Bachelor of Humanities — Great Books

Carleton University acknowledges the location of its campus on the traditional, unceded territories of the Algonquin Nation. The College of the Humanities also acknowledges the Kinàmàgawin Final Report and we are committed to working on responding to the Calls to Action.

In the Bachelor of Humanities, students read the world’s most influential books, and explore the world’s most exciting ideas in literature, philosophy, history, art, music, political theory, and religion. Humanities students study everything from Plato to Gandhi, from Medieval architecture to the Tao Te Ching, from Italian Opera to contemporary film.

Discover what it means to study the ‘Great Books’. This is your chance to learn more about our programs. Professors and students from the Humanities will be available to answer your questions. Link below.

Bachelor of Humanities Overview

Download a PDF of this Overview video

Understand Yourself and Your World

The Humanities allow human beings to ask fundamental questions about themselves and the world around them, to define their values and recognise ethical truths, and to express their thoughts and create new works of imagination. The study of the Humanities equips today’s students with an understanding of our cultural heritage, with an awareness of the complexity of human experience, and with the courage to think independently. These are the abilities they need to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Indulge Your Love of Reading

Carleton’s Bachelor of Humanities allows students to study all of the Humanities disciplines in a single program, by reading a Curriculum of the Great Books that have expressed the height of humanistic thought over the past millennia. Humanities students have a love of reading, writing, and debating. They discuss the books with professors in small, friendly discussion groups, and professors give individual attention to each student’s writing.

Meet Kindred Spirits

Humanities students form an intimate community of like-minded friends who inspire and support each other. They form life-long friendships in their classes and through extra-curricular events such theatre trips, art shows, and music nights.

Learn Valuable Skills for an Interesting Career

Humanities students graduate with exceptional research, writing, and communication skills, which give them a distinct advantage in their chosen career paths. Our graduates are able to analyze complex ideas and communicate them clearly and confidently. Humanities graduates have found exciting careers in law, education, business, international affairs and international development, public policy, journalism and communications, the arts, medicine, and health policy.

Combine the Humanities with a Particular Discipline

The Bachelor of Humanities may be taken as an Honours degree, where most of a student’s courses will be within the Humanities program. Normally, however, Humanities students combine Humanities with another discipline to receive a Combined Honours degree in Humanities and another subject, or an Honours degree in Humanities with a Minor in another subject. Humanities may also be taken in three special degree streams: Journalism and Humanities, Humanities and Biology, and Humanities with a Study Year Abroad.

The Bachelor of Humanities Combined Honours or with a Minor

Popular Combined Honours degrees for Humanities students are Humanities and Art History, English, Greek and Roman Studies, History, Philosophy, Political Science, or Religion, but students are free to combine Humanities with any other discipline in the university that offers its own Combined Honours stream.

The Bachelor of Journalism and Humanities

Carleton’s College of the Humanities and its School of Journalism offer a joint degree in Journalism and Humanities, which combines the study of the Great Books with a professional career training.

The Bachelor of Humanities and Biology

The Bachelor of Humanities offers its own special Combined Honours in Humanities and Biology for students who wish to study the Great Books while also preparing for Medical School.

The Bachelor of Humanities with a Study Year Abroad

The Bachelor of Humanities encourages students to spend a semester or a year studying abroad, and has a special stream that makes this easier, the Honours in Humanities with a Study Year Abroad.

Enter directly from High-School or after one year of University

Most Humanities students enter directly from high school. But students already in their first year of university study are encouraged to apply to transfer into the program. Upon admission, Carleton students who had already declared an honours subject can choose to complete their degree as a Combined Honours with Humanities.

Download our Brochure or Overview

Humanities Brochure	Humanities Overview

What you will study

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