Humanities
About the Program
Director, 2008-2012: Jim Hala, National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor
The Humanities Program is an innovative interdisciplinary program. Its courses offer the opportunity to roam historically and to explore across fields and cultures with issues relevant to the present. The core of the program is a set of Western humanities courses taught by a team of faculty from among the humanities disciplines, such as art history, classics, English, European languages history, literature, music, philosophy and religion departments. Each course is taught by two professors who put their fields together on a thematic basis. These courses are complemented by comparative humanities courses that explore the contributions to world and Western culture of civilizations around the globe, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Representing the College’s commitment to interdisciplinarity, the Humanities Program serves to increase historical consciousness, aesthetic and intellectual activity. All humanities courses count in the general education requirements and may also count towards certain majors and minors.
Minor
Requirements for the Minor (22 credits)
I. Three courses from the Western humanities offerings, preferably taken in sequence (12 credits)
- HUM 11/Classical Antiquity (4)
- HUM 12/The European Middle Ages (4)
- HUM 13/Forms of Humanism: Renaissance to Enlightenment (4)
- HUM 14/The Modern Age in the West: Self and Society in the West, 1848 to the Present (4)
II. Two courses from the comparative humanities offerings (8 credits)
- HUM 16/Islam and the West (4)
- HUM 17/Africa, America, African-American (4)
- HUM 18/Asia Comes to America (4)
- HUM 19/Latin America, Europe, the U.S.: An Odyssey of Cultures (4)
III. One half-semester humanities issues course, HUM 20/Current Issues in the Humanities (2 credits)
Note: In consultation with the humanities director, students may substitute one 4-credit intermediate- or upper-level course in a specific humanities discipline – literature, religion, classics, history, art, philosophy, music, interdisciplinary programs, social science disciplines and programs, etc.- for one of the Western or comparative humanities courses.
Courses
Courses Offered
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- HUM 15 - Humanism and Cultural Studies (2-4)
- Examines trans-cultural influences in the humanities that are not necessarily located in a specific place. Topics may include, but are not limited to, indigenous cultures, LGBT cultures, labor and the humanities, cultures of disabilities.
May be repeated as topics change.
Fulfills: BH, BI, DUS
Issues in the Humanities
- HUM 20 - Current Issues in the Humanities (2-4)
- A multidisciplinary introduction to ideas, forms, values, and forces that affect our lives in such fields as anthropology, art, classics, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion and allied areas of study. Each half-semester offering of the course presents a topic in contemporary cultures as represented in materials from a variety of disciplines. Topics have included "What Is/Was Postmodernism?", "Politics and the Humanities", "Globalism and the Humanities", "Crossing-Disciplines: Science and the Humanities", "The Body: Materiality and Metaphor", "Freedom", and "The Family".
Course may be repeated. Offered first half of spring semester.
Fulfills: BH, BI - HUM 21 - Culture and Exchange (2)
- This course introduces students to the idea of exchange as the basis for all human interaction by comparing ideas about and principles of exchange through different disciplinary lenses: exchange in the arts (patronage, sales, publication, criticism), economics (barter and money economics, credit), anthropology (gift-giving, marriage, ritual) and linguistics (language per se) are all possible avenues of investigation and comparison.
Offering to be determined.
Fulfills:
Western Humanities
A series of four interdisciplinary introductions to the life of the humanities in the West. Each course presents its historical and cultural period through representative works from the fields of art, architecture, classics, history, literature, music, and philosophy. Surveying major ideas, forms, and forces in their historical and aesthetic contexts, the courses ask new questions of established works and broaden traditional canons. Team taught by faculty from two humanities disciplines.
- HUM 11 - Classical Antiquity (4)
- The courses in the Western Humanities sequence offer rich possibilities for study. While the time frame for each course (Classical period, Middle Ages, Renaissance to Enlightenment, Modernity) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester.
Offered fall semester in odd-numbered years.
Fulfills: BH, BI - HUM 12 - The European Middle Ages (4)
- The courses in the Western Humanities sequence offer rich possibilities for study. While the time frame for each course (Classical period, Middle Ages, Renaissance to Enlightenment, Modernity) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester.
Offered spring semester in even-numbered years.
Fulfills: BH, BI - HUM 13 - Forms of Humanism: Renaissance to Enlightenment (4)
- The courses in the Western Humanities sequence offer rich possibilities for study. While the time frame for each course (Classical period, Middle Ages, Renaissance to Enlightenment) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester.
Offered fall semester in even-numbered years.
Fulfills: BH - HUM 14 - The Modern Age in the West: Self and Society in the West, 1848 to the Present (4)
- The courses in the Western Humanities sequence offer rich possibilities for study. While the time frame for each course (Classical period, Middle Ages, Renaissance to Enlightenment, Modernity) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester.
Offered spring semester in odd-numbered years.
Fulfills: BI
Comparative Humanities
Each of these courses places two or more humanities disciplines in cross-cultural perspective. By examining humanities fields in a comparative, global manner, each team-taught course seeks further understanding of elements of Western, especially North American, cultural practices within the context of world culrtural practices. Literature, music, religion, history, anthropology, art, and other fields provide the material and the issues for this comparative study of the humanities. Taught by faculty from two different humanities disciplines.
- HUM 16 - The Humanities and Islam (4)
- The courses in the Comparative Humanities group offer rich possibilities for study. While the cultural and geographical frame for each course is a constant (Islam/Middle East, Africa/African-American, Asia, Latin America) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester. Offered once every four years in the fall semester. Next offered fall 2007.
Fulfills: - HUM 17 - The Humanities and Africa (4)
- The courses in the Comparative Humanities group offer rich possibilities for study. While the cultural and geographical frame for each course (Islam/Middle East, Africa/African-American, Asia, Latin America) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester. Offered once every four years in the fall semester.
Fulfills: - HUM 18 - The Humanities and Asia (4)
- The courses in the Comparative Humanities group offer rich possibilities for study. While the cultural and geographical frame for each course (Islam/Middle East, Africa/African-American, Asia, Latin America) is constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty who currently teach the course. Please check the course announcements each semester. Offered once every four years in the fall semester.
Fulfills: - HUM 19 - The Humanities and Latin America (4)
- The courses in the Comparative Humanities group offer rich possibilities for study. While the cultural and geographical frame for each course (Islam/Middle East, Africa/African-American, Asia, Latin America) is a constant, the emphasis on specific themes and materials will be determined by the faculty currently teaching the course. Please check the course announcements each semester. Offered once every four years in the fall semester.
Fulfills: