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An honors concentration for Harvard undergraduates, History & Literature provides a structured, interdisciplinary education to ensure that students acquire knowledge of broad historical periods, major works, and key themes in their fields, as well as focused study of particular texts, events, authors, or themes according to students' unique areas of interest. 

Fields of Study

History & Literature’s Fields provide the intellectual scaffolding to ensure that students' individualized plans have breadth as well as depth. To allow plenty of time to explore new interests, History & Literature concentrators do not declare a field of study until the end of the sophomore year. 

Tutorials

Tutorials are the heart of History & Literature, and many students find that tutorials are among the most demanding and rewarding courses they take at Harvard. History & Literature’s tutorials teach interdisciplinary tools of analysis that can be applied to a wide variety of topics. 

  • Sophomore tutorial is a small topics course led by two instructors in the spring semester that focuses on interdisciplinary research methods. 
  • Junior tutorial is a year-long course for about three students. In the fall, students collaborate on a syllabus with their instructor; in the spring, the students research, write and workshop the Junior Essay.
  • Senior tutorial is a one-on-one course focused on developing, researching, and writing a Senior Thesis

Advising

We take great pride in our dedication to teaching and advising. From their first semester in History & Literature, students meet with Faculty to discuss the interests they will explore and the courses they will take in the concentration.