The Division of the Humanities (Chicago)

Since the founding of the University of Chicago in 1892, the departments of the Division of the Humanities at Chicago have set an international standard for humanistic inquiry.

The Division's faculty consistently produces pioneering research in the study of language, literature, and culture. Their books and articles define how whole generations of readers and thinkers, in the academy and out, analyze human culture and moral life while our many journals disseminate Chicago ideals of hard-hitting, spirited intellectual inquiry to scholarly communities around the globe.

The Division of the Humanities now comprises twenty-one departments and committees, with about 1,000 students from around the world enrolled in our PhD, MFA, and MA programs. Our interdisciplinary centers and programs support faculty and student research interests that range from the civilization of the ancient Near East to the philosophy of mind, from computational linguistics to poetics, from film music to East Asian visual culture. The quintessential forums for exchange and debate at Chicago are the workshops, attended by faculty and graduate students, on themes as diverse as Mass Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics, the Renaissance, New Americas Studies, and Contemporary Art. In addition, the Division teaches fifty foreign languages on a regular basis-from Sanskrit, Tamil, and Malayalam to Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian to Nahuatl and other indigenous languages of the Americas. Finally, our three master's programs offer remarkable opportunities for students to advance their knowledge of a particular subject area, in an interdisciplinary context, through courses taught by leading scholars.

We are a diverse community of scholars with passionate commitments to intellectual inquiry in the classroom, in seminar, and in dozens of workshops and conferences each year. Whether you are a prospective student considering Chicago for your graduate education, an alumnus seeking the latest news, or an intellectually curious friend stopping by for a visit, we welcome you to our community through this website. Please join us also on campus.

Martha T. Roth Dean of the Humanities