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INTERDISCIPLINARY HUMANITIES

MULTIDISCIPLINARY. Ìý Ìý FLEXIBLE. Ìý Ìý CREATIVE.

Discover the Humanities Program at CU Boulder—a place for curious, creative thinkers who want to ask big questions and explore connections across literature, philosophy, history, the arts, and beyond. In our major and minor, you'll engage deeply with the ideas that shape the world, while developing the critical skills to navigate its complexities. Ready to think differently? Start here!

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The Value of a Major in HumanitiesÌý

The Humanities Major incorporates an interdisciplinary curriculum taught by faculty and affiliates from departments across the college. Humanities Program courses address critical, historical, social, political, and aesthetic issues from different perspectives. We encourage you to draw independent conclusions by engaging with works from different disciplines, historical periods, and traditions. The skills honed as a Humanities major—flexible critical thinking, independence of thought, intellectual curiosity, research skills, and excellent written and verbal communication— are fundamentally transferable to a wide variety of industries and positions. Indeed, such skills are recognized by the business and scientific worlds as indicators of future innovators as well as indicators of high quality practitioners and researchers across many different fields. The Humanities Major combines an intense interdisciplinary study within Humanities with an outside focus, the nature of which will depend on whether the student wants to focus intently on one additional field, to spread their interests between two fields, or to construct a unique area of focus that is thematically driven rather than discipline dependent.Ìý

About the MajorÌý

The Humanities Major offers you an integrated interdisciplinary program of study within a community of diverse-minded and energetic students and faculty. The program allows students to combine a focus within Humanities with an outside course of study selected from three options: a major, minor, or certificate in another discipline; 12 hours in one discipline and 6 hours in a different discipline; or 18 hours chosen according to a common theme. This major encourages you to develop your interdisciplinary interests in fields of cultural and humanistic expression such as literature, art, music, film, philosophy, history, theater, modern media, religion, or contemporary critical practice and theory, and it encourages thinking beyond these fields as well, for example, by focusing your studies in political science, INVST, psychology, and more. Ìý

Examples of Choices for the Outside Course of Study With the guidance of advising and the HUMN program, you can craft your outside areas of study in a way that is intellectually and personally meaningful to you. For example, you can choose…Ìý

  • A major, minor, or certificate in another discipline, such as Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, Ethnic Studies, Communication, Dance, INVST, EBIO, Mathematics, Cinema Studies, Theatre, Creative Writing, etc. [A total of 18 credit hours in the area is required.]
  • 12 hours in one discipline and 6 hours in a different discipline, such as Political Science and Communication, Philosophy and Classics, Women and Gender Studies and History, Creative Technology and Design and Linguistics, etc.
  • 18 hours chosen according to a common theme that allows you to explore new combinations of knowledge and contemporary issues. Either construct your own theme or pursue one of the following clusters: Ecocriticism, Medical Humanities, Game Studies, Media Studies, Popular Music Studies, Law in Literature and Art, Digital Humanities, or Narrative.Ìý

The Value of a Minor in HumanitiesÌý

The breadth of knowledge and the depth of critical analysis offered by the Humanities Program’s courses have proven to be a great benefit to students pursuing a variety of other majors in the College of Arts and Sciences as well as other Schools and Colleges such as Business, Engineering, and the College of Media, Communication, and Information. This minor provides students with the kinds of skills and interests that enhance employment opportunities as well as applications to graduate school.Ìý

Our faculty’s commitment to this critical approach can be seen in the variety of courses offered by the Program, including...

  • Vizualizing Culture
  • Conflicts in History
  • Sound and Meaning
  • Modern Poetry
  • Capturing Sound
  • Bold Experiments, Mad Science
  • Love and Sexuality: Past and Present
  • The Art of Critical Race Theory
  • Fictions of Illness
  • Narrative
  • Social Justice and the Humanities
  • Literatures of Consciousness
  • Avatars: Studies in Contemporary Posthumanism
  • The Postmodern
  • Critical Futures: Theorizing Climate Change
  • The Mediterranean: Religion before Modernity
  • Game Studies
  • Representations of People with Disabilities
  • Fiction and Reality
  • Musical Origins
  • Architecture and the Feminine

Over the course of their studies, Humanities majors acquire a thorough knowledge of arts and culture while developing rigorous critical, flexible, and creative thinking, communication, and analytical skills that will prepare them for a wide variety of careers. The innovative adaptability and independence of thought our students develop make them valuable employees, conscientious citizens, and life-long arts enthusiasts.

Click below to watch a video of Humanities students talking about the major!

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National Humanities Alliance podcastÌý

(Now in its second season, the podcast explores the lives and perspectives of everyday people who studied the humanities and are finding fulfillment in a range of careers.)

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