Welcome to York University's Graduate Program in Humanities

As we move into the 21st century, a century in which we will undoubtedly witness astounding technological and scientific progress driven by an ever-changing global economy, why engage in a study of the Humanities? How can our lives be enriched by interdisciplinary research in the Humanities? Of what relevance will it be in a world where we will have the power to manipulate the human genome at will or to build powerful computers to do our thinking for us? Interdisciplinary research in the Humanities offers us an opportunity to "see things whole", to view the world from new perspectives independent of the powerful impact of our scientific and technological creations, and thereby retain our humanity. Interdisciplinary perspectives have the potential to reshape debates and raise new questions. There is a vitality to the current scholarship in the Humanities which enlivens all contemporary thinking and helps us to understand the complexity of human culture.

The Graduate Program in Humanities offers advanced training leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. Drawing upon the demonstrated expertise of a wide range of faculty members within York University's Division of Humanities and related areas of study at York, the program aims to provide highly qualified students with a unique opportunity of doing specialized academic work in the diverse, cultural expressions of humanities. Humanities is a program of study whose very basis is the dynamic interaction between text and context in historical and comparative perspective, and whose methodology is explicitly and systematically interdisciplinary. It thus draws upon the interdisciplinary interests and approaches of much contemporary scholarship which is increasingly informed by general theoretical frameworks and issues that cannot be contained within the bounds of conventional disciplines. Within these broad dimensions, the Graduate Program in Humanities addresses critical issues involving western and non-western humanist traditions in contexts that are both historical and contemporary. The program's mandate is to produce graduates equipped to utilize the rich tools afforded by interdisciplinary scholarship in humanities within a broad range of pursuits not only within a university setting but also outside it.

The three fields in the Program are: 1) Comparative Perspectives and Cultural Boundaries; 2) Religion, Values and Culture; 3) Science, Technology and Culture. These three fields represent the significant areas of teaching and research strength of York's Humanities faculty. The focus in each of the three fields will be the dynamic interaction between text and context.

I. Comparative Perspectives and Cultural Boundaries

This field will stimulate students to think broadly and to formulate questions which require a synthetic, interdisciplinary approach through comparativist and cross-cultural perspectives. Through these perspectives, students will explore cultural documents across a variety of boundaries, including those of time, language, geography, nation, and region. By focussing on boundaries, students will examine the processes and effects by which cultural texts - written, oral, and visual - are displaced from their original context, often with unexpected results. In the case of boundaries of time, for example, the comparativist perspective will range across historical periods in order to study the changing roles played by the classical tradition in modern culture. A curricular example of this is the course "Ancient and Modern: The Classical Tradition". Geographical, national and regional boundaries could include issues stemming from the relationship between Eastern and Western cultures, or between various ethnic cultures in North America and the dominant North American culture. Within the proposed curriculum, an example would be "Narratives of the Other: China and the West", where a comparativist perspective moves synchronically across culture in order to analyse the two-way process of cultural appropriation between East and West.

II. Religion, Values and Culture

This field will examine the complex ways in which texts express the interaction among religion, values, and culture. Of particular interest will be the very nature of religion and the cultural values embodied in diverse religious traditions and expressions. Students will focus on texts from one or more religious and/or philosophical traditions, as in the course "Jews and Christians Interpret the Bible". They will be concerned with exploring, especially in modern or comparative contexts, the relationship between the values of traditional religions and those of secular culture. In "The Bible as Cultural Icon", for example, the emphasis will be on changing meanings of the Bible as it is interpreted by the readers and how the Bible transforms modernity itself. The courses in this field will also examine different modes of culture -- material, historical, social, institutional, symbolic, and intellectual -- in light of ritual, faith, dogma, mysticism, spirituality, and the values embodied in and presupposed by religion. (Please note that qualified students enrolled in the Graduate Programme in Humanities working on Jewish Studies topics may simultaneously earn a Diploma in Advanced Hebrew and Jewish Studies. ( http://www.yorku.ca/grads/cal/js2.htm )

III. Science, Technology and Culture

This field will explore science and technology as culture. Science and technology have produced their own cultures and traditions -- practical and institutional, theoretical and ideological, textual and visual. But these cultures and traditions both emerge from and shape broader social and cultural realities. Such a contextualized understanding provides new and important ways for analyzing the character and historical development of the practices and claims of science and technology. Whereas scientific texts have in the past been seen as standing apart from their cultural roots in their embodiment of eternal truths about nature, courses such as "Science Biography" and "Science and Popular Culture" will treat the authority of these texts as cultural constructions which change over time. Courses in this field will draw upon a wealth of interdisciplinary scholarship common to both science studies and cultural studies, including historical analyses, analyses of the gendered nature of science, literary analyses of scientific texts, and analyses of material culture (from artifacts to social relationships). Issues critically examined will include the processes by which science establishes its authority, the place of religion within science and science as religion, the representation of scientific knowledge by other groups (from political and environmental activists to artists and the popular media), the formation of scientific disciplines, and the relationships between science and popular culture.