Humanities is not just a new major. It’s a new kind of major.

How is it different? As a student, you may have felt at some point disoriented by the variety of required core courses that seem to have little connection with one another. Or you may have an interest in a special field, such as economics or science, but would like to explore that field in relation to “bigger questions” about the meaning of life and the way things work.

The Department of Humanities is a coordinated series of seminars and courses designed to inquire into the human condition from an interdisciplinary perspective. While other majors provide information and skills in specific areas, Humanities is about gaining the wisdom to put these things “to use” in a way that genuinely promotes human fulfillment. In this respect, it’s the most useful major there is.

• Please download our full Statement of Purpose.

Highlights of Humanities

• The Humanities major consists of four gateway courses, which are team-taught seminars that investigate basic questions about God, the Human Person, the World, and Society both in relation to the wisdom of past and contemporary thinkers. In addition to the seminars, the Department offers a range of more specialized courses that reflect on issues in the various disciplines, such as economics, science, history, politics, philosophy, and theology, in the light of fundamental human questions.
• The breadth of courses that are part of this program allows perspectives from the various areas of study to build upon one another. This makes the Humanities major perfect for students who desire a deep, well-rounded, and integrated liberal education. It is also an ideal double major for students who are interested in specializing in a particular field, but at the same time want to deepen their experience as a human being.
• Students who choose to major in Humanities can look forward to discovering a sense of community and friendship in the classroom that is often difficult to find in a large university. Because of the coordinated nature of the program, students will be in many of the same classes with each other; the series of team-taught seminars will also allow the students to get to know their professors and their classmates as well. Through such mutual interaction over the course of several semesters, students form a bond that allows the inquiry begun in the classroom to carry over into more informal settings.
• In addition to the seminars and lectures, Humanities majors will take a comprehensive oral exam at the end of their first year, and will write a thesis in their senior year under the supervision of a faculty member. Such challenges offer the students an opportunity to develop skills in speaking and writing, and to think through an issue of personal interest in depth.

In short, the Department of Humanities offers a true “liberal” education: one that seeks to liberate students’ humanity by opening them to the wisdom of the past, by teaching them to think deeply, imaginatively, and critically about the problems facing our world, and by developing habits of articulate speaking and writing. A liberally educated person is someone who knows how to be fully human.