Applications received before November 1, 2026, will be reviewed for consideration before the end of the semester. Relevant courses taken before applying for a certificate count toward certificate requirements.
Global Humanities Certificate
The Global Humanities Certificate offers students the opportunity to step outside their own traditions and see the world from distinct global perspectives. Incorporating the array of disciplines and approaches that comprise the humanities, the certificate aims to explore the human experience through different global lenses and help students engage with and navigate an increasingly complex global context. Familiarity with the humanities gives students a richer and more nuanced basis for their future work and contribution as citizens, offering an ethical, aesthetic, and historical foundation for understanding contemporary global problems and ways of living.
Students completing the Certificate in Global Humanities will develop the capacity to:
- Demonstrate understanding of the notion and value of global humanities, including its significance for contemporary society.
- Identify and describe the disciplines that comprise the humanities, recognizing their unique contributions to human knowledge and creativity.
- Analyze how humanities disciplines have emerged within multiple cultural contexts and how they can be used to interpret and understand those contexts.
- Enhance global understanding by engaging with diverse artistic, intellectual, and humanities traditions from various regions, exploring both differences and commonalities.
- Apply perspectives, practices, and skills from the global humanities to address global challenges and promote cross-cultural dialogue and creative agency.
Eligibility
The Global Humanities Certificate invites learners from all academic backgrounds to engage deeply with the diversity and complexity of human experience across time and cultures. Whether your focus is in the arts, sciences, social change, or other fields, this program fosters critical thinking, ethical engagement, and creative exploration of the world's rich cultural heritage. Available to both undergraduate and graduate students, the certificate equips you with interdisciplinary perspectives to understand and address contemporary global challenges with cultural sensitivity and intellectual rigor.
Requirements
Each student must complete:
- One Online core course: "Borderlands" or "Silenced Histories and Contested Narratives in Literature and Theory". Visit Online Courses to learn more and register.
- Three elective courses. Each term, the Steering Comittee provides a list of courses that meet the requirements. The selection criteria for the student are:
- At least one course must focus on a culture different from their own.
- The courses must distributed in at least two following areas: global thought (philosophical traditions), global imagination (study of art and culture), and global story- and history-telling (stories and storytelling traditions).