HU begins new programme in liberal studies

The programme will reinvent spiritual and historical traditions, says HU director

KARACHI: The Habib University (HU) inaugurated a first-of-its-kind programme, Comparative Liberal Studies (CLS), an undergraduate programme bringing together four branches of knowledge within the neglected field of humanities; History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Literature.



Marking the launch of this new, interdisciplinary programme, HU held a day-long symposium titled ‘Critical Knowledge: Pioneering Comparative Liberal Studies at Habib University’, which discussed recovering local spiritual and historical traditions, investigating unexplored primary sources, and engaging in traditional or sacred arts and music. “One of the goals of the new programme is to reinvent, re-imagine and revive the knowledge systems that have become marginalised and what the study of ‘humanities’ has been in the past and in the ‘West’”, as explained by HU CLS Programme Director Dr Nur Sobers-Khan.

The symposium’s two panel discussions included ‘Coffee with Plato, Al Farabi, and Marx’, with Dr Muhammad Haris, Dr Nauman Naqvi, and Dr Jessica Radin, who discussed the relevance of ancient, Islamic and modern philosophy. The second panel discussion titled ‘Doors of Perception’ and included Dr Nur Sobers-Khan, Dr Francisco Jose Luis, and Dr Waleed Ziad, all faculties of the CLS programme at HU.

The event featured international scholars including Yale University’s Dr Abbas Amanat, an eminent historian of Iran and the Persianate world, and The College of New Jersey’s Dr Jo-Ann Gross, an authority on Sufism and the Ismaili tradition in Central and South Asia.



Through a comparative approach, the new CLS programme aimed to communicate critically essential knowledge in the humanities, and to cultivate students as socially conscious citizens grounded in Pakistan’s rich philosophical, intellectual, and cultural traditions, who can seek thoughtful, historically rooted solutions to the challenges that we face today.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2018.