Of griots and professors
As a scholar, I have spent nearly three decades studying the art and social life of West African griots. Griots are storytellers, guardians of cultural memory (they are known colloquially as “living libraries”), and social counselors. Griots are, in fact, a lot like university professors! Professors, too, tell edifying stories about myriad topics (it’s called “teaching”), cultivate and preserve knowledge about our common world, and advise and mentor members of our community who come to us seeking knowledge and wisdom.
Unlike professors, though, griots are experts in the art of praise—celebrating the exploits and achievements of their cultures and communities, past and present. It’s not boasting. Their counsel, historical insight, and rhetoric make ample space for genuine pride in the accomplishments of their societies. “We did that,” the griot sings, “and it was good!”
We professors have something to learn, I think, from the griots on this count.
Say what?
Now, some of you may be thinking, “Praise for the university? At a time like this?” When higher education is under assault from hither and yon, widely lambasted in popular media as too elite, too ideological, and (dare I say it) too woke, and viewed by many (as a recent Pew Research Center survey showed) as “going in the wrong direction,” is it really appropriate to suggest that what we are doing is, in fact, praiseworthy?
I say “Yes!” and with the full-throated emphasis of a griot. There is much that is right about what we are doing in higher education—as teachers, researchers, community advocates, and mentors—and we should not lose sight of that when the discourse of the day would seem to put us permanently on the defensive.
To be sure, there are real problems facing higher ed in America, and right here at Ohio State. (I happen to agree with President Carter that affordability and access are chief among them.) But solving such problems should strive to build upon what works and not come at the expense of our aptitudes, aspirations, and values. For that reason, I think it’s right and proper—even necessary—to highlight our successes now and again.
So, as we enter the season of Thanksgiving, and speaking on behalf of the constituencies I represent and support as Director of the Humanities Institute, I would like to take a moment to sing the praises of my peers, their programs, and the students we serve, emphasizing the amazing work, outcomes, and achievements of the arts and humanities at Ohio State.
Seeing the forest for the trees
Let’s start with the big picture. Arts and humanities programs nationally are really good—I mean, really good—at cultivating durable skills, things like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, cultural competency, empathy, self-directed learning, professionalism, and leadership. Study after study shows that these are precisely the kinds of skills employers are looking for and that arts and humanities graduates are finding good, fulfilling work that leverages these competencies. This is the argument of an article recently published in Ms. Magazine, for example, which makes a strong, evidence-based case for the broad value of degrees in Women’s and Gender Studies!
There is also a strong economic case for the arts and humanities to be made. According to statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, “arts and cultural economic activity accounted for 4.2% of GDP, or $1.17 trillion, in 2023,” and grew at twice the rate of the U.S economy as a whole! In Ohio, the state’s creative sector has been called a “powerful economic force,” supporting nearly 300,000 jobs statewide in 2024. Arts students at OSU, combining innovative creative practice with all those durable skills, are well-placed to contribute to and grow that field. I can’t wait to see and hear what our new minors in hip-hop—integrating studies in Music, Dance, and African American and African Studies—will bring to tomorrow’s culture industry!
Further, arts and humanities programs—here at OSU and around the country—are preparing students for gainful and meaningful careers after graduation. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that salaries for humanities degree holders “are comparable to or better than the salaries of workers who majored in most non-humanities fields.” Further, a report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences shows that most humanities majors (87%) are satisfied with their work (a figure that goes up to 91% with an advanced degree). In a related study, the Academy reports that two-thirds of humanities graduates are “deeply interested” in their work, providing opportunities “to do what I do best every day.” I think it’s safe to say we’re doing something right on this front!
Some local points of pride:
World languages
I have a B.A. in French and Francophone Studies, a degree which—quite literally—opened the world to me in ways that fundamentally shaped me as a person, not just as a scholar and teacher. So, I was thrilled to learn that we have 1,655 majors and minors in world languages here at OSU! The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures alone has graduated more than 200 majors between 2020 and 2024, making them the second largest producer of B.A. degrees in East Asian languages nationally. That’s wonderful!
Being a language major involves much more than learning a foreign tongue. Language students are deeply invested in literary study, anthropology, history, linguistics, and much else, developing skills that have broad application beyond graduation. For example, most students in the Department of French and Italian are double (sometimes triple) majors, connecting their studies with business, STEM, and creative practice of various kinds. In Spanish and Portuguese, students are engaged in community service, advanced neurolinguistic research, and hands-on folklore studies. Graduates from these programs have gone on to find work in medicine, law, education, fashion, travel, non-profits, and the tech sector. Others have pursued advanced degrees in a range of fields.
These students are served by some of the best faculty in the world, hands down. Take Professor Ahmad Al-Jallad in Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, whose pathbreaking research into a previously undeciphered ancient Arabian script was recently reported on in the journal Science—work that “has the potential of writing an entirely new page on the history of Arabia.” Remarkable.
Butts in seats and beyond
I’m biased, of course, but the arts and humanities offer some of the most vital, timely, and important courses in the College of Arts and Sciences—and they’re some of the most popular courses too! The Department of History, for example, is a national leader in the history of environment, technology, science, and medicine, and the courses they offer on these topics (“History of Technology,” “Food in World History,” “History of Public Health, Medicine and Disease,” “Water: A Human History,” “Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of American Business and Global Environmental Change 1800-Today,” “The Climate Crisis: Mechanisms, Impacts, and Mitigation,” and “Vaccines: A Global History,” just to name a few) routinely enroll more than 900 students per semester. With a curriculum like that, it’s no wonder History has 350 majors and 460 minors (and counting)!
This refrain echoes across units in the Arts and Humanities. In Classics, their myth and religious studies courses serve thousands of undergraduates each year, exposing students to comparative methods that are as relevant to analyzing Greek mythology as they are to evaluating facts and making informed decisions in the present (about the economy, politics, you name it)! In the Department of Linguistics, around 500 high school students have learned about the scientific study of language at the Summer Linguistic Institute for Youth Scholars since 2023, a success story that parallels the growing number of undergraduates (nearly 1500 last year) who enroll in their courses annually. And in the School of Music, enrollment is up 27% since 2022. As the Area Head of Music Theory and Musicology, I can attest to the fact that our classrooms are full and our (beautiful new) building is bustling!
The arts in community
Arts and Humanities Departments and Centers are involved and invested in a wide variety of community-engaged projects and programs, connecting our campus to myriad groups and organizations in our region—so I’ll highlight a few that showcase the arts! Ohio State’s Urban Arts Space (UAS) anchors the university arts community in the city of Columbus. Each year, UAS brings more than 50 arts students to its downtown location to cultivate and apply their administrative skills in a real-world professional arts setting. Many of these students have gone on to work at Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus College of Art & Design, Ologie, the Columbus Fashion Alliance, and other institutions immediately after graduation—making UAS an important arts career accelerator in our city.
The African American and African Studies (AAAS) Community Extension Center (CEC) is another community-embedded Center that serves our city’s historic and sizeable Black and African communities. In 2025-26, the CEC is sponsoring a “Public Art Initiative” that will “showcase artworks that reflect storytelling, cultural reflection, future gazing, Black Studies, and Afrofuturism.” This initiative will result in an exhibition of community artwork that will be on display at the CEC’s historically Black Near East Side location beginning in the Summer of 2026. Once again, work like this creates a durable bridge between campus and community, fostered in both these cases by local encounters with art!
Humanities and/as civics
The five affiliated Centers in the Humanities Institute are committed to bringing diverse communities together on campus to meet and collaborate. That’s our mission. These spaces of dialogue and exchange have been especially impactful in this moment, as our society struggles with thorny issues that bear upon our collective present and future. I’ll give a few recent examples that highlight this important civic work. Recently, the Center for Ethnic Studies (CES) hosted a teach-in that brought more than 50 people together to discuss Ohio State’s current policy on land acknowledgements—making space to learn about the issue from campus and community experts. This work is in the spirit of the CES more generally, which strives to “expand what all of us can know about the nexus of racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, and sexual difference.”
The Melton Center for Jewish Studies, which “encourages an interest in the study of all aspects of the Jewish experience at Ohio State and within the central Ohio community,” was recently awarded a two-year grant with the Middle East Studies Center and Center for Ethics and Human Values from the Global Arts + Humanities Cross-Disciplinary Research Exchange. The focus of this grant is on Israel/Palestine, with programming that seeks to model dialogue, research collaboration, and connection on one of the most fraught topics at the university—and society more broadly—today. The goal is to foster meaningful (even if difficult) exchange and build productive and sustaining partnerships across campus and beyond. Again, our Centers are a vital locus of civic dialogue, where the most significant issues of our time are discussed and debated with care and concern.
Looking forward
To close, I’d like to shift for a moment from praise to promotion, highlighting two upcoming events. First, in just a few weeks (Tuesday, December 2nd), the College of Arts and Sciences will host the Arts and Humanities Faculty Research and Creative Inquiry Showcase, featuring presentations from nearly two dozen faculty representing twelve units across the arts and humanities. This will be a wonderful occasion to gather, learn about and celebrate the creative and scholarly work of our peers!
Next Spring (March 5th, 2026), the Departments of English, History, Linguistics, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies are teaming up to host an inaugural Humanities Career Exploration Fair, supported by a Career Success Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences. The goal of this event is to help humanities majors align their university studies with job market skills needed in post-graduation. The fair will host a wide variety of employers, from arts organizations and nonprofits to construction and cosmetics companies! This is not only a great example of interdepartmental collaboration; it’s also an opportunity to showcase the praiseworthy practices, competencies, engagements, research, and courses and programs of study (see above) cultivated in the arts and humanities right here at Ohio State!
In short, I’m very proud of who we are and what we do. It’s humbling and inspiring to witness day-to-day, and it makes me grateful to be part of this thoughtful, dynamic, and engaged community. Do we face real challenges? Of course. Are there problems to fix? Always. But I am convinced that the best way to meet these challenges and solve these problems is by leveraging our talents, affirming our assets, and championing our values. Invoking my inner griot, I’m here to say: “We’re doing this, and it is good!”
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, friends.
Ryan Skinner
Director of the Humanities Institute