Week 1 Two Cultures

 Though I have yet to experience the division between the two cultures of humanities versus sciences on campus firsthand, the differences between students in the two fields of study are blatantly evident even when perceived digitally. With UCLA in mind, I couldn’t help but remember some Facebook posts I’d seen with North/South campus students displaying their beliefs; some posts showed solidarity, and some attacked the other side. Even someone like me can understand that this divide is not a matter isolated to any particular campus or environment. Reading Professor Vesna’s paper “Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between”, however, I could see how the dissimilar viewpoints of artists and scientists can be brought together to construct a bridge over the chasm that has kept them apart.

South campus solidarity

South campus dude raging at North campus

Professor Vesna’s article based on C.P. Snow’s idea of “Two Cultures” comes from the perspective of an artist and educator, leaning into Snow’s optimistic hope that a “Third Culture” will emerge to bring harmony. Vesna explores the roles of artists in bridging this gap through “utilizing new technologies, … active dialogue with both sides … By utilizing tools familiar to scientists and collaborating with the scientific community, we are getting closer to an atmosphere of collaboration and mutual respect”(Vesna 121). There must be a mutual acknowledgement in order to progress forward. C.P. Snow understood this as well when he wrote “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”: “The clashing point of two subjects, two disciplines, two cultures … ought to produce creative chances”(Snow 17). Snow then explains that, however, these chances often slip away due to the two cultures’ inability to talk to each other.
Graphic showing inability to communicate

To realize the potential of the third culture, artists and scientists must work together rather than hold themselves above their counterparts. I personally believe that we are headed in the right direction. Due to shifting perspectives in the general public, the inclusivity and diversity we seek as a society will eventually come to integrate the humanities and the sciences together.




References:

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–125. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1577014.

Snow, Charles Percy. The two cultures and the scientific revolution: The Rede Lecture, 1959. University Press, 1959. 


UCLA Secrets. Facebook, 29 Mar. 2019  

Simon, Ed. “Crossing the Gulf of the Two Cultures.” Scholars in the Humanities and the Sciences Should Value One Another (Essay), Inside Higher Ed, 6 Jan. 2017, www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/01/06/scholars-humanities-and-sciences-should-value-one-another-essay

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