The talk offers an overview of debates about the current state and future directions of the humanities, including a focus on questions of policy and broader social contexts in the UK. It presents the work of the British Academy in this area, including subject mapping, development of humanities skills. and international collaboration It also outlines new approaches to interdisciplinarity, providing as an example the national ‘Translating Cultures• thematic programme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The presentation con dudes with a reflection on two specific but illustrative areas: the role of the humanities in debates about translation and At: and discussions about the meaning of the Global Humanities in the twenty-first century.
Charles Forsdick, Drapers Professor of French at Cambridge, chairs the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages. He is British Academy Languages lead fellow and honorary professor at Liverpool’s Centre for International Slavery. Forsdick teaches and researches translation, postcolonial French literature, colonial history, with particular interest in the French Caribbean.
