Founded in 1986, the Higgins School of Humanities enhances the intellectual and cultural life of Clark University by fostering connections between the humanities disciplines—English; History; Language, Literature and Culture; Philosophy; and Visual and Performing Arts. We sponsor public programming and campus initiatives, fund curricular innovation and creative practice, and support teaching and research through our grant programs.
Our ongoing mission affirms the centrality of the arts and humanities to our lives and promotes the intrinsic values of a liberal arts education. In cultivating the ability to read great texts and artistic forms, to frame analyses and arguments on the most important questions, to speak and listen with open intensity, and to examine our own deepest assumptions, the humanities bring value and purpose to lived experience. Learning through the humanities and arts grounds our capacity to engage with societal complexities by developing historical, cultural, literary, linguistic, and philosophical consciousness.
