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Colosseum, Rome
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Lascaux Caves, France
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Tate Modern, London, England
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school for advanced studies in the arts & humanities
A transformative experience
The School will offer a high-calibre cohort of national and international students a unique and intensive undergraduate experience. Our program will emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to the Arts and Humanities and will integrate thought and practice from a variety of perspectives:
Cultural: exploring the complexities of human achievement, communication, and motivation
Linguistic: acquiring languages other than English
Experiential: exposure to firsthand learning and professional opportunities in London, across Canada, and abroad
Global: contact with a wider cultural community through international study, travel, and exchange
Drawing on the Faculty’s national reputation for scholarly excellence and classroom innovation, this immersive program will act as a catalyst for cutting-edge research, publications, presentations, and pedagogy. Graduates will receive an undergraduate Major from the School in conjunction with a Major from an existing program, thus combining disciplinary rigour with interdisciplinary flexibility and experimentation.
Students in the School register in the Major in Arts and Humanities, but they also must be registered in a second major or honors specialization in a discipline in the Faculty. In other words, the Major in Arts and Humanities cannot be taken on its own.
All students in the School register for Arts & Humanities 1020E. Team-taught by the School’s Research Fellows, this course is a thematic and historical survey of representative fields and topics within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The course will introduce students to the study of culture and its central place in society. Assignments will emphasize scholarly rigour and advanced communication skills, as well as introduce the principles of experiential learning.
Students then progress through an increasingly intensive and enriched curriculum. Second-year courses orient students in theoretical approaches and research methods specific to Arts and Humanities. Organized around the specific research expertise of the School’s Fellows, third-year special topics courses in interdisciplinary topics combine self-directed study with opportunities for international exchanges. The fourth year offers experiential learning courses that expose students to training in the broader community, capped off by a full-year seminar focused on a specific theme crucial to global cultural development and combined with intensive study abroad. Detailed course descriptions found on the Courses page.
The School provides an environment where students can engage in every aspect of learning beyond simply being an individual in a classroom. There are opportunities for practical teaching, research assistantships with faculty and graduate students, conference coordination, course planning, curating, publishing, etc.
The School’s Research Fellows are drawn from the over 140 full-time professors in Western’s top-ranked Faculty of Arts and Humanities. This group of dedicated scholars includes Canada Research Chairs in Linguistics, Literary Criticism and Theory, and Bioethics (cross appointed with the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry); four Distinguished University Professors; seven winners of the Hellmuth Prize for Achievement in Research, Western’s most prestigious research award; and several winners of the 3M National Teaching Fellowships and the Edward Pleva Teaching Award, Western’s highest teaching honour.
The School issues a yearly online journal publishing top interdisciplianary essays from the School, the Faculty, and other institutions across Canada and the US. The journal is run by the students of the School who coordinate every aspect of its publication from what will appear in a particular issue to its dissemination.
The School will be housed in the Weldon Library, on main campus. Facilities will include offices for the Director and administrative assistant, and offices for the fellows. There will also be a common space for students and potentially a couple of seminar rooms.