USELESS KNOWLEDGE

Fellowships

    I have been going through several issues of The Times Literary Supplement and have been pleased to see that there are still advertisements offering enticements to scholars, even if they are labouring in fields that are not relevant, popular or useful. If you are interested in the 18th century, for example, the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale will provide you with accommodation in an appropriate eighteenth-century house, a stipend, a per diem living allowance and you will be reimbursed “the cost of a rental car or local travel expenses.” If you are not an 18th century fellow, but would still like to go to Yale, contact the Beinecke Library there which offers “fellowships to support research in a wide range of fields, from literary and cultural studies to the history of science, music, theater, and art; the history of the book, of photography, graphic design, and architecture; as well as social, intellectual, and political history.” You might qualify for a living allowance of $4,000 per month, which isn’t bad since those are U.S. dollars. If you would rather labour abroad, try the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel in Germany if you are interested in medieval or early modern history or go for a Katharine F. Pantzer Jr Award if you are doing bibliographic research and want to reside in London where there are still lots of books.

   I am pleased because it is refreshing to see that libraries full of books and manuscripts are luring people to use the collections and paying them to do so. The university libraries in which I worked are now largely emptied of books, which makes them more appealing to students seeking only safe spaces with electrical sockets. While it is surprising to learn that there is still some income to be derived from the arts and humanities and that there are a few survivors outside the STEM fields, it is also satisfying to see that some people are being paid to pursue interests and subjects which most people see as useless.

The Cultivation of Curiosity

   During a time when universities are expected to be more concerned with useful, practical, vocational matters it is worth reconsidering “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge.” That is the title of an essay that appeared in Harper’s magazine in 1939 and it is the subject again of an article in a recent New York Times: ”Useless Knowledge Begets New Horizons,” Bret Stephens, Jan. 3, 2019. Although Stephens used the example of space exploration and the need for funding for  “pure” science, perhaps the softer, even more useless, subjects should be considered as well. Two samples from the article:

“And yet, in being the kind of society that does this kind of thing — that is, the kind that sends probes to the edge of the solar system; underwrites the scientific establishment that knows how to design and deploy these probes; believes in the value of knowledge for its own sake; cultivates habits of truthfulness, openness, collaboration and risk-taking; enlists the public in the experience, and shares the findings with the rest of the world — we also discover the highest use for useless knowledge: Not that it may someday have some life-saving application on earth, though it might, but that it has a soul-saving application in the here and now, reminding us that the human race is not a slave to questions of utility alone.

There are plenty of reasons to worry about the state of the American mind today, as well as the state of the university. Speech is not as free; gadflies are not as welcome; inquiry is dictated as much by the availability of funding as it is by the instincts of curiosity, and funding itself is often short. But let’s start 2019 on a happier note.”

Sources: 

   There are many examples for fellowships, some of which entail more obligations than others. See: The John Carter Brown Library and The Folger Shakespeare Library and The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
   For more about “Useless Knowledge” and Flexner see the Institute for Advanced Studies where his essay and other related ones are found.
Post Script:
   Perhaps the best example of noblesse oblige without strings, obligations or expectations is the MacArthur Fellowship offered by the MacArthur Foundation. One is given $625,000 for a five year period for such things as: "Pushing the boundaries of literary fiction in works that combine the surreal and fantastical with the concerns and emotional realism of contemporary life" or "Expanding the potential of vocal and orchestral music to convey emotional, dramatic, and literary meaning."
See the very interesting MacArthur Foundation website.