Humanities

Why study the Humanities?

In the Humanities Division, you will develop a global perspective and an understanding of diverse cultures, both of which are essential in our increasingly connected world. You’ll learn to think critically and communicate expressively across media and genres, engaging with texts, languages, history, culture and civilization. The Humanities pushes boundaries, embraces scholarship and investigates issues of power and difference.

Students ready to explore the Humanities as an undergraduate can also enroll in Humanities First, a First Year experience to connect with the UW community, think broadly about human life, and to explore the questions that matter.

Research

The research interests of our faculty and students are as wide-ranging as the cultures and civilizations our 12 departments explore. We focus on the past, present and future — from exploring the earliest collections of Buddhist manuscripts to investigating racial bias in automatic speech recognition software.

The Simpson Center for the Humanities, one of the largest and most comprehensive humanities centers in the country, provides funding and support for fellowships, research clusters, graduate study groups, conferences, and symposia on a wide range of research topics.

More about Art & Sciences Research

Circle of students sit outside on grass and have class.

A Summer of Research

Through the undergraduate Summer Institute in the Arts & Humanities, you can spend your summer conducting original research on an interdisciplinary theme and present your findings to the community in a closing symposium. And you’ll receive academic credit, too.

What do Humanities students do after graduating?

When you study the Humanities, you’ll develop the necessary perspectives and critical thinking to explore the big questions of what it means to be human in our interconnected world. Because these are skills that employers value, you can use your humanities education to pursue a career in many industries including business, health care, media and public relations, technology and education.

Person presents a graph of data in front of a projector.

CHID is all about asking questions, encouraging curiosity, and community building. There’s no one right answer, no one right way to get to a conclusion. That’s what I like about the humanities in general.

Tisbe Rinehart BA, Comparative History of Ideas (CHID), 2024

Alumni Career Paths

Sales development manager
Public health researcher
Web analyst
Publicist
Business entrepreneur
Educator
Community organizer
Attorney
Editor
Digital content creator
Literary translator

Humanities programs

Whatever your interest, there’s a program in the Humanities Division for you.

Department of Asian Languages & Literature
- B.A., Asian Languages and Cultures
- B.A., Chinese
- B.A., Japanese
- B.A., Korean
- B.A., South Asian Languages
- M.A., Asian Languages and Cultures
- M.A., Buddhist Studies
- M.A., Chinese
- M.A., Japanese
- M.A., South Asian Languages
- PhD, Asian Languages and Cultures
- PhD, Buddhist Studies
- PhD, Chinese
- PhD, Japanese
- PhD, South Asian Languages
Department of Cinema and Media Studies
- B.A., Cinema and Media Studies
- B.A., Comparative Literature
- Cinema and Media Studies
- M.A., Cinema and Media Studies
- PhD, Cinema and Media Studies
Department of Classics
- B.A., Classical Studies
- B.A., Classics
- B.A., Greek
- B.A., Latin
- M.A., Classics
- M.A., Greek
- M.A., Latin
- PhD, Classics
- PhD, Classics and Ancient Philosophy
Department of Comparative History of Ideas
- B.A., Comparative History of Ideas
Department of English
- B.A., English: Creative Writing
- B.A., English: Language and Literature
- M.A., English: Language and Literature
- M.A., English: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
- M.F.A., English: Creative Writing
- PhD, English: Language and Literature
Department of French & Italian Studies
- B.A., French Studies
- B.A., Italian Studies
- M.A., French Studies
- PhD, French Studies
Department of German Studies
- B.A., Germanics
- M.A., Germanics: Literature and Culture
- M.A., Germanics: Pedagogy and Culture
- PhD, Germanics
Department of Linguistics
- B.A., Linguistics
- M.S., Computational Linguistics
- PhD, Linguistics
Department of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures
- B.A., Middle Eastern Studies: Comparative Civilizations
- B.A., Middle Eastern Studies: Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East
- B.A., Middle Eastern Studies: Languages and Cultures
- M.A., Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
Department of Scandinavian Studies
- B.A., Danish
- B.A., Finnish
- B.A., Norwegian
- B.A., Scandinavian Area Studies
- B.A., Swedish
- M.A., Scandinavian Area Studies
- M.A., Scandinavian Languages and Literature
- PhD, Scandinavian Languages and Literature
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
- B.A., Eastern European Languages, Literature, and Culture
- B.A., Global Literary Studies
- B.A., Russian Language, Literature, and Culture
- M.A., Slavic Languages & Literatures
- PhD, Slavic Languages & Literatures
Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies
- B.A., Spanish
- M.A., Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies
- PhD, Hispanic Studies