mcgill university llcundergraduate programs · florence faced in the 16th century. that span-ish...
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McGill University
LLC Undergraduate Programs
Humanities in the 21st Century
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Look at the world around you. Have the cour-age to understand and offer new explana-tions for old and new phenomena. What doeslearning about the past teach us about thepresent and vice-versa? How can we trans-form reality? Dream new worlds? Those arethe questions and tasks that the Humanities face in the 21st century. They are not new.Those were the questions that humanists in Florence faced in the 16th century. That Span-ish dramatists of the 17th century presented in their plays. That philosophers in Königs-
berg reflected upon in the 18th century. ThatRussian writers dreamed in the 19th century. That Latin American revolutionaries sought in the 20th century. Those are also the ques-tions our programs and courses ask in the 21st century. They do it from a multidisciplin-ary point of view that combines eco-criticism with digital humanities, literary history withgender studies, and continental philosophywith post-colonial criticism. You can be partof them. Have the courage to give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
Erasmus
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2Different Programs Multiple Combinations
LLC offers students six programs tochoose from:
Russian Studies, Hispanic Studies, Ger-man Studies, Italian Studies, Liberal Arts, and European Literature andCulture.They are offered in four basic forms: Minor(18 credits), Majors (36 credits), Joint Hon-ours (36 credits) and Honours (60 credits).
Students can choose to complete just oneor more of them. They can be meaningfully combined in a variety of ways in order toexplore their interconnections and suit thestudent’s intellectual, academic, and pro-fessional interests. Let’s review some ofthem:
1. Major (36 credits) + Minor (18 credits)+ Optional Minor (18 credits): Studentscan complete a Major in any of the disci-plines offered by LLC and combinethem with one or two minors. For in-stance, you can choose to Major in Lib-eral Arts and have as an area of speciali-zation Italian and Russian Studies (exam-ple 1).
2. Major (36 credits) + Major (36 credits):Students can also choose to completetwo majors in LLC. For example, you can choose to major in both Hispanic Studies and Italian Studies (Illustration2). This option is particularly interestingfor students wanting to obtain a strong foundation in two foreign languagesand/or in comparative literature.
If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.
Spinoza
MAJOR (36 CREDITS)
MINOR (18 CRED-
ITS)
HONOURS (60 CREDITS)
JOINTHONOURS (36 CRED-
ITS)
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3.Honours (60 credits) + Minor (18 credits): If you wouldlike to continue to study literature in graduate school, ourHonours program are the platform to do so. They offer yousome of the most complete foreign literature programs in North America. For example, you can choose to do Hon-ours in German Studies and complement it with a Minor in European Literature and Culture (Illustration 3).
4.Joint Honours (36 credits + 36 credits): Students willingto take advantage of the specialization of an Honours de-gree in two disciplines have the possibility to choose a JointHonours. For example, you can combine Russian Studies and German Studies to create a Joint Honours degree thatexplores the multiple connections between Western andEastern Europe. This is also an excellent option if you areinterested in graduate studies in comparative literature.
According to a recent piece of research from New College of the Humanities, 60% of the UK's leaders have humanities, arts or social science degrees. The STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering,maths) account for only 15% of the sample.
The Guardian
Example 2: MAJOR + MAJOR EXAMPLE 4: JOINT HONOURS
Example 3: HONOURS + MINORExample 1: MAJOR + MINOR
ITAL (18 CR)
HISP(18 CR)
LIBERAL ARTS
(36 CR)GERM
(60 CR)
EUR (18 CR)
ITAL (36 CR)
HISP(36 CR) RUSS
(36 CR)GERM
(36 CR)
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German Studies
The German tradition in literature, thought,art, music, and scientific inquiry plays a cru-cial role in contemporary research within allfields of the humanities, arts, and the socialsciences. For anyone working on the artistic,cultural or intellectual history of Europe, in particular, knowledge of the German traditionis indispensable. Modern philosophy wouldbe unthinkable without figures such as Im-manuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas; from KarlMarx to Hannah Arendt, German thinkers areat the forefront of modern political thought. Inthe realm of literature, similarly, German-speaking writers such Goethe, Kafka, Tho-
mas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Celan,Christa Wolf and the recent Nobel laureates Günter Grass and Elfriede Jelinek haveprobed the questions of European modernityto their limits. And the story is similar for mu-sic, visual arts, photography and film.German-speaking composers such as Bee-thoven, Robert and Clara Schumann, RichardWagner, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoen-berg count among the giants of the modern European musical tradition, and the list ofseminal German artists stretches from theRenaissance paintings of Albrecht Dürer tothe monumental post-Holocaust work of An-selm Kiefer. As for film history, not only has
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.Willing is not enough; we must do.
Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
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the German speaking world produced some of the most revered filmmakers of the 20th century – from Fritz Lang to Rainer WernerFassbinder, Wim Wenders and a new genera-tion of transnational directors such as TomTykwer and Fatih Akin – but German and Aus-trian filmmakers such as Lang, Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch also helped to shape the history of Hollywood.
Within all ofthese traditions,German-Jewish artists and intel-lectuals haveplayed a lead-ing role. In thewake of the Sec-ond World War, Germany’s re-cent cultural his-tory is marked indelibly by theHolocaust andby efforts tocome to termswith the past.As a part ofthese endeav-ors, scholars in German studies
have begun to investigate the long and com- plex history of cross-cultural transfer in the German-speaking world, whichcontinues to inform European identity today. To take one example, the Vienna of 1900 –the capital of the multi-lingual and multi-cultural Habsburg Empire and a milieu thatproduced both
tory of ethnic relations in the 20th-century. To-day, the influence of globalization and migra-tion – particularly the increase in Turkish-German and Afro-German populations – is transforming German culture rapidly, produc-ing a new artistic avant-garde and a fascinat-ing field of scholarly inquiry.
Germany was also the center of the ColdWar, and the culture of East Germany is only beginning to be understood in the West aspart of a broader German and European leg-acy. The recent East German film series atthe Goethe Institut in Montreal formed part ofthis effort to reassess the cultures of the EastGermany and their continued influence onGermany and Europe, and we encourage ourstudents interested in Contemporary GermanStudies to probe such questions within thebroader context of European integration and the legacy of the Cold War.
Today, within the formation of the new Europe,Germany continues to play a pivotal role bothculturally and economically, and the Germanlanguage is spoken by some 120 mil-
It is true that humanities study, unlike technical training in, say, carpentry or bookkeeping, prepares students not for any specific occupation, but for an unpredictable variety of occupations.But as many before us have rightly pointed out, in an unpredictable marketplace this kind of versatility is actually anadvantage.
Inside Higher Ed
German Studies Programs
Minor in German LanguageMinor in German Literature
Minor in German Literature and Culture inTranslation
Major in German Language and LiteratureMajor in German Literature and CultureMajor in Contemporary German Studies
Honours in German StudiesJoint Honours Program
Freud and Hitler – has been called a labora- lion people worldwide.
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Hispanic Studies
The Department of Languages, Literatures,and Cultures - Hispanic Studies offers courses in the literature, intellectual history and civilization of Spain and Latin America, as well as in the Spanish language. The De-partment and its programs are committed toexpanding the liberal arts background of stu-dents by helping to develop the skills of com-munication and critical reasoning, and by pro-viding insight into the culture of other re-gional, linguistic and national groups. Enrich-ment in these areas reduces provincialism
and broadens intellectual horizons, regard-less of the professional interests or fields ofspecialization that may guide students in other facets of their university education.
With more than 300 millions native speakersof Spanish around the World, covering morethan 18 countries, a B.A. in Hispanic Studies opens many doors towards successful pathsnot only in Graduate School but also in ahighly competitive job market. The Honours Program in Hispanic Studies is a degree thatallows students to specialize in the discipline.
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis Borges
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A Major in Hispanic Studies can be meaning-fully combined with a second Major in an-other discipline depending on your academic and professional interests:
a) a Major program in other Languages andLiteratures, such as Liberal Arts, Italian, Ger-man, Russian, etc. (an option that increasesyour chances to work or continue graduate studies in literature, comparative literatureand translation)
b) a Major program in social sciences such asHistory, Anthropology, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Political Science, etc. (particularly if you would like your future work or research tobe oriented towards a Spanish-speakingcountry or region)
c) a Major program in interdisciplinary pro-grams such as International Development Studies, Latin American Studies, etc. (Espe-cially if you are interested in working for pol-icy making institutions or NGO's related toLatin America, a Major in Hispanic Studieswill allow you to complement your current pol-icy and social oriented seminars with courses
that offer a rich perspective on the cultural evolution and development of the region.)
Honours students are very motivated andhave a strong interest in continuing their edu-cation in Hispanic Studies at the graduate level. The Honours Program in Hispanic Stud-ies at McGill University is highly competitiveand our graduates are frequently acceptedwith financial aid in graduate programs at topranked universities.
What makes humanities students different isn’t their power of expression, their capacity toframe an argument or their ability to do independent work. Yes,these are valuable qualities, and we humanities teachers try tocultivate them. But true humanities students are exceptional because they have been, and are, engaged in the activity that Plato commends —seeking to understand themselves and how they ought to lead their lives.
The Washington Post
Hispanic Studies Programs
Minor in Hispanic Languages Minor in Hispanic Literature and Culture
Major in Hispanic LanguagesMajor in Hispanic Literature and Culture
Honours in Hispanic StudiesJoint Honours Program in Hispanic Studies
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Italian Studies
With the highest number of UNESCO heri-tage sites in the world and a press amongst the most oppressed in Europe, Italy is a coun-try of extremes and a fascinating enigma.Whether your focus is literature or political sci-ence, architecture or religious studies, foreign languages or critical theory, Italy and its mille-narian history will have something to teachyou.
Italian Language
Italian Studies offers language courses at vari-ous levels from Beginner to Advanced. It alsooffers a language course specifically for stu-dents with some informal knowledge of thelanguage (e.g. heritage speakers).
Literature, History and Culture
Italian Studies has as its mission to maintain the traditions and study of the great classicsas well as to provide a window on an increas-ingly complex and diverse contemporary Ital-ian culture. Our emphasis is on literature andsociety, and the relationship between artists, writers, filmmakers and their political, eco-nomic and social contexts. Courses on Ma-chiavelli, Dante, Pirandello, Gramsci, as well as Italian Renaissance, film studies and thea-tre are available all year round in English andItalian.
The department periodically invites scholars specializing in contemporary politics, the Ital-ian immigrant experience and social change,
The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned.
Antonio Gramsci
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enabling students to gain both a broader andmore critical understanding of various as-pects of Italian culture, throughcontact with specialists in these areas.
Academic Programs
Our program is addressed toundergraduate and graduatestudents. Our objectives are:(1) to provide effective lan-guage training; (2) to maintain the traditions and study of thegreat classics; and (3) to pro-vide a window on an increas-ingly complex and diverse con-temporary culture.
Major Concentration: A thor-ough look at key figures and pe-riods in Italian history and cul-ture, with advanced languagetraining (36 credits).
Minor Concentration: A quick look at Italianculture, with the possibility of basic training in language (18 credits).
Live and Study in Italy
Italian Studies offers several opportunities forstudy in Italy.
Florence: a Summer Program with coursesabout Italian culture, language and politics.The program includes field-trips to Italian cit-ies and cultural institutions.
Gemona (near Venice), Gargnano sul Lago (on the lake of Garda): scholarships for ad-
vanced students to take acourse on different aspects ofItalian culture. The program in-volves formal classes, meet-ings with Italian intellectuals, excursions and creative activi-ties.
Perugia: scholarships for begin-ner students to study for onemonth at the University for For-eigners.
Bologna: advanced studentsare eligible to spend a semes-ter or a year abroad through anexchange agreement with theUniversity of Bologna.
Learning to locate and question the assumptions that you think you “know” about the world will make you a more critical and creative thinker. This kind of thinking is the Holy Grailfor those seeking gainfulemployment—indeed, 93 percent of employers say they care much more about your criticalthinking ability than they do about your major.
The Harvard Crimson
Italian Studies Programs
Minor in Italian Studies
Major in Italian Studies
Honours in Italian Studies
Joint Honours Program in Italian Studies
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Russian Studies
Ever wanted to know what all the hype is about Dostoevsky? Or actually make it all the way through War and Peace?Or just understand what those crazylooking Cyrillic letters actually mean?Russian Studies at McGill offers vibrant,interdisciplinary programs ranging fromintensive language study to literature,film, drama, and opera. Students can choose to take a program of study fo-cused exclusively on language, or can minor in Russian culture and learn aboutthe rich cultural tradition through courses taught in English, or better still, can combine the two in the Russian Ma-
jor, Honours, or Joint Honours. Wepride ourselves on being a warm, wel-coming part of the university where theprofessors, lecturers, and teaching assis-tants are all passionate about what wedo and committed to our students’ suc-cess.
Russia has always held a special fascina-tion for the West and through the riseand fall of her standing as a major worldpower, her significance on the interna-tional stage has never waned, nor the magnitude and beauty of her culturalachievements. Studying Russian at
Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
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McGill offers a rare opportu-nity to delve deeply into a verydifferent culture, to immerse oneself in foreign sounds andconfound the ear and tangle the tongue, to wrestle with the“eternal questions” at theheart of Russia’s classic nov-els, to explore the ground-breaking developments of So-viet and Russian film, to untan-gle the thorny implications ofSoviet censorship and studythe masterpieces created dur-ing a totalitarian regime, to lis-ten to music by Tchaikovsky, Musorgsky, and Shostakovich and to understand the culturethat helped shape their artisticaims. We want to open mindsand provide a new view of theworld. If not at McGill, then when?
In addition to offering the only full under-graduate and graduate Russian pro-grams (including MA and PhD) in Que-bec, McGill’s Russian Studies continuesto attract one of the largest student en-rollments in North America. Approxi-mately twenty-five students graduate each year in the undergraduate pro-grams, many of whom have received credit for courses taken in Russia duringtheir programs.
Due to expanding globallinks – both business andinstitutional – a widerange of opportunities areopen to students withqualifications in Russianstudies. Knowledge ofRussian language can bean important asset in nu-merous spheres andstudying Russian culturetrains skills in close read-ing, analysis, and exposi-tory writing that are cru-cial to almost any job.Many of our studentshave also gone on to pur-sue higher degrees rang-ing from law to history toliterary studies. A Rus-sian degree might leadyou to a career in interna-
tional business, or in government or in non-profit organizations.
What a postsecondary education in the liberal artsoffers is experience incritical thinking about messy, complicatedconcepts. It offers a platform for the generationand evolution of ideas, anda safe space to take risks and develop the kind of courage that defines our greatest innovators, entrepreneurs and world-changers.
The Globe and Mail
Russian Studies Programs
Minor in RussianMinor in Russian Culture
Major in Russian
Honours in Russian StudiesJoint Honours Program
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European Literature and Culture
The Minor Concentration in European Litera-ture and Culture provides students with abroad foundation for understanding the devel-opment and interconnectedness of European culture and its relevance for the comprehen-sion of today’s world through the study of lit-erature and the arts from the Middle Ages tomodern times. Knowledge of a languageother than English is not required to completethe program.
This program allows students to explore thedifferent strengths of the Department of Lan-guages, Literatures and Cultures by taking
courses in German Studies, Hispanic Stud-ies, Italian Studies and Russian studies. It also includes a set of courses that cross thisnational literatures, giving students a com-parative perspective on European literature.Moreover, students may take complementary courses in other literatures such as French, English, American, East Asian, and the Clas-sics. This makes the minor a great choice forstudents who love literature and want more ofa cross-cultural perspective.
Students are strongly encouraged to spendsome time abroad on an exchange program
Every language is a world. Without translation, we would inhabit parishes bordering on silence.
George Steiner
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at a European university as part of their aca-demic experience. While this is not a requiredcomponent of the minor, we are committed tofacilitating the transfer of credits so as to inte-grate in sofar as possible the exchange expe-rience in the minor. McGill University has anumber of agreements with universities in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain that make the exchange application process go moresmoothly.
The minor program in European Literatureand Culture offers students the unique experi-ence of contributing to a larger discussionabout the diversity that is at the heart ofEurope.
Beyond gaining professional employment that sets them onto a road of prosperity, a student in liberal arts develops a foundation of knowledge and lifelong skills toengage and to cope with forces of change in a challenging and ever-changing world in aninformed and thoughtful way, regardless of whether these changes are environmental, technological, societal, cultural, or planetary. They also develop criticalthinking that as responsible citizens couldlead them to occasionally question the agenda of elected politicians or leaders of business.
The Vancouver Sun
Program in European Literatureand Culture
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Minor in European Literature and Culture
Liberal Arts Program
The Liberal Arts Program represents a con-temporary approach to the traditional con-cept of a broad, non-specialist undergradu-ate formation in the humanities that is tailoredto the environment of a research intensiveuniversity. The program emphasizes a classi-cal liberal arts education, yet approaches theliberal arts from a global perspective empha-sizing diversity and difference and providingnew ways of engaging the liberal arts.
The program will expose students to textsfrom, and histories of, a wide range of cul-tures, societies and different historical
periods. Students will be able to choosefrom four intellectual streams: languages andliteratures; the fine arts and their histories; eth-ics and social thought; and history and the lib-eral arts. Students will be expected to satisfydistribution requirements across regions ofthe world and historical periods. Instructionin a language other than English will also be arequirement.
The Liberal Arts Program affirms the Faculty of Arts' commitment to the humanities and itscore mission to foster cross-disciplinary per-spectives, diverse and engaged communi-
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hopefor tomorrow. The important thing is not tostop questioning.
Albert Einstein
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ties, and critical thinking by providing thetools for critical inquiry and teaching effective communication skills.
Through exploration of the humanities we learn how to think creatively andcritically, to reason, and toask questions. Because these skills allow us to gain new insights intoeverything from poetry and paintings to business models and politics,humanistic subjects have been at the heart of a liberal arts educationsince the ancient Greeks first used them to educate their citizens.
Standford HumanitiesCenter
Liberal Arts Programs
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Major in Liberal Arts
Honours in Liberal Arts Studies
3Research in the Humanities
Over the past several decades, advances in computing, data and information manage-ment, and archival techniques have greatly altered how humanities scholars approachtheir objects of study. In particular, over thepast five years, the web 2.0 revolution has
made these advancements more applicablethan ever before to humanities researchendeavours. Digital Humanities, however it is defined, can no longer be seen as a particularsub-set of humanistic research as it has be-come an increasingly integrated element
The adequate study of culture, our own and those on the opposite side of the globe, can press on to fulfillment only as we learn today from the humanities as well as from the scientists.
Ruth Benedict
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within normative everyday humanities scholar-ship. Consequently, it includes more thantext-encoding or image digitization and thecreation of electronic archives. Rather, it is how such electronic media are used and stud-ied by researchers in a wide array of projectsfrom linguistic analyses to the changingrealms of new media.
McGill’s digital humanities projects and col-laborations are well established and interna-tionally recognized. They are spread through-out the university: both across the depart-ments of the humanities and between the fac-ulties of the university, connecting the humani-ties to collaborative projects with the socialsciences and sciences.
The Digital Humanities Initiative
The Faculties of Arts, Music, and ReligiousStudies, and the McGill Libraries, and re-seachers have take the lead to better organ-ize and coordinate Digital Humanities re-search within the University. At the moment apartnership that sponsors events and work-shops, and assists faculty, staff, and studentresearchers with their projects, the Digital Hu-manities Initiative is working towards formal-ized educational programs and a institutionalstructure that reflects the advanced Digital Humanities research already taking placewithin the University.
“As we strive to create a more civil public dis-course, a more adaptable and creative work-force, and a more secure nation, the humani-
ties and social sciences are the heart of thematter, the keeper of the republic—a sourceof national memory and civic vigor, cultural understanding and communication, individual fulfillment and the ideals we hold in common.
As we strive to create a more civil public discourse, a more adaptable and creative workforce, and a more secure nation, the humanities and social sciences are the heart of the matter, the keeper of the republic—a source of national memory and civic vigor, culturalunderstanding andcommunication, individual fulfillment and the ideals we hold in common.
American Academy of Arts& Sciences
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Contact Us5
THERE’S NO PLACE in the world quite like Montreal. It's a city steeped in culture and in-fused with internationalism at the meeting point of the Old and New Worlds – it’s not un-common for Montrealers to commute across centuries-old cobblestones on their way to their gleaming skyscraper offices. Montreal embraces its paradoxes and juxtapositions,and the result is a world-class city teeming with energy. Of Montreal’s 3.6 million resi-
dents, nearly 800,000 were born outside of Canada. Some 220,000 are students at uni-versities or other professional post-secondary programs, making Montreal one of the world’s most student-friendly cities. Come, and visit us:
Languages, Literatures, and Cultures688 Sherbrooke Street West, Room 425Montreal, Quebec H3A 3R1Tel: 514-398-3650/Fax: 514-398-1748Email: [email protected]
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LLC Department ChairProf. Eugenio Bolongaro
German Studies
Undergraduate Program DirectorProf. Daniel [email protected]
Language Program DirectorProf. Sun-Young [email protected]
Italian Studies
Undergraduate Program DirectorProf. Lucienne [email protected]
Language Program DirectorProf. Cristiana [email protected]
Liberal Arts Program
DirectorProf. Matteo [email protected]
Administrative StaffUndergraduate CoordinatorMs Angela [email protected]
Hispanic Studies Undergraduate Program DirectorProf. Cecily [email protected]
Language Program DirectorProf. Lucia [email protected]
Russian Studies
Undergraduate Program DirectorProf. Anna Berman [email protected]
Language Program DirectorProf. Maria [email protected]
European Literature and CultureDirectorProf. Stephanie [email protected]