“Wicked Problems”: The Humanities in the Time of STEM
On January 28th, 2016, Dr. William D. Adams presented “Wicked Problems: The Humanities in the Time of STEM,” the 15th Annual Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture, at UC Santa Cruz. In this lecture Adams examines the ways that difficult problems require the insights of the Humanities.
Dr. William D. Adams was nominated by President Barack Obama as the 10th Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and confirmed by the Senate in July 2014. Dr. Adams previously served as President of Colby College in Waterville, Maine from 2000 until June 2014, and as President of Bucknell University from 1995 to 2000. He was Vice President and Secretary of Wesleyan University from 1993 to 1995, and was Program Coordinator of the Great Works in Western Culture program at Stanford University from 1986 to 1988. Earlier in his career, he held various teaching positions at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and the University of North Carolina. Dr. Adams served in the Vietnam War as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. In 1977, he became a Fulbright Scholar and conducted research at the École des Hautes Études and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. Dr. Adams received a B.A. from Colorado College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
William D. Adams was one of the 2020 recipients of the Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni award.
Stay engaged by reading news coverage of the event.
- Dan White’s article for UC Santa Cruz
- Scott Rappaport’s article for UC Santa Cruz
- Alison Takemura’s article for the Santa Cruz Sentinel
You can also stay engaged by watching our video of the event or looking through our photos below.
Event photos:
