The Potsdam Humanities Institute (PHI) fosters interdisciplinary learning and scholarship in the humanities to prepare students from all academic disciplines for a world that will demand leaders who can draw upon the rich historical, literary, and philosophical insights of the past to critically engage and solve the problems of the future.
Launched in 2025, the PHI offers the Humanities for Thoughtful Leadership microcredential (see more below), hosts a lecture series bringing guest speakers to address the increasingly vital roles the humanities will play in an employment landscape being transformed by AI and other transformative technologies, and holds other events designed to foster the collaborative skills, critical thinking, ethical awareness, and intellectual depth that employers rank highest in their search for prospective hires.
Contrary to conventional expectations that specialisms will rule the day, the future will in fact belong to those with the critical edge and cultural purchase to respond knowingly, creatively, and nimbly to a rapidly changing social, technological, and economic environment. In this as in other respects, the humanities are for all time – and no more so than at the present.
The Humanities for Thoughtful Leadership [HTL] microcredential is designed to equip students from all disciplines with the critical thinking, communication, and cultural literacy skills essential for success in today’s rapidly evolving workforce. The HTL Microcredential consists of the following eight-credit sequence that introduces students to foundational texts and ideas from across the humanities:
- HUMN 101 (3 cr.) | The Ancient and Antique World | Spring Semesters
- HUMN 102 (3 cr.) | The Medieval and Modern World | Fall Semesters
- HUMN 201 (2 cr.) | Humanities Practicum: Tools for the Future| Spring Semesters
The HTL program may be started in the Spring Semester with HUMN 101 or in the Fall Semester with HUMN 102. All seminars comprising the microcredential will be capped at 20 students to ensure close faculty interaction and a dynamic learning environment. Guest speakers and interdisciplinary perspectives within and beyond the humanities will enrich the learning experience, helping students connect timeless human questions to contemporary challenges.
The microcredential is open to all SUNY Potsdam students, as well as non-traditional learners, including retirees and working professionals seeking to sharpen their communication and problem-solving skills. Students majoring in History and English will receive major credit for HUMN 101 and HUMN 102, streamlining completion of both programs. Students majoring in technical or scientific fields, where employers increasingly seek graduate with strong “soft skills” such as adaptability, creativity and collaboration, will find the HTL microcredential especially valuable.
"The Potsdam Humanities Institute is about more than reading the classics — it’s about cultivating the intellectual agility, adaptive analytical skills and ethical insight that lie at the core of the humanities to navigate a turbulent and uncertain world."
SUNY Potsdam
PHI Lecture Series
- Spring 2026
Stephen Casper, Ph.D., Professor of the History of Science, Clarkson University
- Fall 2026
Walter Clark, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Musicology, University of California at Riverside
PHI Advisory Board
- Geoffrey Clark, Ph.D., Professor of History, PHI Director
- Erin Brooks, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Music History
- Christine Doran, Ph.D., Professor of English & Communication
- Caroline Downing, Ph.D., Distinguished Teaching Professor of Art History
- Hadley Kruczek-Aaron, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology
- Jack McGuire, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Politics
- Steven Stannish, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History
- Sharmain van Blommestein, Ph.D., Professor of English
For more information, please contact Professor Geoffrey Clark, PHI Director, at clarkgw@potsdam.edu.