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