Bachelor of Arts [B.A] [Comparative Literature and the History of Ideas] From Willamette University

The program in Comparative Literature and the History of Ideas provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary and comparative study. Like the Humanities major, it brings together courses from many departments, but here the student will choose courses which center in at least two literary, cultural and intellectual traditions and which seek to get at the underlying assumptions and attitudes of different literary and intellectual worlds. The goals of the program are to enable students to see from a variety of viewpoints and perspectives and to encourage independent, critical thinking.

Further, by emphasizing the critical analysis of primary texts and cultural comparison, the program seeks to foster a sense of the importance of rigorous methodology in investigation, while revealing the inherent limitations of any particular system of inquiry. As a unique approach to liberal and humanistic studies, the program provides a solid basis for post-graduate study in, for example, law, education, journalism, administration, comparative literature, or discipline-based area studies.

As a contract major, CLHI provides a curricular framework (CLHI intro course and senior seminar) within which each student, in close consultation with one or two faculty advisors, assembles a major that is individually designed around his or her own specific intellectual interests and strengths.