UC San Diego

Office of the Dean
Division of Arts and Humanities
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive # 0406
La Jolla, CA 92093-0406

tel: (858) 534-6270
fax: (858) 534-0091
dean-ah@ucsd.edu

Message from the Dean

The Unique Signature of the Arts and Humanities at UC San Diego.The arts and humanities play an essential role in general education, in the nurturing of informed and engaged citizens in a democratic society, and in the training of future scholars and artists themselves. For all these reasons, our departments have been a powerful presence at UCSD since the founding of the campus in the early 1960s. Remaining true to the vision of building a premier public university, the original leaders of UCSD recruited a stellar faculty of world-renowned humanists and artists to the campus. These colleagues in turn created innovative programs that set altogether new standards of excellence in their fields. They championed originality and creativity in their disciplines. And they saw to it that several departments of the Arts and Humanities Division gained widespread recognition as major centers of teaching, research, and creative activity. The Division has built on this extraordinary tradition of quality ever since.

Today many of the departments in this Division are considered among the best in the nation, and they continue to flourish, opening new horizons of research and creativity. Humanities scholars and artists at UCSD are, both by the passionate pursuit of traditional scholarly agendas in history and literature as well as by the inspired use of recent, dramatic advances in science and technology, reshaping their fields and moving them in new and exciting directions. Our philosophers, for example, use breakthroughs in the mapping of the human brain and in the understanding of neurophysiology to reassess long-standing questions about consciousness, individual freedom, and personal responsibility. Our literary critics, cultural studies specialists, and historians construct novel understandings of the ways in which we fashion conceptions of ourselves, of others, of the past, and of the present. And our artists, working with advanced applications in computational technology, explore new frontiers in music, the visual media, and in theatrical performance and dance.

With the insights and advances gained by re-examining enduring questions of interpretation, criticism, and historical narrative, and with leaps in the creation of visual and performing art inspired by the exciting world of high technology, the Division looks to a future of ever greater achievements and distinction. We invite you to browse the websites of our departments and programs to learn more about us. We welcome your engagement with our mission and goals. Most of all, we hope you will join with us – as student, colleague, benefactor, or interested visitor -- in a continuing effort to refine and sustain the unique signature of the Arts and Humanities at UCSD.

Eric Van Young, Interim Dean