New Hot Tech Major: The Humanities?

When I was a freshman engineering student at the University of Michigan, a favorite pastime that my classmates and I indulged in together was making fun of the humanities students (along with Michigan State students). A favorite insult we would repeatedly share is referring to the major of Literature, Science, and Arts (LSA) students as “L,S and Play.” We complained that LSA students skated through college reading boring ancient books and attending easy classes while engineering students spent sleepless nights toiling to understand the most difficult and dense material on planet earth. But we, the engineering students, were confident of our high paying future on top of the occupational food chain, while the art, history, and language majors were destined for a lifetime of poverty.

It wasn’t until several years after graduation that I discovered my thinking about the humanities was flawed. While in my MBA program at the University of Wisconsin I noticed that my public speaking and writing skills were subpar to my classmates that had humanities degrees. Sure, my math and analysis skills were very good but my presentations were horrible. This was the first time I had collaborated with non-engineers since my 2nd year in undergrad and my weaknesses were exposed. In a non-credit political science class I took years later after graduate school, I was lost at times. The instructor referenced the French revolution and French history in the 1950s and asked how it related to US policies at the time. I didn’t have the context to contribute to the class discussion. I began to realize that LSA wasn’t about playing.

Contemporary society has traditionally not valued humanities as it should, however this seems to be changing. For example, a US national security author noted that Russia’s attempt to conquer Ukraine is rooted in Moscow’s historical understanding of the Kievan-Rus state of the ninth-century. He further stated that, “individual leaders, groups, and whole societies…define their interests and culture through language, literature, the arts, history and philosophy,” and that the study of humanities could help our policymakers and defense officials understand current foreign affairs.

Corporate America has acknowledged the overemphasis on STEM hiring and the need to bring in employees with a background in the humanities. Co-head of Goldman Sach’s global institute, George Lee stated in a Bloomberg Television interview that artificial intelligence (AI) will pave the way for the “revenge of the liberal arts” and that “some of the skills that are really salient to cooperate with this [technology] are critical thinking, understanding logic, and rhetoric, the ability to be creative. It will allow non-technical people to accomplish a lot more and…begin to perform what were formerly believed to be technical tasks.” Asset management firm BlackRock has also discovered the importance of adding liberal arts majors to its ranks to balance out the technologist to promote a diversity of thought. Finally, Matt Candy, global managing partner in generative AI at IBM Consulting noted that those who have language backgrounds could take advantage of the expanding AI marketplace by becoming prompt-engineers.

It is time that we value the humanities along with the STEM fields. It is even more important to teach our kids this lesson too. It may be the key for them to thrive in this increasingly complex world where field are converging.

Sources

1. Tambe, Neil. Rallying the B.S.E’s, The Michigan Daily, 15 Jan 2009.
2. Gilmour, Andrew Skitt, Commentary: The Enduring Importance of the Humanities in the World of Intelligence, Studies in Intelligence 67, No: 4 (Extracts, December 2023).
3. Berger, Chloe, The rise of the English major: BlackRock COO wants to recruit liberal arts consultants that ‘have nothing to do with finance or technology’, 17 May 2024.