GAEDE INSTITUTE | PROGRAMS The Conversation on the Liberal Arts

 

Beyond Two Cultures: The Sciences as Liberal Arts

February 18-19, 2005

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A persistent challenge for liberal arts education is the role of the sciences.  No doubt that role can be central, but too often the liberal arts are identified with the humanities, marginalizing the sciences in a liberal arts education, despite the fact that scientific inquiry has tremendous impact on how we see ourselves, and the meaning and purpose of our lives—questions essential to a liberal arts education.  Add to that the fact that the demands of graduate programs in science often constrain undergraduate science education in ways that make it difficult for the science curriculum to meet the broader goals of a liberal arts education, and it can become very difficult to establish the sciences as a central part of a coherent undergraduate liberal arts education.

convo05

The fifth annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts tackled this issue: what roles can the sciences play in a liberal arts education? We addressed both more theoretical questions, such as how the sciences help us interpret the meaning and value of our lives, to more pragmatic questions like how to teach the sciences as a part of a liberal arts curriculum, to questions of academic culture like how to overcome the persistent cultural divide between scientists and humanists.

Our speakers included: S. James Gates, John S. Toll Professor and Director of Center for String & Particle Theory at the University of Maryland , a leading figure in the development of string theory and articulate spokesperson for the importance of science education for our society. To learn more about Dr. Gates, Dame Gillian Beer, King Edward VII Emerita Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge , whose work has explored the impact of major 19th and 20th century scientific developments on broader cultural movements. To learn more about Dame Beer, and Jon Christensen, former Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University and coordinator of the recent Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project recreating the voyage taken by John Steinbeck and marine biologist Edward Rickets examining marine life along the coast of the Baja Peninsula. To learn more about the Sea of Cortez Expedition , visit their site at www.seaofcortez.org.

Registration of the conversation on the liberal arts was limited to college and university faculty and administrators. However, Jon Christensen’s presentation was open to the public at Fess Parker’s Doubeltree Hotel in Santa Barbara.

gates

S. James Gates, Jr. is John S. Toll Professor and Director of Center for String & Particle Theory at the University of Maryland at College Park , a leading figure in the development of supersymmetry and string theory and articulate spokesperson for the importance of science education for our society. His research, in the areas of the mathematical and theoretical physics of supersymmetric particles, fields and strings, covers topics such as the physics of quarks, leptons, gravity, super and heterotic strings and unified field theories of the type first envisioned by Einstein. Dr. Gates travels widely speaking at national and international scientific meetings.
Christensen

Jon Christensen was a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University and the science writer on the Sea of Cortez Expedition and Education Project, which last year retraced the voyage taken by John Steinbeck and marine biologist Edward Rickets exploring life in the tide pools along the coast of Baja California in 1940. Mr. Christensen is working on a book about the voyage for Shearwater Books/Island Press. As a freelance writer and reporter, he writes regularly for The New York Times, High Country News, and Conservation in Practice, and he has contributed to Nature, Outside, Mother Jones, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Nevada Appeal and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, among other publications. He is currently a research fellow in the Center for Environmental Science and Policy and the History Department at   Stanford University .
Beer

Dame Gillian Beer, is King Edward VII Emerita Professor of English Literature and President of Clare Hall at Cambridge . She has a particular interest in the interactions of literature and scientific writing. Her studyDarwin's Plots (1983; second edition 2000) continues to affect people working in very diverse fields; she is now completing a study to be calledExperimental Islands. She also wrote Open Fields: Science in Cultural Encounter (1996). She has been Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and travels widely to lecture on both literary topics and the history of science. She is General Editor of Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth Century Literature and Culture and is on a number of journal advisory boards.
Bouma

Hessel Bouma III is Professor of Biology, Calvin College, with interests in molecular biology, human genetics, medical ethics, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. He has created an innovative course in human biology for non-majors with an emphasis on moral issues in human biology. He is a popular speaker on issues in medical ethics and has testified before the state legislature and Congress.
Fikes

Thomas Fikes is associate professor of Psychology at Westmont College. Dr. Fikes earned his Ph.D. in 1993 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He specializes in cognitive neuroscience and in perception and action systems. Dr. Fikes plays a central role in the neuroscience major that is jointly run with the biology department.
Singer Susan Singer is professor of Biology at Carleton College. Dr. Singer was instrumental in developing an integrated first term experience that brings first year students together to explore a themetic question across disciplinary boundaries. The fall 2004 Triad students explored "Origins and Minds" in introductory courses in biology, philosophy, and psychology. Dr. Singer is a plant developmental biologist, whose specific interests include the evolution of floral developmental pathways. She teaches Plant Biology, Plant Development, Developmental Genetics, and part of Introductory Biology.