College of the Humanities celebrates 10th anniversary

This year marks the College of the Humanities 10th anniversary. In celebration of this milestone, alumni, students, faculty members and staff will attend a reunion and public lecture “Pluralism in Non-Western Traditions: the Case of Islam”, featuring Harvard University’s Gurney Professor of History, Roy P. Mottahedeh on Friday, September 22.
The College of the Humanities was founded in 1995. At the time, many universities were increasingly focusing on education as a form of job training. The College was intended to move in the opposite direction, as a bold experiment within the Canadian educational system.
The Bachelor of Humanities offers highly-gifted students an elite liberal-arts education. Students move through the four-year program as a cohort, studying philosophy, literature, history, religion, music and art. Each student may also select a particular discipline in which to specialize, by doing a combined honours degree, or a minor.
“The content of the curriculum, and the way in which the students make themselves into a community of scholars, prepares them not only for graduate school in almost every discipline, it prepares them to do things which most people assume require specialised training from right after high-school,” said Gregory MacIsaac, assistant professor, Humanities.
After six graduating classes and 10 years, the program has proven to be an unqualified success, with 25 per cent of graduates winning Senate Medals for outstanding academic achievement.
Among these high achievers is a first-year medical student who attests to the value a liberal arts education for the medical profession.