Three esteemed faculty members in the humanities at UC Davis will comprise a panel on “The Humanities and the Common Good,” the next program in the Provost’s Forums on the Public University and the Social Good. It’s scheduled for Friday, April 4, in the multipurpose room at the Student Community Center.

The program flier asks: “What contributions do the humanities, as taught in public universities, make to a society that values profitable innovation and vocational training? How can we continue to value cognitive abilities, artistic talents and uses of language that cannot be measured in the chiefly quantitative terms that dominate efforts to measure success? How can we highlight the value of humanities training in the arts of noticing, interpreting and explaining divergent perspectives on complex social issues?”

These arts, the flier declares, are important both in the 21st-century workplace and in the spheres where the public good is debated.

The forum host, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter, distinguished professor of classics and comparative literature, will be among the panelists, along with Margaret Ferguson, distinguished professor of English, and president of the Modern Language Association, the world’s largest professional organization advocating for the teaching of language and literature; and Christopher Reynolds, professor of music, a “rock to Renaissance musicologist," recipient of the 2013 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement.

The program also includes two speakers: humanities deans William Ladusaw from UC Santa Cruz and David Marshall from UC Santa Barbara.

The presentations and panel are scheduled from 4 to 5:30 p.m., and a reception will run from 5:30 to 6:30.

The next provost’s forum, “Universities and Regional Growth,” is scheduled for April 22, with six speakers:

• Martin Kenney, professor, Department of Human Ecology, UC Davis
• James Lapsley, researcher, Agricultural Issues Cente, and adjunct associate professor, Department of Viticulture and Enology, UC Davis
• David Mowery, professor, Hass School of Business, UC Berkeley
• Christophe Lecuyer, senior fellow, History of Science and Technolog, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France
• Steven Casper, professor of management, and associate dean of faculty development, Keck Graduate Institute
• Mary Walshok, associate vice chancellor, Public Programs, UC San Diego, and dean of UC San Diego Extension

The lectures will run from 1 to 4 p.m. in the multipurpose room, Student Community Center, and a reception will run until 5 in the same room.

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