Interdisciplinary Humanities, Ph.D.

Program Description

ih.ucmerced.edu
Contact: ssha.grad@ucmerced.edu; ssha-grad.ucmerced.edu/meet-our-team

Interdisciplinary Humanities (IH) is an innovative master’s and doctoral program that incorporates anthropology, critical race and ethnic studies, global arts, history, languages, literature, world heritage and writing studies. An Interdisciplinary Humanities education is comprehensive, and also may include disciplinary specialization within integrative concepts and methods, that enrich all cultural research. The program exposes students to many humanities professions and prepares students to engage the public in scholarly activities.

The Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group program offers courses of study leading to either a Masters of Arts (M.A.) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. Drawing on the expertise and interests of affiliated faculty, both M.A. and Ph.D. students develop coursework-based and research-based courses of study that encompass traditional seminar instruction and independent research. Students may either define their research around an interdisciplinary topic, or in primarily disciplinary terms with a comprehensive lens. This scholarship engages a variety of methods, ranging from fieldwork, narrative, hermeneutics, qualitative and quantitative analysis, to curation. Thus, the program offers a unique framework in which to approach core disciplines of scholarly study, while emphasizing an understanding of how similar issues and topics are addressed in multiple fields. 

Program Learning Outcomes

All IHGG students share a set of Program Learning Outcomes, but the program sets distinct Standards of Mastery for M.A. and Ph.D. students. M.A. students learn the methods and practices by which knowledge is created in the humanities and are able to communicate about the content and methods of the humanities in many organizational and institutional settings.  Ph.D. students combine and extend multiple research practices, apply them to novel topics, and produce new insights about the humanities. 

Upon graduating, we expect students to:

1. Become proficient in selected theories and research methods appropriate to the study of the humanities.
2. Understand and apply both disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to humanities research.
3. Achieve domain expertise in a particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary field of the humanities.
4. Demonstrate proficiency in research, analysis, and critique in the humanities through exams, papers, and theses.
5. Display commitment to the research ethics and professional standards of the humanities and to the particular field of expertise.

Ph.D. Program Learning Outcomes

The standards of mastery for the Ph.D. are:

• Create scholarly and creative works that use multiple and diverse methods for communicating about the content and methods of the humanities with any audience.
• Identify original topics in a humanities field and demonstrate proficiency in combining, modifying, expanding and critiquing existing research methods and theories in order to address them in an imaginative way.