Integrating STEM & Humanities in Higher Ed

By Zainab Cheema 

This past week, in my global travel literature class, a student came up to me and shyly asked for encouragement. She is a math major who is taking an advanced literature class, simply because the topic looked interesting, and she was passionate about it. However, she felt intimidated by some gaps in her knowledge, especially in comparison to some of the other English majors around her. I encouraged her to stay, and we had an amazing conversation about how her unique personal and disciplinary background gives her an invaluable perspective into the subject. Increasingly, the humanities classroom has become a space for inquiring minds pursuing STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine). The conversation with her got me to start thinking—How can we reimagine the relationship between STEM and humanities in Higher ED? How can the two branches benefit each other?

The topic is a huge one. Just to make it manageable, I am going to examine the value of the humanities to STEM fields in this particular blog post, addressing the other side of the equation in future posts. Increasingly, humanities budgets are diminishing in favor of those of STEM fields, which students and other education stakeholders tend to see as more lucrative and marketable. Some universities have even decided to dismantle their philosophy and languages departments, preferring to direct resources in other directions. However, research shows that universities are better served by exploring how to integrate humanities with STEM fields through interdisciplinary collaboration and program creation.

Integrating STEM & Humanities

I recently interviewed Ashley Greulich, a graduating senior majoring in neuroscience at FGCU (the interview is now live on the Education New Frontiers podcast). Our discussion touched upon this topic. In Ashley’s view, STEM fields need the humanities to be able to reach broader audiences and to communicate their findings to the public. Experts in science and technology fields often take it for granted that their findings be accepted by the public on basis of their credentials, authority and their publications. However, in these times, uncritical acceptance cannot be taken for granted. Communication skills are an important tool for widely distributing knowledge and for winning broad based support amongst public audiences. In turn, the humanities need STEM to incorporate cutting-edge methods of data methodologies of data collection and analysis; as well as to integrate digital technologies in its approaches.

The approach now taken by learning scientists is called integration—specifically, the integration of humanities and STEMM. David Skorton, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute and the Chair of the Committee on the Integration of STEM, humanities and the arts, strongly champions this approach. “We found [in studies] that students in STEM disciplines the inclusion of arts and humanities led to better communication skills, better problem-solving skills and more effective critical thinking. For students in the arts and humanities, the inclusion of STEM disciplines, increased their ability to do creative things even beyond what they could already do . . . [it] led to better empathy, better teamwork and better communication skills.” Skorton co-authored a 2018 report sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which stressed the same conclusion: “The integration of the arts and humanities with STEM are strongly correlated with development of written and oral communication skills, teamwork skills, ethical decision making, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings—namely, educational outcomes that many employers are asking for today.”

Successful Integrative Programs in Higher ED

Conversations about just how to integrate STEM and humanities requires a wide array of stakeholders to sit at the table and discuss program development, curriculum innovation, budget allocation, and other topics. However, a precedent is being set by integrative programs at a number of colleges and universities. At Baylor University’s Medical Humanities program, for example, training in a wide array of medical fields is integrated with English, religion, philosophy, history, sociology and psychology. The program helps emerging medical practitioners develop skills in empathy, communication, and ethics, preparing them to confront “the ethical and spiritual issues they will encounter in medicine, to explore the deepest meanings of health and healing, and to embrace the sacred nature of a vocation in medicine.”

Another example of successful STEM and humanities collaboration is Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. Their MA program is a joint venture between Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science and the College of Fine Arts. It teaches computer science students entertainment technology, namely how to apply their tech and programming to build virtual worlds that are in demand in the fields of gaming, filmmaking, and more. Alongside the computer science courses, students also take courses in improvisational acting script writing, visual design, and more. Their website showcases the possibilities that occur when STEM and humanities fields worked together: “You know what they say about all work and no play . . . But we play. A lot. Our curriculum has you do everything from improvisational acting to building virtual worlds. Along the way, you’ll learn to collaborate, problem-solve, communicate, and lead.”

A STEAM Future in Higher Ed? 

The acronym STEAM usually stands for conversations about integrating arts and humanities in STEM programs. STEAM is probably what the future of interdisciplinary studies looks like. While interdisciplinarity is a popular buzzword on campus brochures, how to translate it into action is the million-dollar question. STEM and Humanities integrative programs might be a solution, but it’s one that requires creativity, commitment, cross departmental conversation, and of course, a budget.