Transforming Higher Education: How Humanities Enhance STEM Research and Teaching

On June 2, 2026, Atla and EBSCO hosted a webinar titled “Humanizing STEM: How the Humanities Are Transforming Research, Teaching, and the Future of Higher Education.” This webinar featured guest speaker Richard Utz, Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives in the College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Teach, with discussion moderated by John Kutsko, Atla’s Executive Director.

Growing evidence supports the idea that humanities-integrated STEM education benefit learners and practitioners across fields. This webinar offered a thoughtful consideration of these findings, and what they mean for humanities and STEM disciplines and professionals.

As Senior Associate Dean in Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Utz spoke on the university’s efforts to situate humanistic inquiry at the center of their work. To illustrate this work, he shared stories from students and faculty displaying cross-disciplinary collaborations and their impacts on the academic individual, community, and larger ecosystem at Georgia Tech and beyond. Utz called for integrated knowledge pursuits across disciplines, highlighting how the humanities help STEM professionals contextualize their work, and consider the “why” of their inquiries. 

The discussion balanced qualitative and quantitative data, with John Kutsko citing findings from the National Academies’ 2018 report, Branches from the Same Tree, which compiled evidence that integrating the humanities and arts with STEM leads to better educational and career outcomes. Kutsko also cited the American Academy’s 2024 department survey, which showed that humanities enrollments are stabilizing—or rising—at some institutions after years of steep decline.

The conversation later turned to considerations of technology in the age of AI, with Utz identifying the need for humanists who are not tech hostile, while noting the need for humanities perspectives to pave humane paths forward with AI implementation.

Overall, this webinar provided an engaging overview of interdisciplinary initiatives at academic institutions, such as Georgia Tech, while highlighting the fruits of humanistic inquiry across STEM fields.

Missed this webinar? You can access the video here or on the Atla Webinar Archive. Browse and register for upcoming webinars here.