Watch UC Berkeley’s Dean of Letters and Science Explain the Liberal Arts in 101 Seconds

“A liberal arts discipline is one that asks big, fundamental questions about the nature of the universe,” says Jennifer Johnson-Hanks.

How can a single college span astronomy, philosophy, physics and African American Studies? Easily, explains Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, the Executive Dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science.

“The liberal arts is how we say in English the ‘artes liberales,’” explains Johnson-Hanks in this 101 in 101 video, a series that challenges Berkeley professors and other campus experts to distill the basics of their field in only 101 seconds. Artes liberales is “medieval Latin for the knowledge practices of a free person.”

While the roots of the liberal arts practice may be centuries old, the college’s rigorous study and cross-disciplinary ethos sets students up to tackle both age old concerns and the thorniest questions of our time.

The College of Letters and Science is the largest on Berkeley’s campus. Roughly 75 percent of all undergraduate students major in one of the college’s 79 majors.

“A liberal arts discipline is one that asks big, fundamental questions about the nature of the universe or human society,” says Johnson-Hanks. “We ask ourselves, what does it really mean to be human?”

For instance, Johnson-Hanks says, a liberal arts education enriches our viewing of an event like an eclipse or seeing the Northern Lights. Being equipped with both a scientific understanding of the phenomenon and an appreciation of the artistic human responses to celestial events makes the experience more powerful.

“What is, on the one hand, a straightforward, astronomical phenomenon becomes so much more for you,” says Johnson-Hanks. “It ties you both to the universe as a whole and to your own human history, and your connection to intellectual ancestors and to future generations.”

Watch more 101 in 101 videos featuring UC Berkeley faculty and experts here.