For too long the humanities and the sciences have been academically isolated from one another, and now the College of Humanities wants to change that.

Last night, 250 people attended the first in a series of conversations about ways that humanities, sciences, social sciences and the arts can successfully collaborate in one academic institution.

The series, called "Vital Signs: a Work of Humanistic Inquiry Today," was hosted by the College of Humanities with the hope of bringing to light the value of humanities in relation other fields.

"I think the scientists should stop acting as if they don't need this kind of knowledge to do their work," said guest speaker Mary Louise Pratt, a humanities professor at New York University.

Pratt said that the humanistic perspectives are helping to revitalize fields like legal theory, ecology, environmental studies, ecology and global studies. The humanities are also making significant contributions to trauma studies, religious studies and multi-lingualism studies.

The key is for scholars to go beyond the lab analyses and incorporate how that which they are studying affects humankind.

"Humanists study meaning," Pratt said.

The bureaucracy of educational institutions can be an obstacle to the collaboration of different disciples, said Leigh Jones, a graduate student studying English.

"Knowledge gets compartmentalized into departments," she said.

The division between departments makes the exchange of ideas more difficult.

"That dialogue, that conversation is difficult to get started because the way departments are specialized," said Thomas Kinney, a graduate student studying English.

Chuck Tatum, dean of the College of Humanities, said that he hopes these dialogues will encourage students to expand their fields of interest.

He wants "to encourage students to be as broadly educated as possible."

Renato Rosaldo, a poet and anthropology professor at New York University, said that he would like to see social scientists incorporate the humanities by using literature and narrative in their studies.

He said that open dialogue between students and other academics, like the "Vital Signs" series, cultivates that spirit of collaboration.

"These kinds of collaboration can be very productive," he said.

Tatum said that this collaboration not only benefits academia and academic institutions but also the individual students.

"The purpose is to remind us that the whole idea of a university should be these cross-conversations and dialogues. They should be happening all the time," Tatum said.

Today an open conversation with the two guest speakers will be held from 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m. in the Transitional Office Building, 1731 E. 2nd St.

Rosaldo will read his poetry at 7:30 p.m. in Room 120 of the ILC.