Humanities

For Stanford students majoring in, or simply interested in, the humanities, studying at Oxford is a great opportunity to be part an environment where the humanities are studied and showcased, not just for their practical application, but for appreciation of the subject material in and of itself.

Humanities subjects are popular among students in the Oxford programme. This is possibly because the tutorial system lends itself well to humanities learning: reading, thinking, writing and describing your research. Oxford is one of the foremost humanities research institutions in the world. Students on the Oxford programme often also benefit from resources that cannot be accessed anywhere else in the world such as special library resources, or Oxford's unique architectural heritage. It is because the humanities are such a large and popular division at Oxford that Stanford students have a lot of success proposing humanities tutorials, and having those proposals fulfilled.

Do not assume that this means you should plan to study English or History. Applicants often overlook the depth and breadth of courses within the humanities at Oxford. Pay attention to specifics within each department. You may find that your proposed tutorial is too broad, or too specific, or you may discover a new focus altogether

The Humanities departments are

• Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
• Classics
• English Language and Literature
• History
• History of Art
• Linguistics Philology and Phonetics
• Medieval and Modern Language (Primarily languages of Western Europe)
• Music
• Philosophy
• Theology and Religion

Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

The Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies is home to a range of languages and subjects that cover an enormous geographical area, from Morocco in the west to Japan in the east, and a long time span from the earliest civilizations, c. 3500 BCE, to the present day. In real-world demographic terms the areas taught and studied in this Faculty represent well over half of the world’s current population, as well as covering some of the world’s major civilizations. Stanford students are encouraged to choose one of the core subjects listed below. The list is organised by the key languages taught at the Faculty but excludes language study itself as it is not available to Stanford students. Students interested in a more specialised course are encouraged to visit the Faculty’s website to explore multiple available options and then discuss their choices with the Senior Tutor: 

Arabic:

1. Arabic Literature (Classical and Modern)
2. Qur’an
3. Islamic History (570-1500)
4. Islamic Religion
5. Sufism
6. Art and Architecture in the Early Modern Empires of Islam
7. The Middle East in the Age of Empire, 1830-1970
8. Society and Culture in the Middle East

Assyriology and Egyptology:

9. History of the Near East and Egypt to 30 BCE

Chinese:

10. East Asia Survey: China
11. Modern China

Hebrew: 

12. History, Culture and Society (Jewish Studies)
13. Biblical Narrative
14. Biblical Religion
15. Modern Jewish Thought
16. Modern Jewish History

Japanese: 

17. East Asia Survey: Japan
18. Classical Japanese Literature
19. Modern Japanese Literature

Persian: 

20. Persian Literature (1000-1400)
21. Persian Literature (1400-1900)
22. Persian Literature (1900-the present)
23. Themes in Iranian History

Sanskrit: 

24. Sanskrit: General Paper

Turkish:

25. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1566
26. The Ottoman Empire, 1566-1807
27. The Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1807-1980
28. Modern Turkish Literary Texts

Classics

Classics is the study of the languages, culture, history and thought of the civilisations of Ancient Greece and Rome. The Oxford Classics faculty is the largest in the world, and Classics students never have the sense of being in a small minority within the University. Classics is interdisciplinary and combines History, Literature, Art & Archaeology, Philosophy and Linguistics courses. At Oxford, the study of Classics is divided into ‘Mods’ (the first five terms) and ‘Greats’ (the last seven terms). Stanford students can choose tutorials from both segments of the curriculum, but the ‘Greats’ require knowledge of Greek and/or Latin. Classicists in Oxford remain at the discipline's cutting edge in research terms, often working on joint projects with scholars from other institutions. For a round-up of recent news from the Faculty of Classics, please see the Faculty website.

The following ‘Mods’ tutorials can be taken with or without knowledge of Latin and/or Greek:

1. Athenian Revolutions, 411-403 BCE
2. Greeks and Persians
3. People and Politics in the Roman Republic, 58-52 BCE
4. Roman Imperialism in Gaul and Britain
5. Pots and Pictures: The Painted World of Greek Ceramics, 800-300 BCE
6. Archaeologies of Athens, 600-350 BCE
7. Rome: A World City

The ‘Greats’ tutorials requiring Latin and/or Greek:

‘Greek and Roman History’

1. Archaic Greek History: 750 BCE to 479 BCE
2. Thucydides and the Greek World: 479 BCE to 403 BCE
3. The End of the Peloponnesian War to the Death of Philip II of Macedon, 403 BCE to 336 BCE
4. Polybius, Rome and the Mediterranean: 241 BCE to 146 BCE
5. Republic in Crisis: 146 BCE to 46 BCE
6. Rome, Italy and Empire from Caesar to Claudius: 46 BCE to 54 CE
7. Athenian Democracy in the Classical Age
8. Alexander the Great and His Early Successors (336 BCE - 302 BCE)
9. The Hellenistic World: Societies and Cultures, ca. 300 BCE - 100 BCE
10. Cicero: Politics and Thought in the Late Republic
11. Politics, Society and Culture from Nero to Hadrian
12. Religions in the Greek and Roman World (c. 31 BCE to 312 CE)
13. Sexuality and Gender in Greece and Rome
14. The Conversion of Augustine
15. The Achaemenid Empire, 550 - 330 BCE

‘Greek and Latin Literature’

16. Historiography (Greek and Latin)
17. Lyric Poetry (Greek and Latin)
18. Homer, Hesiod and Hymns
19. Virgil
20. Greek Tragedy
21. Comedy
22. Hellenistic Poetry
23. Cicero the Orator
24. Ovid
25. Latin Didactic
26. Neronian Literature
27. Euripides, Orestes: Papyri, Manuscripts, Texts
28. Catullus: Manuscripts, Texts, Interpretation
29. Seneca, Medea: Manuscripts, Text, Interpretation
30. Byzantine Literature
31. Modern Greek Poetry
32. Latin Literature from Titus to Trajan
33. Greek Core
34. Latin Core

‘Greek and Roman Archaeology’

35. The Greeks and the Mediterranean World, c. 950 BCE - 500 BCE
36. Greek Art and Archaeology from c. 500 to 300 BCE
37. Hellenistic Art and Archaeology, 330 - 30 BCE
38. Art under the Roman Empire, 14-337 CE
39. Roman Archaeology: Cities and Settlement under the Empire

‘General Linguistics and Comparative Philology’:

40. Greek Historical Linguistics
41. Latin Historical Linguistics
42. Comparative Philology: Indo-European, Greek and Latin

English Language and Literature

Oxford is widely known as a great centre both for study and the production of English literature. Tolkien, Lewis, Pullman, Dexter, and Wilde wrote work not just in but often about Oxford. Oxford's Faculty of English prides itself on the chronological breath of its undergraduate programme, and the research expertise of the Faculty is equally broad. The list of courses offered below includes most of those which Stanford students have tended to take, but a fuller list of the Special Options courses offered is available at the undergraduate course website.

1. Introduction to English Language and Literature
2. Medieval Literature (650-1350)
3. Literature in English 1350-1550
4. Literature in English 1550-1660
5. Literature in English 1660-1760
6. Literature in English 1760-1830
7. Victorian Literature (1830-1910)
8. Modern Literature (1910-present)
9. Shakespeare
10. Post-War British Drama
11. Postcolonial Literature
12. The Icelandic Saga
13. Writing Feminisms/Feminist Writing
14. Film Criticism
15. Tragedy
16. Creative Writing

History

Oxford University may have the largest History Faculty in the world, with an extraordinary range of subjects taught at undergraduate level, and an enormous, thriving research community supported by the archival and special collections available through the Bodleian Libraries. Oxford undergraduate students take a combination of introductory courses ('History of the British Isles', 'European and World History' and 'Optional Subjects') and more in-depth courses built around primary sources ('Further Subjects', and 'Special Subjects'). If you are not taking history as a major or a minor in your own degree, we recommend one of the introductory courses listed below. If you are taking history and would like to try one of the in-depth courses, you can see a full list on the undergraduate website. 

The History of the British Isles

1. The Early Medieval British Isles, 300-1100
2. The British Isles in the Central Middle Ages, 1000-1300
3. The Late Medieval British Isles, 1350-1550
4. Reformations and Revolutions, 1500-1700
5. Liberty, Commerce, and Power, 1685-1830
6. Power, Politics, and the People, 1815-1924
7. Changing Identities, 1900-Present
8. Bodies of Feeling: Gender and Sexual Identity since c. 1500
9. The Making and Unmaking of the British Isles, 1603-Present

European and World History

10. The World of Late Antiquity, 250-650
11. The Early Medieval World, 600-1000
12. The Central Middle Ages, 1000-1300
13. The Global Middle Ages, 500-1500
14. The Late Medieval World, 1300-1525
15. Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700
16. Eurasian Empires, 1450-1800
17. Enlightenments and Revolutions: Europe 1680-1815
18. From Independence to Empire: America 1763-1898
19. The European Century, 1820-1925
20. Imperial and Global History, 1750-1930
21. The Making of Modern America, since 1863
22. Europe Divided, 1914-1989
23. The Global Twentieth Century, 1930-2003
24. Masculinity and Its Discontents, 200-2000
25. Global Networks of Innovation, 1000-1700: China, Islam and the Rise of the West
26. Waging War in Eurasia, 1200-1945
27. Catholicism and the Making of the Modern World, 1545-1970

History of Art

The History of Art at Oxford is defined quite broadly as embracing a large range of sources and forms that are best understood visually. In that sense, it embraces architecture, cinema, and a wide range of material culture not traditionally understood as 'fine art'. It also increasingly looks outside the the west and does so in a self-consciously interdisciplinary terms.The study of the History of Art at Oxford is greatly enriched by the vast resources available in the city's museums (foremost among them the Ashmolean and the substantial collections held by Oxford University departments and colleges.

Core Tutorials

1. Introduction to the History of Art
2. Art, Design, Architecture: Meaning and Interpretation
3. Challenging Antiquities

Advanced Tutorials

1. The Carolingian Renaissance
2. Culture and Society in Early Renaissance Italy, 1290-1348
3. Flanders and Italy in Quattrocento, 1420-1480
4. Politics, Art and Culture in the Italian Renaissance: Venice and Florence, c.1475-c.1525
5. Court Culture and Art, 1580-1700
6. English Architecture, 1660-1720
7. Arts and Its Public in France, 1815-1867
8. Intellect and Culture in Victorian Britain
9. Encountering South Asian Sculpture
10. American Art
11. Visual Culture in Contemporary East Asia
12. Literature and the Visual Arts in France (Modern)
13. German Expressionism in Literature and Visual Arts
14. European Cinema
15. Modernism and After (20th-Century Art in Europe and North America)
16. The Experience of Modernity: Visual Culture, 1880-1925
17. Inventing Photography: A History of Origins

Linguistics Philology, and Phonetics

At Oxford, Linguistics is taught as part of two Undergraduate joint-schools programmes: Modern Languages and Linguistics and Philosophy, Psychology and Linguistics. Stanford students are welcome to study Linguistics tutorials incorporated into those programmes.

Linguistics tutorials:

1. General Linguistics
2. Phonetics and Phonology
3. Morphology
4. Syntax
5. Semantics and Pragmatics
6. Psycholinguistics

Medieval and Modern Languages

At Oxford, the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages covers two areas: language acquisition and the study of literary and cultural traditions in those languages. This means that tutorials offered from this Faculty are mostly conducted in English and can be taken either using the original text or an English translation or a mixture of the two. If you have concerns about the language level required, please do get in touch with the centre to discuss them. 

Czech:

1. Czech and Slovak Literature since 1816

French:

2. French Literature to 1530
3. French Literature 1530-1800
4. French Literature 1715 -to the Present
5. Medieval Intersectional Identities
6. French Romanticism: Writing and Revolution
7. French Poetry 1870-1918
8. French Poetry from Surrealism to the Present
9. Women’s Writing in French
10. Twentieth- and Twenty-First-century Autobiography
11. Race and Representation

German: 

12. Medieval German Culture (to 1550): Texts, Contexts and Issues
13. Early Modern German Culture (1450-1800): Text, Contexts and Issues
14. Modern German Literature (1700 to the Present): Texts, Contexts and Issues
15. Weimar Classicism 1794-1805
16. The ‘Bildungsroman’
17. Nineteenth-century German Drama
18. Nietzsche and his Impact
19. Modernist Prose Fiction 1898-1933
20. Cinema in a Cultural Context: German Film 1930 to 1970
21. Literature in the GDR
22. Narratives Identities in the German Novel since 1945
23. German-Jewish Literature since 1945
24. German Drama after 1960

Italian:

25. Medieval Italian Literature 1220-1430
26. Renaissance Italian Literature 1430-1635
27. Modern Italian Literature and Cinema (1750-Present Day)
28. Women Writers of the Italian Renaissance
29. Italian Culture during the Fascist Period
30. Contemporary Italian Cinema
31. Modern Italian Women Writers and Poets
32. Italian Poetry from 1956 to the Present Day
33. Literatures of Migration in Italian
34. Gender and Sexuality in Modern Italian Literature and Culture

Modern Greek:

35. Medieval Greek Literature to 1669
36. Greek Literature 1821 to the Present
37. The New Athenian School of Poetry, 1880-1912
38. The Greek Novel 1918-1940
39. Greek Women Writers
40. Modern Greek Cinema
41. Popular Culture in Twentieth-century Greece

Polish:

42. Polish Literature from the Late Eighteenth Century to the Twentieth Century 

Portuguese:

43. Portuguese Literature to 1540
44. Portuguese Literature 1500-1697
45. Portuguese Literature 1820 to the Present
46. Literature, the Visual Arts, and Material Culture in the Early Modern Portuguese Empire
47. Portuguese Drama in the Sixteenth Century
48. Art, Literature and Gender in the Lusophone World since 1950
49. The Literature of Portuguese-speaking Africa
50. Postcolonial Literatures of Portuguese-expression: From Camoes to the Present
51. Contemporary Brazilian Fiction
52. Brazilian Cinema

Russian:

53. Russian Literature 1820 to the present
54. Gender and Representation in Russian Culture

Spanish:

55. Spanish Literature to 1499
56. Spanish Literature 1543-1695
57. The Literature of Spain and Spanish America, 1811 to the Present
58. The Literature and Culture of al-Andalus
59. Women Writers in the Early Modern Hispanic World
60. Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Early Modern Hispanic World
61. Women Writers in Modern Spain
62. Art and Literature in the Golden Age of Spain
63. Latin American Cinema
64. Latin American Fiction from 1940
65. Contemporary Catalan Literature
66. Contemporary Galician Literature

Music

Music has been a longstanding part of Oxford life, and for Stanford undergraduates there are wonderful opportunities to participate in college choirs and university orchestras. The study of music is also offeredpossi but it must be noted that the study of musical performance and practical music is not possible. Music tutorials are divided into two groups: ‘Prelims’ (modules that Oxford students study in their first year) and ‘Final Honour School’ (second- and third-year courses). If you are unsure about the appropriate level of tutorial, please get in touch with the Senior Tutor.

Prelims

1. Foundations in the Study of Music
2. Machaut’s Songs
3. Women and Music in the Nineteenth Century
4. Music, Mind and Behaviour
5. Global Hip Hop
6. Critical Studies in Ethnomusicology

Final Honour School

1. Vernacular Song in the Long Thirteenth Century
2. The Renaissance Madrigal
3. Eighteenth-Century Opera
4. The String Quarter between Classicism and Modernism
5. World Jazz
6. Women in Popular Music
7. Music, Technology and World-Making in the Nineteenth Century
8. History and Philosophy of Music Education
9. Music ethnography
10. Musical Thought and Scholarship

Philosophy

While the Philosophy Faculty at Oxford is one of the largest in the world, philosophy is studied here in association with a partner discipline or disciplines, for example, mathematics, physics, psychology, theology, politics and economics. This means that Oxford has a strong tradition of teaching not only core Philosophical subjects such as Epistemology, Ethics or Logic, but also the philosophy of respective partner disciplines in both natural and social sciences, which can be of particular interest to Stanford students majoring in those subjects. The Oxford Philosophy Magazine is available online for free. The Philosophy tutorials are organised into the ‘Prelims’ (foundational first-year courses) and ‘Finals’ (advanced second- and third-year courses). Stanford students can select a Philosophy tutorial from the list below:

Prelims: 

1. Introduction to Logic
2. General Philosophy
3. Moral Philosophy 

Finals: 

1. Medieval Philosophy
2. Early Modern Philosophy
3. The Philosophy of Kant
4. Post-Kantian Philosophy
5. Philosophy of Wittgenstein
6. Knowledge and Reality
7. Ethics
8. Philosophy of Mind
9. Philosophy of Science and Social Science
10. Intermediate Philosophy of Physics
11. Philosophy of Mathematics
12. Philosophy of Logic and Language
13. Philosophy of Religion
14. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Criticism
15. Theory of Politics
16. Plato, Republic
17. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics  

Theology and Religion

Many Oxford undergraduates are studying theology because they plan to be ordained, and it is important to bear in mind that there are both faith-based and secular approaches to study in this department. Stanford students are interested in studying a philosophical topic that is considered by Oxford to be primarily theological, such as the Christian existentialism of Kierkegaard, and will find themselves working with a theology tutor. Some umbrella topics under which theology tutorials are taught:

1. Religion and Religions
2. Introduction to the Study of the Bible
3. The Figure of Jesus through the Centuries
4. Biblical Studies
5. Systematic Theology and Ethics
6. History of Religions
7. Contemporary Judaism
8. Contemporary Islam
9. Contemporary Buddhism
10. Contemporary Hinduism