Welcome to Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
Please see below the Note From the Director on the Current Status of the ISH
Humanities, including humanistic social sciences, concern themselves with a systematic study of the human condition and its cultural expression. At the basis of the humanities is the awareness of a long tradition of humanistic discourse, its history of arts and letters, philosophy, and social thought, along with major foundational texts, from ancient times to the present.
Throughout their long history, humanities have maintained a degree of coherence and integrity even as they evolved and expanded in response to change, encounters with other cultures, and a continuous re-examination of the humanistic tradition.
The aim of this program is to make the humanistic legacy available to students from across the university--to increase their awareness of the broader context of their own specialized disciplinary interests and areas of study. Whatever your academic profile, research focus, or academic career plans, we believe that your intellectual scope, your understanding, and scholarship will be greatly enriched by this this compact and structured interdisciplinary overview of the humanistic tradition.
Interdisciplinary Program in Humanities is a consortium formed by the following departments and programs at Stanford:
Art and Art History - Classics - Comparative Literature - Drama - Education - English - French and Italian - German Studies - History - Modern Thought and Literature - Music - Philosophy - Religious Studies - Slavic Languages and Literatures - and Iberian and Latin American Cultures.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, including Graduate program in Humanities, is administered by by the Steering Committee of faculty and students, chaired by the Program Director
Note from the Director on the Current Status of the ISH
As of this writing (7/29/2009), the ISH is in transition and is not accepting new students until its status is clarified during the fall quarter of the 2009-10 academic year. The undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in the program will not be affected and will be able to complete their course work and other requirements and receive their degrees. Likewise, for the duration of the 2009-10 academic year the program will continue to be administered as before by the ISH office, the Steering Committee, and the Director.
In the meantime, the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL) has agreed to administer the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities for a "two-year period as part of the rethinking of the DLCL" after the ISH ceases to be a stand-alone program at the close of the 2009-10 academic year. Because the DLCL itself is to undergo restructuring in the fall, the shape and scope of the ISH successor program will be determined concurrently during the fall quarter 2009. Given the University's and the School's continued commitment to a broad-based undergraduate and graduate education in the humanities as well as the support of the ISH by the DLCL faculty, many of whom have taught in the program and advised many of our students, we remain confident that the ISH successor program will benefit from integration in the new DLCL, making it possible for us to advance the mission of interdisciplinary humanities with renewed vigor.
We are grateful to the faculty, graduate and undergraduate students for their many letters in support of the ISH that we received in the spring of the last academic year. Their advocacy of the program and commitment to its mission have strengthened our resolve to preserve the program despite the worst budgetary pressures that this University has had to confront in decades.
Please visit the website for updates on the status of the program. In the meantime, the Program Administrator, Monica Moore, the ISH Coordinator, Alice Staveley, and I will be happy to answer your questions.
Gregory Freidin, Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures
Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
_____________________________________________________
Humanities, including humanistic social sciences, concern themselves with a systematic study of the human condition and its cultural expression. At the basis of the humanities is the awareness of a long tradition of humanistic discourse, its history of arts and letters, philosophy, and social thought, along with major foundational texts, from ancient times to the present.
Throughout their long history, humanities have maintained a degree of coherence and integrity even as they evolved and expanded in response to change, encounters with other cultures, and a continuous re-examination of the humanistic tradition.
The aim of this program is to make the humanistic legacy available to students from across the university--to increase their awareness of the broader context of their own specialized disciplinary interests and areas of study. Whatever your academic profile, research focus, or academic career plans, we believe that your intellectual scope, your understanding, and scholarship will be greatly enriched by this this compact and structured interdisciplinary overview of the humanistic tradition.
Interdisciplinary Program in Humanities is a consortium formed by the following departments and programs at Stanford:
Art and Art History - Classics - Comparative Literature - Drama - Education - English - French and Italian - German Studies - History - Modern Thought and Literature - Music - Philosophy - Religious Studies - Slavic Languages and Literatures - and Iberian and Latin American Cultures.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, including Graduate program in Humanities, is administered by by the Steering Committee of faculty and students, chaired by the Program Director
Note from the Director on the Current Status of the ISH
As of this writing (7/29/2009), the ISH is in transition and is not accepting new students until its status is clarified during the fall quarter of the 2009-10 academic year. The undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in the program will not be affected and will be able to complete their course work and other requirements and receive their degrees. Likewise, for the duration of the 2009-10 academic year the program will continue to be administered as before by the ISH office, the Steering Committee, and the Director.
In the meantime, the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (DLCL) has agreed to administer the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities for a "two-year period as part of the rethinking of the DLCL" after the ISH ceases to be a stand-alone program at the close of the 2009-10 academic year. Because the DLCL itself is to undergo restructuring in the fall, the shape and scope of the ISH successor program will be determined concurrently during the fall quarter 2009. Given the University's and the School's continued commitment to a broad-based undergraduate and graduate education in the humanities as well as the support of the ISH by the DLCL faculty, many of whom have taught in the program and advised many of our students, we remain confident that the ISH successor program will benefit from integration in the new DLCL, making it possible for us to advance the mission of interdisciplinary humanities with renewed vigor.
We are grateful to the faculty, graduate and undergraduate students for their many letters in support of the ISH that we received in the spring of the last academic year. Their advocacy of the program and commitment to its mission have strengthened our resolve to preserve the program despite the worst budgetary pressures that this University has had to confront in decades.
Please visit the website for updates on the status of the program. In the meantime, the Program Administrator, Monica Moore, the ISH Coordinator, Alice Staveley, and I will be happy to answer your questions.
Gregory Freidin, Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures
Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
_____________________________________________________