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Lecture Description: Too often, the aims of higher education are presented as a choice between a liberal arts ideal focused on self-cultivation, citizenship, and studying the culture as an end in itself, vs. the imperative of "workforce readiness" in which education is construed in as preparing students for and routing students into high-demand careers. This talk and essay will suggest that this framing is a false choice. Drawing from workforce data, reflection on liberal arts pedagogy, and the example of successful curricular innovations, it will argue that students in liberal arts fields can study what they love and gain the skills they need for success, if institutions help create the conditions to connect passion and practicality.  

Dr. Glenn Whitehouse is an Director of Core Skills and Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion at  Florida Gulf Coast University, where he directs two career-focused initiatives, The Skills Advantage and the PAGES Program. He describes the mission of his current work as marrying the intellectual and self-cultivation ideals of liberal education with the practical aim of preparing students for successful and meaningful work. He was educated at New College of Florida (BA, 1990) and the University of Iowa (Ph.D., 1998), and was one of the founding faculty of FGCU in 1997.