Humanities

Program Chair:

Patricio Boyer, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies

Faculty Teaching in the Humanities Program:

Alison Bory, Chair of Dance
Scott Denham, E. Craig Wall, Jr., Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities and Charles A. Dana Professor of German Studies
Amanda Ewington, Chair of Russian Studies
Caroline Fache, Chair of French & Francophone Studies, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, and Bacca Professor of Humanities
Sharon Green, Professor of Theatre
Diego Luis, Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Humanities
Greta Munger, Professor of Psychology
Carol Quillen, College President and Professor of History
David Robb, Professor of Philosophy
Anne Wills, Chair of Religious Studies

Overview

Humanities At Davidson
The Humanities program was established in 1962 as a synthetic, interdisciplinary approach to liberal education that combined formal lectures and smaller discussion groups in a survey of key texts. In the current course offering, Connections and Conflicts in the Humanities I & II (HUM 103 and 104), students access a massive repository of ideas concerning the human experience. Some of the ideas will get expressed using words, others by using musical sounds, or dancers on a stage, or paint on a canvas, or celluloid flickers on a screen, or by objects in a space. HUM 103/104 is a full-year course for first-year students only.

By signing up for HUM 103/104, students will learn to:

understand and appreciate a wide array of humanistic texts, including music, novels, paintings, poetry, films, theater, sculptures, buildings, and digital media
observe patterns and create compelling connections between seemingly disparate texts
speak and write with precision and persuasion
read more carefully and critically
take part in a required pre-orientation retreat and study trips, all fully paid

The course is collaborative and team-taught, with plenary lectures by both the humanities faculty teaching the course and by other scholars and artists from Davidson and beyond. Some visiting scholars and artists will also take part in discussions and workshops.

Humanities Fellows
The course includes Davidson Humanities Fellows, veteran students dedicated specifically to the course as writing tutors, discussion leaders, project organizers, and activities conveners. They are trained writing tutors. The Humanities Fellows are the backbone of the Humes community of teaching and learning in the course. The Fellows immerse themselves fully in the course, attending all the course meetings and doing all the readings alongside the students in the course.

Study Trips
In order to enroll in the Humanities Program students must commit to participate in the pre-orientation and study trips throughout the year. The pre-orientation retreat and the study trips are fully paid; students have no costs beyond modest spending money.

Course Fulfillment
HUM 103/104 is a three-credit course. Students enrolled in HUM 103/104 normally take two other courses in the fall, three other courses in the spring. Learn more about course fulfillment.

Contact
Please contact Program Chair Scott Denham at scdenham@davidson.edu with any questions.

Humanities Courses

The Humanities 103/104 course series is collaborative and team-taught, with plenary lectures by both the humanities faculty teaching the course and by other scholars and artists from Davidson and beyond. Some visiting scholars and artists will also take part in discussions and workshops.