BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE
ADDITIONAL HUMANITIES REQUIREMENT: 3 hours
[African American Studies] [Classics] [Environmental Studies]
[Gender Studies]
[Philosophy and Religion] [Southern Studies]
AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM
Any AAS course will fulfill this requirement….below are the two introductory courses.
AAS 201. AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE I
This course is a multidisciplinary study of the African American experience, with emphasis on historical, sociological, cultural, economic, and social-psychological issues in the study of African Americans. The objective is to present a general picture of the African American experience and to reflect the principles, concepts, and ideas of this experience through the voices of African Americans.
AAS 202. AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE II
This course is a survey of the African American experience using the study of culture and the arts as a major focus. Students will survey the events and social forces that have come to define contemporary African American life. We will use a social scientific perspective to study major themes that have shaped black culture and characterized the black experience. We will study a diverse mix of academic and popular texts, from classic works to contemporary additions, autobiographies to ethnographies, essays to documentary film. Far-reaching topics such as the impact of employment and black family structures, what black hair styles reveal about the complex relationship between African Americans and whites; and how rap music represents both freedom of expression and police repression will all be explored. Finally, we want to discover truths about the African-American experience that are best revealed through triangulation.
DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS
Any CLC course will fulfill this requirement…below are the introductory (100-level) courses.
CLC 101. INTRODUCTION TO GREEK CIVILIZATION
This is an introductory survey course on the history, literature, art, architecture, government, and thought of ancient Greece. The course generally covers Greek civilization from its rise in the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Age and the death of Alexander the Great. However, much of the course naturally is grounded in providing a better understanding of the Classical Age and the cultural, political, and artistic achievements of the Athenians.
CLC 102. INTRODUCTION TO ROMAN CIVILIZATION
In addition to learning about the beginnings of the Roman empire and the Romans’ empire-building process through art, history, and literature, students will also learn about pre-Roman Italy and the world of the Etruscans. The everyday life of Romans in Italy and throughout the empire, as well as the lives of the elite, will be investigated.
CLC 103. WOMEN IN ANTIQUITY (cross-listed with GST 103)
Over the last 25 years, archaeologists and classicists have realized that women’s lives and experiences in ancient Greece and Rome can be recovered to some extent through a careful reading of ancient literature in translation, and by studying the art, architecture, and culture of ancient Mediterranean. Considering issues of gender identity in the context of ancient Greece and Rome enables the beginning class not only to appreciate the cultural construction of male and female identity, but also to learn more broadly about the ancient world.
CLC 104. SPORTS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (cross-listed with Exercise Science 104)
What are the origins of modern competitive sports? When and why did ancient Greek men begin to compete in individual competitions? What did their athletic prowess mean, and how was it rewarded? Students will explore the world of ancient athletics and discover that the Olympic Games and other Panhellenic competitions were not secular activities but dedicated to Zeus and other gods. Through the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature in translation and the architecture and art of athletics, they glimpse the complex world of the ancient athlete and his culture context.
CLC 105. FROM MYTH TO FILM
This course is not currently offered.
CLC 106. CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
This course provides a general introduction to the myths of the Greeks and Romans through ancient literature in translation and art. From the origins of the cosmos, to the Olympian gods, and the numerous myths of Greek and Roman heroes, the course provides a better understanding of the myths themselves as well as ways these myths have been subsequently used and viewed through the ages.
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Only ENVS 101 will satisfy this requirement.
ENVS 101. HUMANITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
This is an interdisciplinary course designed to introduce students to classics of modern environmental literature, questions of environmental ethics, issues of interaction between humans and their environment, and broad trends in environmental history. It is mandatory for the Environmental Studies minor, and open to other students as well. Students’ personal reflections, analysis, and engagement concerning environmental questions are essential to the success of the course. A representative reading list would include works from among the following: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring; Jared Diamond, Collapse; Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac; Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma; Roy Rappaport, Pigs for the Ancestors; Janisse Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood; H.D. Thoreau, Walden. Plus field trips, library reserve readings, essays, poems, etc., at the discretion of the professor.
GENDER STUDIES
GST 103, 201, 301, 333, and 350 will fulfill the humanities requirement. In addition, gender studies courses that are cross-listed with African American studies, classics, English, modern languages, philosophy, or religion courses will also satisfy this requirement.
GST 201. WOMEN, GENDER, AND SOCIETY
This course is interdisciplinary, drawing from such areas as sociology, history, political science, communications and literature. Students will examine women’s identities, roles, and statuses, with an accompanying awareness of how “manhood” is socially constructed in different cultures and historical periods. The class will analyze how markers of one’s identity besides gender, such as race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and ability, includes one’s experiences in culture. Students will focus on different dimensions of women’s (and men’s) lives, including socialization, images in the media, education, intimate relationships, the workplace, violence against women, and religion. This class is valuable to two kinds of students: (1) general education students who need a humanities requirement and are interested, in particular, in interdisciplinary approaches; (2) students who are considering or are enrolled in a gender studies minor.
GST 333. GENDER THEORY
This course is a survey of gender and feminist theories, primarily those generated out of the women’s movement in the Western world over the last 30 years. The course highlights the different schools of feminism and analyzes the relevant issues and debates. Students will read theories that: (a) describe and analyze women’s and minority groups’ oppressions; and (b) provide strategies for social change. Students read these theories within the contexts of different stages of the feminist and other social movements, primarily focusing on the United States. Students who have had at least one gender studies class will likely be more comfortable with the more challenging readings in this course. This class is also a key course for minors in gender studies. This course has a prerequisite of GST 201.
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Any philosophy or religion course will fulfill this requirement…below are the three introductory (100-level) courses.
PHIL 101. INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy 101 is a general introduction to philosophy. Instructors choose their own texts and their own approach. Typically the course is a survey of major philosophical questions, a history of philosophy, and/or the major divisions of the discipline (e.g., ethics, political philosophy). Here is an example of one approach: "Is belief in God rational? Are rationality and religious faith consistent? What is knowledge, and are we capable of it? What is the relationship of mind to body? What is free will, and do we have it?"
PHIL 103. LOGIC: CRITICAL THINKING
Philosophy 103 is a general introduction to logic as an art of critical thinking. Like the other surveys, instructors choose their own approach and texts. Students are introduced to the concepts and practice of formal and informal reasoning, deduction and induction. Typical of the approaches to logic: a study of "various techniques for representing and evaluating arguments and reasoning... learn to recognize common mistakes in reasoning, and try to understand why poor reasoning can seem so convincing." This course puts much more emphasis on problem-solving, since it is a skills course. Usually there is required daily homework as well as periodic tests.
REL 101. INTRODUCTION TO RELIGION
Religion 101 is a general introduction to religion and religions across the world. Similar to PHIL 101, instructors choose their own texts and their own approach. Typically the course includes a survey of major world religions as well as so-called primal religions such as African indigenous religions and Native American spirituality. Students may explore the basic beliefs, deities, personalities, life rituals, and holy days of the different religions. They may assess the commonalities of all religions as well as their differences.
SOUTHERN STUDIES PROGRAM
Only SST 101 and 102 will fulfill the humanities requirement.
SST 101 and 102. INTRODUCTION TO SOUTHERN STUDIES I and II
Southern Studies 101 and 102 are both team-taught, interdisciplinary courses that study the South from multiple perspectives: historical, literary, cultural, intellectual, musical, political. Each semester’s set of instructors typically chooses a theme around which to center the readings; in recent semesters, themes have included Southern manners, the Southern landscape, issues of family life, and change in the recent South. Course objectives include introducing students to interdisciplinary study and providing them with opportunities to discuss, both orally and in writing, their observations about the South that surrounds them. SST 101 is not a prerequisite for SST 102.