Week 1: Two Cultures

Week 1: Two Cultures

Hi everyone, I am Emma Tavella, a 4th-year student-athlete at UCLA studying Psychology and running Cross Country and Track and Field. Growing up, I have always enjoyed art and painting and prided myself on being the most creative in my family. However, I despised writing but thrived in my chemistry and physics classes. I could utilize my artistic side by drawing out physics problems and then my mathematical side by solving them. 

Artistic aspect:                                                  Math aspect

However, when coming to UCLA and choosing to major in Psychology, my learning was restricted to the humanities. I agree with Charles Percy Snow that the school's curriculum is to blame for this separation of art and sciences. There are only 3 scientific courses required for my major!

Psychology Major UCLA Course Requirements 

Aldous Huxley, in Literature and Science, believes that specialized language employed within each discipline creates and perpetuates a misunderstanding between science and art. This is true because when my roommate talks about her classes, I am always lost in her language. However, when I ask her what the words she is using mean, I immediately understand.  
The UCLA campus perpetuates this separation as the STEM classes are mainly located on the south side of campus, and the humanities are on the North side. 
                                                  

This layout results in students being surrounded by others that are similar. As Victoria Versna and Snow stated in their articles, this is problematic because it does not allow communication and collaboration between the two cultures, preventing new ideas and perspectives from observing observed. John Brockman, in Third Culture, believes contemporary scientists can bridge the gap between art and science and act as a "third culture" and that there is no need to bridge the gap. However, I believe that we need to actively work to bridge this gap as it has been decades since Brockman made this statement, and there is still a huge divide and separation between art and science.   

Works Cited

 

Huxley, Aldous. Literature and Science. Ox Bow Press, 1991. 

Jung, Justin. “A Campus Divided.” PRIME from the Daily Bruin, 2021, https://prime.dailybruin.com/justinnorth&southcampus/. 

Piller, Ingrid. “Language Barriers to Social Participation.” Language on the Move, 26 Aug. 2022, https://www.languageonthemove.com/language-barriers-to-social-participation/. 

“Problem 7-51 Energy Cons. - Part 7.” Physics, University of Guelph, https://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/problem-7-51-energy-cons-part-7. 

“Psychology Course Descriptions.” UCLA Registrar's Office, https://registrar.ucla.edu/academics/course-descriptions?search=PSYCH. 

Snow, C P. The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution. 7th ed., Cambridge University Press, 1961. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–125., https://doi.org/10.1162/002409401750184672. 


Comments

  1. Emily SunApril 8, 2023 at 4:27 PM

    Hi Emma, I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I liked how you related your experiences as a psychology major to the separation between arts and sciences. I think it's really interesting how you classify psychology as one of the humanities rather than a science, even though the psychology building is in south campus.

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