Ampersand or Beyond Boundaries Programs in the humanities are entry points to a major in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities. Text and Traditions students will take four core courses. Students who take a humanities-based Beyond Boundaries course will take three core courses. Humanities-based Ampersand students will take two T&T core courses. In all cases, at least one of these courses must focus on the pre-modern period. For T&T students, one course must also focus on the modern period. All students must have a passing grade of C or better in IPH Major, T&T minor and DASH Minor courses.
Language
Students will complete four courses of a foreign language in sequence (as defined by the appropriate academic unit). Students who switch languages in the course of their IPH degree will be required to complete at least three consecutive courses of one foreign language before taking the Language Application Exercise. Non-native speakers of English will fulfill the IPH language requirement by taking courses in a language other than English and other than their own native language, unless the IPH Steering Committee has reason to grant an exception (e.g. if a student’s native language is central to their research). Early in Fall of your Senior year, a language application exercise will be administered in order to assess the ability to translate, comprehend, and analyze passages from texts chosen and studied by the student.
Research
The Sophomore Tutorial is a practical introduction to research in the humanities. In spring of your sophomore year, you will develop a specialty and undertake an independent research project under the mentorship of an appropriate faculty member.
Specialization
In your sophomore year, under the guidance of your IPH adviser, you will develop a plan to complete a five-course cluster of courses, with three courses in a single discipline, related to their area of research interest. This cluster must be completed before the Spring semester of you senior year. Up to two of these courses may be taken abroad.
Junior Comprehensive Exam
Program participants are encouraged to take a comprehensive exam during the spring of the junior year. The exam will enable students to demonstrate their knowledge of the core Text & Traditions courses (or, their combination of T&T and Ampersand courses) as well as their developing expertise in the area of their concentration. Placed near the end of the third year of study, the comprehensive exam encourages students to integrate their coursework at a critical period in their University careers - just before they embark on the exhilarating research and writing involved in the senior thesis. Because of its historical, cultural, and methodological breadth, the junior exam reflects our commitment to making the program's particular courses and independent studies add up to much more than the sum of the parts.
Preparing for Senior Year
Every senior undertakes a senior thesis project. In fall of their junior year, students consult with their faculty advisors about potential thesis topics. The following spring, our majors will enroll in L93 405 Theory and Methods and L93 401 Thesis Prospectus Workshop to develop their thesis topic and produce a feasible thesis proposal under the guidance of IPH faculty.
Seeking Honors
IPH is an ideal program for students seeking academic honors. The level of Latin honors - cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude - is determined by the candidate's overall GPA and the College of Arts & Sciences. IPH awards departmental honors based on the same criteria as Latin honors above, but also on the level of performance on the junior comprehensive exam, the quality of the senior thesis, performance in major courses, and recommendations of IPH faculty. IPH Departmental Honors are as follows:
- Distinction in the IPH
- Great Distinction in the IPH
- Highest Distinction in the IPH
All students seeking departmental honors must sit for the junior exam. Students who do not receive an honors-level mark for the exam may elect to retake the exam in the senior year.
Senior Year
In the fall of your Senior year, you will take L93 403 Senior Thesis Tutorial and L93 450 Interdisciplinary Topics in the Humanities in addition to meeting regularly with your thesis mentors. In addition, they will take the language application exercise. In the spring of your Senior year, you will take L93 455 IPH Senior Colloquium and students will have a full senior thesis draft submitted to their advisors and will defend their work later that semester.