Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The incident of September 11, 2001 was a wake-up call for many including humanities scientist, particularly for Pakistani society. Over a long time, the higher education of Pakistan was promoting natural sciences through its different educational program as the founding chairperson of the HEC, being a natural scientist himself, put too much emphasis on the promotion of natural sciences and the study of technology. Less investment was made in humanities which led to lack of strategy to combat the menace of extremism, radicalization, and militancy in Pakistan. Though recently it has become an academic discourse that social science assault has generated extremism in Pakistan which required a major shift in education policy as the public narrative has been hijacked by the extremist ideologies of hate and terrorism, the discipline of humanities and universities could play central role to shape an effective counter-narrative of extremism in Pakistan. As the extremists are using institutions of higher learning as recruiting pools. This paper argues that humanities makes both learning and unlearning where cultural practices are reassessed, it has the potential to be comprehensively at odds with what people believe them to be, and thus also with what comprehensive ends education and culture should serve. Of course, if scientists often avoid more fundamental cultural challenges, humanists often credit themselves with upsetting the existing order when they are actually doing something far less fundamental. Can we maintain the capacity to challenge received beliefs, the confidence in righteous and our blindness to injustice and prejudice?