The BA in Applied Humanities provides students interested in fields such as business, health, and design -- all among the most dynamic careers in the world today, and marked by sustained high job availability according to the World Economic Forum's Global Challenge Insight Report -- with a transdisciplinary education combining professional skills in these areas with the cognitive, creative, international, interpersonal, and intercultural intelligences and competencies taught in the humanities, intelligences and competencies that offer a vital edge in these and other rapidly changing professions.
Students also study and practice the variety of organizational, collaborative, and leadership skills that are most often used in administrative contexts, including the development of mission/vision/outreach plans, commercial sponsorships, customer and project management, and public speaking.
The BA in Applied Humanities has eleven emphases for students to choose from:
- Business Administration
- Consumer, Market & Retail Studies
- Engineering Approaches
- Environmental Systems
- Fashion Studies
- Game Studies
- Medicine
- Plant Studies
- Public Health
- Rural Leadership & Renewal
- Spatial Organization & Design Thinking
The BA in Applied Humanities is offered in partnership with eight colleges:
- College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences
- College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture
- College of Engineering
- College of Information Science
- College of Medicine-Tucson
- College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
- Eller College of Management
- Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health
Program Learning Outcomes
By the end of the degree program, students will be able to
1. Demonstrate how the applied humanities work in different public and private spheres, and how the fundamental practices of applied humanities thinking can be translated into research-informed and public-facing projects for the measurable betterment of society;
2. Demonstrate an ability to collaborate effectively with different groups and individuals on multidisciplinary projects and in intercultural contexts, achieving optimal ends in a constructive, expedient, and humane fashion;
3. Recognize the complex relationship between human behavior, social organization, and the need to practice meaningful work to improve the human condition both now and in the future;
4. Gain familiarity with the fundamental practices of humanities-oriented problem solving, as well as strategies for harnessing those practices to engage real world challenges and opportunities