Humanities

Faculty

Program Director: Professor Lerner (Music)

The Western Tradition, First Year

The Western Tradition, Second Year
Directors: Professor Ingram (English) and Professor Lerner (Music)

Faculty Affiliated with the Humanities Program
Professors: Berkey (History), Churchill (English), Denham (German Studies), Dietz (History), Ewington (Russian Studies), Gay (Educational Studies), Henke (German Studies), Ingram (English), Kietrys (Hispanic Studies), Lerner (Music), Ligo (Art), Munger (Psychology), Neumann (Classics), Parker (English), Rigger (Political Science), Robb (Philosophy), Serebrennikov (Art), S. Smith (Art), Snyder (Religion), Tilburg (History)
Associate Professors: Griffith (Philosophy), Guasco (History), Wills (Religion)
Assistant Professors: Gonzalez (Hispanic Studies), Utkin (Russian Studies)

Overview

The Humanities Program began in 1962 with a two-year course that surveyed significant texts from the Western tradition. In 2016-17, the direct descendant of that course (The Western Tradition, HUM 150, 151, 250, 251) will conclude and its successor (Connections & Conflicts in the Humanities, HUM 103 & 104) will be offered for the first time. Both courses blend large lectures and small discussion sections. Humanities courses encourage and reward clear thinking, speaking, and writing.

Requirements: The Western Tradition

Students who complete any single course satisfy the requirement in Liberal Studies. Students who complete all four satisfy the requirements in Historical Thought, Literary Studies, Philosophical and Religious Perspectives, and Liberal Studies. Students who complete HUM 150 and HUM 151W satisfy the WRI requirement.

Requirements: Connections & Conflicts in the Humanities

This two-semester course is open only to first-year students and will meet four days a week, and the additional meeting time will yield additional course credit. Completing both HUM 103 & 104 will earn a student three course credits, with some caveats. Successful completion of HUM 103 will bring with it two course credits, although students who withdraw from the HUM 103/104 survey after completing only HUM 103 will receive only one course credit and will satisfy no graduation requirements.

Students who complete HUM 104 will receive one course credit and satisfy these three graduation requirements: the WRI 101 requirement and two distribution requirements, one in historical thought and one in literary studies, creative writing, and rhetoric. Because the two semesters together constitute a single course, a grade of incomplete (I) will be given after the first semester, although students will receive notification from their instructors about their performance throughout and at the end of both semesters.