Humanities

Engage and Communicate is a course that emphasizes critical reading, writing, and thinking. The course is designed to engage students in meaningful intellectual discourse and to encourage students to explore ideas in a supported, small group setting, as they enhance their critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. Students will study the ways in which language shapes our lives as readers, writers, and thinkers and, in turn, how we shape language through engagement and communication. Students will compile a portfolio of their written work in the course for a final assessment. Humanities 100: Engage and Communicate is designed primarily for entering and developing writers. Students who enroll in this course may earn 3 HUM credits to be applied to distribution requirements in the General Education Program.

Humanities Seminar I: Language and the Self emphasizes critical reading, writing, and thinking. The course is designed to engage students in a high level of intellectual discourse and to encourage students to explore ideas freely in a small group setting, as they enhance their critical reading, writing, and thinking. Using the general topic of Language and the Self students will study the ways in which language shapes the life of the individual. Each section of the course may adopt a specific title which reflects a particular aspect of the language and self theme. Students will compile a portfolio of their written work in the course for a final assessment. Humanities Seminar I: ‘Language and the Self’ is designed primarily for entering students. Placement in this course is determined by a student’s past academic record and by a reading-writing assessment conducted at the beginning of the course. By earning a final grade of C- or better in this course the student will meet the C- minimum grade prerequisite to enroll in HUM 112 the English language composition course required for graduation.

Language and Community emphasizes critical reading, writing, and thinking. This course is designed to engage students in substantial intellectual abstraction and discourse. Working in a small group setting, students take responsibility for exploring ideas and refining their critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. Using the general topic 'Language and the Community,' students consider the ways in which language both reflects and shapes life and thought within perceived communities. Individual course sections may adopt titles that reflect the specific communities emphasized and materials used in exploring the general topic of 'Language and Community.' Students will compile a portfolio of their written work in the course for final assessment.

Language and Human Experience emphasizes critical reading, writing, and thinking. The course is designed to engage students in a high level of intellectual discourse and to encourage students to explore ideas freely in a small group setting as they enhance their reading, writing, and thinking skills. Using the general topic of 'Language and Human Experience,' students will study the way language shapes and reflects human experience. For example, issues the course may address include the power of language to form and perpetuate memory, and the value of the human experience in the context of political and cultural history. Topics for discussion may come from works that range from philosophical texts to highly imaginative, symbolic, and metaphorical works. Each section of the course may adopt a specific title which reflects a particular aspect of the 'language and human experience' theme. Students will complete a portfolio of their written work in the course for final assessment. Humanities Seminar III is a required course for some programs and is designed for students who have successfully completed Humanities Seminar II or an equivalent course with a grade of C- or better. Humanities Seminar III is recommended for all students who would like to continue to honor their critical reading and writing skills, regardless of program or career choice.

This course offers an introduction to contemporary literature of the world, in English and in translation, and to the cultural contexts of these literatures. Students engage in a variety of literary forms, such as poetry, fiction and nonfiction prose, and drama, and with various aspects of culture, such as geography, history, sociology, religion, philosophy, art, and music. Emphasizing human understanding, this course prepares students in all major disciplines for life in the global community.

This course examines various cultural and social influences on food systems, food preferences, food related behaviors, nutritional status and health beliefs. The role that food plays in personal and group identity formation as well as how culture is preserved and transmitted through food also will be explored. Students will demonstrate an awareness of cultural competence by confronting their own ethnocentric assumptions about the culture and foodways of others and themselves.

Painting has been called silent poetry, and poetry painting that speaks. In this course, students will study both image and text, the sister arts, as they discuss the creative texts of such artists as Vincent Van Gogh, William Blake, Georgia O'Keefe and Jean Michael Basquet, alongside creative art films such as The Red Balloon and Sunday in the Park with George. Students may create their own image as text journals. Weekly assigned readings will be considered both as texts in their own right and as models for writing.

The act of perception-learning to see and learning to see into increases critical and analytical skills which lead to insight and knowledge. This course focuses on the act of perception an visual interpretation through language. The dynamic interplay between images and words--between the visual and the verbal--will be examined through field observations, art, literature, electronic media, photography, and film.

From Barbara McClintock to Bill Gates, from Yo Yo Ma to Twyla Tharp, men and women the world over have dared to dream, to take risks, to encounter the unknown. Their extraordinary creative force has broken traditional models and changed the way we look at the world. Through literature including biography, memoir, and letters, as well as film, we will appraise the creative life of individuals whose experience and accomplishments have inspired us to think originally, and challenged us to live, active and creative lives.

From the ancient Theban plays, to Shakespeare's Othello and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, this course will focus on selected masterpieces of drama that engage us in the complexity of human interaction. Films of staged productions and film adaptations may be included for study, comparison, and enrichment.

This course explores the identities of visual artists in their cultural and temporal contexts and considers the ways in which artists enrich the lives of others. Through biographical reading, films, gallery trips, and meeting a working contemporary artist, students will examine the role of imagination in forming the artistic temperament. They may study the creative lives and contributions of artists such as Leonardo daVinci, Artemisia, Mary Cassatt, Pierre Bonnard, Henry Moore, Dorothea Lange, Frida Kahl; Jackson Pollack, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

This course links the expressive arts of writing and illustration. Students will explore the relationship between the text and the picture and look at the ways in which the visual enhances the verbal. They will study exemplary models and be encouraged to develop their own verbal and visual styles. While the primary emphasis will be on the broad field of children's book writing and illustration, other genres for illustration will also be studied. The course involves close reading and interpretation of texts and the creation of original works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The final project will be an original illustrated scrapbook.

The natural environment and humankind's relation to it have been sources of fascination and concern throughout the history of America. This course will examine a variety of literature from pre-settlement to contemporary times. Sources may include Native American legends, explorers' logs, settlers' journals, letters, poems, essays, and other works of fiction and nonfiction.  A wide range of views, both historical and current, will be examined. Works of art, architecture, and music will also be considered as alternative ways of reading the environment.

In this course students will research and write narratives based on the life stories of a particular individual, family, or community. Students will conduct personal interviews, practice field observation, and research archival materials including letters diaries, photographs, and newspapers. Students may experiment with writing biography and historical nonfiction. A final project may include a collaborative anthology or exhibit.

A working knowledge of the principles and techniques of research in the Humanities is essential for advanced learning and for careers in which information gathering and evaluation and their application to decision making are critical skills. Topics covered include: types of sources, research tools, documentation styles, evaluation of sources, development of critical thinking and communication skills, integrity of research, audience analysis, collaborative research, and presentation of research.

Experiential learning provides opportunities for students to apply their cumulative academic knowledge and skills in humanities to the world of work, while receiving structure and guidance from both academic and worksite supervisors. The student seeks out a particular learning experience through an internship or community service project then with the help of the academic supervisor and a Career Services advisor, sets goals and makes arrangements for the semester's work. All internship and service projects must receive prior approval from the Humanities supervisor. The student will keep a daily journal of experiences, complete all written work assigned by the academic supervisor, complete 100 clock hours of on-site work or externally supervised week, and make written and oral presentations at the end of the learning experience. The student will meet with the class/ academic supervisor on a regular basis to discuss plans, problems, and progress. During the term the student will design a resume and an electronic portfolio.

Special topics of current interest in the humanities are examined. Credits 1-3.

Culture and Media Studies is a course that examines the use of visual, audio, and/or digital media and the ways by which that media intersects with the larger cultural, critical, social, economic and political forces in the world at large. Courses offered under the heading of Culture and Media studies will study the meaning-making processes and practices that comprise our media culture as well as the specific terminology and genre-specific concepts that are associated with the particular media of focus. To best reflect the vast scope of media, Cultural and Media Studies will regularly rotate different forms and intersections of media.

The is a senior seminar and the capstone course for the Creative Studies and Writing program. Students will engage in reading and discussion of the literature and philosophy of community and will undertake, individually or collaboratively, a field research project that involves active learning within a particular community. This project may include such activities as archival research, personal interviews, audio or video recordings, site visits, attendance at community meetings or events, and close observation and documentation over a period of time. The project may be linked to the students' particular creative interests or to their choice for HUM 341 - Humanities Applied: Experiential Learning. Students will produce project results and evaluation in a properly written and documented format based on their community exploration and theoretical background. Students will also make final presentations of their field projects using appropriate technological tools. As a final requirement of the course students will produce an electronic portfolio.

Medical professionals are entrusted with the care of society's most vulnerable individuals, and as such are held to high ethical standards. In this course students explore the field of bioethics analyzing a variety of ethical dilemmas faced by today's health care professionals. Students will critically examine opposing viewpoints, develop strategies for effective argumentation and respectful communication, and gain insight into their own decision-making processes.