In recent years, headlines have mourned the “death” of the humanities. Flagship universities are shuttering departments. Enrollments in English, history and philosophy are in freefall. Funding follows markets, and increasingly, those markets favor job-ready credentials and STEM pipelines.
Amid this narrative of decline, one sector of higher education quietly stands in the breach: community colleges.
Often overlooked in national conversations about the future of higher education, community colleges may hold the key to a more democratic, inclusive and resilient vision for the humanities — especially in an age shaped by artificial intelligence.
The wrong conversation
Too often, the crisis in the humanities is framed as a story of shrinking prestige and declining majors at elite institutions. This overlooks a much more important question: who gets access to the human questions — of life’s meaning, ethics, beauty and justice — that the humanities explore?
The humanities are essential tools of critical thinking, cultural understanding and civic engagement. And nowhere is that mission more vital than at community colleges, which educate nearly half of all undergraduates in the United States — including a majority of first-generation, low-income, adult, rural and urban students.
The AI imperative
Far from rendering the humanities obsolete, the rise of artificial intelligence has made them more essential than ever.
As machines become more capable of mimicking human expression — writing essays, generating images, curating content — we are confronted with profound questions: What makes something truly original? How do we discern truth in an age of synthetic media? What ethical guardrails must we build into powerful technologies? What does it mean to be human when machines can simulate creativity, empathy and even conversation?
As author and entrepreneur Chip Conley recently observed: “It’s time for us to explore some of the most human qualities that AI can’t easily replicate: intuition, creativity, embodiment, morality, true empathy.” From my perspective, these are skills that only exposure to the humanities can build. They emerge not from code, but from lived experience, cultural dialogue and the deep reflection that comes from engaging with history, literature, art and philosophy.
These are not technical questions. They are humanistic ones. And if we want the answers to reflect the full range of human experience — not just the perspectives of Silicon Valley or elite research institutions — we must invest in places where a broad swath of society engages with these questions.
That place is the community college.
A humanities for the many
Community colleges are already doing what the broader higher education system struggles to do: offering an accessible, affordable humanities education to students who are often shut out of elite academic spaces. They are embedding humanities content in general education, designing culturally relevant curricula, and connecting classical humanistic questions to contemporary student lives.
A student at a rural two-year college studying the ethics of using artificial intelligence in healthcare or how social structures impact economic mobility is perhaps more empowered than their counterpart in a large lecture course at a research university. Why? Because at community colleges, the humanities are not abstract. They are urgent. They are personal. They are often woven into programs focused on service and social mobility.
Community colleges also offer a uniquely fertile ground for examining AI through a human-centered lens. Whether in English composition, philosophy, sociology or art, students are exploring how emerging technologies are reshaping their worlds — and how they, in turn, can shape those technologies with intention and integrity.
Redesigning the model: Beyond general education
To unlock the full potential of the humanities, community colleges must go beyond simply offering standalone general education courses. They need to redesign how humanities are delivered, shifting from siloed, checklist-style general education models to one that infuses humanistic skills and questions across all programs of study.
This means integrating ethical reasoning into cybersecurity courses, embedding storytelling and cultural context into health sciences, and teaching communication and critical thinking as core components of trades, tech and creative programs. The humanities should not be siloed — they should be woven through every field of study.
These shifts are not just theoretical — several pioneering community colleges have launched pilot programs that serve as models for delivering humanities education with real-world relevance:
Bunker Hill Community College (Boston) – Supported by a Mandel Foundation grant, BHCC’s Humanities to Career program is embedding career-ready skills across the humanities curriculum through career navigation, internships, skill badges and integrated learning communities.
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) – NOVA is creating micro-pathways within liberal arts programs that align humanities learning with employer needs, offering structured work-based learning and marketable credentials.
Lorain County Community College (Elyria, Ohio) – LCCC’s Humanities to Career pilot integrates professional skills into core humanities courses, adds paid internships and connects learning outcomes directly to local workforce demand.
A Call to Action
To truly position community colleges as champions of the humanities in the age of AI, we must:
- Fund the work. Support humanities faculty, curriculum and public programs in community colleges with the same seriousness we bring to STEM and workforce initiatives.
- Bridge disciplines. Encourage collaborations between humanities and technical programs, creating space for ethical AI, digital storytelling and critical data literacy.
- Redesign curriculum. Move beyond siloed general education and embed humanities-based skills across every field of study — from trades to tech to health care.
- Learn from pioneers. Scale and adapt the models piloted by BHCC, NOVA and LCCC.
- Partner more closely with university partners on program design to ensure that transfer students receive an embedded humanities experience across their whole educational journey.
- Elevate community voices. Center local histories, languages and narratives that reflect the lived experiences of the students that community colleges serve.
- Rethink outcomes. Measure the value of the humanities not just in wage premiums, but in civic participation, ethical decision-making, and leadership in an AI-mediated world.
The question is not whether the humanities can survive — it’s whether we want them to thrive in a new era, on new terms, for new publics. Community colleges may not look like the traditional stewards of the humanities. But in their classrooms, libraries and community partnerships, a quiet renaissance is already underway.
And with the rapid advance of AI, the stakes are higher — and the need more urgent — than ever.
