10 ways an arts degree can change the world
10 July 2013
In an era of rapid change, core human values will shape the tide of technological innovation. The Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Duncan Ivison, highlights 10 ways that arts and social sciences can change the world.
1. Passionate people make great leaders
Our graduates transform the world because they have been stimulated to follow their passions, and passionate people make great leaders. Many of Australia's leaders in politics, business and culture are Bachelor of Arts (BA) graduates. University of Sydney arts and social sciences students go on to help change the world through the character and wide-ranging skills they have developed in the course of their study with us.
2. Understanding the past to shape the future
You can't change the world without a deep understanding of the past. A BA gives you the opportunity to grapple with the big questions and challenges societies have faced across time and how they have dealt with them. For example, Professor Roland Fletcher's groundbreaking Greater Angkor Project is establishing strong links between the demise of one of the largest, low-density cities of the pre-industrial world and the situation that modern cities are finding themselves in today.
3. Fresh perspectives on climate change
The humanities and social sciences are essential to helping transform our relationship with the environment. We won't be able to solve climate change by technical ingenuity alone. It will require changing people's behaviour, reimagining the way we live sustainably on our planet and developing new social, political and cultural institutions and practices to help humanity adapt to a world undergoing rapid climate change.
4. Transforming our relationship with Asia
By studying Asian languages, literature, culture and politics, our students will help redefine Australia's relationship with our Asian neighbours and lead us into the new Asian century. Australia's future will require more students with greater Asian literacy than ever before - our students will lead the new engagement with Asia over the next decade and beyond.
5. Defending human rights
Teaching and research on the relationship between human rights and democratisation will change our approach to advancing human rights in the Asia Pacific and globally. Improving the protection of human rights around the world will require more than just legal instruments, but also the social, cultural, historical, economic and political analysis, and institution-building that will enable us to actually bring human rights to life. Our human rights master's program and research projects are making a significant contribution to doing just that.
6. Supporting fledgling democracies
As democracy transforms the world, arts and social sciences students and researchers can help us understand the possibilities and challenges faced by democratic movements across the globe. Our new Institute of Democracy and Human Rights is doing pioneering work on the future of democracy in the Asia Pacific.
7. New concepts of community
Finding new ways for deeply diverse and multicultural societies to live together peacefully will transform entire regions in our world. Our students and researchers, working across a range of disciplines - including politics, philosophy, history, languages, media, literary studies, sociology, anthropology - are making fundamental contributions to developing new conceptions of social and political community, to enable such transformations to occur.
8. Harnessing digital technology for the public good
Social media and digital technology are transforming the way we communicate, and our media and digital cultures programs are training a new generation of social media thinkers and producers who will take our communications industries and practices to a new level. Among the research being undertaken is Cesar Albarran's recent master's dissertation which examined how the White House used social media during the US health-care reform debate.
9. Making economics about people, not numbers
Our understanding of markets and human behaviour is being radically altered by the ongoing consequences of the global financial crisis. A richer, more complex picture of human behaviour will be required to better understand economic activity and to design and develop improved economic policy. Economics is being transformed through new engagements with psychology, sociology, political science, philosophy, history and the natural sciences.
10. Curiosity, critical thinking, compassion
The greatest transformations of all occur when our leaders and citizens remain open to new ideas and new approaches: in other words, when they retain a passion to keep learning. Arts and social sciences degrees cultivate a deep love of learning in students through the basic foundational skills they help develop - critical thinking, analytical skills, good communication skills, breadth of mind, curiosity about difference and otherness, and the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes.
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Contact: Emily Jones
Phone: 02 9114 1961; 0405 208 616