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Welcome from the Dean

Welcome to the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (HFA), a vibrant community that continually reaffirms that the humanities and the arts are vital—that they feed our souls, challenge our biases and complacencies, and take us to new heights of understanding. 

Our students, faculty, and alumni offer perspectives as linguists, architects, historians, philosophers, artists, activists, performers, and writers working in every medium. 

With the lowest student-to-teacher ratio on the UMass Amherst campus, a wealth of academic options, small classes taught by eminent faculty—a rarity at research universities like ours—and a dedicated staff of academic and career advisors, HFA offers students an experience that combines the character of an exceptional liberal arts college with the cross-disciplinary expansiveness of a flagship research university. 

Home to 14 departments, 11 centers and institutes, over 300 faculty members, and more than 2,000 students, our reach goes well beyond the classroom. We host hundreds of performances, exhibitions, productions, workshops, artist residencies, lectures, and collaborative projects each year to reflect the richness, creativity, and intellect of our community.

Students in our majors sharpen their critical analysis and communication skills while also creating, exploring, asking questions, and challenging the status quo. They are not just thinkers, but doers, problem solvers, researchers, and makers. They achieve at the highest levels of research, service, and leadership, with many even participating in hands-on research in world-class facilities, such as the Olver Design Building and the Arts Bridge in the Bromery Center for the Arts. 

Our students’ interests are complex and interdisciplinary, and the structure of our majors allow students to fulfill their varied interests. In fact, more than 1/3 of HFA students are currently pursuing more than one major. The brilliant team in the HFA Advising and Career Center work with students to find the right career path and complete internships and experiential learning experiences that build upon classroom learning. 

Upon graduation, our students are highly sought in their respective job markets for the skills they bring. Perhaps most critically, they have a generous capacity for empathy—for endeavoring to understand the lives of others and to better understand what it means to be human.

As dean of the College, I am committed to ensuring every member of our community feels valued and heard. I am guided by a few key issues that are important to me: 

  • Increasing undergraduate student recruitment, retention, and graduation. 
  • Graduate student professional development, persistence, and timely doctoral completion. 
  • Streamlining the HFA Dean’s Office. 
  • Creating exciting and market responsive interdisciplinary graduate degrees. 
  • Growing sponsored research. 
  • Supercharging development and giving. 
  • Increasing professional development opportunities for staff. 
  • Becoming a leader in community engagement and participatory research. 
  • Engaging with national conversations of the Humanities and Fine Arts. 
  • Creating the conditions for thriving, and financial security in HFA. 
  • Making investments that align with the University’s new strategic plan. 
  • Increasing HFA’s presence on the Mt. Ida campus.

We are proud to have a profound impact on the entire student population at the university, as well as our local community, our national communities and audiences, and public life writ large. 

While the value of the arts and humanities has been publicly debated, we’ve remained steadfast in our commitment to ensuring our academic programs respond to the needs of students and society in addressing 21st century issues.  It’s our hope we can further amplify the narrative that the humanities don’t just matter—they are what upholds a just, thoughtful, and thriving society.   

In the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, we are both revolutionary and evolutionary. We are proud to have you join us.

All best,

Maria del Guadalupe (Lupe) Davidson, PhD
Dean of the College of Humanities & Fine Arts

 

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