The Division of the Humanities offers graduate degrees in four masters and fourteen doctoral programs. Among top graduate programs in the United States, only the University of Chicago and Berkeley preserve this commitment to study the humanities comprehensively. This breadth of programs offers uniquely rich opportunities for intellectual exchange for students and faculty at Chicago.

The division of graduate education at Chicago into four distinct schools-as opposed to the common practice of having a single school of graduate studies for the arts and sciences-was established in 1930 by President Robert Maynard Hutchins (1929-45). His educational reforms gave divisional deans greater fiscal and administrative autonomy and insured that deans were drawn from scholars in the same branch of knowledge. This quadripartite organizational structure resulted in the direct and knowledgeable engagement of deans in divisional affairs, stimulated curricular innovations among like-minded faculty and students, and encouraged cross-disciplinary conversations that remain a hallmark of a Chicago education to this day. The other three divisions at Chicago are the biological, physical, social sciences.

We invite prospective students to visit the departmental Web sites in your area(s) of scholarly interest for in-depth information about curriculum and faculty research and teaching. The brief summaries of our programs will help orient you. We also encourage you to explore our Interdisciplinary Centers & Programs, as well as our Graduate Workshops in Humanities and Social Sciences.