Sept. 1, 2026
The University of Arizona’s Public and Applied Humanities program, which has gained national attention for its synthesis of humanities and professional instruction, is launching three new emphasis areas this fall.
The three new emphasis areas are Astrobiology, Entrepreneurship and Human-Animal Interaction, bringing the total number of options available for a B.A. in applied humanities to 14. The transdisciplinary nature of the degree program equips students with a set of highly marketable, easily transferred skills, such as collaboration, creativity and strategic storytelling, all of which are strengthened through a series of career readiness courses that culminates in a required internship.
Taken together, the new emphasis areas demonstrate both the breadth of disciplines in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, and how those disciplines connect students directly to career opportunities across a wide array of industries and sectors, said Matthew Mars, Professor and Department Head.
“We offer an incredibly diverse range of options for students who are looking for a flexible, yet rigorous program that allows for creativity, experimentation, innovation and purpose-driven learning,” Mars said. “The three new emphases provide U of A students with expanded opportunities for pursuing their academic and professional interests in an intellectually rigorous and career-oriented way.”
The department was created in 2017 in response to growing demands in the workplace for graduates who have both the professional skills needed for a specific industry or sector and the transferable skills developed in the humanities. In the spring 2026 semester, the department reached the twin milestones of 1.) having more than 400 declared applied humanities majors, and 2.) graduating more than 400 students since the start of the degree.
“We believe we’re the best version of the liberal arts in the 21st century research university,” Mars said. “The Public and Applied Humanities positions the liberal arts in contexts that are clearly and directly related to career paths. We are responding to students’ needs and demands for career preparation in a way that is still true to the notion of what a university is. We’re nurturing students’ exploration, critical thinking and curiosity, but in a context that directly aligns with their intended career paths.”
A national model
Alain-Philippe Durand, Dorrance Dean of the College of Humanities, led the charge in creating the degree, which was the first of its kind in the country. In the years since, other universities have created similar programs, often in consultation with Durand and Judd Ruggill, the founding department head who remains a PAH faculty member while now serving as an associate dean in the Graduate College.
“I’m regularly asked by other institutions to come and speak about what’s made us successful,” Durand said. “We’re focused on the essential skills and humanistic habits of mind—curiosity, empathy, adaptability and global awareness—that are essential in the 21st century. And our partners across campus are delivering the relevant professional training. It’s a collaborative degree that places the disciplines into direct and structured interaction with one another, while the students are taught to blend these areas together to see them and the world in new ways.”
Programs elsewhere that can point directly to the U of A as a model include public and applied liberal arts at Central Michigan University, applied humanities at Cal Poly Humboldt, the University of Louisville’s interdisciplinary and public humanities, and Oberlin College’s public humanities.
From its original four emphases – Business Administration, Fashion Studies, Public Health, and Spatial Organization and Design Thinking – the Applied Humanities major continues to expand through new and continuing collaborations with other colleges, while reaching students off-campus as well, with six of the 14 emphases offered fully online.
“We have tremendous gratitude for the other deans and faculty members on campus who see the value in applied humanities and have been instrumental in working with us to bring these programs to prepare students to thrive in the workforce of the future,” Durand said.
New emphases designed to meet student demand
The Entrepreneurship emphasis is the second offered in partnership with the Eller College of Management.
“One of the goals of this emphasis is to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, the ability to identify opportunities, take informed risks, and act decisively in ambiguous, real-world situations,” said Bob Griffin, Executive Director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship. “This mindset is increasingly essential regardless of career path, as industries, technologies, and jobs evolve at an accelerating pace. Rather than relying solely on predefined roles or stable career ladders, entrepreneurial thinkers are better equipped to adapt, create value and lead change.”
Mars, who completed his post-doctoral training in the McGuire Center, has long been interested in social entrepreneurship and community innovation and said there’s significant potential in a formal degree option at the U of A to fill those entrepreneurship niches.
“There’s a natural intersection between the humanities, where we think about culture and the human condition, and entrepreneurship strategy, which boils down to how we think about and act on opportunities for innovation and human progress,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to generate profits or create social change, the strategies are largely the same. It’s a much more dynamic and rigorous approach for students who are interested in doing community-oriented innovation.”
The Astrobiology emphasis arose from a close relationship between the College of Humanities and the College of Science, in particular Dante Lauretta, director of the Arizona Astrobiology Center. Lauretta, Regents Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry and leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission, studied Japanese as one of three undergraduate majors at the U of A and was named the College of Humanities alumnus of the year in 2017.
“Astrobiology is not just about space – it’s very focused on the origins of life and how life in its myriad of forms has evolved up to the present day,” Mars said. “The other side of the scientists’ work is the quest of ‘so what?’ It’s interesting to think about the humanities as a foundation for understanding the origins and trajectory of life and for raising critical human-centered questions in parallel to scientific inquiry. Likewise, the humanities remind us to interrogate the ‘why’s’ and ‘so what’s’ behind leading edge science and think more carefully about how the implications are assessed and conveyed to the public.”
Graduates of the Astrobiology emphasis will be well-prepared to explore careers in science communication, public education and other roles positioned at the intersection of scientific research and the public.
Similarly, students who graduate from the Human-Animal Interaction emphasis will be prepared for careers adjacent to clinical and research settings, including animal advocacy, public outreach, policy analysis, service animal training and placement and volunteer management. Human-animal interaction is one of six emphases offered in collaboration with the College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences, the most of any partner college.
“There are many students who come into the university interested in working with animals, but see veterinary medicine as their only career path. Vet school is not only extremely competitive, but many students come to realize their passion for animals is less clinical and more behavioral and person-centered,” Mars said. “The human-animal interaction emphasis will provide such students with a range of viable career paths that they may have otherwise overlooked.”
The applied humanities curriculum
For every emphasis area, Applied Humanities majors take six courses with partner colleges to complete their emphasis requirements. They also complete eight courses in the core Applied Humanities sequence, starting at the 200 level with an introductory course and “Applied Humanities Practice: Techniques and Technologies for Public Enrichment.” At the 300 level, students take “Intercultural Competence: Culture, Identity, Adaptation, and Intercultural Relations” and a pre-internship course. At the 400 level, students take “Innovation and the Human Condition: Learning How to Improve Life in the Community and Beyond,” their required internship, and a senior capstone.
“No matter where students land in their professional or community lives, they will be part of an organization that is composed of people. People are unavoidable! Top management and leadership scholars recognize that the strength and success of any organization centers on its culture,” Mars said. “Our courses are sequenced to demonstrate and emphasize the importance of culture, empathy and collaboration to leading people and change no matter the field or environment. The canon of great human works from across time and cultures represent an immense amount of untapped resources and strategic devices for creating sustainable change and impact.”
Public and Applied Humanities courses are highly collaborative and taught using project-based and other experiential pedagogies. Students in the different emphases gain experience working with other perspectives in a manner that’s true to many industries, drawing on a mix of individual and collective strengths.
“Through innovation and collaboration, the applied humanities address the one of the most pressing critiques of higher education, which is that graduates are not adequately prepared for the workforce. Employers continually say students generally have strong grasps of technical concepts and principles, but lack those human-centered transferable skills,” Mars said.
