Without the training, students learn skills in the field haphazardly, says Holly Pittman, an associate professor of art history and the center's director. Several speakers reminded the N.Y.U. gathering that resistance was inevitable in certain scholarly enclaves. Ms. Perloff, of Stanford, wondered aloud whether ancient studies was another example of the humanities' being spread too thin and encouraging students to dabble in a little art, a little archaeology, without the requisite language skills. We don't teach Greek and Latin for a living. Ninety per cent of the classicists in the world teach culture.
Nothing is wrong with that.