“A discipline of liberal arts is that which asks great fundamental questions about the nature of the universe,” explains Jennifer Johnson-Hanks.
March 6, 2025
How can a single college extend over astronomy, philosophy, physics and African-American studies? Easily explains Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, the executive dean of the College of Letters and Sciences of the UC Berkeley.
“Liberal arts are how we say in English the” Liberal Arts “,” explains Johnson-Hanks in this 101 in 101 videoA series that questions Berkeley teachers and other campus experts to distill the basics of their domain in just 101 seconds. Liberal arts is “the medieval Latin for the knowledge practices of a free person”.
While the roots of the practice of liberal arts can have centuries, the rigorous study of the college and the interdisciplinary ethics put students to answer both secular concerns and the most thorny questions of our time.
The College of Letters and Sciences is the largest on the Berkeley campus. About 75% of all undergraduate students specialize in one of the 79 majors of the college.
“A discipline of liberal arts is that which asks great fundamental questions about the nature of the universe or of human society,” explains Johnson-Hanks. “We wonder, what does it really mean to be human?”
For example, says Johnson-Hanks, an education in the liberal arts enriches our vision of an event as an eclipse or to see it the northern lights. Being equipped with both a scientific understanding of the phenomenon and an appreciation of artistic human responses to celestial events makes experience more powerful.
“What is, on the one hand, a simple astronomical phenomenon becomes so much more for you,” explains Johnson-Hanks. “This binds you both to the universe as a whole and to your own human history, and to your link with intellectual ancestors and to future generations.”
Watch more than 101 in 101 videos featuring teachers and experts from the Berkeley UC here.