Educational Tapestry

STUDENTS WEAVE SUBJECTS TOGETHER FOR BACHELOR IN HUMANITIES

by CHUCK WASSERSTROM

The humanities are traditionally defined as disciplines that investigate human culture, experience and perception. They aim to rekindle the awe of human achievement while sharpening the mind and igniting the imagination.

Students in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga humanities program have a great deal of autonomy when constructing their interdisciplinary curriculum but also receive guidance at critical junctures along the way.

“This is a very interesting and unique degree program at UTC,” says Dennis Plaisted, an associate professor in philosophy and religion. What the humanities program allows a student to do is, in a sense, create his or her own major. “A UTC humanities degree will allow you to focus more broadly and see the connections between disciplines that you might overlook in other majors.”

Ellie Bixler ’21

Ellie Bixler earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities (liberal arts concentration) and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology from UTC in spring 2021. She credits the humanities program for allowing her to pursue creative interests alongside archeology and anthropology.

“I like to write poetry and use it as a passion project that allows my brain to take a break,” Bixler says. “Archeology is a pretty scientific academic field, and I would be in the lab all day. I used poetry to reset my brain and think about things differently.”

A Brock Scholar and Honors College Scholar, Bixler is now pursuing a Master of Applied Anthropology at Oregon State University. Down the road, she wants to work as a federal archeologist for the U.S National Park Service.

“With my humanities degree, a lot of my anthropology classes were courses that I chose to be the supplementary courses,” Bixler says. “I would go into a lot of those knowing that it was both a humanities credit fulfillment and a logical credit fulfillment. It offered two different perspectives on the same material.”

Bixler says she has always used creative writing as an outlet—“I keep a journal and I write a lot”—and the humanities program allowed her to think about the world and tie different ideas together. Her honors thesis, “Young Adult: A Poetic Exploration of Modern American Life,” included 21 poems.

“A lot of the poetry had roots in culture and humanity. Anthropology fed into my writing,” she says. “My thesis was about how poetry has shaped American culture and vice versa, and that is inherently anthropological.”

Hannah Archer '21

Hannah Archer majored in international studies as part of her humanities specialization while getting a bachelor’s degree in geology. Her plans include working at an international level to develop climate change mitigation policy.

“I really like the hard sciences like geology and engineering, and the international studies major allowed me to incorporate some aspect of social sciences, as well,” Archer says. “I was able to take a ton of different interests that I had in academics and, using the humanities major, turn it into something that broadened my horizons.”

The spring 2021 graduate is currently pursuing a master’s degree in engineering and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston.

“Because I was able to choose classes for my major, I had the chance to learn about places that I hadn’t learned about before,” says Archer, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. “I took courses on South Asia and England and all kinds of other places to give me a well-rounded education of the world.”

Archer says the UTC humanities educational experience made her a better global citizen.

“I think it helped me understand the position of the entire planet in terms of climate change on a much better level than if I had just studied the U.S. and China.”