Requirements: Integrated Program in Humane Studies

Interdisciplinary

The Integrated Program in Humane Studies (IPHS) concentration is an interdisciplinary program that integrates all four branches of a liberal arts education. We believe that asking and answering many of our big questions requires moving beyond boundaries and combining ideas and approaches from multiple disciplines. What makes our interdisciplinary approach unique is the blending of disciplinary perspectives from all four branches of the liberal arts.

The Kenyon College faculty voted to change from Kenyon units to semester hours. This change will go into effect for all students who start at the College in the fall of 2024. Both systems will be used throughout the course catalog with the Kenyon units being listed first.

The Curriculum

IPHS offers a range of courses, each of which explores the "humane" in the human experience from an interdisciplinary perspective. The 100-level class offers a blend of lecture, seminar, and tutorial. The 200-level and above courses often feature project-based learning by pairing interdisciplinary reflection with real-world application. Students choose from the range of offerings to create their own individual course of study.

Note: Completion of the first-year, introductory seminar in IPHS counts toward the IPHS concentration and may also fulfill up to one unit of diversification in humanities or social sciences.

More details are available in the IPHS diversification credits table.

For First-Year Students

Students typically begin with IPHS 111/112Y Odyssey: Pursuit of Wisdom and Understanding. This course offers a unique blend of lectures and small seminars that makes the perfect introduction to both liberal education and Kenyon. Each week different professors from Kenyon’s many majors give lectures in their areas of expertise. During our yearlong Odyssey, beginning with Homer and continuing through the rise of digital technology and contemporary artificial intelligence, students can expect to hear from more than 30 different professors.

At the end of each week, students break into small groups with a seminar leader to discuss the week’s material and debate some of the controversial issues and questions that it raised. Twice each semester, students also complete a substantial analytical tutorial paper. In tutorials with their seminar leader and one or two classmates, students discuss and defend their arguments and receive individualized attention to their writing and reasoning. The tutorial model helps students develop skills in close reading, analytical and expository writing, evidence-based argumentation, and oral communication.

Requirements for the Concentration

The concentration in IPHS requires four courses

The concentration consists of four IPHS courses followed by IPHS 484 (Senior Research Seminar), during which students pursue self-designed projects in a seminar setting. IPHS 111Y-112Y counts as two courses toward the concentration. IPHS 484 can be taken as a junior with permission from the IPHS director. 

For one of the four core courses, students, in consultation with their IPHS advisor, may choose an elective drawn from outside the program. Typically, these courses are interdisciplinary offerings that inform their senior seminar project in a substantive way.