Ben Owen Asuk
The call for a total reconceptualisation of the Humanities to make it relevant in the age of Artificial Intelligence and rapid technological advancement dominated discussions at the international conference of the Faculty of Humanities held last week at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt.
The 7th International conference with the theme “Reconceptualising the Humanities for Sustainable Development in the 21st Century” brought together scholars, researchers and students across the country.
Delivering her keynote address, the keynote speaker Prof Alexandra E. from the Faculty of Arts and Education, Benson IIdahosa University noted that sustainable development goes beyond physical growth to include environmental safety, human capital development and quality education, stressing that the Humanities have a critical role to play in achieving it.
She said in an era of extreme scientific breakthroughs where Artificial Intelligence completely transforms human reasoning and robotics, the Humanities can no longer be reduced to mere “grammar school” knowledge for those who can speak, read and write to be employed as teachers or administrative staff.
According to Britannica and UNESCO, which she quoted, the Humanities are branches of knowledge that explore human culture, thought and experience Philosophy, Literature, History, Arts whose sole responsibility is to provide society with intellectual and moral resources to comprehend its past, preserve its memories and question its assumptions.
She lamented that in contemporary times, Humanities is often conceived as a discipline isolated from technological advancements and economic development, making it suffer in the eyes of the common man.
“It is time to rethink, reconceive, redefine and reimagine the purpose of the Humanities. Humanities must begin to interact actively with technology, Artificial Intelligence and digital transformation for it to be relevant in sustainable development,” She declared.
The scholar then outlined eight practical actions to achieve the synergy:
- Curriculum change to introduce courses that forge synergy between technology and Humanities
- Establish a Humanities centre linking town and gown (education and employment)
- Research in Humanities geared towards solving real-life problems
- Create Interdisciplinary centres like Bio-Ethics and Philosophy to create moral balance of technology with human responsibility
- Generational and community-based Humanities projects
- Interdisciplinary programmes between Linguistics and Digital Humanities to prevent AI from producing robotic, culturally offensive and tone-deaf outputs
- Forge direct connection between Humanities and sustainable development
- Creation of STEM-Humanities careers (hybrid jobs that merge technology with humanistic thinking)
In her conclusion, she warned that as the globe races towards a highly automated future, the wisdom inherent in the Humanities must not be left behind at the starting line.
“Humanities must become the professional safety net and ethical guarantors of technological research. Scholars in Humanities must function as interpreters and architects of how we live with automated tools that comply with human rights and ethics. It is possible to produce super-fast computers with speedy internet, sophisticated gadgets, smartphones and smart cities, but none of them can find expression except through the Humanities (language),” She said.
She thereafter welcomed all delegates to the Garden City and wished them fruitful deliberations.
Meanwhile ,the Dean , faculty of Humanities, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Rumuolumini Port-Harcourt, Prof. Ibieree Ken-Maduako while speaking with the press said that the essence of the conference was to bring scholars from different humanities to rob mind together on how Artificial intelligence AI can be Reconceptualising in the various areas of Humanities for the sustainable development in the 21st century.
According to her, this an era where Technology is everything, so faculty of humanities must be adapted to it in order to be relevant in the present society
The Dean also Identified that collaboration is key for sustainable development to take place in the 21st century.
She therefore, calling for synergy between Humanities and Other professions , including the government to work together for the sustainable development in the Society.
Prof. Maduako concluded by expressing appreciation to the Vice chancellor, Prof. Onuchuku Okechukwu represented by Prof. Nwobueze, keynote speaker and other Speakers, participants, and the Students for their contributions to the successful conference.***
