HSA Blog

Alfred P. Flores, assistant professor of Asian American studies at Harvey Mudd College, writes about his Asian American History course, in which he encourages students to rethink how they understand history. – Inspired by the teaching and pedagogy of historian Jean-Paul deGuzman, I have students conduct historical research to excavate their family’s or a specific […]

Isabel Balseiro, professor of humanities and comparative literature in the HSA department, describes digital humanities and how this field is impacting her teaching. What is digital humanities, and how have you utilized this within your courses? The digital humanities (DH) integrate computing or digital technologies and traditional disciplines of the humanities, such as history, literature […]

Karen Morrison ’08 (chemistry), assistant director at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, describes her career path and why she wouldn’t change a thing. Could you describe your career path and how it and your interests intertwine? I graduated from Harvey Mudd in 2008 (chemistry) and went from there to grad school to get my […]

When the movie Hidden Figures, which tells the story of three African American women working for NASA in the 1960s, debuted about two years ago, I joined a friend one Saturday to watch it on the big screen. During a pivotal scene, one of the women—Katherine Goble Johnson—and a team of white, male engineers are […]

In December 2018, less than three hours’ drive from Harvey Mudd College, 400 religious leaders were arrested during a demonstration at the U.S.-Mexico border, where San Diego meets Tijuana. Representing numerous faith and spiritual traditions, these activists marched in solidarity with the caravan of migrants from Central America traveling through Mexico and seeking refuge in […]

Among the most popular shows in American history, Star Trek and its many iterations have left an indelible mark on modern American culture, largely because of the show’s remarkable ability to convey culturally important messages. For my research paper in HSA 10 (the first-year seminar at Harvey Mudd), I explored the ways in which Star […]

This article is a reprint of The Hive’s Oct. 4, 2018 blog post. “In a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter … information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form […]

Publicly performing a play is the final project of Harvey Mudd’s annual spring Shakespeare course, one of the College’s most iconic humanities offerings. A major challenge the class faces every year is finding a good location to perform in an effort to bring Shakespeare to as many people as possible. Literature professor Ambereen Dadabhoy dreamed […]

I’ve always seen humanities, social sciences and the arts (HSA) courses at Harvey Mudd as a way of bringing context and deeper understanding to the technical work that we do. It was never a coincidence to me that the HSA department was physically located between the two floors of the engineering department. In order to […]

What do Malcolm X, Mary Shelley and Amadeus Mozart having common? A radical revision of their fields of thought and action? Fluency in the communication of ideas? The letter M? In fact, they are all the focus of conversation and curricular innovation at Harvey Mudd College—an institution with a deep commitment to combining STEM education […]