Introduction: Open for Business: The Entrepreneurial Humanities

Humanities disciplines have always intersected in professional fields as wide-ranging as environmental studies, engineering, computer science, neuroscience, biology, the health professions, and more. But when students think about the role of the humanities in their careers, they are stunted by very narrow understandings of what these disciplines teach, and what they can do. leader. Using the humanities foundation to recognize potential and assess the risk to turn potential into reality opens up the opportunity to take applied humanities a step beyond, into the realm of the entrepreneurial. The Entrepreneurial Humanities aims to dismantle the too common narratives depicting the humanities as siloed and self-interested, useless, a thing from the past, only valuable for those interested in an academic career or the life of the mind. Mars and Schau introduce a growing community of humanist entrepreneurs who work to offset the power of perfection by offering consumers unique experiences and handcrafted products that are intentionally imprecise, inherently imperfect, and ultimately irreplicable.