Developing a CS+X Major: Computer Science + Society
Ella Howard · IDEAH · 2021
Digital Humanities has always been an interdisciplinary project.Positioned at the juncture of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Computing, the field has fostered fertile collaborations.The archived course offerings from the Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria document the venerable annual community event's evolution from a 2001 gathering focused on Text Encoding Fundamentals and DH Pedagogy and Curriculum, to the multifaceted 2019 event featuring courses on specific tools, theoretical frameworks, digitization, international culture, and more.DH work can be done by lone scholars on a shoestring budget, but the complex projects on view at DHSI are often better suited to well-resourced institutions replete with research labs and dedicated staff.This paper surveys the work humanists and social scientists at a small university have done with our colleagues in the School of Computing and Data Science to launch a new undergraduate major in Computer Science + Society.Designed to provide graduates with foundational training in both Computer Science (CS) and the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), the program will equip them for meaningful careers in a range of fields.Inspired by the principles of open exchange central to the DHSI ethos, we hope to model radical interdisciplinarity for our campus and beyond.After more than a decade of strident calls from American politicians and regulatory agencies for a narrow focus on STEM education, computer scientists are joining their liberal arts colleagues in pushing back against this rhetoric.Computer Science professor Lior Shamir recently observed: I learned that scholarly questions can also be approached in ways that do not necessarily have to come down to a number and a P value, a formal proof and a protocol that can be replicated.I also learned that these paradigms can be effective in many cases where the hard sciences do not always have answers-questions related to social justice or to underrepresented minorities.The lab mind-set comfort zone that I believed to be the only way in which the universe could be understood was replaced with awareness that we can approach questions in other ways and through other methods that aren't necessarily part of the STEM toolbox (Shamir, "A Case Against the STEM Rush").The ubiquitous role assumed by Computer Science, in particular, in recent decades has elevated individuals like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the teams they lead to positions of massive political, social, and economic power.Having a strong background in STEM fields will not prepare tomorrow's leaders for the complex social issues they will navigate.Broad, rigorous training in the liberal arts will meaningfully complement Computer Science education.As Shamir noted, liberal arts education offers much more than the "soft skills" and "empathy" often cited in contemporary defenses of the humanities.Multidisciplinary training in a variety of methods of research and interpretation prepares graduates to tackle complex problems with the humility and confidence to conceptualize their investigation in a nuanced and comprehensive manner.