Interdisciplinary Humanities (IHUM)

Academic Year: 
2020-21
Address: 
Council of the Humanities, Scheide Caldwell House
Phone: 
609-258-4086
Website: 
Interdisciplinary Humanities (IHUM)
Program offerings: 
Joint Degree
Director of Graduate Studies
Christy Wampole
Graduate Program Administrator
Barbara Leavey

Overview

IHUM confers a joint doctoral degree, with applications accepted in the third year of study from students enrolled in the Ph.D. programs in the following departments and schools: Anthropology, Architecture, Art and Archaeology, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, English, French and Italian, German, History, Music, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Political Philosophy in Politics, Religion, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures.  Applicants from Anthropology and Sociology may apply in their second year of study.  Students who join the program become core members of a community of interdisciplinary research and exchange that convenes for seminars, workshops, and other events. They receive an additional year of fellowship support for research and exploration in areas beyond the boundaries of their fundamental disciplinary training and graduate with a joint degree from their home department and from the Council of the Humanities.

Beginning in the AY2020-2021 application cycle, HUM583 will be a pre-requisite for admission to the program. Applicants should discuss a plan to complete the seminar with the Director if they are unable to take HUM583 in Fall 2020.

The next round of applications should be submitted to IHUM on March 1, 2021. Applications should include a description of plans for dissertation research and a brief letter of support from a departmental adviser.  For more details, see the program website.

Students cannot be admitted to Princeton University through the IHUM Program.

Joint Degree

Joint Degree Requirements: 
Courses:

Applicants to the program are recommended to take an IHUM program seminar in their first two years of coursework, and should, at all events, be able to show a record of interdisciplinary exploration.  They are especially encouraged to take the methods course “Disciplinarity and Anti-Disciplinarity,” offered each fall prior to applying to IHUM.  Students accepted into the program are expected to join in IHUM workshops, including a regular works-in-progress meeting for program members and faculty and a lunchtime series of talks, and other events, as participants and organizers.

Dissertation and FPO:

Candidates for the joint degree must submit their dissertation for review by a member of the IHUM Executive and/or Program Committee.  Dissertations should be submitted at the same time they are submitted to the Department granting the first degree.

Additional Requirements:

Students are required to present a detailed plan for their IHUM fellowship year to the director of the program in the spring of the third year. They must fulfill all the requirements for the degree in their home departments.

Faculty

Director

  • Christy N. Wampole

Executive Committee

  • D. Graham Burnett, History
  • Zahid R. Chaudhary, English
  • Andrew Cole, English
  • Elizabeth A. Davis, Anthropology
  • Jeff Dolven, English
  • Devin A. Fore, German
  • Eric S. Gregory, Religion, ex officio
  • Javier E. Guerrero, Spanish & Portuguese
  • Brooke A. Holmes, Classics
  • Erin Y. Huang, East Asian Studies

Associated Faculty

  • Leonard Barkan, Comparative Literature
  • Eduardo L. Cadava, English
  • Anne Cheng, English
  • Rachael Z. DeLue, Art and Archaeology
  • Brigid Doherty, German
  • Anthony T. Grafton, History
  • Thomas W. Hare, Comparative Literature
  • Wendy Heller, Music
  • Michael W. Jennings, German
  • Thomas Y. Levin, German
  • Federico Marcon, East Asian Studies
  • Alexander Nehamas, Philosophy
  • Spyros Papapetros, Architecture
  • Gyan Prakash, History
  • Eileen A. Reeves, Comparative Literature
  • Gayle Salamon, English
  • Joe Scanlan, Lewis Center for the Arts
  • Tracy K. Smith, Lewis Center for the Arts
  • Susan A. Stewart, English
  • Janet A. Vertesi, Sociology
For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Courses

Permanent Courses

Courses listed below are graduate-level courses that have been approved by the program’s faculty as well as the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School as permanent course offerings. Permanent courses may be offered by the department or program on an ongoing basis, depending on curricular needs, scheduling requirements, and student interest. Not listed below are undergraduate courses and one-time-only graduate courses, which may be found for a specific term through the Registrar’s website. Also not listed are graduate-level independent reading and research courses, which may be approved by the Graduate School for individual students.

ARC 594 Topics in Architecture (also
MOD 504
/
HUM 593
/
ART 584
) This course covers various topics related to the history and theory of architecture.
ART 515 Decolonizing Art History (also
HUM 515
/
LAS 515
) Art history's disciplinary origins are inextricable from European colonialism and imperialism, and often work to uphold racialized concepts of development, civilization, style. The contemporary practice of art history demands that we acknowledge these origins while imagining a decolonized art history for the present. Drawing from decolonial paradigms, recent scholarship, and foundational texts of critical race studies, we work to analyze and actively reconfigure conventions of field formation, research, and format. In keeping with the political imperative of praxis, students workshop research topics and problems individually and collectively.
ENG 556 African-American Literature (also
AAS 558
/
GSS 556
/
HUM 556
) A survey of African-American narrative and critical traditions in the context of social and cultural change. Attention is also given to the changing status of black literature in the curriculum of American colleges and universities.
ENG 571 Literary and Cultural Theory (also
GSS 571
/
HUM 573
) A study of the role of culture in literary practice and theory. Topics include postmodernism, post-colonialism, feminism, performance theory, queer theory, and popular cultures, among others.
ENG 572 Introduction to Critical Theory (also
HUM 572
) The ethical, historical, and political dimensions of Jacques Derrida's thought and writings.
FRE 524 20th-Century French Narrative Prose (also
HUM 524
) Development of the French novel and short story. Particular emphasis is given to Proust, Gide, Malraux, Sartre, Camus, Butor, and Robbe-Grillet. Topics such as the roman fleuve, the poetic novel, the anti-novel, and the nouveau roman are also considered.
HUM 583 Interdisciplinarity and Antidisciplinarity Academic life is largely configured along disciplinary lines. What are "disciplines," and what does it mean to think, write, teach, and work within these socio-cognitive structures? Are there alternatives? This course, drawing on faculty associated with the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM), takes up these questions, in an effort to clarify the historical evolution and current configuration of intellectual activity within universities. Normative questions detain us. The future is a preoccupation for the course.
HUM 595 Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (also
ENG 594
/
CLA 595
/
HLS 595
) In the IHUM tradition, this course is team-taught, often by faculty from two different departments. Courses that fall under this topic are widely cross-listed and intended to attract students from many departments and programs. These topics are the most interdisciplinary of the IHUM offerings, aiming to bring together combinations of art, philosophy, literature, history in theory and practice, criticism, and methods from the qualitative social sciences.
HUM 596 Humanistic Perspectives on Literature (also
EAS 537
/
CLA 596
/
HLS 596
) Marking the 10th anniversary of Derrida's death, this course provides an opportunity to "unpack" Derrida's library, to remember several of his lessons - about philosophy, literature, history, politics, religion, economics, ideology, law, rights, nationalism, racism, colonialism, the media, university institutions, capitalism, rogue states, the war on terror, justice, responsibility, language, friendship, love, life, death, and mourning - all of which are more urgent and necessary than ever before.
HUM 597 Humanistic Perspectives on History and Society (also
ARC 597
/
LAS 597
/
SPA 557
/
MOD 597
) In this seminar we locate Spinoza and the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) in the exciting currents of seventeenth-century philosophy, theology, biblical scholarship and exegesis. Resituating Spinoza in Golden Age Holland we examine the resources and relevant controversies that shaped the Tractatus, with an eye to common concerns and traditions: the legacies of humanism and Reformation in the Netherlands, for instance, the larger worlds of his friends, as well as the vibrant Jewish community in Golden Age Amsterdam and the varieties of Christian lay piety that fall broadly under the banner of "the Radical Reformation."
HUM 598 Humanistic Perspectives on the Arts The study of the arts at the intersection of the disciplines.
HUM 599 Interpretation (also
ANT 599
/
COM 599
) The arts of interpretation across the disciplines.
SPA 562 The Cinema of Cruelty (also
LAS 542
/
HUM 562
) Drawing on Antonin Artaud's ideas around theatre of cruelty and André Bazin's notions of auteur film and its subversive capacity, this course looks at a group of Latin American and Spanish films and directors to explore how cruelty has become a recognizable aesthetic, one with strategic relevance for Hispanic film. This seminar understands film as a text in which cruelty functions as a cinematic trope, and also reflects on spectatorship, film's ability to inflict pain and, even more, the possibility that film constitutes a modern spectacle of cruelty.