A New Story for the Humanitites: a communications campaign to increase visibility for the arts and humanities by UC Berkeley's Division of Arts & Humanitites.
At UC Berkeley and many other top universities, students increasingly are choosing to study fields such as art history, modern and ancient languages and literature, philosophy and religion, visual and performing arts, and film and media studies. They believe these academic disciplines are vital to their pursuit of becoming global citizens who can tackle society’s issues from many perspectives and approaches.
Despite decades of negative stereotypes touting arts and humanities fields as undesirable, unrealistic, and unemployable — students today see the value of humanities degrees in their pursuit of becoming part of a globalized world. In the Fall of 2022, the Division reported on an early trend that has now become a reality. Bringing visibility to the success of the humanities is a priority for the Dean's office.
As of May 2025, the division is seeing the following student interests:
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This year we have seen the highest A&H declared major headcount in over a decade.
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Declared A&H majors: 47% increase in declared major headcountover the past 4 years
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Our fastest-growing majors are Art Practice, Film & Media*, and Music*, which are in the top-10 highest-growing majors on campus in recent years.
*Declared Film majors have tripled over the past 10 years, and Music majors have doubled.
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This year, nine departments, including Ancient Greek & Roman Studies, Comparative Literature, EALC, English, Film & Media, French, History of Art, Spanish & Portuguese, and Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, reported their highest major headcounts in a decade. Art Practice, Film & Media, and Music are among the top 10 fastest-growing majors on campus over the past five years. Declared Film majors have tripled over the past 10 years, and Music majors have doubled.
The humanities are, in fact, more popular than ever. The reports and articles below provide a sampling of this new and developing story for the humanities at Berkeley and in the world.
Declared major numbers taken from OPA Our Berkeley Data Digest.
The Humanities allow us to live in Complexity
Sara Guyer, Dean of the Division of Arts & Humanities and Stephen Best, Director of the Townsend Center for the Humanities as they discuss the resurgence in popularity of the arts and humanities at UC Berkeley. Guyer and Best will explore the future of the arts and humanities and their impact within and beyond the university.