Students Helping Design the HAT Major
New Major!
Humanity & Technology (aka "HAT") empowers you to integrate your interests in science and technology with your interests in the humanities and arts within a single major, raising new kinds of questions and undertaking new lines of inquiry not available to humanists or scientists working in isolation.
Combining the interpretive, critically reflective tools of the humanities with the collaborative, experimental methods of the sciences, you will design and develop new approaches, advance new understandings, and build new models of community and collaboration that will prepare you to be a leader in addressing the world's most pressing issues at the interface of humanity and technology.
Core Principles
The HAT community of faculty and students adheres to three core principles:
- interdisciplinarity: connecting humanists, artists, scientists, and engineers in a spirit of innovative collaboration
- praxis: combining hands-on doing and making with critical reflection on the process
- socio-technical leadership: developing leadership skills for a world in which the social and the technological are always interconnected
Structure of the Major
As a HAT major, you will gain core skills and competencies in two academic areas, one in the humanities or arts and one in STEM. You will discover novel ways of integrating these two areas in core courses with fellow HAT majors focused on connecting your two fields and developing leadership skills. Finally, you will complete a year-long senior capstone project in which you design and build something that integrates your two areas using an applied technology (e.g., AI/ML, data visualization, mixed reality, gaming, etc.).
For you visual thinkers, here's an illustration of the different parts and how they fit together:
Requirements for the Major (BA)
NOTE: You can easily make HAT a secondary major, with your other major fulfilling the requirements for your humanities or STEM area, thereby double-counting at least 15 credits!
I. Integrative Core
HTEC 101 Introduction to Humanity and Technology
HTEC 301 Humanity and Technology: Toward a Just and Sustainable Socio-technical World
Two electives from a list of courses that integrate humanities with STEM (examples: "Equations that Changed the World," "Responsible AI," "Climate Change Science and Society," "Embodied Religion and Mixed Reality," and "Philosophy of Science")
II. Two Focus Areas
Focus Area I: Humanities. Complete the requirements for a minor in an A+H (Arts and Humanities) program. Students may fulfill this requirement by majoring in one of these programs.
Focus Area II: STEM. Complete the requirements for a minor in a STEM+N (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Nursing) program. Students may fulfill this requirement by majoring in one of these programs.
III. Capstone Project
HTEC 399 Capstone for Humanity and Technology Majors, Parts A and B (fall and spring semesters of your senior year).
for a fictional (science-fictional?) student named River, whose two focus areas are English and Applied Data Science.
Career Prospects
HAT graduates will be able to say with confidence: “I am not just a scientist or technician, nor am I limited to ‘soft’ skills. I am an effective leader who knows how to integrate my knowledge and skills in science and technology with my knowledge and skills in the humanities, and that’s what your organization needs.
Here are just a few of the many potential career paths for HAT majors: AI ethics, science communication and journalism, science- or technology-specific law, education technology, environmental policy and sustainability, tech startups, and healthcare technology. Not to mention the many career paths that have not been invented yet!
More Information
Don't hesitate to reach out to Lisa or Tim for more information:
- Dr. Timothy Beal, Professor and faculty lead on the HAT major: beal@case.edu
- Dr. Lisa Nielson, Executive Director, Experimental Humanities Initiative: len12@case.edu