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The Humanities Center reflects a characteristic quality
of The Johns Hopkins University as an intellectual community. The
coordinated study of Western civilization through its literature, art,
philosophy, and history has been one of the oldest continuing concerns at Hopkins. Because it
has remained by design and tradition the smallest of the major American
universities and because of the interdisciplinary interests of some of its
most distinguished faculty, Hopkins
has fostered to a remarkable degree the free exchange between scholars and
students across departmental boundaries. In addition to its programmatic
concern with comparative literature, intellectual history, and feminist
theory, the Humanities Center does much to coordinate such exchange, which
it encourages among students and scholars at all levels of their careers.
Supplementing
its regular course offerings, the Center from time to time sponsors
conferences, colloquia and short-term seminars on topics of special
interest to its graduate students and to the intellectual community at
large. The Center is also responsible for publishing annually the
Comparative Literature issue of MLN; graduate students may apply to
work as editorial assistants in its production and are invited to
contribute to its reviews of current publications.
A recent
development has been the appointment of several distinguished scholars as
associates of the Humanities
Center for terms of
variable length. Each associate visits the campus once a year to teach an
intensive seminar open to graduate students (and in certain cases to
advanced undergraduates) in the Humanities
Center as well as in
other departments. The associates also meet informally with interested
students and faculty and in general play an active role in the intellectual
life of the University.
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