I can’t help but relate this proliferation (in my view fragmentation) within the humanities to the discursive phenomena of turns. Much as we turn when we’re unsure where we’re going, I’m intuitively sceptical that what Rosi Braidotti describes on pg 100-102 of PostHuman Knowledge is a sign of the humanities being in good health:
The discursive vitality is telling, as shown by even a cursory glance at the terminological diversification emerging in the field of Critical PostHumanities. Today you will find, both at the level of publications and as institutional realities embedded in courses, curricula and research projects, for instance the Ecological Humanities, the Environmental Humanities, sub-divided into the Blue Humanities, which study seas and oceans, and the Green Humanities which focus on the Earth. They are also known as the Sustainable Humanities and, in more crass variations, Energy Humanities and Resilient Humanities.
Other successful instances are: the Medical Humanities, also known as the Bio-Humanities; the Neural Humanities; Evolutionary Humanities. The Public Humanities are also quite popular and have spawned into the Civic Humanities; the Community Humanities; the Translational Humanities; the Global Humanities; the Greater Humanities. More neo-liberal variations are the Interactive Humanities and the Entrepreneurial Humanities. The Digital Humanities (Hayles 1999, 2005), which are also called the Computational, Informational and Data Humanities, are possibly the most powerful institutional developments of the last decades.Other successful instances are: the Medical Humanities, also known as the Bio-Humanities; the Neural Humanities; Evolutionary Humanities. The Public Humanities are also quite popular and have spawned into the Civic Humanities; the Community Humanities; the Translational Humanities; the Global Humanities; the Greater Humanities. More neo-liberal variations are the Interactive Humanities and the Entrepreneurial Humanities. The Digital Humanities (Hayles 1999, 2005), which are also called the Computational, Informational and Data Humanities, are possibly the most powerful institutional developments of the last decades. — the transversal discourses and practices of the Critical PostHumanities cannot be reduced to the epistemic accelerationism that fuels cognitive capitalism.