Most professors have mixed feelings about participating on peer-review panels. It's an honor. It helps the discipline. It's a waste of time. It's biased. Michele Lamont wanted to know whether it works: specifically, whether, and how, professors identify excellence. So the multi-titled Harvard University scholar--professor of European studies,…

Multicultural scholarship was critiqued by proponents at a meeting of the American Studies Association for a "politics of style" substituting for analysis of society; a "particularism" that has divided researchers into separate camps; and a "political correctness" that has avoided self-criticism. One issue raised was that multiculturalism further…

At a meeting of academic and public humanists, scholars agreed and expressed a need for scholars, the public, and the sponsors of public humanities programs to come together to encourage the humanities in society at large, and to find specific ways to bring humanities to the public's attention. (MSE)

Historians have extended the study of religion into the 20th century, and in social sciences many scholars are reassessing their theories about the secularization of American society. Recent trends in scholarship have also facilitated the rediscovery of the Bible and other religious texts. (MLW)

Interdisciplinary research is seen as coming of age across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, with interdisciplinary thought most substantive in the sciences. For that reason, some observers suggest that the gulf between scientific and humanistic learning may be widening. (MLW)

Scholarly publishers are experimenting with the "electronic monograph," a scholarly book offered on the Internet. Several converging trends (declining university subsidies, increasing research specialization, tightening library budgets) are putting pressure on academic publishing in the humanities and social sciences. Publishers are not convinced…