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Thursday, July 10, 2025

A Voice for the Humanities?: Mark Edmunson reads from his Recent Essay

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, Dr. Mark Edmundson came to Longwood University to give the staff and students his take on the humanities. He read from his recent essay, “The Soul of Humanities.”

Edmundson is a professor at the University of Virginia. He has a bachelor’s degree from Bennington and a Ph.D. from Yale. He has written a wide variety of books and essays, ranging from being a football player to Freud to being an English major.

In his talk last Thursday night, he spoke for about 45 minutes and a 15 minute Q & A followed. It was short, sweet and to the point. The message he got across to the packed auditorium was that the humanities do matter, and they are quite possibly the most important part of a liberal studies education.

He started his talk off by telling the audience how people respond to humanities majors. Humanities majors get a great deal of negative attention because people think that it is all learning how to read and write. They don’t think you get anything substantial out of it, but he pushes these negative thoughts far from his audience’s heads.

One really intriguing point he made was how philosophy majors are taught to argue. They would make excellent lawyers and/or businessmen because they are taught to handle the same situations that law and business students are taught. He also says that humanities majors learn how to throw themselves into their work and look deeper into the problem. They learn how to do things from an analytical standpoint.

He got very mixed emotions about halfway through his speech when he decided to talk about how much students are paying for school. He believes that people are forced to spend way too much. Students are paying for new buildings, supplies, sports, marketing, etc.

Edmundson said that we shouldn’t be forced to pay for things that we don’t need. Athletes should pay for their sports, and the state should pay for buildings if we absolutely need new ones. A lot of people felt very differently about this, but it seemed to be a good point for almost everyone.

The Q&A was a very well- received portion of the event. About seven or eight students stood up to ask him questions, which he answered very well. The first question was about his essay “The Ideal English Major.”

In this essay, he talks about the idea of reincarnation.

Edmundson responded that English majors are able to reincarnate themselves through literature. The question was about whether or not this form of reincarnation could be applied to other areas.

Can a science major reincarnate himself through a lab or experiment? Can a musician have this feeling of reincarnation through a powerful or emotional song? He answered this by saying that he doesn’t believe it is possible, and that he only believes it is possible through literature because words are powerful and can pull a reader in and change his or her perspective. Another person asked him about what legacy he wishes to leave behind. He said that he only wishes to “pass the package” and help others learn. Edmundson said that he knows Plato has nothing to worry about just yet.

Jarman Auditorium was packed for Mark Edmundson’s speech. There were a large amount of students and faculty there to listen to what he had to say about the humanities. What everyone in the audience could take away from what Edmundson had to say was that humanities majors “live to thrive, and live to succeed.”

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