About Us

The University of Massachusetts Lowell offers a new and exciting initiative: an interdisciplinary program in the humanities, entitled Cultural Studies. As we all know America is a complex and evolving society. Diversity is our main cultural characteristic, and (as has historically been the case) the arts, literature, languages and humanities play a vital role in how diverse people and communities view themselves and each other.

Even as we speak of diversity and multiculturalism, most academic programs tend to focus on separate facets of culture. This new program will concentrate on the interrelations, interactions and influences of the humanities on one another, both in the context of a single cultural community and in our multicultural society as a whole. In other words, it will approach the study of our diverse multiculture in a multidisciplinary manner, with a broadly focused curriculum. And where better than Lowell, the birthplace of the industrial revolution in America? The very fabric of this city is woven of a rainbow of varied cultural strands added over the decades by successive ethnic communities, European, African, Latino and Asian.