Humanities Courses

This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of writing history. Students will learn to both identify and make historical arguments, use primary and secondary sources to appropriately support an argument and successfully sustain an argument throughout academic papers of varying lengths. Students will develop their writing by editing and revising multiple drafts of papers.

A survey of the history of philosophy, focusing on Plato, Aristotle, St.Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Russell, Dewey. Variable content. This course may be repeated for credit, as long as the content is varied.

(Also AFS/WMS 222) Selected poetry, drama, fiction, autobiography, and essays by African-American authors, with emphasis on literary excellence. Authors range from Phillis Wheatley to Frederich Douglas, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Alice Walker, and Ishmael Reed. Lecture, discussion.

(Also WMS 223) This course focuses on literature in English written by women. We study themes and techniques common to the literature by women. From the late Middle Ages until the present, we examine texts that challenge beliefs about female inferiority, promote a women’s perspective on gender and allow for a discussion of self-esteem, motherhood, privacy and women’s power.

(Formerly JOU 224) This course focuses on the basics of journalism reporting and writing. It will introduce students to the fundamentals as well as modern techniques in news gathering and writing. Students will report and write stories as an entry level journalist. Sessions will involve class writing as well as discussions and analysis of news coverage.

(Also AFS 225) This course explores the African American struggle for freedom after Reconstruction. Of articular concern will be the economic, political, social and cultural struggles that African- Americans waged to secure freedom and justice in the face of racial segregation and injustice. This is the second course in the African- American survey.

(Also LAC 226) This course explores the history of Latin America and the Caribbean since Independence. It will pay particular attention to the colonial legacy; the abolition of slavery; economic development; twentieth-century social movements and revolutions; and relations with the United States. This is the second course offered in the Latin American- Caribbean survey.

(Also AFS/WMS 226) Varied works of western and/or non-western literature that illustrates how different races, ethnic groups, genders, and classes view themselves

Philosophical reflection upon African-American social experience, African-American intellectual history, modern and contemporary oppositional discourse. Caribbean presence, Pan-Africanism, African heritage, value systems, aesthetics, political theology.

This course studies the major world communities in their independent development before European exploration. Students will compare the social and political structures, family structures, economics and technology, religious belief systems, and cultures of the major societies of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas.

所选诗歌、小说、戏剧和非小说类that explore such topics as faith, the nature and presence of God, death and immortality, spirituality, sin, and salvation. The course invites student to examine and reflect on the interrelationship of literary expression and a theological understanding of the world.

(Also REL 227) Selected poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fiction that explore such topics as faith, the nature and presence of God, death and immortality, spirituality, sin, and salvation. The course invites students to examine and reflect on the interrelationship of literary expression and a theological understanding of the world.

(Also PHL 226) This course surveys the highlights of the Western rhetorical tradition and what they can teach us about how we communicate in contemporary society. Generally speaking, rhetoricians study verbal and nonverbal language and communication. Certainly, language affects everything we do: how we think, learn, identify ourselves, and interact with others. According to American rhetorician Kenneth Burke (18971993), language “reflects, deflects, and selects” reality. In this course, we will look carefully at how this occurs and how the Western rhetorical tradition has influenced our current knowledge of what language does. Rhetoric is perhaps one of the oldest disciplines. What we know of its history has been shaped by Western rhetoricians over the ages-from the ancient Greeks, (Isocrates, Plato and Aristotle), to the Romans, (Quintilian and Cicero), through Medieval Times, (St Augustine) to the Renaissance (Petrus Ramus and Erasmus) and Enlightenment (Sir Francis Bacon and John Locke), and beyond to the 20th and 21st Centuries. This tradition constitutes a Western historical narrative that has shaped what we think rhetoric is and what it does, and is by no means Gospel. Other rhetorics are interrupting this dominant narrative about what the rhetorical tradition is. The field of rhetoric is much too broad to survey, even superficially, in one semester. Consequently, the lens (or to borrow a term from Burke, the terministic screen) we will use to examine the field will focus on the theories of those rhetoricians who have been most influential in a Western tradition.

(Also WRT 229) This course surveys the highlights of the Western rhetorical tradition and what they can teach us about how we communicate in contemporary society. Generally speaking, rhetoricians study verbal and nonverbal language and communication. Certainly, language affects everything we do: how we think, learn, identify ourselves, and interact with others. According to American rhetorician Kenneth Burke (18971993), language “reflects, deflects, and selects” reality. In this course, we will look carefully at how this occurs and how the Western rhetorical tradition has influenced our current knowledge of what language does. Rhetoric is perhaps one of the oldest disciplines. What we know of its history has been shaped by Western rhetoricians over the ages-from the ancient Greeks, (Isocrates, Plato and Aristotle), to the Romans, (Quintilian and Cicero), through Medieval Times, (St Augustine) to the Renaissance (Petrus Ramus and Erasmus) and Enlightenment (Sir Francis Bacon and John Locke), and beyond to the 20th and 21st Centuries. This tradition constitutes a Western historical narrative that has shaped what we think rhetoric is and what it does, and is by no means Gospel. Other rhetorics are interrupting this dominant narrative about what the rhetorical tradition is. The field of rhetoric is much too broad to survey, even superficially, in one semester. Consequently, the lens (or to borrow a term from Burke, the terministic screen) we will use to examine the field will focus on the theories of those rhetoricians who have been most influential in a Western tradition.

This course will deal with the so-called "primitive’’ religious traditions of the Americas (e.g. Navaho), Polynesia, Australia, and Africa. The course will examine the basic beliefs, practices, world views, and mythologies of these disappearing societies. It will also reconsider the usage of terms such as "primitive,’’ "advanced,’’ etc.

Moral problems confronted by both the professional and the lay person in health-care institutions and in biological research. Abortion and infanticide, eugenics, euthanasia and suicide, allocation of scarce resources, experimentation, and general criticisms directed at the medical establishment.

Moral issues in business arising from the actions and decisions in production, advertising, marketing, etc. Justification of profit and private property, truth-telling and social responsibility, privacy, the role of the law in competition and trade, and the morality of worker-owner relations. Problems and perspectives raised by the advent of globalization in international enterprise.

(Formerly JOU 231) This course traces the history of radio and television. It includes criticism, production, programming issues and ethics.

(Also LAC 232) Survey of Latin American literature from the sixteenth century to the present. Emphasis is upon literary discourses the reflect and shape the diverse array of Latin American cultural identities throughout the region.

(Aso AFS 232) This course will introduce the student to the basic beliefs and practices of Islam. It will also survey major historical, cultural, theological, and social developments. Special attention will be given to the Arabian origins of Islam and to its subsequent growth into a dynamic global tradition. The role of Islam in the modern world and its impact on American society will also be considered.

This course provides for the study of various religious traditions and topics not covered in the regular course offerings. Possible topics may include: contemporary issues in religion; “new” religious movements; religion and art; religion in ancient Egypt, etc.

Please contact your instructor for specific topic.

This course offers different approaches to studying rhetoric and integrating it into various types of writing in different media. Topics and texts vary from semester to semester. As topics change, this course may be repeated for credit.

Please contact your instructor for specific topic

This course provides for the in-depth study of the people, society, culture, or movements during a particular historical period or for comparative analysis of societies, cultures or movements of people or ideas during particular periods, or other historical moments. This course also allows for the in-depth study of particular historical events. The topic and methods of evaluation will be defined by the instructor of the course. Offered most Spring and Fall semesters.

Please contact your instructor for specific topic.

Special focus in the study of writing, such as children’s literature, sports writing, travel writing and memoir. Can be repeated for credit.

Please contact your instructor for specific topic.

This course will introduce students to best practices in collecting and analyzing oral history interviews. The traditional role of oral history interviews in historical preservation will be explored as will the oral tradition in many historically underrepresented cultures.