Abstract
The title of this special issue should be read literally. The opening questions are not posed rhetorically but as real questions: is there a crisis of the humanities? And if yes, which kind of crisis is it? Narratives about the crisis of the humanities have been rehearsed over and over again in recent years. Their many versions include critical accounts of the triumph of instrumental reason and of the resulting marginalisation of the human, social and cultural values professed by humanists; grumbles about the downgrading of the humanities as a result of declining enrolments and the prominence of the hard sciences; lamentations over the fate of deep reading in the age of cyberspace and digital media; complaints about a lack of appreciation for the intangible value of the humanities in the metrics-driven managerial university, where the citation and impact factor game, together with their superior attractiveness to external funders, rewards STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at the expense of the humanities...