New Books in Critical Theory Amanda Anderson and Simon During, "Humanities Theory" (Oxford UP, 2026)
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Apr 17, 2026 
Simon During, a cultural theorist on postcolonialism and the history of the humanities, and Amanda Anderson, a moral-life and cultural criticism scholar at Brown, discuss what a plural, global humanities world looks like. They cover media framings, the divide between academic and public humanities, internet and AI impacts, value pluralism, and efforts to include non-Western and indigenous knowledges.
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Academic Crisis Versus Public Expansion
- There is a crisis in the academic humanities but not in the broader humanities world, which is expanding via new platforms and audiences.
- During points to para‑amateur spaces (like New Books Network) as 'vortices' attracting the humanities beyond university walls.
Defend University Funding To Preserve Public Humanities
- Protect and sustain university humanities funding because public humanities draw on scholarly reproduction and reduced academic capacity will harm cultural practices.
- Amanda Anderson warns defunding in places like Australia will damage the pipelines that feed public cultural knowledge.
History As The Core Tool For Humanities Theory
- History is the most useful discipline for theorizing the humanities because it forces translation across time and balances presentist judgment with archival difference.
- During uses the presentism vs archive tension to argue history helps map large humanities logics.
