Humanities

Contributors to this special issue of Maine Policy Review were asked to write original articles that would help readers to become more aware of a wide range of outstanding humanities programs in Maine and how public policy and the humanities relate to one another in the state. For some authors this was a clear and simple request, but it made most of them stop and think hard: these two important areas—public policy and the humanities—are too often considered as separate from one another. Where policy is primarily associated with local, state, and federal government, the humanities are mostly considered the domain of certain departments in colleges and universities. Although public policy and the humanities certainly don’t overlap completely, this MPR issue explores how much we have to gain from emphasizing the connections between the two realms and how much each can gain from deepening their engagement with one another.