The Guardian’s well-known quote states that “Democracy dies in darkness.” One may argue that democracy also suffers when higher education fails to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. Instead of critically debating the implications of politically and ideologically motivated wars, the shifting geopolitical landscape, climate change, and the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, many educators, particularly in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), are increasingly focused on protecting their jobs even if it means staying locked in rigid disciplinary boundaries. Through interdisciplinary interplay, SSH holds the potential to impart knowledge and skills that can essentially transform society. SSH can nurture minds capable of addressing societal challenges and ultimately strengthening democracy.
With the rise of a multipolar world and growing nationalist sentiments, power is no longer exercised solely through military or economic means. It is increasingly exercised through narrative framing. This is a dialogic space in which the disciplines of English literature and linguistics have acquired renewed significance. Educators with vision and determination need to interrogate the role of language in constructing the new world order, especially in the context of the perceived decline of US hegemony. How do powerful countries weaponise language to shift blame when attacking one another’s strategic interests? Why do countries engage in warfare when even the most powerful ones ultimately seek dialogue to end wars? What role does language play in digital media discourse during times of tension, and how can it help deter the spread of disinformation, misinformation, and institutional distrust? Traditionally, these questions have been the domain of political scientists and economists. However, linguists must also step forward to examine how language contributes to the reconstruction of the new world order while rescuing democracies from plunging into darkness.
Higher education institutions must promote interdisciplinary programs capable of nurturing the scholarship required for an ever-changing world.
Similarly, the growing proliferation of AI has transformed higher education in multiple ways. Students increasingly use AI to draft assignments, including high-stakes creative and academic writing. Writers and researchers employ AI for brainstorming, proofreading, editing, and content generation. Educators use AI to prepare course outlines, lectures, assessments, and research papers. Higher education institutions themselves rely on AI-oriented rhetoric, including “AI-powered education” and “AI-integrated classrooms,” to attract admissions. What is now needed is a systematic effort to assess the impact of AI on cognition, language, identity, and culture. Applied linguists, for instance, might want to investigate the imperialistic imprint of AI on languages and cultures. They may also examine how university students become vulnerable to impostor syndrome when they rely heavily on AI tools without understanding their inherent biases. In this context, students risk losing their voice, moral grounding, integrity, and sense of personal accountability. How can we effectively bridge human intelligence and artificial intelligence in workplaces without diminishing the value of the human role? Which languages remain underrepresented in the training of large language models? And how can knowledge production be decolonised in ways that can foster equitable rights and values for the Global South?
Given these transformations, higher education institutions must promote interdisciplinary programs capable of nurturing the scholarship required for an increasingly changing world. The disciplines of English literature and linguistics demand a fundamental reorientation to produce graduates not only for the teaching industry but also for healthcare, law, forensic psychology, media, and information technology. Moreover, higher education institutions now need experienced language therapists, if not just instructors, to prepare graduates for this increasingly competitive world. These developments signal the continuing evolution of applied linguistics and should encourage educators to make their programs world-class instead of selling the dream of foreign education to their students, albeit signposting the burden to foreign universities instead of raising the standards of their own teaching and research.
Many traditional courses in English literature and linguistics, including drama, novel, fiction, nonfiction, discourse analysis, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, require major revisions. The concern is not that these subjects lack value, but that graduates often struggle to apply their knowledge in ways that meaningfully contribute to societal issues. As a result, many face difficulties securing relevant employment and relating themselves to the relevant industry. Even the discipline of English literature has failed to produce commercial writers, commissioned authors, or a workforce prepared for the entertainment industry. In many universities, even educators are not aware of what they must do, or perhaps they are simply not interested because they have almost played their innings. These challenges underscore the need for applied linguistics and related disciplines to rethink their subject knowledge, research priorities, pedagogical perspectives, and interdisciplinary niche. Also, institutions must critically revisit outdated curricula as well as provide rigorous training to traditional schools of thought to align them with contemporary realities.
For applied linguists, it is essential to explore: how global power is increasingly constructed and contested through discourse, how narratives travel faster than policies, how perceptions often outweigh facts, how digital communication platforms have become rich spaces of ideological struggle, how information warfare influences citizens in the Global South, and how powerful nations use digital platforms as instruments for legitimizing their narratives to seek like-minded individuals support. In this discourse, English literature and linguistics can no longer remain confined to fictional and nonfictional texts, grammar instruction, or language policy alone. These disciplines must revamp themselves ideally at the centre of contemporary global transformations in our universities.
If higher education fails to perform its creative and critical role, not only in preparing graduates with twenty-first-century skills but also in demolishing rigid disciplinary boundaries and promoting interdisciplinary strengths, it may indeed continue to suffer in the darkness. The twenty-first century demands a reimagining of higher education in general and English literature and linguistics in particular.
The first author is a Professor of English at Riphah International University, Lahore. He is a lead guest editor at Emerald and Springer publishing.
The second author is an Assistant Professor of English at Govt. Graduate College for Women, Samanabad, Lahore