Dean's Initiatives
The liberal arts encourage the free intellectual engagement within and between established fields of knowledge. This engagement fosters creativity, skill development, and mental dispositions to help us navigate the world and our lives.
In this context, liberal is free of political meaning and refers to a type of intellectual freedom to examine topics with an open mind. The arts speak to a range of skills that have practical application based on habits of mind that provide the foundation for the way we think of ways to sustain and create a more equitable and inclusive society. The liberal arts are often referred to as the “heart” of a university where fundamental questions about humanity are pondered and where those ponderings are constantly under reconsideration and revision.
In our contemporary moment, the care and maintenance of our democratic society is more critically important than ever. Underlying the liberal arts is a passionate belief in democratic principles and the obligation to remember, honor, and critically think about the past, its meaning for the present, and its enduring relevance for the future.
The benefits of this process are both manifest and essential as we both construct visions of the future world and navigate our shared current challenges as members of local, national, and global communities. As we move through the third decade of the 21st century, the liberal arts become more relevant in the preservation and development of democratic societies. The Association of American Colleges and Universities has described the centrality of the liberal arts in education as more than a means of sustaining a democracy: “Rather, [democracy] depends on the sustained engagement of a free people who are united in their commitment to the fundamental principles it is intended to preserve and advance—justice, liberty, human dignity, equality of persons. The task of an education allied to democracy is not simply to help students gain knowledge and skills but in so doing also to form the habits of heart and mind that liberate them and that equip them for, and dispose them to, civic involvement and the creation of a more just and inclusive society.” (What Liberal Education Looks Like: What It Is, Who It’s For, and Where It Happens, Washington D.C., 2020).
Two Dean’s initiatives—Democracy Today and Commemorative Moments—invite vibrant conversations and debate about these aspects of the liberal arts. Please join us for an event related to these initiatives and visit these pages for more information.