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Humanities Program

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The Humanities Program at Davidson

A yearlong experience for first-year students, exploring the universe of ideas about the human experience.

Some of the ideas are expressed with words, others through music or dancing. Some with paint on a canvas or flickers on a screen. The traces of these ideas might endure centuries or disappear in a heartbeat. Some ideas might even be inexpressible. The Humanities Program approaches them all from creative and critical perspectives, finding patterns and outliers, making compelling connections between seemingly disparate material.

The Humanities Program (Humes) is collaborative and team-taught, with a once-weekly plenary class attended by all students and twice-weekly sections of smaller groups of students meeting with their individual instructors. As a writing-intensive program, Humes satisfies Davidson鈥檚 Writing requirement. Humes also fulfills two of Davidson鈥檚 Ways of Knowing requirements: Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric (LTRQ) and Historical Thought (HTRQ). Humanities Fellows鈥攗sually former Humes students鈥攁ct as academic mentors and community builders.

Regardless of whether you go on to study biology or Hispanic studies, getting the opportunity to read and learn about classic works of art, literature, and music helps you develop an understanding of the world as a whole outside of your field. The program offers an experience you won't be offered again or anywhere else.

Katie Little '18

Humes kicks off each year with a pre-orientation program, Sapere Aude.  This year HUM 103 and 104 introduces a new theme, Monsters. Such a broad theme allows us to read widely and encounter diverse material from across history and around the world. 

Student-to-Student What is the Humanities Program?

Created for first years beginning their academic journeys, the Humanities Program seeks to bring difference disciplinary perspectives to the big questions of life. Learn more from Jacob Kim '26 in this YouTube Shorts series.

Courses You Might Take

HUM 103

This is a team-taught interdisciplinary course that engages critically key texts and artifacts from both the Western tradition and beyond, with topics that fall under the broad theme of the body, from intellectual, spiritual, and artistic traditions from around the globe. This course is taught in the fall.

HUM 104

This course, like HUM 103, introduces habits of humanistic learning as well as basic skills needed to understand a variety of humanistic discourses. including written works, musical compositions, paintings and sculptures, live performances, architecture, and film and digital media. It is taught in the spring.

HUM 195

During March each year students apply to take part in this course and thus the role of Humanities Fellow for the following year (either fall or spring semester). Those selected must take this required course for students serving as Humanities Fellows.

Related Programs

Fellowship Opportunities

Fellowships are competitive awards and programs that provide funding and other resources for meaningful immersive work, like research, teaching, or service. Like scholarships, fellowships can also support academic study.

These featured fellowships support a variety of experiences in and outside of the U.S. Interested candidates should contact Davidson鈥檚 Office of Fellowships to learn more about these fellowships and other programs.

Interested in Studying Humanities at Davidson?