Bachelors in Humanities

The Shimer School Humanities Major introduces students to various modes of critical reflection on and methodical investigation of human expression and thought. Classic and major contemporary works of visual and musical art, literature, philosophy, theology and related fields form the core of the Humanities sequence of courses in this major. Students come to know and understand these texts and works of art partly through individual reflection, but also in small-class discussions with their peers and in intensive writing, peer-editing and re-writing of essays and in creative work guided by course materials. Each course involves integrating insights into two or three distinct fields in the Humanities, though each follows a focused, inter-disciplinary theme, pushing students to devise increasingly broad yet nuanced accounts of the nature of humanistic inquiry and practice.