Emphasizing critical reading/interpretation, writing, and thinking skills, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving, the program in Humanities prepares students for professional life, civic life, and a lifetime of learning and personal growth.

The Humanities major offers a wide-ranging liberal arts education and an integrated interdisciplinary experience that draws on Literature, History, Philosophy, the visual and performing arts, and culture courses in modern languages. Each discipline has its characteristic methods and interpretive moves, which are studied independently and which come together in an introductory methods course and a senior capstone seminar, which offer intensive interdisciplinary study of themes and historical periods.

This major would be magnificent preparation for a career in law, or any other field that prizes rigorous yet flexible thinking, well-honed research skills, clear but sophisticated writing, and being able to take multiple perspectives on an issue. It is also strongly recommended for careers in education. Students in this program are especially encouraged to pursue membership in FDU’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, The English Honor Society, which they easily qualify for: see the department for details.

Program Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this program, graduates will be able to:

  • Employ humanistic, critical methodologies, possibly including complementary quantitative or scientific methodologies, either drawing on two or more distinct disciplines, or working in an interdisciplinary way, or both.
  • Analyze texts (broadly defined, to encompass works, artifacts, ideas, and discourses) and creators (authors, artists) in a way that demonstrates understanding of how they function in historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, and other relevant contexts (including reception history, movements, times, and genres), with an awareness of diversity.
  • Conduct research and write papers involving analysis of primary texts, supported by appropriately chosen secondary sources, appropriately documented.
  • Write in an appropriate scholarly genre (holistic judgment of paper’s suitability as academic discourse in the humanities).

Degree Plan

NOTE: All students are required to complete the General Education Requirements of their campus in fulfillment of their Bachelor degree requirements.

The standard Bachelor’s degree at FDU is 120 credits, including Gen Ed requirements and an optional 15-credit minor or 15 credits of free electives. 36 credits are required for the major:

Required major courses (9 credits)

  • HUMN 1100 Intro to Methods in the Humanities
  • HUMN 4001 Humanities Senior Capstone
  • Any 3-credit course in Philosophy (PHIL) or Religion (RELI)

Elective courses (27 credits)

Choose nine more 3-credit courses from among these disciplines:

  • The Arts, including Art History (ARTH), Cinema Studies (CINE), Music (MUSI), and Theater Studies (THEAH). One 3-credit expressive or studio arts course in Art (ART), Creative Writing (CREW), Dance (DAN), Filmmaking (FILM) or Theater (THEA) can also count here.
  • History (HIST)
  • Humanities (HUMN), i.e. interdisciplinary humanistic courses
  • Language (LANG), i.e. culturally-specific courses taught in English
  • Literature (LITS)
  • Philosophy (PHIL)
  • Religion (RELI)

Reasonable substitutions of relevant courses from other disciplines will be considered case by case: contact the department chair.

Normally there should be no more than three courses from the same discipline (“the Arts” counts as one discipline), but exceptions can be made based on individual academic and career plans. Specifically, secondary-school teaching typically requires 30+ credits in a single discipline, such as Literature (LITS).

Internship

3 credits of an approved internship in any Humanities discipline will count towards the major electives.

Elementary QUEST/MAT Options

  • BA, Humanities/QUEST/Preschool – Grade 3
  • BA, Humanities/QUEST/Elementary Education
  • BA, Humanities/QUEST/Preschool – Grade 3 TSD
  • BA, Humanities/QUEST/Elementary Education Special Education
  • BA, Humanities/QUEST/English as a Second Language
  • BA, Humanities/QUEST/Elementary Education ESL

This version of the major, optimized for the 4+1 QUEST program in the Peter Sammartino School of Education, is designed to give future elementary-school teachers the skills to teach language arts, social studies, civics, and more. In this case there are 39 required credits:

Required major courses (6 credits)

Literature (15 credits)

History (9 credits)

  • One course in world history
  • One course in American history
  • One course in geography

Government and Politics (3 credits)

  • One course in American government or politics

Elective (3 credits)

  • One additional course in Art (ART), Art History (ARTH), Cinema Studies (CINE), Creative Writing (CREW), Dance (DAN), Filmmaking (FILM), History (HIST), Humanities (HUMN), Literature (LITS), Music (MUSI), Philosophy (PHIL), Religion (RELI), Theater (THEA), or Theater Studies (THEAH).

Secondary QUEST/MAT Options

Humanities is now also the major of choice for anyone interested in becoming a high-school English teacher. (Previously, the recommended major was Literature.) We have an outstanding tradition of training high-school English teachers at FDU! Through 2027, this pathway will look very similar to the discontinued Literature major and involve the same courses, although none of them will be strictly required except 1100 and 4001 as mentioned above. Contact Advising and the department chair to make a detailed plan for your degree.