Ruth Vanita, Director

The Global Humanities and Religions Program provides an education in the international and interdisciplinary humanities and in world religions. Students are able to develop their individual interests through electives, options and minors. The Program offers its majors options in: 

• Global Humanities
• Religious Studies

The Program offers two minors:

•  Global Humanities
• South & South-East Asian Studies (the area comprising the Indian subcontinent and the Vietnam-Thailand-Indonesia region). This is an interdisciplinary minor, taught across several departments.

Global Humanities and Religions majors choose courses from different departments, focusing on literary, philosophical and religious works from different parts of the globe, especially Europe, the US and Asia. Global Humanities and Religions offers innovative multidisciplinary courses that incorporate the tools of such disciplines as literary studies, history, philosophy, religious studies, gender studies and art history. We aim to help students develop the ability to read with comprehension,  write correctly, form logical arguments based on evidence, and gain understanding of historical, literary, philosophical and religious   contexts. These are skills prized by employers. Students who graduate from the program will be prepared to enter various fields in the private and public sectors, pursue further professional or academic training, and will be better prepared to function as citizens of the world.

Majors in Global Humanities and Religions may not take any course work presented for the major for CR/NCR. Upper–level students transferring into this program should have at least a C average in all credits attempted. The upper-division writing expectation must be met by successfully completing an upper-division writing course from the approved list in the General University Requirements section of this catalog.