Last updated: April 2, 2013 @ 04:00PM
Interdisciplinary Humanities
PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities
Field of Specialization
Critique and Social Transformation
Culture and Aesthetics
Digital Humanities
Ways of Knowing
Dean
J. Douglas Kneale
Faculty of Humanities
Associate Dean
Carol U. Merriam
Faculty of Humanities
Core Faculty
Professors
Sandra Beckett (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures), Irene Maria F. Blayer (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures), Leah Bradshaw (Political Science),Wing-Cheuk Chan (Philosophy), Christine Daigle (Philosophy), Martin Danahay (English Language and Literature), Corrado Federici (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures), Barry K. Grant (Communications, Popular Culture and Film), Rosemary Hale (Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies), J. Douglas Kneale (English Language and Literature ), Jane Koustas (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures), Jack N. Lightstone (History), John Sainsbury (History), Elizabeth Sauer (English Language and Literature)
Associate Professors
Michael Berman (Philosophy), Richard Brown (Philosophy), John Bonnett (History/Digital Humanities),Barbara Burrell (Classics), Janet Conway (Sociology), Keri Cronin (Visual Arts), Adam Dickinson (English Language and Literature),Allison Glazebrook (Classics), Elizabeth Greene (Classics), Rajiv Kaushik (Philosophy), Kevin Kee (History/ Interactive Arts and Science), Brian Lightbody (Philosophy), Ingrid Makus (Political Science), Mathew Martin (English Language and Literature), Carol U. Merriam (Classics), Behnaz Mirzai (History), Tom Mulligan (OBHREE), Elizabeth Neswald (History), Catherine Parayre (Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures), Brian E. Power (Music), Daniel Samson (History), Hans Skott-Myhre (Child and Youth Studies), Cristina Santos (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures), R. Angus K. Smith (Classics), Mark Spencer (History), Sherryl Vint (English Language and Literature), Katharine von Stackelberg (Classics)
Assistant Professors
Shannon Moore (Child and Youth Studies), Olatunji Ojo (History), Linda Steer (Visual Arts)
Graduate Program Director
Corrado Federici
cfederici@brocku.ca
Administrative Assistant
TBA
Program Description
Brock University’s Interdisciplinary Humanities doctoral program provides students with a focussed context in which to engage with topics integral to the contested notions of knowledge, values, and creativity, as reflected in the specific fields of Critique and Social Transformation, Culture and Aesthetics, Digital Humanities, and Ways of Knowing (Epistemologies).
The program is committed to providing a rigorous interdisciplinary teaching and research environment that nurtures scholarly and creative activity. Such endeavours aim to investigate the past as well influence the ways in which reflection and creation contribute to the further unfolding of society and culture.
Students pursuing Brock University’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Humanities Program will have the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines. Upon completion of the program, individuals will be prepared for continued research and teaching, or for professions requiring abilities in disciplined study, critical discernment, and creative insight.
Admission Requirements
Completed MA in a Humanities or cognate discipline, normally with a minimum average grade of 80%. The candidate will have demonstrated impressive intellectual abilities and excellent reading and writing skills, in addition to interests and background consonant with the emphasis and aims of the program, and will have presented an innovative and original proposal for the plan of study.
The Graduate Admission Committee will review all applications and recommend admission of a limited number of suitable candidates.
Part-time study is not available.
Degree Requirements
Students are required to take HUMA 7P01, 7P02 and four additional half-courses. Students may take a maximum of two half-course electives at either the MA or PhD level selected from the Faculty of Graduate Studies course bank. One of these two half-courses may be HUMA 7P90. All electives must be approved by the course instructor, the student's supervisor and the Graduate Program Director.
Students must take both oral and written comprehensive examinations, demonstrating knowledge of at least one specific discipline and its interdisciplinary applications. These examinations will normally be taken within the first 24 months of enrollment.
Students will normally be required to demonstrate reading competence in a language other than English. The language should be appropriate to the student's plan of study. Demonstration of competence will normally be made within the first 24 months of enrollment.
Students will be required to write and defend a thesis that makes a substantial and original contribution to existing knowledge, drawing upon the interdisciplinary work undertaken through courses and comprehensive examinations. The thesis will make a significant and original contribution to existing scholarship, and must be interdisciplinary in approach and scope, drawing on studies undertaken in coursework as well as in the comprehensive examination. The oral defence will be held as outlined in regulations for the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Humanities
Course Descriptions
Students must check to ensure that prerequisites are met. Students may be deregistered, at the request of the instructor, from any course for which prerequisites and/or restrictions have not been met.
HUMA 5P31
Merleau-Ponty: The Art of Perception
(also offered as PHIL 5P71 and SCLA 5P71)
Merleau-Ponty’s treatments and analyses of the visual (painting and film) and literary arts, seen as products, explorations, and distortions of human perception and embodied subjectivity, which shed light on our cultural and pre-cultural experiences of the world
HUMA 5P71
Humanities Computing
(also offered as HIST 5V71)
Use of the computer for research, teaching, and expression in the humanities to support teaching and research, including topics such as text analysis, high performance computing, Geographic Information Systems, quantitative methods, photo-editing and animation, simulations, and serious games.
HUMA 5V75
2012-2013: Steampunk: Refashioning the Past and Retrofitting the Future
(also offered as ENGL 5V75)
Examination of Steampunk as a literary, visual, fashion and musical movement in popular culture. Focus on ideological issues of nostalgia, technophilia, imperialism, racism and gender.
HUMA 7F90
PhD Thesis
Preparation, public defence, and examination of a thesis that is interdisciplinary in approach and that demonstrates the candidate's capacity for independent thought and study.
HUMA 7P01
Interdisciplinary Research and Writing in the Humanities
The nature and academic requirements of interdisciplinary studies, including research methodologies and resources. Focus on reading, discussion, writing, and the ongoing construction of an interdisciplinary thesis in the Humanities
HUMA 7P02
Fields of Interdisciplinary Study
Introduction to the four fields of the Interdisciplinary PhD in Humanities: 1) Epistemologies; 2) Critique and Social Transformation; 3) Culture and Aesthetics; 4) Technology and Digital Humanities
HUMA 7P31
Recycling of Stories in Contemporary Culture
Intermedial phenomenon of retelling traditional and classic stories for a contemporary audience of all ages. Biblical narratives, folk and fairy tales, oriental tales, myth, legend, literary classics for adults, canonical children's books in a variety of genres and media. Theory of intertextuality; verbal and visual retellings; aesthetics and codes; narrative strategies; generic transposition; intermedial transformation; production, reception, and marketing
HUMA 7P32
Text, Context and Intertext in Oral Narrative
Interdisciplinary/intercultural and comparative approach to the study of oral narrative traditions and their historical, cultural, linguistic, and literary representations. Orality, storytelling, performance, narrative memory, cultural identity. Authors may include Benjamin, Ong, Bauman, Edwards, Trinh, Zumthor
HUMA 7P51
Hermeneutics of Personal, Social, and Artistic Transformation(s)
Theories of interpretation structure subjective and intersubjective experience. Theorists may include M. Heidegger, H. G. Gadamer, P. Ricoeur, H. Marcuse, R. Ingarten, M. Foucault, and J. Habermas
HUMA 7P52
Feminist Thought: Constructive Revisions of the Canon
Interdisciplinary approach to the role played by feminist thought in examining and reinterpreting central notions that pervade all disciplines, such as identity, individuality, alterity, rationality, knowledge, solidarity, community, engagement. Authors may include Beauvoir, Braidotti, Butler, Cixous, Fraser, Grosz, Haraway, Kristeva, Irigaray, Benhabib, Jaggar, Ziarek
HUMA 7P71
Theory and Praxis of Digital Humanities
Introduction to computationally-supported methods and applications for analysis, expression, and teaching in the digital humanities. Course will provide readings on topics ranging from agent-based simulations to text analysis, and practical instruction in 3D modeling and Geographic Information Systems.
Note: No programming skills required
HUMA 7P90
Directed Reading
Research course with directed study and regular meetings with a faculty member, covering topics not offered in a designated course, and with permission of the Graduate Program Director.