The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought is an interdisciplinary, Ph.D. granting graduate program. Its guiding principle is that the serious study of many academic topics is best prepared for by a wide and deep acquaintance with the fundamental issues presupposed in all such studies. Students should learn about these issues by acquainting themselves with a select number of major ancient and modern texts in an interdisciplinary atmosphere, reading and studying these books in discussion groups, tutorials, seminars, and independently. In their dissertations, students do intense work on more specific scholarly topics, but always inspired by and with a desire to be in conversation with a wider intellectual culture.