Excerpted from For the Public Good: Reimagining Arts Graduate Programs in Canadian Universities by Loleen Berdahl, Jonathan Malloy, and Lisa Young.
“…modern problems are complex and involve understanding and managing humans.”
Science and technology cannot independently save us from ourselves—a reality that comes as a great disappointment to those of us who came of age watching Star Trek. Solar batteries need a tax regime that makes solar power competitive with natural gas. Vaccines are helpful only if they are widely accepted and not undermined by distrust and disinformation. Technology needs content and moderation to protect us from one another.
To survive and prosper in these challenging times, Canada needs a sophisticated understanding of the world around us, the tools to manage human affairs, and the perils and pitfalls of intervention. We need expertise in communications, interpretation of data, and governance of technology. We need advanced practitioners trained to understand humanity and human systems, and we need them to be ready to mobilize their expertise to address these challenges. The human spirit has unlimited potential. But humans are complex, and we need to understand people in order to make a better world. While some of the world’s most pressing challenges are scientific or technological in nature, many are not. This is why we need the advanced training and knowledge of the Arts. And this is where the greatest gap between potential and current reality occurs….
Many of the skills required to solve wicked problems lie in the ‘home domain’ of the Arts disciplines: critical thinking, design thinking, systems thinking, creativity, an ability to navigate ambiguity, to integrate different ways of knowing and disciplinary approaches, and a capacity to move between the concrete and the abstract.
STEM subjects are generally more likely to produce “hard skills”…. In contrast, the Arts produces broader and more transferable skills—soft skills—that are not always specifically linked either to specific subject learning, or specific jobs.

Jonathan Malloy, Lisa Young, and Loleen Berdahl engage in a panel discussion about the themes of For the Public Good in May 2024.
Praise for For the Public Good
FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD: Reimagining Arts Graduate Programs in Canadian Universities “is the kind of quietly good book we need to see more of…. This book provides a very solid description of the process of defining and developing excellent, sustainable arts programs that serve students rather than academics. And not only is it dead-on in terms of its recommendations about how to design and evaluate programs, it has a lot of helpful matrices and worksheets to help those who are put in positions requiring them to do exactly that…. More like this, please.” Alex Usher, Higher Education Strategy Associates, June 11, 2024 [Link to article]
“Authored by Canada’s foremost experts on postgraduate career planning and professional development, FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD addresses the challenges of the declining academic job market and aligns graduate education with the evolving Canadian labour market, offering pragmatic solutions and transformative visions.” —Rachel Berger, Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University
FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD “is provocative enough, honest enough, and practical enough to do what it intends: that is, encourage hard conversations about the potential of graduate education in Arts disciplines, the remaking of programs to meet their potential, and the proposition that enrollment growth is always the solution, whatever the problem.” —Roger Epp, Interim Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies & Research, University of Alberta
“FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD offers a practical blueprint to redefine success in Arts graduate education in Canada. Focused on essential skills and knowledge for solving complex problems, the book re-imagines the way we approach our master’s and doctoral programs. The authors issue an important wake-up call to leaders throughout civil society—particularly in the public, private, and knowledge sectors—to re-think and expand what we expect from graduate studies.” —Jared Wesley, Professor and Associate Dean (Graduate Studies), University of Alberta
“Offering a unique set of arguments, an assessment tool, and actionable recommendations, FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD advocates for the recognition of arts graduates in addressing societal challenges and contributing to cultural inspiration.” —Naomi Krogman, Dean, Faculty of Environment, Simon Fraser University
About the Authors
Loleen Berdahl is Professor of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Jonathan Malloy is Professor of Political Science at Carleton University. Lisa Young is Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary.
New posts can be found on their Substack, Reimagining Graduate Education.