Background Information

The first course in interdisciplinary Humanities at San Francisco State University was offered in 1941 by Professor Elias Arnesen. Arnesen was explicitly reviving "the Humanistic Tradition" by proposing interdisciplinary and integrative study in literature, philosophy, history, art, and music." By 1943, a student could choose a minor in Humanities at San Francisco State College. The attempt to introduce humanistic study did not go unchallenged. A group of Arnesen's colleagues publicly denounced these new "fusion courses" and issued solemn warnings about the dangers of interdisciplinary study, but enough students and faculty believed in the value of the idea to keep the program alive and thriving. In 1947, the first graduate Humanities course was offered. By the late 1950s students could take a full complement of courses lead to the B.A. and to the M.A. in Humanities.

San Francisco State's leadership in developing the Humanistic tradition soon made itself felt. Students trained here went on to found Humanities programs in secondary schools and the state's burgeoning junior colleges. Other state college campuses structured their own Humanities programs based on the San Francisco State model. In the 1960s, San Francisco State faculty were instrumental in founding the California Humanities Association, and continues to play a vital role in that organization today. The Humanities Symposium, begun in 1993, fosters student and faculty intellectual exchange on the campus. The interests and expertise of the Humanities faculty today range over the entire spectrum of art, thought, and society in world cultures, and a number of the faculty have achieved international renown with their published works. At the center of this diversity of students and accomplishments of the faculty is a common core: an unqualified commitment to the preservation, enrichment, and expansion of the tradition of humanistic study. The department's current course offerings allow us to accommodate a wide range of student interest. Among the department's particular strengths are our offerings in critical theory and methodological issues in the humanities, in American studies, in the cultural history of cities, in critical writing, and in the study of cyberspace. The M.A. degree program encourages students to develop an understanding of the diversity of human cultures through courses on various aspects of South American, North American, African, South Asian, East Asian, and European cultures.


Department Chair
Associate Professor Saul Steier
Phone: 415-338-3129
E-mail: sauls@sfsu.edu

Graduate Coordinator
Professor Mary Scott
Phone: 415-338-7425
E-mail: mscott@sfsu.edu

Graduate Advisors
Professors Bertram, Birt, Chandler, Garcia-Moreno, Jacobowitz, Leonard, Luft, Ruotolo, Scott, Shobhi, Steier.

Department Secretary
Annette Speed
Phone: 415-338-1830
Email: aspeed@sfsu.edu