HSA Blog

How does social impact work? Many people doubt that social change is even possible, but those on the front lines of efforts to make the world a better place know otherwise. In spring 2021, students in my Global Environmental Politics course at Harvey Mudd interviewed renowned changemakers from their hometowns—activists, elected officials, entrepreneurs and others—with […]

As a rule, I don’t pay much attention to explicitly Orientalist media. I get enough of it implicitly, through the back-door, as it were, by virtue of being a living, breathing citizen of the United States of America. Our mainstream, political, and popular culture is full of exoticized, eroticized, dangerous, and damaging portrayals of the […]

Wealth inequality in the U.S. is at unprecedented levels, and yet we don’t see the kind of resistance to it that one might expect, especially from the ones who are most hurt by it. Every field of social science has its fair share of theories to help understand resistance to oppressive systems, and so does […]

In the remote setting of COVID, orchestra director David Cubek—who holds a joint faculty appointment in Harvey Mudd’s Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts and at Scripps College—continues to engage students in a rich experience with the arts. The Claremont Concert Orchestra is one of three student ensembles in the Joint Music Program […]

The members of the Harvey Mudd Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts (HSA) are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague Richard G. (Dick) Olson, who died in June, a few months shy of what would have been his 80th birthday. Though he retired from the College in 2011, Dick remained closely […]

Bicycles have been in the news a lot lately as people look for recreation options during the COVID lockdown. Cycling has also received growing attention as a climate-friendly transportation option. In the United States, passenger vehicle trips are the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Over a third of these trips […]

As a historian of psychology and computing, I am interested in two questions: How did the developments in cybernetics and artificial intelligence (AI) prompt new approaches to understanding the human mind and its creative abilities? And, how did the ideas about minds and computers travel across political, economic and ideological contexts in the twentieth century? […]

Every Mudd student will take HSA10: Critical Inquiry, a seminar intended to introduce students to the process of inquiry- and research-based writing. This class, for which there are many available sections, each with a different focus, encourages students to think more deeply in a humanities or social science setting. In my section of HSA 10, […]

During these unprecedented times, the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts welcomes new leadership, new faces and new initiatives. Paul Steinberg, professor of political science and environmental policy and Malcolm Lewis Chair of Sustainability and Society, steps down after three excellent years as department chair overseeing the department’s growth and increasing its visibility […]

The arts administrator for the College’s Caryll Mudd and Norman F. Sprague Jr. Gallery describes the latest renovations, favorite features, behind-the-scenes details and what’s in store for HMC’s creative space. Introduce yourself and describe your role in the community. My name is Julia Lee Hong. I am the arts administrator in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and […]