Colleges with Programs in Western Civilization/Humanities?

Hi everyone.

As the title said, I’m looking for colleges and universities with programs or sequences in the humanities and Western civilization. I’m interested in many fields in the humanities (mainly Comparative Literature and Art History, but also Philosophy and History), and taking a several-course sequence in the humanities would give me a broad understanding of the Western canon while also allowing me to find my true interest(s) for a possible major/minor.

Thus far, I’ve found these such programs at:
Princeton’s Humanities Sequence (4 course, 2 semester sequence): http://humanities.princeton.edu/hs
Yale’s Directed Studies (6 course, 2 semester sequence): http://directedstudies.yale.edu/
Reed’s Humanities Program (3 courses): http://www.reed.edu/humanities/
Davidson’s Western Tradition Track (4 courses): http://catalog.davidson.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=16&poid=843&returnto=631

Have you heard of similar programs elsewhere?

This isn’t meant to be a “help me make a college list” type of post per se, since having a humanities sequence is not the only criterion in making my list. Rather, I just want this to be more of a reference thread for myself and others. However, if it would help you to know my stats and other preferences to make recommendations, I’d be happy to post them.

Thank you for your help!

Kinda’ sounds like the “Great Books” programs that some schools offer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books

So many colleges won’t necessarily have a directed program in this area, BUT most colleges will have a critical mass of coursework in these areas that you can take. For example, the Princeton sequence simply looks like a western civilization class in two parts: antiquity to the middle ages and then the middle ages to the modern era. But that’s how western civ classes are usually split up - I took a history course like that at my own college. And I went to a historically black college.

If you want classes about Western civilization and culture - by which they mostly mean European, primarily Greek + Roman -> British with a little bit of Italian (when you read Machiavelli), literature and culture pre-1600s and American and British literature and culture post-1600s - you can find that anywhere and make a sequence out of it.

On the other hand, there is something to be said about a school that creates a program and has dedicated program/faculty resources for it. The Great Books programs were things I was also thinking about. On that list @simba9 provided, Chicago, Notre Dame, Boston College and UT-Austin are excellent traditional colleges with special sequences in the humanities. St. John’s, Thomas Aquinas and Shimer are Great Books colleges - no majors, no minors, but everyone follows the same prescribed set of tutorials and readings in the Great Books that span across humanities, social sciences, the life/physical sciences and the arts.

One place you should totally consider is Columbia. The Core Curriculum is basically this: Literature Humanities (whose formal title is “Masterpieces of Western Literature and Philosophy”) and Contemporary Civilization are both two-semester sequences that focus on primarily Western literature and the social sciences. You round it out with Art and Music Humanities (tours of the Western canon in both areas - formally titled “Masterpieces of Western Art/Music”), Frontiers of Science (ditto, but approached from a humanistic standpoint, which most students don’t appreciate) and some other coursework (Global Core, foreign language requirement, writing course). I will also say that the Core at Columbia has made an effort to include the voices of women and non-white writers in their canon - they recently added Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to the reading list, and you’ll also read Du Bois, Wollstonecraft, Woolf, and Sappho. And as for Music and Art Hum, Columbia offers comparable classes in East Asian, Islamic, and African art.

And, oddly enough, colleges with strong traditions in the humanities and no core curricula - like Brown or Amherst - might help you make a specialized sequence in this area while still also forming a concentration.

Last thing - if you have a strong interest in the humanities, I strongly urge you to consider the library resources and holdings of any university you consider. When you visit, visit the library for sure.

Providence College. Its ingrained in their core curriculum.

Many public university systems mandate something like this, at least two courses and sometimes more (e.g., two courses with one or two follow-on upper-division courses).

Check out the Integrated Liberal Studies program at Wisconsin.
http://ils.wisc.edu/

Northwestern’s Kaplan Scholars Program

http://www.humanities.northwestern.edu/kaplan-humanities-scholars-program/about.html

Check out the University of Chicago’s Core curriculum, especially the humanities and social science components.

https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/academics/core
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/thecurriculum/
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/humanities/
http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/thecollege/socialsciences/

http://summer.uchicago.edu/course/history-western-civilization-1

Great comment, @juillet

There’s a college guide called “Choosing the right college” (very right leaning) but it surveys colleges based on their Western civilization coursework and the strength of basic core curriculum and distribution requirements.

Columbia, Yale, U.Chicago, and Providence College receive high marks, as well as a no. of colleges who use the Great Books program other folks have mentioned here.

Catholic, especially Jesuit, schools typically have strong cores along the lines of what you’re looking for. You can find Jesuit schools here: http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions/.

Whitman has a core sequence that everyone takes in the first year that they call Encounters: https://www.whitman.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/general-studies/encounters-transformations
Plus, it’s just an all-around terrific LAC – and even offers some merit aid (assuming your username is an indicator of that being a priority)

U. of Puget Sound is another fine LAC that offers merit and has an honors program that might be the kind of thing you’re looking for: http://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/undergraduate/honors/

Wow, thank you all for replying! I didn’t know that there would be so many options for what I was describing.

@juillet Your comment is so helpful :-). Like I said, although I’m giving colleges with humanities/western civ sequences special consideration in my search, I’m not just looking at those colleges, so I may well end up making my own sequence as you described. I don’t think I’m cut out for a college that only has a great books program like St. John’s (I do want to specialize eventually), but a college like Columbia is just what I’m looking for. I think it’s just great that they require students to study the Western canon, from its literature to music. I hadn’t really considered Columbia before because I assumed NYC would be too busy/distracting a place to study in, but since Columbia has an actual campus (as opposed to NYU), it might be okay after all. I’ll definitely try to visit. Thank you so much for that suggestion.

@tk21769 Oooh, UChicago’s the kind of school that probably would be my #1 choice were it not in the very cold Midwest. Their offerings in the humanities are great (I mean, how bad could they be; David Bevington taught there!) and I love the intellectual/nerdy/curious culture that UChicago is known for having.

@PiccoloMom1995 I’ll see if my GC’s office has that guide. While I’m politically a very liberal person, I do believe in a sort of traditional curriculum that they you said they survey in the guide.

@InigoMontoya Thanks for the suggestion about Jesuit and Catholic schools. I know some are more religious than others, so I wanted to ask: are there any schools on that list that an agnostic Jew should steer clear of, or will they all be accepting of people of other religions?

@rayrick Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll look into both schools.

@ChasingMerit There are certainly some Catholic colleges where people of other - or no - faiths might feel somewhat out of place. One of the many nice things about Jesuit schools is how open and accepting they are of everyone. You should feel comfortable at any of the Jesuit schools.

Hi everyone. OP here.

I wanted to update this thread with a few other Western Civ/Humanities programs at other colleges, in case anyone else is using this thread as a reference.

Firstly, the book @PiccoloMom1995 suggested, Choosing the Right College, is a treasure trove of information on Western Civ/Humanities curricula at various schools, and has information on what professors to seek out, what courses to take, etc. A caveat: if you are very liberal person, like I am, you have to ignore 50% of what the author says about the student body, etc, as the guide leans heavily towards the right.

Secondly, beyond the schools listed in other posts, these two programs looked interesting to me:
Stanford’s Structured Liberal Education (a year-long residential program): https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/residential-programs/sle

Emory’s Voluntary Core: http://college.emory.edu/home/academic/voluntary-core-program/