The Humanities Institute

The Graduate Program in Comparative Literature works in close collaboration with the Humanities Institute (HISB), founded in 1986 as a center for humanities and social science research at SUNY at Stony Brook. HISB offers a stimulating environment for scholars in all fields to meet and discuss new ideas.

HISB is designed to encourage interdisciplinary research in the local academic community. On a broader level, HISB seeks to become an international focus for the development of new theoretical approaches which unite history with recent methods, such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, and feminism.

To advance interdisciplinary approaches in the humanities, HISB sponsors Resident Fellows and Four Day Visiting Fellows. Eminent international scholars offer public lectures and faculty and graduate student seminars. Recent visiting fellows include Aijaz Ahmad. Perrty Anderson, Jane Gallop, and Eve Sedgewick. In addition, HISB designs both graduate and faculty courses, and co-sponsors events with local community organizations.