Social Science Space

A new report from the British Academy offers a reassuring message to the humanities and social science community: Graduates in the arts, humanities and social sciences in the United Kingdom are as resilient to economic upheaval as other graduates and are just as likely to remain employed as STEM graduates during downturns.

Danielle Tomasello describes The Social Scientist, a non-profit networking and outreach community of STEM professionals. Our volunteers answer questions that will benefit scientists’ interests, including a view of their work, environment and what it took for them to get there.

A report from RBC Royal Bank reaffirms what thought leaders keep insisting — there will be more and more demand for a liberal arts education in our increasingly digital world. “I prefer to call them “essential skills,” because we all need them every day, though we don’t always use them well. They are the foundational skills that allow us to learn and live and work productively with other people.”

How can universities train our scientists, technologists and engineers to engage with society rather than perform as cogs in the engine of economic development? Author Richard Lachman asks for educational system to require STEM students to take art and humanities courses, not as an attempt to “broaden minds” but as a necessary discussion of morals, ethics and responsibility.

STEM programs are critical components of universities’ curricular and research missions, but so, too, notes Paul Axelrod, are the liberal arts. And these programs should not be marginalized in market-driven, academic prioritization schemes.

To say that women are underrepresented in science and engineering fields is an understatement. It is also an oversimplification, because […]

As Australia’s government focuses on innovation and commercializing research in its academic agenda, it should not forget about the humanities, arts and social sciences.

Remember the admonition to ‘show your work’ in math class? Focusing on where you went wrong – instead of hurrying to what is right – may be a great way to actually learn something, so it’s a shame more teachers don’t do that.

Academia has long recognized that wicked problems require cross-disciplinary research approaches, yet Australia’s Science and Research Priorities enthrall mainly STEM researchers. This divide puts academia back into silos: those on the sunny side of funding decisions and those under a constant rain cloud.

There’s a lot of handwringing over the STEM gap in US education, and new paper in the ‘Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences’ finds that how STEM is taught underlies some of the challenges. But cognitive science may offer some help

There is a divide in how academics from the humanities and social sciences view open access publishing compared to their colleagues in the science, technology and medical fields: HSS is notably more skittish about OA.

There are ways to patch the pipeline that sees women drain out of STEM fields in university and on the job, but it will take some effort to dismantle structural barriers first.