I remember hearing about the crisis in the humanities for the first time in the mid-1990s. At the time, I was pursuing an English degree at a small liberal arts college where new worlds seemed to be opening before me daily. The breadth of subjects I encountered and extraordinary faculty who guided my studies upended my worldview and changed my life’s path.

By the time I made my way to graduate school, the drumbeat had only grown louder. The humanities were becoming irrelevant. Liberal arts degrees were a poor investment. The humanities were dying.

That’s funny, I thought, at each reverberation of this beat, because I seemed to be doing fine. I was learning important things, gaining an ever-deeper understanding of myself, my fellow humans, and the world we had built and were building.

After earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing – which well-intentioned relatives were quick to point out didn’t really qualify me for any specific job – I moved nimbly from one rewarding professional position to the next (reporter, grants writer, columnist, adjunct professor, etc.), often filling multiple roles at once, progressively gaining new skills and publishing a dozen successful books on the side.

In short, I got my money’s worth, and then some, from my liberal arts education. But I am a realist. And no matter how hard I wish the humanities were flourishing, that won’t make it true.

The reality is colleges and universities across the country are discontinuing programs in English, history, philosophy, art history and the other liberal arts fields seemingly by the day. A higher education is expensive, and students and families are understandably choosing other majors that offer a quicker return on investment.

Amidst this reality, the mood in humanities departments has become increasingly dire. While the crisis is real, I don’t think the fatalism is warranted.

Now, more than ever, our world needs young people (and old ones too) who understand the complexities of human history, human culture and human nature. The perspective gained from sociology, anthropology, art history, philosophy and the other liberal arts disciplines remains essential to our health, happiness and individual and collective flourishing.

What we need is a humanities re-brand – a forward-looking and optimistic version of the humanities, a practical, instructive humanities that meets our current moment by tackling the big issues facing us today. The lenses of the liberal arts can help us better understand and respond to the rise of AI, the impacts of climate change, the dizzying pace of modern life, the mental health crisis, the ease with which disinformation spreads online and the rise of authoritarianism around the globe.

Speaking of AI, as it performs more of the tasks technical degree holders once performed, I believe the renaissance of the humanities major is forthcoming. And I’m not alone. As billionaire Mark Cuban opined in February, “In an AI world, being trained in those liberal arts can be very valuable.”

And that brings me to my own small role in this unfolding renaissance.

At the humanities center I direct, we are all-in on applying the lenses of the liberal arts to the world as we find it. By necessity that means often crossing into the STEM fields, working across disciplinary lines to tackle the big issues of our time.

On Sept. 23, we will host a public lecture featuring Maine native Colin Woodard, who will present “Uniting a Divided America.” Colin will offer his prescription for staving off the illiberal forces that have allowed authoritarianism to gain a renewed foothold around the globe and here in the U.S. When he steps to the podium, he will be drawing from his own very liberal-artsy career, sharing a perspective honed via study-abroad experiences in Europe as an undergrad, his illustrious journalistic career as a foreign correspondent, his work as a historian of American regionalism and his work at Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University.

If you think the humanities are dying, I encourage you to join us for Colin’s talk at UNE. See the crowd of people, young and old, that turns out to share in his wisdom … all made possible through a lifetime of humanities exploration. I have a feeling you’ll change your mind.