16.098 urgent help for humanities computing in Italy

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty (w.mccarty@btinternet.com)
Date: Thu Jun 27 2002 - 07:03:42 EDT

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                    Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 98.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

             Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 11:51:41 +0100
             From: Willard McCarty <w.mccarty@btinternet.com>
             Subject: urgent: humanities computing in Italy

    Dear colleagues:

    Action in support of humanities computing in Italy is urgently needed.

    You may be aware that for some time now various individuals in Italy have
    been working toward establishing our field in academic programmes at the
    university level. The universities of Pisa, Venice, Rome and several others
    have been preparing to launch next October two programmes in humanities
    computing: a 'laurea breve' (3-year undergraduate degree) and a 'laurea
    specialistica' (a sort of Masters). Unfortunately these efforts are now
    threatened by the government. The Italian Minister of Education and
    Research, Letizia Moratti, in the last three or four months has repeatedly
    attacked the new Italian degrees in 'Informatica Umanistica' solely on
    political grounds. (It seems that the Berlusconi government is intent on
    dismantling changes made to the university system during previous
    administrations; Informatica Umanistica is one of the new fields whose
    recognition dates to those changes.) To add to the problem, major Italian
    newspapers have published articles reporting uncritically the Minister's
    thoughts.

    I have sent the Minister a letter of my own and would invite you to do the
    same. Further information on the problem, a copy of a petition to Ms
    Letizia Moratti, the current Italian Minister of Education and Research,
    and instructions on how to add your name to the petition are available at
    <http://www.unitus.it/lingue/docenti/informatica/appello/index_e.htm>
    (English version, with a link to the Italian).

    Yours,
    WM

    Dr Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer,
    Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London,
    Strand, London WC2R 2LS, U.K.,
    +44 (0)20 7848-2784, ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/,
    willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk, w.mccarty@btinternet.com



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