Our Mission
Honors Humanities offers the opportunity for close, imaginative engagement with art, literature, issues, and ideas that, across time and across cultures, have expressed what it means to be human. The humanities have been at the very heart of our educational system from its origins, working to foster personal intellectual development, a broad understanding of the world, and practical skills for lives and careers. The animating principle of Honors Humanities is that a robust background in the liberal arts is central to every path in life and every career in the workplace.
Who We Are
- Students with a wide range of majors who value great books, lively arts, and the humanitarian impulse to serve others
- A small liberal arts program within a large research university
- A nurturing community which values and practices respect for the marvelous variety of human experience
- A curriculum which uses both Washington, D.C. and the World as our classrooms
What We Do
- Develop skills in writing and speaking, analysis and persuasion, creativity and service
- Empower each of our students to define and complete a personal project of research, creativity, or service
- Use the past as a laboratory in which to understand and meet the challenges which the world must address today
- Utilize the tools of the arts and humanities for self-discovery and self-formation
What We Value
Fearless Ideas: Philosophy, literature, history and the arts provide a wealth of great ideas which allow us to see ourselves and the world in new ways and to think afresh about our values, goals and ambitions.
Wide-spread Application: The Arts and Humanities provide essential tools to address social, political and cultural issues such as climate change, immigration, the power of social media, and political partisanship. We count internships as part of our program requirements.
Diverse Perspectives: Diverse perspectives challenge students to engage situations from multiple angles, often leading them to new insights and discoveries. Multidisciplinary tools and perspectives are used by myriad innovators, including humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam as well as companies such as Google. Honors Humanities offers students the chance to make connections across the arts, literature and history and provides an ideal complement to majors in business, engineering, science, and social science.
Global Thinking: We live in an interconnected world which invites us to honor our shared humanity but also to value differences of culture, identity and experience. We encourage study abroad and count it toward our program requirements.
Why Honors Humanities?
As one of the smaller living and learning programsin the Honors College, we pride ourselves on cultivating a welcoming and intellectually stimulating atmosphere, where you will form real and close relationships with your fellow HoHummers and with faculty.
About 9% of our 2018 freshmen class are majors in the College of Arts & Humanities; the other 91% are majoring in a myriad majors, including sciences, social sciences, journalism, and public policy, among others. This program offers you the opportunity to either balance your education or deepen your engagement with the arts and humanities. Whatever your major, Honors Humanities will ensure that you enjoy the many benefits of a humanities education. Some general benefits include:
- Excelling in critical thinking skills
- Excelling on graduate school entrance exams
- Enjoying the coursework thatencourages you to authentically grow as a person and a professional
- Emphasizing visionary leadership
Increasingly, employers in many fieldsare looking for people with solid critical thinking and written and oral communication skills, all of which our program emphasizes.
Moreover, our program offers the kind of close mentorship and intellectual atmosphere that encourages you to find the career that you will find most satisfying.