The Stanford University School of Humanities and Sciences grants the majority of Stanford University's degrees. The School has 27 departments and 20 interdisciplinary degree-granting programs. The School was officially created in 1948, from the merger of the Schools of Biological Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. Those schools date from the mid-1920s when the university first organized individual departments into schools.

Departments

The school is divided into three divisions: Humanities and Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.

Humanities and Arts

  • Art & Art History—One of the original University departments under the name Drawing (1891), Drawing and Painting (1892-1900), back to Drawing (1901–1907), Graphic Arts (1908–1910), Graphic Art (1911–1913, 1927–1947), then Art and Architecture (1948–1969), Art (1970–?) and finally its current name. In 2015, it was ranked as #1 in the country among all psychology graduate programs in the United States.
  • Science, Technology, and Society—interdisciplinary, with both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science programs
  • Sociology

Stanford was set up with a Political Science department but that was almost immediately renamed Economics and Social Science. The forerunner of the current Political Science department was established in 1918.

Sociology and Anthropology were originally one department established in 1948. They split in 1957. Anthropology itself was split into Anthropological Sciences and Cultural and Social Anthropology from

1999 to 2007 but merged again.

Notable faculty in these departments other than those mentioned above include:

  • Albert Bandura (1925–2021), David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science
  • Carol Dweck (born 1946), Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology (2004–)
  • Phillip Zimbardo (born 1933), professor of psychology (1968-200), known for the Stanford Prison Experiment
  • Joseph Greenberg (1915–2001), Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Social Science, known for his classification of the Niger–Congo languages

Core courses

At times Stanford has required undergraduate students to take core courses in various subjects in the humanities and sciences. Some of the core courses include

  • Western Civilization ("Western Civ') taken by all freshmen—first established in 1935 and continued until the mid-1960s.
  • Western Culture (1980–1988)—freshmen took courses in both European and non-European cultures with “a substantial historical dimension” and include works by women and minorities.
  • Cultures, Ideas and Values (CIV) (1988–2000)

List of deans

  • Clarence H. Faust, English, 1948–1951
  • Douglas Merritt Whitaker, Biology, 1951–1952
  • Ray N. Faulkner, Art and Architecture, 1952–1956
  • Philip H. Rhinelander, Philosophy, 1956–1961
  • Robert Richardson Sears, Psychology, 1961–1970
  • Albert H. Hastorf III, Psychology, 1970–1973
  • Halsey L. Royden, Mathematics, 1973–1981
  • Norman K. Wessells, Biology, 1981–1988
  • Ewart A.C. Thomas, Psychology, 1988–1993
  • John B. Shoven, Economics, 1993–1998
  • Malcolm R. Beasley, Applied Physics, 1998–2001
  • Sharon R. Long, Biological Sciences, 2001–2007
  • Richard Saller, Classics and History, 2007–2018
  • Debra Satz, Philosophy, 2018–present

References

  • Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences Homepage