The Humanities Edge

In an era defined by emerging technologies, the humanities at Fairfield remain essential to forming thoughtful, future-ready graduates.

The humanities are thriving at Fairfield University. That reality positions graduates to become leaders in emerging industries by cultivating adaptable skills like communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

But even beyond the development of durable skills for long-term career success, Fairfield’s humanistic liberal arts education helps students find themselves and discover their unique place and purpose in the world.

“At Fairfield, we approach education holistically,” said University Provost Christine Siegel, PhD. “That means developing the skills that students need to enter the workforce and to pursue advanced degrees but also preparing them for lifelong development. Our goal is to help students understand who they are and how they can contribute to what the world needs.”

The humanities lie at the heart of that formation. Through philosophy, religion, literature and language, history, and the arts, students critically examine the human experience across time and place. They wrestle with what it means to be human and, in the process, gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them.

“Students are enthusiastic about our humanities courses,” Dr. Siegel said. “In fact, we see many undergraduates in professional programs like business and nursing pursuing minors in literature, art, and modern languages. They recognize that they can put two fields of study together to have a richer experience.”

That spirit of integrating knowledge across disciplines is a hallmark of the undergraduate experience. Every Fairfield student takes required courses in the humanities as part of the Magis Core Curriculum, the University’s broad-based liberal arts foundation, which is rooted in the 500-year-old Jesuit tradition of forming the whole person. The Magis Core invites critical reflection on prior knowledge and lived experience while also fostering interdisciplinary thinking, effective communication skills, and a commitment to social justice.

“The humanities are the core of the Magis Core, and that is the value added with a Fairfield education,” said Sunil Purushotham, PhD, associate professor of history and director of the Humanities Institute. “Our required courses equip students with a reflective mindset through which they can analyze complex situations and problems, draw connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, and maintain an outside perspective of the world.”

While the core curriculum is fundamental to students’ intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development, it represents only one facet of the University’s integrated approach to student growth and success, which includes research and scholarship opportunities, lectures and panel discussions, arts excursions, and wide-ranging campus events.

This past semester, Fairfield’s schools, departments, and centers hosted workshops on Walt Whitman and Continental Philosophy, organized visits to the Museum of Modern Art and the Tenement Museum in New York City, featured musical performances by Orin Grossman and Orchestra Lumos, and presented lectures by legendary filmmaker Ken Burns, author David Brooks, and animal rights advocate and autism spokesperson Temple Grandin, PhD.

These are just a few examples of the University’s annual lineup of nearly 100 programs that address some aspect of what it means to be human. Students are encouraged to supplement their classroom learning and to enrich their educational experience by participating in these extracurricular opportunities, and they do so consistently in large numbers.

The popularity of humanities courses and enrichment programs at Fairfield suggests that students are seeking more than credentials—they are hungry for opportunities to consider the human condition from multiple vantage points and disciplinary lenses. That curiosity will serve them well not only in their careers but throughout their lives.

The same habits of mind cultivated through study of the humanities—communication, collaboration, and critical thinking—are also the qualities employers consistently value.

Yet, the decades-long movement in American higher education to align majors with narrowly defined career paths has squeezed opportunities for humanities and liberal arts courses at many institutions. Fairfield has taken a different path.

“We do not present students with an either-or proposition,” Dr. Purushotham said. “Our students study the humanities and liberal arts alongside their majors, developing both their human-centric skills and specialized academic knowledge.”

This approach to education has historically yielded excellent first-destination outcomes for Fairfield graduates and placed the University in the top one percent of institutions for long-term return on investment.

Today, it also positions graduates to be leaders in a rapidly changing world. As artificial intelligence and automation reshape global industries and redefine work, the distinctly human capacities that Fairfield cultivates in students are increasingly recognized as the indispensable drivers of professional success.

Because the humanities are thriving at Fairfield University, so too are its alumni.

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