Alexandra Minna Stern joins deans from UC Berkeley, Riverside to trumpet humanities research

Sean Brenner | March 21, 2025

UCLA Humanities Dean Alexandra Minna Stern underscored the vital role of humanities research in shaping public discourse, technology ethics and health care in a presentation at the University of California Systemwide Academic Congress.

The March 12 meeting at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center, focusing on the role of universities in the research enterprise, brought together dozens of leaders from a broad range of disciplines and across the UC system. For a session on humanities research, Stern was joined by Sara Guyer, dean of arts and humanities at UC Berkeley, and Daryle Williams, dean of humanities, arts and social sciences at UC Riverside.

Stern highlighted meaningful ways in which humanities scholarship informs key societal issues, especially during eras of rapid change.

“Humanities has helped us have breakthrough understandings of knowledge, how we know what we know and how we express what we know,” she said.

Stern emphasized that humanities research fosters critical inquiry, particularly in fields that intersect with science and technology — digital humanities, for example, where scholars are interrogating biases that are embedded in algorithms and other digital systems. Such research, she said, can support efforts to make technology serve society equitably rather than reinforcing inequality.

“It’s always good to think about, ‘What are the values embedded in scientific knowledge frameworks that we’re using for good or bad; for problematic reasons or for the betterment of people?’” Stern said.

Humanizing health, understanding the ancient world

Stern also addressed the emerging field of health humanities, which bridges the gap between medicine and humanistic inquiry and emphasizes the importance of storytelling in patient care.

“If you go to a doctor and they ask you to describe your pain, how do they ask you to describe it? Usually, it’s on a scale from zero to 10. But is that very effective?” Stern asked. “If you can use a metaphor, if you can describe it in a way that conveys its depth, that is a powerful form of knowledge — one that comes from literature and the humanities.”

And she highlighted the value of humanists’ interest in studying ancient civilizations, not only because how it can improve our understanding of the contemporary world. “It’s [also] important because it is connected to breaking down some of the binaries and some of the received narratives we have about the ancient world,” she said.

In her closing comments, Stern pointed to the rich opportunities for humanities research in California specifically, and to the enduring promise of humanistic teaching.

“California, in and of itself, has been an incredible innovator in and beyond the university in terms of the arts, humanities, culture and music. So there’s so much we can plug into even further in the state, and to give back to the state,” she said. “And the humanities is really important in training students in global citizenship and global belonging.”