Overview > About the Program

Modern Thought and Literature is an interdisciplinary program located at the seam between the humanities and the social sciences. It places literary texts together with other texts and materials to analyze the formation of modern and contemporary social thought and practices, placing literary study firmly and decisively within a rigorous interdisciplinary frame with fields such as science and technology, media and film studies, legal studies, race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, medicine, education, anthropology, and history and philosophy. The Program applies an array of critical, methodological, and disciplinary approaches to the study of the intersection of literature, cultural formations, and society.

Since MTL is driven by a desire to address a set of interdisciplinary problems, our mission is to train students to equip themselves with the tools necessary to approach those problems in a thorough and rigorous manner. As serious interdisciplinary study is impossible without a firm understanding of the disciplines under consideration, each student is trained in the methods of one discipline and gains a firm foundation in a second field. Likewise, throughout each student's program, their construction of an interdisciplinary project is vetted at each critical phase by a faculty committee to check for methodological soundness.

At the end of his or her program of study, the MTL graduate will have:

• Thorough training in one major field of study
• Foundational knowledge of a second field
• A firm understanding of the methodologies of both those fields as well as thorough training and practice in interdisciplinary work
• Conceived of an interdisciplinary project that has passed several stages of examination by a faculty committee
• Presented a qualifying paper for examination by a faculty committee and presented it to the university at large
• Acquired thorough pedagogical training and teaching experience
• Written an acceptable dissertation that evinces the logic, legitimacy, and value of its interdisciplinary approach
• Acquired competence in two languages other than the student's primary language.