Our Story

From our President, Peter Acton

In a consulting project for the Dean of Arts, I learned that Melbourne University had no course on Shakespeare nor anyone to deliver one (fortunately this is no longer the case).  As a student, I found that almost every text that had been published on Ancient History in the previous 20 years could only be obtained by inter-library loans, usually from overseas.

I was not only bothered by this neglect of the Arts for the wistful and intangible reasons that most advocates of the humanities profess. I had always held that my career as a Managing Partner in the Boston Consulting Group owed much more to the skills I had acquired in my first degree, which was in Classics, than to my MBA.

It seemed to me that the most effective way of changing the incorrect perception that the humanities are not an excellent foundation for a career would be to get academics talking inside companies. Academics would draw on themes within their areas of expertise and relate them to themes such as leadership and managing change, which preoccupy people in many fields of work.

In 2012, together with a group of like-minded people, I established Humanities 21, and since then our Corporate Conversations series has been an important part of our advocacy. The lecture series connects academics with businesses, resulting in wide-ranging and engaging discussions of key professional development themes. The lecture series also demonstrates that a humanities education is an excellent foundation for any career 

Our School Programs are another important area of our advocacy – designed to extend passionate and bright students in areas of the humanities which interest them. We provide materials for students, parents, teachers and career advisers illustrating how studying the humanities can be the basis of a successful career in many different fields.