UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS IN HUMANITIES
Humanities is where you get to ask the great questions about your life and discover wisdom as your guide.
How can I know myself in order to know others, God, and the natural world? Why do we all desire goodness, truth and beauty? How do faith and reason work together—in life, in relationships or in future professions?
A signature Villanova experience, the department has been celebrated for its innovative contribution to the Augustinian intellectual tradition on which the university is founded.
Our interdisciplinary curriculum cultivates a strong intellectual community. Humanities at Villanova offers integrated, complementary courses with options for a major or minor, plus flexibility to pursue a double major or minor in disciplines across the University.
Our graduates enter diverse fields—including teaching, law, medicine, business and journalism, and religious studies and service—with a strong sense of purpose, vocation, and the good.
WHY HUMANITIES?
Do you desire more from college than just job training? Here you’ll find an education that will help you to live with purpose and direction in all that you do. Our students are excited about the intellectual life and how it prepares them for work, family, service, and beyond. Our alumni are a testament to the versatility of our curriculum. They pursue an impressive array of professions, including teaching, law, medicine, business and journalism.
The seminar-style classes pursue sustaining answers to the great questions of life. Our curriculum centers on four key Humanities Seminars—God, World, Society, and Human Person—that ask the fundamental questions that all humans have to ask about themselves. Our diverse electives delve deeper into specific questions raised in the four Humanities Seminars, as faculty draw on their specific disciplines to extend the inquiry. It’s a powerful pedagogical model, created at Villanova, for getting to the heart of humanity.
Our award-winning faculty excel in their research and scholarship. They are committed to serving as teachers and mentors to our students. As a Humanities student, you will be known, seen, and heard by our faculty, and you will become a part of a community committed to the development of you.
The Humanities curriculum complements subjects in the liberal arts, social sciences, STEM, nursing, business and engineering. It works as a single or double major and is a popular minor across all colleges, It’s an invaluable intellectual counterpart to pre-professional and pre-graduate study.
Many students undertake undergraduate research projects, study abroad, and apply for competitive scholarships and advanced degrees beyond Villanova. They’re serious about their studies and enthusiastic about life. Humanities alumni are excelling in an impressive array of professions, ranging from education to law, medicine, politics, business, service, religious life, academia and beyond.
Our seminar-style classes and commitment to community have made Humanities a department in which friendship and the intellectual life thrive together.
The Department of Humanities attracts some of the most excellent, motivated students at Villanova. Are you the kind of student who wishes a classroom discussion could continue after the class ends? Our classes often spill over into our student lounge—the Humanities Commons—where the conversations continue over cups of tea and donuts.
We cultivate the virtue of “conviviality”—living and learning well together.
