Credibility Gap

"The former path won't guarantee institutional support, but it would improve credibility by showing the kind of interest in public trust and accountability we demand of every other branch of knowledge. The latter path is the one many humanities scholars appear to be moving toward. If it's the one they choose, then we should be clear-eyed about its implications: The credibility crisis will only worsen—and the role of the humanities within the university will grow still more tenuous."

Aaron Hanlon at The Washington Post writes that "[t]he idea that humanities scholars are activists first and only then scholars leaves much of the public skeptical of the work we do." (Via The Scotfree)