Strategic Plan

The Division of Arts and Humanities prepares students to flourish in a rapidly changing world. We want every student who wants to study the arts and humanities at Berkeley to feel like they can. That means providingaccessto classes they want to take, a diverse and complex curriculum, financial support, mentorship, and opportunities to engage with worlds beyond their own. Students at Berkeley should also have access to tools and narratives that support and encourage their academic and career aspirations. 

Increasing Access and Sustainable Programs 

• Provide resources to support enrollment increases and meet student demand, including advising and communications strategies

• Celebrate and support the diversity of our student population

• Create opportunities for learning inside and outside the classroom (e.g. study abroad, career development, research, mentorship)

• Advocate for funding to ensure that our programs and students continue to thrive

• Develop pathways into A&H majors and programs for transfer students and non-majors

Inclusive Excellence and Student Belonging 

• Amplify student voices as ambassadors for the Arts and Humanities (e.g. Dean’s Leadership Team)

• Center A&H in our world’s most pressing questions, including climate change and AI

• Support student belonging through courses like Berkeley Connect and Transfer Foundations

• Confront stereotypes about arts and humanities degrees

• Ensure that our students remain the happiest undergraduates on campus!

Key priorities in 2023-24 include our communications campaign “A New Story for the Arts & Humanities.”

We share a cross-departmental commitment to teaching and learning that cuts across historical and geographic borders, and we have a singular commitment to broad multilingualism. With this in mind, we prioritize diversity and inclusion at every level of our recruitment and retention efforts. We consistently attract and recruit the very best graduate students and faculty, and we provide the necessary resources to retain them. We center mentorship and community, bring visibility to the essential work that they do, and provide the conditions necessary for their research to flourish.

Promoting Access and Pathways for Advancement

• Recruit and retain top faculty in the arts and humanities 

• Appoint inclusive leadership throughout the division

• Increase graduate admission pathways and support graduate students and programs

• Focus on strategies to promote career advancement

Sustaining and Expanding Our Research Excellence

• Maintain and grow excellence in traditional strengths and in at-risk areas of study

• Bolster interdisciplinary centers (CICI, Townsend, ARC, Magnes) and initiatives (Environmental Humanities, Public Humanities)

• Build a global humanities (Indigenous Arts and Knowledges; African Humanities)

• Expand the reach and impact of our international partnerships 

• Support innovative research across the humanities 

Key priorities in 2023-24 include implementing the recommendations of our Task Force on Languages, Language-Based Disciplines, and Global Citizenship and the Working Group for Research, Promotion, and Career Advancement.

Our faculty and students lead the way in the creative arts and arts research, and they study its theory, history, and practice, ranging from performance and theater to film, music, literature, poetry, and the visual arts. The arts at Berkeley have a storied past including Nobel laureates and Guggenheim fellows, and our departments are seeing new successes and sustained growth. We intend to invest in this bright future through additional resources and by bringing visibility and awareness to the richness and breadth of artistic disciplines within the division.

Increasing Access and Visibility of the Arts

• Support departments to meet student demand (our arts majors are among the fastest-growing majors on campus)

• Increase arts access and engagement opportunities for non-majors

• Bring visibility to our internationally renowned faculty in creative disciplines 

• Leverage the arts spaces and collections in the division to offer public programming

Sustaining the Breadth of Excellence in the Arts

• Be attentive to the unique facilities and material needs of the arts

• Celebrate the unique legacy of intertwined theory and practice of the arts at Berkeley

• Grow faculty strength and expand areas of practice

Key priorities for 2023-24 include celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Department of Art Practice and renovating spaces for the arts

The administrative staff in the Division of Arts and Humanities work tirelessly to support and further the mission and goals of the division. Together, we are focused on supporting faculty and staff by easing administrative and bureaucratic burdens, advocating for funding and other resources, and prioritizing internal communications. As we continue to grow, a solid and collaborative administrative structure will be vital to the sustainability and success of our division, its faculty, students, and staff. 

Building a Sustainable Division and Improving Operational Excellence

• Develop sustainable funding models and budget support for departments 

• Expand fundraising in support of divisional and departmental goals

• Ease bureaucratic burden for departments and streamline administrative processes 

Supporting Staff Access and Pathways to Success

• Facilitate and improve internal communications between campus, dean’s office, and departments

• Assess staffing levels across departments and focus on the retention and recruitment of excellent staff 

• Create pipelines for staff advancement and provide training resources and opportunities

• Celebrate and recognize staff through awards and staff appreciation initiatives 

Key priorities for 2023-24 include expanding fundraising efforts and supporting departments with cost-of-living adjustments

We are the most diverse large division on campus, and we are proud that half of our majors are students who transferred in from community colleges. We continuously strive to make the Division of Arts and Humanities more accessible; we offer extensive fellowships and programs for underrepresented students and faculty at all career stages. Our leadership represents an inclusive humanities that is thoroughly global and represents our commitment to the inclusion of multiple forms of knowledge. In turn, our curriculum aims to amplify the humanities as a voice and tool for social justice and change.

Improving Pathways and Access

• Uplift the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which supports students by providing mentorship and the environment and resources to strive for their highest academic goals

• Use the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program as a key recruitment tool 

• Maintain and grow fellowships and co-curricular programs for underrepresented students 

• Uphold Berkeley’s legacy of disability justice across the curriculum and in students’ daily experience of campus

Sustaining Inclusive Excellence in Faculty and Students

• Rebuild graduate community across the division 

• Appoint and foster inclusive faculty leadership 

• Create community for the sizeable number of URM students at A&H

• Build towards campus’ HSI goals and support African American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Latinx, and Native American Thriving Initiatives

• Leverage donor and state FTE as a resource for faculty change

Key priorities for 2023-24 include launching our Arts & Humanities Advancing Faculty Diversity Grant and implementing accessibility best practices across the division’s units