Humanities and Arts Student Profiles

Cristina Ibarra
After extending a much needed break after graduation I've been having some great interviews in San Francisco and New York about the opportunities for graduates with distinctive degrees merging the humanities and the arts. It is really exciting to see people intrigued by such an unusual and inter-disciplinary major! Although I have not yet decided exactly where my path will lead, I would love to keep in touch with the program that has provided me with such a unique platform from which to proceed.
Shannon Huang
Recipient, Dean's Undergraduate Award in Humanities & Arts (2008)! As a Humanities and Arts Major, I hope to utilize ideas and concepts present in Art History and those in Studio Art to further my understanding of visual culture’s effect on society. Because these two disciplines are inextricably linked, I feel that it’s necessary to find the overlap and connection of both through the practice of art and the study of art history. I am intrigued by the way that art has filtered itself into our everyday at the public level -through mass media, activist art, performance art-, but also how it functions on a personal level. Art provides an outlet for expression through a means that does not necessarily require speech, and is not always conscious. The importance of this is significant, especially for children who many times cannot describe what they feel. I have been introduced to the study and concept of Art Therapy, which gives children and some adults an alternative means to communicate emotional stresses. Because art is created as a reaction to the self or to someone’s surroundings, this process of therapy alleviates and heals through an unspoken language. Art is a very broad term that encompasses visual, auditory, and kinetic senses. This universality of art is what I want to learn more about. What is it responding to? What is its’ effects? How does it connect individuals? Studying role of images in our society’s history has helped me see the link between visual culture and how important it is in drafting new ideas, creativity, and inspiration.
Denise Li	AH-HA Major
My interests have always been inter-disciplinary; after devoting a few years to my passion in theatre, I became intrigued by the fields of psychology and philosophy, and their intersections with art, culture and society (including the topics of alienation, self-realization, etc.). After adding the Comparative Literature major, I came to the realization that declaring the Humanities and Arts major, with concentrations in Philosophy and Drama, would be the next logical step (after further clarification of my interests over the span of two years, I have decided to leave the program in Film & Media Studies to pursue my initial passion in theatre).
Spencer Williams	AH-HA Major
Film is the medium that claims my heart. The best way to make films, I decided, is to emulate the directors whose work I admire, while picking up my own style. Those who dazzle me, who really amaze me, have brought something new to the medium. Orson Welles was in radio, in theatre, and a magician before he was a filmmaker. Jean Pierre-Jeunet (Amelie), one of my favorites today, is also an animator. Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums) studied philosophy. Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways) studied History. I asked myself what I knew outside of film that would contribute to my filmmaking, and to pursue that-to become as well-rounded as possible. I focus on aspects of the arts and expression that play into filmmaking--that influence and inspire it, but from another realm. I study poetry and philosophy; I study art, dance, and theatre. All of the elements cook separately, whil Film is on the backburner. The hope is that in the end, it will all combine nicely to produce something with which to sustain myself. With that in mind, I have taken classes that look at the philosophical reality of and within film, classes on narrative drawing, theatrical and cinematic acting, theatrical directing, modern and improvisational dance using technology; explored forms of visual narrative through poetry, acted in and directed workshops, performed with and formed improvisational comedy troupes. I chose general education classes based on what I thought best pertained to what I want to study. I can’t pretend that this is anything revolutionary. The resources and means, and the community is all right there in front of me. It’s up to me to apply it as best I can-to myself, and to film. My education helps me to see how one creative form blends with another—where they begin, where they end—and allows me to filter through the intriguing, chaotic mesh of what I see before me, and to (fingers crossed) create through it.