One of the privileges of serving as Director of the PhD Programme in Interdisciplinary Humanities is the access it provides to people working on original, exciting projects in a range of academic and creative disciplines, including digital humanities and game studies, history, Indigenous studies, sociology, literature, design, performing arts, visual arts, philosophy, critical animal studies, gender studies, posthumanism, and African studies.

Each project, by definition, requires expertise in at least two disciplinary academic fields or in an academic and creative field. In keeping with our openness to interdisciplinary ways of approaching problems, we offer four culminating options. Besides the traditional research and text-based dissertation we offer three alternatives: suite (a collection of essays on a common theme), research-creation (creative practice combined with scholarly investigation), and thesis-by-project (possibly a digital project or policy document combined with scholarly investigation).

One of the reasons we are able to provide a rich research environment is that our students, both domestic and international, come to us with a wide range of backgrounds, including Architecture and Design, Art History, Canadian Studies, Comparative Literature, Digital Humanities, Indigenous Studies, Media Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, History and Philosophy.

As a result, we are a vibrant, intellectually stimulating, and engaging community supporting interesting people from all over the world as they pursue original, often game-changing projects. As the potential impact of their professional contributions take shape, we delight in to seeing their ideas come to life.

Lissa Paul, PhD, FRSC
Professor, Department of English
Graduate Programme Director, PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities
Email: lpaul@brocku.ca