My journey on this story starts with a conversation with Colorado State University’s very own Ryan Campbell, an English Professor who had much to say about the importance of the humanities. 

Professor Ryan Campbell 

Campbell fell in love with the humanities very early on, despite him coming from a STEM-centric family. He grew up in Colorado, in a town, like many in this state, that was not very diverse. However, this lack of diversity pushed Campbell to seek out what he was missing in terms of his perspective of the world. He was compelled to broaden his horizons through literature, to make friends of different backgrounds, and to dive into the very thing he teaches now: the humanities. 

Campbell began studying chemistry in college, but after three semesters he changed his focus to the liberal arts, believing that his education so far had been much too narrow.

“I was scared about living a life that was terribly narrowed, and so I resisted STEM as a field choice, it seemed very compelling, but not enough for me. There was that separation that wasn’t balanced.” Campbell said. 

This was a common theme throughout our conversation: narrowmindedness and the balance of STEM and the humanities.

Campbell teaches a course about writing in the sciences, an arts class filled almost entirely with STEM students, and his experience instructing this class ties directly into how he wishes the humanities would be treated alongside STEM fields.

He believes that these two opposing sides of academia should work together. When asked about this class, Campbell said “It’s this amazing marriage between both hemispheres of the brain, the scientific and the artistic, that allows for deeper consideration.” He believes that this connection between subjects is something that creates humans that think deeper about the world around them. 

The Humanities and Childhood 

Campbell went on to say that the humanities is the tool to pave a way to a truer and more genuine human experience, something that is critical to a child’s development. 

“I think the humanities allows children early on to come into contact, to enter the spectrum of difference, to enter a spectrum of alternative perspectives, of alternative experiences. They don’t have to live them or completely understand them, but it can still be a moment that explores the horizon. Children have to have that diversity in order to understand an alternative way of conceiving the world with their limited experience.” Campbell said.

The humanities play an important role in raising empathetic and compassionate human beings. As a child, being able to learn about different histories, conflicts, and cultures can be a way to experience the depth of the world all while being in one place

Are The Humanities Respected? 

When I asked Campbell if the humanities were as respected as they should be, his answer was short and sweet. 

“No…not even close.” 

Campbell believes that there are specific things within the humanities that need to be taught to help children understand the world, and without these things, our students simply end up as specialists. 

“They’ll be taught things very specifically and narrowly that they will only be able to operate in a single way, instead of being able to problem solve themselves…It’s an overreliance on the rational, and relying on the rational in irrational times…it’s a problem.” Campbell said. 

The absence of the humanities in education and everyday life creates close-minded people who only accept what they know. When there’s a lack of critical thinking we resort to listening to the loudest person in the room. 

Concluding Thoughts 

There is a lot of power in the humanities. From my conversation with Campbell, I was able to understand that it can serve as a necessary checks and balances system in our society. The humanities can push us to act more civically, empathetically, and courageously. 

Though both of our academic lives focus around liberal arts, Campbell and I both agree that we cannot have one without the other: STEM without the humanities, nor humanities without STEM. 

My discussion with Campbell brought up a lot of ideas about how the humanities shapes our lives, both in academia, and in the world. As Campbell simply put, “You cannot be human without the humanities.”