Institute for the HumanitiesDirector's Welcome

Welcome to the Institute for the Humanities

We are a collaborative research and social innovation hub in the College of Arts and Letters at Old Dominion University. We offer an interdisciplinary Masters' degree (MA) program in the Humanities that allows students to pursue a customized course of study that combines classes from across ODU's seven Colleges and 65 standalone graduate programs. We attract students with unique research projects and/or career objectives that cannot be fully realized within a single discipline and who will benefit from a cross-disciplinary approach.

Say you are interested in environmental justice and want to start your own non-profit. Our program will allow you to combine classes from the Environmental Science, Communications, Geography and the School of Public Service to help you achieve your goals. Say you are sculptor seeking a way to jumpstart your business. Our program will allow you to combine classes on public art with classes on social media marketing and fundraising. Say you are concerned about the challenges faced by health and human services in reaching immigrant and refugee families. Our program will allow you to combine courses in health communication, sociology, women's studies, and public service that will enable you to map out an intervention.

Simply put, our students become experts in their field by triangulating courses across different disciplines. Students work closely with the program director to design a coherent program of study that encourages critical thinking, innovation, engaged scholarship and experiential learning.

While our students pursue a wide range of careers upon completing their degree, some of the most common paths include arts administration, museum and gallery curators, community organizers, civil, environmental and human rights law and advocacy work, higher education, non-profit leadership, and social entrepreneurship.

Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions. I look forward to learning about your interests and exploring how our program can help.