What would happen if I tried to explain what’s happening now to the January 2020 version of myself? Canadian comedian, Julie Nolke hilariously and poignantly tackled this in her three minute YouTube video, which has now been watched by close to 19 million people. “Your definition of ‘a pretty big deal’ is going to change” she says to the January 2020 version of herself, who thinks that the Australian wildfires will be the defining feature of 2020.
Covid-19 turned our world upside down. Scientists and healthcare workers have come together globally to tackle the virus; however, this crisis has laid bare just how much we need our artists and social scientists to comfort, entertain, educate and help us navigate this new reality.
It has also laid bare just how poorly funded the sector is, and the need for the leaders across the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) to get strategic with how they argue their case for support.
Much can be learned from the last 20 years of the extraordinary global collaboration of those in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) sector.
We are all familiar with the STEM acronym. It was introduced in 2001 by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) after an increasing number of reports emphasised the links between “prosperity, knowledge-intensive jobs dependent on science and technology, and continued innovation to address societal problems”. In other words, future industries, jobs, and tackling climate change and inequality require STEM skills, and we have a shortfall of young people, particularly women, studying these subjects. The impact of that shortfall and diversity is profound.
Sub-text is important. And in this case, no-one (sensible) is saying that the HASS sector isn’t important. But increasingly, a basic STEM literacy will be essential for everyone; our future is inextricably linked to AI, robotics, cybersecurity, industry and media disruption, climate change and biodiversity loss.
Our humanity will be determined and defined by how we meet the challenges they present.
We do not deny the tough choices society is facing, but tough choices and difficult questions are precisely what the disciplines that make up the broad church of HASS are designed to consider. Philosophy has long sought answers to the most difficult questions; literature and art have always looked at ways to define the human conditions; the social sciences seek out new ways to understand humans and how they make decisions, and how they interact with each other and the Earth’s other living creatures.
If we are to confront society’s choices in an informed way, we need our creatives, our philosophers and all of our extraordinary arts, humanities and social sciences thinkers and practitioners.
This has been acknowledged by many future thinkers already. The World Economic forum in its 2018 Future of Jobs Report, for example, makes no bones about the pressing need for human skills to be developed and deployed alongside STEM skills. The report defines these as creativity, originality and initiative, critical thinking, persuasion and negotiation, attention to detail, resilience, cross-cultural understanding, flexibility and complex problem-solving, emotional intelligence, leadership and social influence.
There are many questions which the disciplines within HASS are clearly best placed to answer — questions that in many cases will determine humanity’s survival.
- Where is the “human” in big data and bioinformatics?
- Who is the “person” in personalised medicine?
- How does the “post-human” translate into biomedicine?
- What is the “self” that is protected through biosecurity?
- Should we deliver multi-species justice and if so, how do we square that with food security and human survival?
- How do we protect the community against the onslaught of of asset-sharing economies such as Uber and Airbnb?
- Where is the co-design and service-user involvement in social, health and education policy and programs at the global, national and local level?
- How we can examine the ways in which social, cultural and political dynamics influence the integration of technologies into everyday life, and how these forces are shaping and designing our futures?
As a sector, HASS is much more open to using the advances in STEM than vice versa. Whereas movies and video games have been utterly transformed by technology, science is still struggling to communicate and engage, despite the extraordinary examples of the creatives all around them.
HASS can also advance scientific discoveries. Consider the example of Adelaide glass blower Karen Cunningham, whose work using diamonds and glass has inspired a new kind of hybrid material that scientists are now using to develop a quantum sensor.
Over the years there has been a call to incorporate the arts into the STEM acronym, turning it into STEAM. The main argument seems to be that we need an explicit acknowledgement that arts-based learning is a critical part of our education. By why frame it around STEM? It’s limiting and distracting.
What is more important, and currently lacking, is a coherent strategy and roadmap from HASS that would articulate to policy makers, society, industry and young people globally why the study of these subjects and the funding for research, is so essential to government, industry and society.
If you look to the STEM sector, there are now programs, specific funds, a growing awareness in the community, special associations, and a push for diversity and industry collaborations. It is a work in progress, but everyone is united. My challenge to the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences sector is to start down this path. It’s an extraordinarily innovative sector, but this continued push for STEAM is underestimating its value to society.
Article by Kylie Ahern
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Featured photo credit: 3DSculptor | iStock
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