Breadth and Depth

Students meet the Humanities and Arts degree requirement by completing six courses to ensure breadth and depth. In short, the requirement asks for five courses plus one concluding project in an area of focus. The concluding project is completed during an inquiry seminar or a practicum.

In selecting the five courses before the concluding project, students must complete breadth and depth components.  To ensure breadth, students select at least one course each from two of three different intellectual clusters.  To ensure depth, students complete an area of focus with at least one course at the 2000-level or above and an inquiry seminar or practicum (HU3900 or equivalent).  Students may take six courses in a foreign language as an exception to the breadth component, but their sequence of foreign language courses still culminates in a seminar or practicum.   

Breadth Component:

To ensure intellectual breadth, students must select one course from two of the following three intellectual clusters: 

WPI offers a flexible curriculum to entrust students with a significant amount of choice and responsibility for planning their own course of study.  At the same time, WPI requires students to take one course in two different intellectual clusters to provide exposure to the creativity of the fine and performing arts, modes of communication in languages and literature, and the cultural analysis of the past and present.  Students are encouraged to experiment and to take courses beyond the minimum breadth requirement. By providing exposure to multiple areas, the breadth component encourages students to appreciate the fundamental unity of knowledge and the interconnections between and among diverse disciplinary fields.    

The one exception to this breadth requirement is that students may take all six courses in a foreign language.  Development of proficiency in a foreign language necessitates sustained engagement in the language beyond the elementary and intermediate level. Foreign language instruction is broadly interdisciplinary and includes elements of the history, literature, and culture of a particular language area.  A student in foreign languages must still meet the depth component of the requirement through completion of a concluding practicum or seminar in the language.  A student who begins foreign language study is not compelled to remain in that subject, but may switch to another area and complete the depth component in another area of focus. 

Depth Component:

To ensure depth, students complete at least one unit (three courses) in an area of focus that includes and culminates with an inquiry seminar or practicum.  At least one of the two courses that precede the seminar or practicum in the area of focus must be at the 2000-level or above. An area of focus is a specific field within an intellectual cluster. For example, music is an area of focus within the broader intellectual cluster of the arts.

After taking courses in two different intellectual clusters, students pursue deeper study by choosing an area of focus that leads to an inquiry seminar or practicum.  To develop a program of increasing complexity, the depth component requires that students take at least one course at the 2000-level or above before the seminar or practicum.  Students are strongly encouraged to take more than one 2000-level or 3000-level course in the area of focus.  The structure of the requirement remains flexible so that students will become intentional learners as they select their own sequence of thematically-related courses.   

In most areas, students complete the depth component of the requirement by taking an Inquiry Seminar (HU3900).  In areas such as drama/theatre, music, the visual arts, or foreign languages, it may be appropriate for students to complete the depth component of the requirement with a practicum (HU3910). In either format, the combination of courses and seminar or practicum provides a deeper engagement with sustained critical inquiry and the integration of theory and practice in an area of the humanities and arts. 

For more information, see Inquiry Seminar or Practicum and the following resources: 

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Last modified: April 29, 2008 12:41:12