The Humanities Major

Humanities takes an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the study of the arts (literature, fine arts, music, and film) within their historical context. Humanities courses look critically at that tradition whose beginning is often defined by Greece and Rome. The deepest tradition of the humanities demands that we learn from the past, but that we also uncover new material, and new areas of the past, in so doing. As students progress through the major they continue to interrogate the assumptions of the Western tradition through a range of specialized courses that seek to broaden the notion of the humanities beyond the Eurocentric. Classes may examine the literatures of Asia, Africa or the Americas alongside European literary traditions. The Comparative Literature and Humanties Department places strong emphasis on close analytical reading and on writing. Students are encouraged to think critically and to articulate their ideas carefully.

As a direct result of its encouragement of interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature, music, film, and art, Humanities offers an opportunity for students and faculty to pursue a wide variety of modes of reflection. As an interdisciplinary program, Humanities is committed to a profoundly comparative perspective enabling students and faculty to bring together not only different arts, but works drawn from different eras and cultures, western and non-western alike. At the same time as it uses historical and generic categories as a means of organizing material, it also provides an opportunity for critically examining these categories, sometimes challenging them, at other times bringing their latent content more fully to light.

In upper-division courses students may focus on various genres (such as tragedy, comedy, the lyric, the epic), periods (such as Classical, Renaissance, Romantic, Modern), cross-cultural encounters in the arts (geographical and/or chronological), and methodologies (psychanalytic, semiotic, mythological/archetypal, cultural/critical, deconstructive, feminist, philosophical). Many of our upper-division, as well as our introductory, courses explore the theoretical and practical interrelations of the arts: music, literature, the visual arts, film, opera, and dance.

The Humanities major requires students to gain competence (18 hours) in a particular discipline (eg., English, a foreign language/literature, history, art history, music history, philosophy, film studies) and to spend 12 hours in a second field (eg., one of the above, women's studies, journalism, dance, creative writing), as well as studying subjects from an interdisciplinary perspective within the Humanities Department (30 hours). Three areas are thus combined in the Humanities major: interdisciplinary courses, a particular discipline, and a second field. The range of choice available to the Humanities major entails careful advising. Students are required to consult frequently with the undergraduate advisor.

Humanities Major Requirements (60 hours total)

A. 12 hours	Introduction to Humanities (Humanities 1010-1020)
B. 3 hours	HUMN 2000: Methods and Approaches to the Humanities
C. 15 hours	Upper-division courses in Humanities
D. 18 hours	To be choosen from one of the following disciplines (see your advisor for possible additional disciplines). 12 of the 18 hours must be upper-division. English literature A foreign langauge/literature (First year courses in a foreign language can not be counted.) Art History/Fine Arts Music Philosophy Film Studies History Classics Psychology Sociology Cultural Anthropology Women's Studies Ethnic Studies Asian Studies Religious Studies
E. 12 hours	To be choosen from one of the following disciplines (see your advisor for possible additional disciplines): English literature A foreign language/literature (First year courses in a foreign language can not be counted.) Art History/Fine Arts Music Philosophy Film Studies History Classics Psychology Sociology Cultural Anthropology Women's Studies Ethnics Studies Asian Studies Religious Studies Creative Writing Theatre/Dance Linguistics Communications Political Science Journalism

The Language Track Option

For students interested in preparing for graduate work in Comparative Literature and other areas requiring extensive language training, the Humanities department offers a Language Track.

A. 12 hours	Introduction to Humanities (Humanities 1010-1020)
B. 3 hours	HUMN 2000: Methods and Approaches to the Humanities
C. 15 hours	Upper-division courses in Humanities
D.	Third-year college proficiency in a primary foreign language
E.	Second-year college proficiency in a secondary foreign language
F.	First-year college proficiency in a Classical (eg., Latin or Greek) or non-western language

Because the number of credits for introductory language courses varies widely, it is impossible to determine the exact number of credits needed to fulfill these minumum requirements. Proficiency may be shown either by taking two courses at the appropriate level or by testing successfully at the appropriate level.

Course Choice Guidelines

Although the Humanities major allows a breadth of choice, there are a few restrictions on which courses may count for the major. In addition, there are some cross-listed courses that may count although they have been taken in another department. These restrictions and possibilities are in part based on the areas of emphasis a student chooses. Therefore, frequent consultation with the departmental advisor is required in order to clarify which courses apply to an individual student's major plan.

Some of the restrictions are as follows:

Up to 9 hours of lower-division AP and/or IB credits may be applied towards the primary and secondary areas of the Humanities major; however, no more than 6 credits may be used in any one area of emphasis.

No more than six hours of studio classes may be applied to an area of emphasis (applicable to such areas of Art, Music, Film, and Theatre).

Writing courses are not applicable to an area of emphasis (e.g., FINE 3007, JOUR 1002).

Science-based courses are not applicable to an area of emphasis (e.g., PSYC 3101, Statistics, PSYC 2012, and 2022, Biopsychology).

Internships may not count as upper-division HUMN but may count in either area of emphasis if appropriate to that area.

No more than three hours of Independent Study may count as upper-division HUMN. To clarify which courses count and which do not, see the departmental advisor.

Honors

Students who wish to receive honors can elect to write an honors thesis through the Humanities Department or through the Honors Department. Check with the Humanities Honors Representative for more information.

Study Abroad

Study abroad is strongly encouraged for Humanities majors. With careful advising, a student may apply some or all of the courses taken abroad to the areas of emphasis. (There are no credit limitations for areas of emphasis.) In addition, if a courses is interdisciplinary, upper-division, and pre-approved, it may be applicable to the Humanities portion of the major. (A maximum of three hours of upper-division HUMN is allowed abroad.) Please see the departmental advisor before you go abroad in order to clarify how your coursework may be applied to the major.

Lower-division Humanities course descriptions:

Introduction to Humanities: HUMN 1010 - 1020

Humanities 1010 and 1020 provide approximately 425 students each semester with a chronological but concentrated and intergrated study of art, music, and literature in western culture. The course is a combination of lectures (3 hours/week) and small discussion sections (3 hours/week). Humanities 1010 begins with the Greeks, proceeds through the Middle ages, and ends with the Renaissance. Humanitiies 1020 begins with the 17th century and ends with the modern period. Humanitiies 1010, offered in the fall, and Humanitiies 1020, offered in the spring, both carry six credits. These courses, which can be taken in either order, fulfill the core curriculum requirements in Literature and the Arts or Historical Context. Humanities majors must take both 1010 and 1020.

HUMN 2000: Methods and Approaches to the Humanities

Humanities 2000 will be team-taught by various members of the Comparative Literature and Humanities Department faculty who will each offer a separate "mini-course" on one of the essential issues or methodological concerns which students can expect to encounter in their future coursework for the Humanities major. Although the subject of each mini-course may be expected to vary from year to year, topics proposed by faculty in the past include: word/image studies; rhetoric; translation; the canon; gender studies; cultural studies; literature and other arts; literary theory; philosophy and literature; etc.