The division between STEM and Arts disciplines is not new to students in any post-secondary institution. Less discussed, however, is the complementary nature of the two sets of disciplines.

Though it can often feel like a chosen program of study is entirely self-contained, the study of many subjects can be enhanced by also learning about a superficially unrelated field alongside. In some cases, there are clear academic benefits to the integration of specific STEM and Arts fields. An example is the relatively new, but quickly expanding, field of computational linguistics. Computational linguists are concerned with formulating a way for computers to process and generate natural human language. Though this is regarded as a subfield of computer science, a basic understanding of linguistics at the very least is indispensable in this discipline. Within the larger interdisciplinary field of Artificial Intelligence in general, though the core of the research is driven by STEM, it is necessarily balanced with Arts fields such as ethics and philosophy.

On the flip side, there are many Arts fields that benefit from the incorporation of specific STEM subjects. An example of this would be economics, which requires the study of mathematics. Many of the humanities and social sciences make heavy use of statistics in their research, and thus an adequate understanding of statistics is needed to be able to collect and process data.

Clearly, there are observable benefits to interdisciplinary studies between STEM and the Arts; but it could be argued that it’s not really necessary for an individual to spend time studying a field that isn’t immediately related to their future career goal. Using the example of the computational linguist, would it not be reasonable to simply hire a linguist to advise the computer scientist when the need arose? This is entirely valid and does appear to make practical sense. However, in-depth study of an academic field provides more than just the knowledge and skills contained within that field — it also generates an awareness of its limitations. As an economist analysing data, it is important to not only understand what the numerical values signify in context, but also the limitations of the statistical model used to present them. Awareness of the limitations of certain types of knowledge and methodologies is crucial in decision-making and proper analysis in any field, and is hard to gain without having some sort of background in that field.

Additionally, studying Arts and STEM simultaneously is beneficial to general analytical and problem-solving skills which are required in all disciplines. STEM offers the scientific process, which once adapted is incredibly useful in the Arts, and the Arts offers a broader context for STEM related research as well as broader analytical and communication skills, both of which are also vital in STEM. These shared qualities required by STEM and Arts help highlight similarities between the fields that are often overlooked. One such similarity is the use of formal logic in both physics and philosophy, two subjects that interest first year Innis student Cleo Sood. “[Physics and philosophy] share similarities we just tend to overlook. Math teaches you to think, and so do the humanities. Humanities is about why you decided to come up with something and proving your thesis- which is what math is, but in a different way.”

Aurora Nowicki, a chemical engineering student, found a similar commonality between computer programming and taking a Russian language class. “The main reason I took it is because I’m interested in programming, a different sort of language. The two are very similar because of the syntax rules and grammar.” She also felt the added benefit of it diversifying her perspective. “It seems obvious, but it’s more about the people you meet. You get to experience things you wouldn’t normally, and if you get to make friends with people who aren’t doing what you are, your perspective about the world changes.”

Given the clear advantages to the integration of STEM and Arts, it seems strange to witness the strong divide between the two that still exists. This divide can be traced back to school environments as well as large factions of society that consider Arts subjects to be “soft” while STEM fields are viewed as being more challenging. An obvious effect of this is having people at a young age being discouraged from pursuing the arts and devaluing their importance. A less apparent effect of this mindset is creating an environment in which Arts students are frequently made to justify their choices, which can create a sense of hostility towards STEM subjects as well.

“There’s a divide because people think the arts are useless,” says Cleo, “so they [STEM majors] validate themselves and their choices by saying, ‘At least I’m going to get a job,’ and people in the humanities feel like they have to defend themselves and their choices in what they’re studying; whereas in engineering you can just be like ‘I’m going to get a job after this,’ or ‘Oh, the arts are just a hobby.’”

Aurora feels like the root cause is a lack of understanding. “It’s because they [Arts and STEM majors] don’t really get each other; people have either had really good experiences with either STEM or Arts and that’s why they go into that thing, and there’s a misconception that STEM is inherently more difficult, which I don’t think is true.”

For Cleo, it’s important to balance her load of primarily humanities and social science courses with a few science and math courses. “I feel empty without math, I feel like I’m not using my entire brain; and since all my courses are similar, I feel like I’m in a haze and with nothing to take me out of it. I don’t have anything to stimulate me in a different way so everything starts feeling too similar.”

Ultimately, the core to any discipline is the style of thinking and problem-solving approaches that they teach. Choosing to learn using different, complementary styles of thinking can only ever be beneficial, never detrimental.