2019-16

Arizona State University
University Senate

Senate Motion #2019-16

Motion Introduced by: Curriculum and Academic Programs Committee, Lili Wang, Chair

Date of First Reading: September 24, 2018

Date of Second Reading: October 29, 2018

Title of Motion: Request from the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences – School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies – for the establishment of an undergraduate certificate – Arts and Humanities in Games

Action Requested: This curricular proposal has received all college, school, unit and university administrative approvals, and is being presented to the Senate for review and voting decision.   

Rationale: The humanities disciplines are concerned with questions of human existence, meaning, the nature of thinking and knowing, and aesthetic experience. The goal of the certificate in Arts and Humanities in Games is to make the human mind more supple, critical, and expansive through an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses not only the design and development of toys and games, but also the qualitative study of them. This is a complementary approach to the study of games found in engineering. As of 2016, the game industry was a $30.4 billion market and it is growing. This is a tremendous impact. Through foregrounding arts and humanities, graduates of this certificate become thought leaders, researchers, and strategists capable of harnessing this impact through novel, yet feasible, solutions in toy and game development and/or academic scholarship.