2012-2013 Graduate Calendar

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

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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

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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

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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

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Course Descriptions

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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.

 
Last updated: April 2, 2013 @ 04:00PM