The program in Comparative Humanities is designed to approach the western tradition of ideas, history, literature, and art in an interdisciplinary fashion. Such a program of study is intended to reflect contemporary trends in humanistic discourse and has a largely but not exclusively European orientation. Read more...
Contact Information
Comparative Humanities Program
200 Vaughan Lit Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 17837
Through the course of the major, students compare representations of knowledge from different cultures, historical periods and disciplines.
First-year students usually begin their work in comparative humanities through the Humanities Residential College, but they also may join the major through subsequent coursework. The humanities foundation seminar can be counted as the first course required for the comparative humanities major.
Students in the Humanities College also have the opportunity to continue affiliation with the college beyond the first year through the Humanistic Scholars Program, a special academic program open to majors and nonmajors alike. Through this program, students have the opportunity to combine work in other majors with a rigorous program of course work, oral exams and thesis research in a unique complement to conventional majors.
Through intense engagement with some of the most important texts and artifacts that have defined Western culture since the Classical period, comparative humanities majors examine questions of knowledge, aesthetics, politics and ethics across humanistic disciplines in small seminars.
Selected students may participate in Bucknell’s honors program, in which they complete a thesis in their senior year.
