The Program

What the Program Is

Who Is in the Program

Most of our students have some previous background in Literature or Philosophy.  However, there are no prerequisites for admission to the Program. The absence of such prerequisites, as the absence of what is sometimes called “an intellectual line” are, in our opinion, of great advantage.  Even though the assessment and grading of M.A. and PhD students is conducted differently, like in all similar major graduate programs worldwide, most of our seminars are open to all students in the Program.   We believe that differences between students are an important intellectual asset.  Our faculty, resident and visiting alike, also have very different interests and often very different theoretical and practical inclinations. Conflict is therefore both inevitable and welcome. 
 

What Is Done (and What Is Not Done) in the Program

The Program is to a great extent a program in Philosophy and Literature.   In the Program the issues discussed are often part of current debates in departments of Literature or Philosophy, and even sometimes in fields such as the arts, the law, theology, and the so-called social sciences.  In the Program there is no recommended intellectual approach and so no recommended type of dissertation. Disciplinary boundaries count for less than the possibility of establishing relationships between different problems.

Unlike most of our European counterparts we do not believe the debate in the Humanities ought to take place within research centers and clusters organized around disciplinary or thematic guidelines, or so-called projects; nor in our view should research in the Humanities be conducted within large, laboratory-like, teams. Instead we favor a model of seminarial and tutorial teaching that gives a primary role to the intellectual interests and inclinations of our students. 

Outreach

Contacts