By: Sophie Chen, Grade 9
For our November workshop, we were honored to be joined by Debra Satz, Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford. Dean Satz highlighted the role and importance of the humanities in today’s society.
Debra oversees everything from literature to astrophysics. So, after becoming Dean, she spent a lot of her time getting better acquainted with the different fields of study. She read technical papers on everything from political science to natural language processing.
Growing up, Dean Satz studied math, but slowly found a greater interest in philosophy. While science allowed explanation and prediction, she enjoyed approaching problems from the historical, cultural, and ethical side of the humanities.
Dean Satz also liked the flexibility and openness she obtained from studying the humanities. She feels that the humanities allowed her to slowly navigate a path and explore many different options.
Given she is a Philosophy professor, she shared some of the questions she thinks are most relevant to society today, including: Can democracy survive the age of the internet? How do we balance treating people as equals with the idea of accommodating and recognizing various kinds of diversity? She explains that the field of philosophy is not moving fast, but rather slowing down, thinking, taking things apart, and looking to provide different points of view.
Takeaways from this workshop:
“It's great to be shown to be wrong; that’s how knowledge is produced.”
“Be curious. You matter. Your voice matters. Sometimes it's hard to use your voice, but it's one of the most important instruments you will ever control.”
“Don't let fear or difficulty get in your way.”