The Humanities major combines a rigorous general education in the humanities with a concentrated focus on a particular discipline or theme. The requirements for the major are designed to allow students to construct a program of study that fits their own intellectual interests.
The curriculum is cross-cultural in foundation and reflects the interdisciplinary strength of our faculty in areas including art history, philosophy, literature, religion, film and media, the visual and performing arts, gender and sexuality studies, and science and technology studies. The Humanities faculty teach courses that span the globe, covering the histories and contemporary cultures of Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. In these courses, students learn to employ multiple disciplinary perspectives and to engage with a wide range of different sources, from literary fiction to courtroom trial transcripts, from classical paintings to contemporary political cartoons and posters.
The Humanities major provides students with advanced skills in critical reading, academic writing, visual arts creation, interpretation, analysis and argument that are highly valuable and readily transferable to a spectrum of careers, including law, cultural production, contemporary art curation, journalism, and non-fiction writing. While some Humanities majors pursue post-graduate degrees, many others successfully use the skills they develop in their Humanities studies to pursue a wide range of career paths.
In introductory and foundations courses, students acquire a set of methods for humanistic inquiry. Students then develop an area of thematic or disciplinary focus by choosing advanced courses in Shanghai and other NYU sites in consultation with their advisors. While students may choose to focus on a particular discipline, at least one advanced course must be explicitly interdisciplinary in orientation. In their senior year, students take the two semester Capstone Course sequence and produce a final thesis that marks the culmination of their intellectual development.
Admissions
New York University's Office of Undergraduate Admissions supports the application process for all undergraduate programs at NYU. For additional information about undergraduate admissions, including application requirements, see How to Apply.
Upon successful completion of this program, students should be able to:
Produce powerful and plausible interpretations of sources.
Independently develop arguments.
Write papers that display sophisticated organization, clarity of expression, and strength of argument.
Read, interpret and analyze sources from multiple disciplinary perspectives, including for example literary, historical, philosophical and anthropological perspectives.
Evaluate the reach and limits of different types of evidence, for example quantitative evidence, photographic evidence, textual evidence, narrative evidence and artifactual evidence.
Formulate a research question, identify primary and secondary sources relevant to the question, construct a research strategy to address the question in light of the sources, and successfully carry out the research.
Independently conceive and execute an academic project, for example a research paper, at the scale of work expected in typical humanities graduate programs in a chosen discipline.
Policies
Students who did not attend a Chinese-medium high school fulfill the Core language requirement by demonstrating proficiency of the Chinese language through the Intermediate level. Chinese speakers who did not attend an English-medium high school fulfill the Core language requirement through completion of EAP-SHU 100 English for Academic Purposes I and EAP-SHU 101 English for Academic Purposes II . Additional information can be found on the NYU Shanghai Core Curriculum page.
Humanities Policies
If you take more than two Foundations courses, the first two count towards the Foundations requirement, and the remaining count towards the general Introductory course requirement.
At least 12 credits (usually three 4-credit courses) of your Advanced Courses must fit together thematically in a way that can serve as a basis for a capstone project. The aim of this requirement is to allow students to select a set of courses that builds towards a capstone project. Students should consult with their academic advisor and with Humanities professors to discuss how best to fulfill this requirement.
If you take more than one Advanced Interdisciplinary course, the first counts toward the Advanced Interdisciplinary requirement, and the remainder count toward the general Advanced course requirement.
Qualifying students may elect to complete a Creative Capstone in the Visual Arts. The Creative Capstone in Visual Arts is comprised of an artistic project, the research-based Humanities capstone thesis, and an artist statement. These three elements should form a unified project, with the expectation that the research-based capstone thesis is still the primary focus. In order to qualify for the Creative Capstone in the Visual Arts, the students must take ART-SHU 101 What is Art?, three Visual Arts Praxis courses at any level, and ART-SHU 1911 Projects in Studio Art.
Students may also complete this requirement by enrolling in an Advanced 4-credit course, with the approval of the course instructor. Students selecting this option should inform their academic advisor and the Humanities Area Leader of their decision before the end of the Fall term.
Prerequisite Courses for Declaring a Major
Final grade of C/ current semester midterm grade of B or higher in Global Perspectives on Society.