The disappearing Interdisciplinary Humanities degree

[EliEverIsAHero]

My initial alma mater used to provide degrees in Interdisciplinary Humanities at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral levels.

The Doctoral program was scrapped and, at the graduate level, the program was retrofitted entirely into a Master's in something called "Digital Humanities", which is largely about online archiving and digital archaeology, such as it is.

I noticed something similar happening with another university, Salve Regina University; Salve used to provide a robust Doctoral program simply in "Humanities", which has since tried to save itself by rebranding as something like "Humanities and Technology." 

I think there are a number of factors that have influenced the dissolution of a "pure" interdisciplinary Humanities degree; ironically, an Interdisciplinary Humanities program, as such, has the greatest precedent in how academia was initially structured during its early days in Europe. But the disappearance of the Interdisciplinary Humanities degree, all in all, was influenced by the 2008 financial crisis causing (as a second-order effect) an identity crisis among universities, which often branded themselves as career factories and struggled to market programs that didn't have a clear study-to-work pipeline or represent a linear professional path. 

That said the Interdisciplinary Humanities degree was not always a bust. Prior to the dissolution of my first alma mater's Interdisciplinary Humanities program, I knew quite a few Doctorate-holders in it, most of whom went into some form of teaching profession with their degree + a state teacher certification, or a private/preparatory school gig that did not require state licensure. Other students in the now-defunct Interdisciplinary Humanities Doctoral program were already practitioners of various represented disciplines seeking a breadth-based rather than depth-based scholar-practitioner route. 

If there is a lesson from this, it is that the Interdisciplinary Humanities program started going the way of the dodo mainly because the variations on why people did the degree plus the career paths they demonstrated were hard to explain to an increasingly streamlined, linear, narrow, quick-and-dirty-summary-focused view of higher education. This included at the doctoral level where a graphic designer using their contract money to study for a Classics/Theatre/Religion all-in-one doctorate or a private school teacher trying to top-up their credentials via another customized variation of Humanities disciplines while existing outside of the state licensure system didn't read as legible.

[sanantone]

Unless the program is funded, completing a doctorate can get expensive, especially at a private university. Even with funded programs, there's an opportunity cost to completing a degree that won't lead to a job. One can teach at a private K-12 school with just a bachelor's degree. If people are asking for student loan forgiveness, taxpayers are going to question the value of some degrees and whether taxpayers should be footing the bill. Also, with so many college-level courses being available for free or a low cost, more people are engaging in self-directed learning.

I believe the humanities have value, but I also accept the reality that many humanities graduates are complaining about the lack of jobs. Additionally, there is an oversupply of PhDs in multiple fields, including some STEM fields.

[Charles Fout]

Unless the program is funded, completing a doctorate can get expensive, especially at a private university. Even with funded programs, there's an opportunity cost to completing a degree that won't lead to a job. One can teach at a private K-12 school with just a bachelor's degree. If people are asking for student loan forgiveness, taxpayers are going to question the value of some degrees and whether taxpayers should be footing the bill. Also, with so many college-level courses being available for free or a low cost, more people are engaging in self-directed learning.

I believe the humanities have value, but I also accept the reality that many humanities graduates are complaining about the lack of jobs. Additionally, there is an oversupply of PhDs in multiple fields, including some STEM fields.

I love this discussion. In many ways it is the W. E. B. Dubois vs. Booker T. Washington. argument 

The Humanities are for everyone! [I share the Duboisian view]

Just over the weekend I learned of a special wealth redistribution program.


https://www.clementecourse.org/

It's called the odyssey Project at the University of Chicago.

[tdat314]

Unless the program is funded, completing a doctorate can get expensive, especially at a private university. Even with funded programs, there's an opportunity cost to completing a degree that won't lead to a job. One can teach at a private K-12 school with just a bachelor's degree. If people are asking for student loan forgiveness, taxpayers are going to question the value of some degrees and whether taxpayers should be footing the bill. Also, with so many college-level courses being available for free or a low cost, more people are engaging in self-directed learning.

I believe the humanities have value, but I also accept the reality that many humanities graduates are complaining about the lack of jobs. Additionally, there is an oversupply of PhDs in multiple fields, including some STEM fields.

I love this discussion. In many ways it is the W. E. B. Dubois vs. Booker T. Washington. argument 

The Humanities are for everyone! [I share the Duboisian view]

Just over the weekend I learned of a special wealth redistribution program.


https://www.clementecourse.org/

It's called the odyssey Project at the University of Chicago.

I wish there were even more things like this. I do also like that it has some credit bearing, even if the main point is more about learning to learn.

[Mint Berry Crunch]

My initial alma mater used to provide degrees in Interdisciplinary Humanities at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral levels.

The Doctoral program was scrapped and, at the graduate level, the program was retrofitted entirely into a Master's in something called "Digital Humanities", which is largely about online archiving and digital archaeology, such as it is.

I noticed something similar happening with another university, Salve Regina University; Salve used to provide a robust Doctoral program simply in "Humanities", which has since tried to save itself by rebranding as something like "Humanities and Technology." 

I think there are a number of factors that have influenced the dissolution of a "pure" interdisciplinary Humanities degree; ironically, an Interdisciplinary Humanities program, as such, has the greatest precedent in how academia was initially structured during its early days in Europe. But the disappearance of the Interdisciplinary Humanities degree, all in all, was influenced by the 2008 financial crisis causing (as a second-order effect) an identity crisis among universities, which often branded themselves as career factories and struggled to market programs that didn't have a clear study-to-work pipeline or represent a linear professional path. 

That said the Interdisciplinary Humanities degree was not always a bust. Prior to the dissolution of my first alma mater's Interdisciplinary Humanities program, I knew quite a few Doctorate-holders in it, most of whom went into some form of teaching profession with their degree + a state teacher certification, or a private/preparatory school gig that did not require state licensure. Other students in the now-defunct Interdisciplinary Humanities Doctoral program were already practitioners of various represented disciplines seeking a breadth-based rather than depth-based scholar-practitioner route. 

If there is a lesson from this, it is that the Interdisciplinary Humanities program started going the way of the dodo mainly because the variations on why people did the degree plus the career paths they demonstrated were hard to explain to an increasingly streamlined, linear, narrow, quick-and-dirty-summary-focused view of higher education. This included at the doctoral level where a graphic designer using their contract money to study for a Classics/Theatre/Religion all-in-one doctorate or a private school teacher trying to top-up their credentials via another customized variation of Humanities disciplines while existing outside of the state licensure system didn't read as legible.

Salve Regina University has a beautiful campus if you ever get to visit it! It's right on the cliff walk in Newport, RI -- absolutely beautiful, I can't state it enough. I actually just got engaged back in the summer of 2025 in Newport. With that said, I think pairing humanities with technologies wasn't so much about saving the program, rather, I find it to be an important aspect of it since the two are interdependent of one another. Seems completely appropriate that they would do that, plus, I think it also allows for program graduates to enter other disciplines/fields related to the program.