While there is no easy solution to this situation, an article I recently read makes a provocative and interesting argument about how to weaken extremism: study the humanities. Researchers and policy experts in England have been wrestling with a startling discovery: on the whole, jihadis are extremely well educated. One study in 2007 found that almost half of jihadis from the Middle East and North Africa had college degrees (by way of comparison, only 32% of Mississippians have a college degree) But among jihadis, most commonly their degrees were in scientific and technical fields, especially engineering. According to a recent news report, ISIL has removed several humanities subjects from school curricula in areas it controls. Increasing access to higher education is clearly not the solution to the problem of religious and political extremism, but perhaps widening the course of study is.

Martin Rose, a British researcher, warns against making simplistic arguments with this data, and he does not suggest that STEM breeds terrorists. Rather, Rose makes the interesting point that academic subjects that provide clear answers and discourage fundamental questions or alternative points of view can lead to ideologies and worldviews that do the same thing. He recommends exposing STEM students to humanities subjects and to activities like debate that foster critical thinking skills. He argues that "young people need to be taught how to think to immunize their minds against ideologies that seek to teach them what to think."

The humanities teach us there is no easy solution, either to global terrorism or the social, economic, and political challenges we face here in Mississippi. Facing such a messy reality, it's not surprising that some are drawn to simplistic answers, such as electing one person can "make America great again."

My love of history ignited in high school once our class moved beyond the simple memorization of facts to consider the less concrete but more interesting issues like meaning and significance. Not just the what, but the why. The humanities are about nuance and complexity. One of the things I realized in graduate school was that the more I learned about American history, the more I realized how much I didn't know. I am now wary of people who claim to know everything. A group of political scientists at the University of Illinois have recently found that citizens who hold false beliefs about political issues (whom they call the "misinformed") tend to be the most confident in their views and the most extreme partisans.

The humanities teach us there is no easy solution, either to global terrorism or the social, economic, and political challenges we face here in Mississippi. Facing such a messy reality, it's not surprising that some are drawn to simplistic answers, such as electing one person can "make America great again."  Instead, we would be better off embracing the lessons of the humanities, to think critically and seek to understand other's perspectives and experiences. Intellectual humility, grounded in a deep understanding of the humanities, is central to a healthy democracy.

For more than four decades now, the Mississippi Humanities Council has advocated for these important lessons. In 2016, it is more crucial than ever that we embrace the nuance of the humanities - the future of our state and our country may well depend on it.

The free program is part of a series entitled "The Pulitzer Prize and Mississippi Journalism," presented by the Mississippi Humanities Council in partnership with the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi and the Pulitzer Board.

The session, entitled "The Pulitzer Prize in Mississippi: Responding to Natural Disasters," will feature Stan Tiner, former editor of the Sun Herald-winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina; Natasha Trethewey, Gulfport native-winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and 2012-14 United States Poet Laureate; and Charlie Mitchell, professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi and former editor of the The Vicksburg Post, which won a Pulitzer in 1954 for its coverage after a devastating tornado.

Charles Overby, former executive editor of the  The Clarion-Ledger, which won a Pulitzer for its coverage of education reform in 1983, and former director of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., will moderate the discussion, which will be followed by a reception.

The panel discussion, which is free and open to the public, is the first event in a series of Pulitzer Campfire Initiative programs planned for Mississippi in 2016. To mark the centennial of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Pulitzer Board announced the Campfires Initiative, which aims to ignite broad engagement with the journalistic, literary, and artistic values the Prizes represent.