Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences

About HASS

The Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Department prepares students for careers in which their most consequential decisions will not be purely technical. The greatest engineering challenges of our time are inseparable from the communities, cultures, economies, and environments in which they arise. Meeting these challenges requires engineers and scientists who are ethically grounded, culturally literate, and able to think critically about how their work will affect the world.

HASS offers a wide range of courses, from anthropology and creative writing, to energy policy and history, which provide students with the broad education necessary to cross disciplinary boundaries. Our courses deepen students’ understanding of the world, sharpen their communication, develop their ethical judgement, and cultivate creative and critical thinking. These skills don’t just make better scientists and engineers: they make better leaders.