Humanities

The minor in African studies provides opportunities to learn about the continent. The program offers classes in Africa’s political, economic and social history; built environments and urban geographies; ecology, genetic diversity and epidemiological concerns. The program also offers classes in Africa’s vibrant art scenes, past and present, where literature, music and art have come to define a new post-colonial African cosmopolitanism.

The Minor in Arabic Language allows students to acquire deep proficiency in one of the languages of the Near East. Additional coursework in Near Eastern studies deepens the student’s knowledge of the region.

The Program in Asian American Studies, administered by the Effron Center for the Study of America, provides students with the opportunity to gain an interdisciplinary perspective on the diversity of Asian American and Pacific Islander histories, cultures and contemporary experiences. The course of study focuses on the emergence of this pan-ethnic group in the United States, but also highlights Asian America’s transnational connections and contexts, including the dynamics of globalization, migration, imperialism and post-coloniality.

The Chinese language minor provides an opportunity for students who plan to major in other disciplines to simultaneously pursue a high level of proficiency in Chinese and acquire a basic knowledge about its literature, history and culture.

The program encourages the interdisciplinary study of modern Europe, with a particular focus on politics, economics and society in western and central Europe since World War I.

The program allows undergraduates to work with practicing writers to develop their writing skills, learn the possibilities of modern poetry, fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting and translation, and gain a special access to the critical understanding of literature through their involvement in the creative process.

The program familiarizes students with creative, performative and analytical approaches to dance through exposure to professional choreographers, dancers, critics and scholars. Students undertake demanding, studio-based courses with dance professionals. The program provides advanced courses for the pre-professional dancer and offers courses to students who have never danced. The creation of original work, both choreographic and written, is emphasized alongside rigorous technical training.

The program deepens students’ understanding of European civilization and strengthens their command of cultural interpretation through interdisciplinary investigation. The program focuses on the ways in which European societies, past and present, order reality, make sense of life and communicate meaning across a range of disciplines and in a wide variety of media.

The Minor in Hebrew Language allows undergraduates to acquire deep proficiency in one of the languages of the Near East. Additional coursework in Near Eastern studies deepens the student’s knowledge of the region.

Art history studies artwork and material artifacts from a wide range of cultures and periods, approaching them in historical perspective. Subjects include drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, architecture and the built environment, ceramics, lacquer, metalwork, glass and textiles; along with a wide range of images and phenomena or experiences shaped by artistic craft, including cinema, performance, print culture, urbanism, scientific illustration and mass media. Students of art history learn to translate observations into linguistic expression, develop visual and experiential memory and make connections among a wide array of historical evidence. 

Students will learn from the array of methodological approaches developed by historians of science, technology and medicine, and track the evolution of modern science from antiquity to the present, in many of the world’s cultures.

The undergraduate program offers two areas of study. Humanistic studies explore interrelated events, ideas, texts and artifacts of Western and Asian cultures. Journalism examines topics related to writing and the media, from creative nonfiction to relations between the media and society.

The Japanese language minor provides an opportunity for students who plan to major in other disciplines to simultaneously pursue a high level of proficiency in Japanese and acquire a basic knowledge about its literature, history and culture.

The Program in Journalism empowers students to produce rigorous, verified journalism, developing a strong command of the literary, ethical, analytical and political dimensions of telling a compelling story in order to have a meaningful impact on public policy. Students learn the practice of reporting and verification and the art of crafting compelling nonfiction narratives in a variety of media.

The undergraduate program provides students the opportunity to explore more than three millennia of Jewish culture, history, religion, thought, politics and literature from the Bible to contemporary Jewish thought and society from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The Korean language minor provides an opportunity for students who plan to major in other disciplines to simultaneously pursue a high level of proficiency in Korean and acquire a basic knowledge about its literature, history and culture.

The undergraduate program traverses the arts, humanities and social sciences, seeking to provide students with a broad understanding of the emergence, transformation and consolidation of Latinos as a pan-ethnic group and to appreciate the range of Hispanic imprints on American society and culture.

Linguistics is the study of the distinctive properties of human language and the cognitive capacities of language users, including the rules that govern the patterns of particular languages and universal principles governing all languages. Linguists investigate the grammatical principles and processes that determine the structure of human languages, their evolution over time, and their psychological underpinnings.

The undergraduate program encourages the interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages: its art, literature (Latin and vernacular), music, religion, science, philosophy, politics, and economic and social structures.

The undergraduate program enhances the study of performance through the study of theory, composition and music history — and vice-versa. The program can provide a foundation upon which a student may build to go on to further professional performance training at the graduate level.

The Persian Language Minor allows students to acquire deep proficiency in one of the languages of the Near East. Additional coursework in Near Eastern studies deepens the student’s knowledge of the region.

The undergraduate program draws on the humanities, history and social sciences to study Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Students develop expertise in a core language of Eurasia and a scholarly grounding in the study of the region.

The undergraduate program offers students the methodological and theoretical tools to study the political, economic, social, religious, literary and cultural institutions of the region with particular focus on the modern history of India and Pakistan. Students take a four-term sequence of language instruction in Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit.

The undergraduate program welcomes all students interested in exploring theater and music theater, with or without previous experience. Theater and music theater are approached from a liberal arts perspective — as intensely collaborative art forms, as key components of world cultures and as performance genres that shape and are shaped by history, economics, politics and technology. 

The undergraduate program seeks to develop skills in language use and in the understanding of cultural and disciplinary difference. Translation across languages allows access to issues of intercultural differences, and the program encourages its students to think about the complexity of communicating across cultures, nations and linguistic borders.

The Turkish Language Minor allows students is to acquire deep proficiency in one of the languages of the Near East. Additional coursework in Near Eastern studies deepens the student’s knowledge of the region.

The undergraduate program focuses on modes of inquiry into important ethical issues in public life. The program helps students develop competence in pursuing such inquiries generally and supports them in applying these intellectual skills to the advanced analysis of one or more related topics. Students will be equipped to bring informed discussion of values into the public sphere and to integrate a critical value perspective into their future studies and pursuits.

In the undergraduate program, students explore visual art and media and develop their creative skills in connection with a liberal arts education. Courses are offered in painting, drawing, graphic design, media, sculpture, photography, filmmaking, and film history and criticism. Studio courses emphasize direct, hands-on art making under the guidance of practicing visual arts professionals.