The Integrated Program in Humane Studies (IPHS)

The Integrated Program in Humane Studies (IPHS), founded in 1975, is the oldest of Kenyon's interdisciplinary programs. We offer an integrative study of art and architecture, literature and philosophy, science and technology in their social and historical contexts. Our courses move between economic, political, scientific and ethical developments and the ideas that stem from them. The curriculum aims to illuminate the many connections between disciplines as we examine particular movements and technologies and their broader dissemination in an increasingly globalized world. 

IPHS students develop an understanding of how we, as an ever-changing and ever-challenged culture, have arrived at the point at which we find ourselves — and where we might best go next. From the ancient classical world to our current digital environment, our faculty challenge students to consider how they think about the world and what they can offer after Kenyon. 

IPHS students have the opportunity to experiment with an array of expressive media, including essays, films, multimedia presentations, graphic arts, plays, and even computational approaches to text, image, and sound. These approaches enable students to develop their abilities in written communication, oral communication, critical thinking, computer programming, design and composition.

Department Learning Objectives

Students pursuing a course of study in IPHS will:

• Have a framework for the history of ideas arising out of a global humanities tradition
• Situate these ideas within their historical, cultural, and political contexts
• Understand the visual arts, architecture, literature, philosophy, science, technology, and economics from an interdisciplinary perspective
• Examine and evaluate, through close reading and discussion, some of the enduring classics of literature, philosophy, and political philosophy
• Learn to move fluently between the qualitative and the quantitative
• Understand the rise of dataism and computation as part of a larger historical trend that should be interrogated and analyzed from a humanist perspective
• Learn to formulate ideas rigorously and communicate them effectively, in speaking and in writing, in visual and in data-driven forms
• Form ethical opinions that are based on informed positions that take an interdisciplinary perspective

• Become global, informed citizens who understand from whence we have come and where we might wish to go.

Updated fall 2019