. In a political economy and academic environment wherein educational values are determined by market-share, majors and courses that cannot be directly connected to marketable skills and job attainment are regarded as expendable. As a result, the humanities are losing students and energy at an alarming rate. This has humanities scholars scrambling for solutions. Some have responded to this situation by criticizing the neoliberal educational practices that are allegedly deepening the problems facing the humanities. But is this necessarily the case? Will it be enough to renew the humanities? More importantly, is halting the rise of the neoliberal university even a realistic proposal to save the humanities from demise? Or is it just naïve optimism? Pessimism with regard to halting the rise of the neoliberal university finds its opposite in the joyful optimism of those who believe that embracing neoliberal academe is the solution to the problems facing the humanities.Rather than resisting neoliberal academe as a way to resolve the woes of the humanities, some believe that embracing neoliberalism is the best way to rescue the humanities from their perilous condition.