Humanities

Faculty

Assistant Professor: Colin McAllister, Director

All degree-seeking students admitted to the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences must fulfill 3 of the 9 credit hours of LAS humanities area requirements by taking one core humanities course under the departmental heading “Humanities” (HUM). Students may take a second core humanities to satisfy 3 additional credit hours of the LAS general education humanities requirement. Humanities courses are upper division (3000+ level) and, as such, presume students have junior or senior status.

Humanities is the critical study of human culture and experience. The purpose of Humanities courses is to help students better understand themselves as well as others and the world at large. The core Humanities courses are team-taught, writing intensive, and multi-disciplinary. They combine the study of literature, history, art, theatre, film, music, religion, philosophy, and more, with an emphasis on the interaction of these fields with social, political, economic, and scientific events.

Humanities offers a rotation of different topics each semester, reflecting the broad interests and expertise of the faculty. Our faculty are drawn from Anthropology, Classics, English, Geography and Environmental Studies, History, Languages and Cultures, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology, Visual and Performing Arts, and Women’s and Ethnic Studies.

HUM course descriptions that appear within this catalog are general; each semester, different topics will be offered. Each of the HUM courses in any given semester’s course schedule fulfills the LAS core humanities requirement of the general humanities area requirement. Each of the HUM courses offered in any given semester also satisfies the Navigate and upper-division Writing Intensive requirements in the campus-wide Compass Curriculum.