Major
The study of the humanities is the fundamentally interdisciplinary engagement of the ideas, stories, words, images, frameworks, and worldviews that help us understand what it has meant and can mean to be human, across time and cultures. Studying the humanities prepares students for numerous vocational aspirations in a rapidly changing world. The interdisciplinary major in Humanities is coordinated by the Letters Collegium wherein students complete a ten-course program that includes five courses in a core Letters discipline (American studies, classics, East Asian studies, history, literature, philosophy, film studies, religious studies, or women’s and gender studies), four courses from complementary disciplines, and HU498: Humanities Colloquium. At least five of the 10 courses taken toward the Humanities major must be at the 300 level or above. Selected Humanities thematic pathways are listed below.
Students who complete the humanities major demonstrate the following competencies:
- knowledge of the significance of the humanities as an interdisciplinary field of study of the interconnections between the different humanities disciplines and of the intersections between humanistic inquiry and other ways of knowing across the liberal arts spectrum
- ability to understand and use the methods of the chosen core humanities discipline
- ability to conduct research and engage in scholarly writing, including mastery of the accepted style of documentation in the chosen core humanities discipline
- ability to engage in effective oral communication
- Ability to apply the methods of humanistic inquiry to at least one compelling issue and/or question of contemporary and enduring relevance
Structure of the Humanities Major
At least five courses must be taken at the 300 level or above.
- Five courses at the 200 level or above in the student’s chosen core humanities discipline
- Four courses in complementary disciplines, to be completed by fulfilling the requirements of a) one of the Humanities thematic pathways outlined below, or b) an individualized Humanities thematic pathway established in consultation with the Humanities discipline coordinator.
- HU498: Humanities Colloquium
Humanities Thematic Pathways
A: Animals and the Humanities
Three of the following courses, from at least two different disciplines:
- AS206E: Animals in Ancient Science
- AS310H: Animals in Classical and Mediterranean Cultures
- AZ224: Writing the Animal
- HI101H: Making History: Animals in Modern Europe
- LI227H: Knowing Animals through Literature
- LI217H: The Voice of the Animal
- PL201H: Philosophical Topics: Animals and Experience
- PL204H: Animal Ethics
- RE252E: Animals and Religion
- Any 300 or 400-level course in any humanities discipline OR any other 300 or 400-level course approved by the Humanities discipline coordinator
B: Identities and the Humanities
Three of the following courses, from at least two different disciplines:
- AS301G Identity, Race, & Ethnicity in the Ancient World
- FI230H Film and Identity
- HI280M Space, Race, and Place
- HI324G Native American History
- HI334H African-American History I
- HI335H African-American History II
- HI356H Black Voices in Abolitionism
- LI104H The Stranger in Literature
- LI218H Literature and Human Rights
- LI244G Postcolonial Literature
- PL244H Social and Political Philosophy
- PL282H Philosophical Problems
- PL349G Native American Thought
- RE201H Understanding Religion
- RE216H Religion and Extremism
- RE221H American Religious Diversity
- RE240G Religion, Po
wer, & Difference - RE243H Sacred Texts and Social Justice
- RE315H Seminar on Religion and Race
- RE323 Gnostics, Heretics, Martyrs
- RE388H Paul: Race, Gender, and Empire
- Any 300 or 400-level course in any humanities discipline OR any other 300 or 400-level course approved by the Humanities discipline coordinator
C: Health Humanities and the Bio-imagination
Three of the following courses, from at least two different disciplines:
- AS301H Magic in the Ancient World
- CL212H Language and History of Medicine
- CL220G New Diseases in History and Literature
- HI221H Women in Modern America
- HI270H Sex and Power: European Thought
- HP210E Science Ethics and the Common Good
- LI218H Literature and Human Rights
- LI240H Bioethics and the Literary Imagination
- LI348H Literature and Film after Auschwitz
- PL104H Introduction to Ethics
- PL214H Philosophy of Love and Death
- PL240H Philosophy and Technology
- PL250H Mind and Body
- PL260H Philosophy of Science
- PL309 Topics in Philosophy of Mind
- RE201H Understanding Religion
- RE214H Cults, Sects, Conspiracies
- RE224H Religion, Magic, Occultism
- RE230G Mindfulness
- RE312H Feasts & Fasts: Religion, Food, Eating
- RE330H Being Human: Religion and Science
- RE336G Yoga: History, Practice, Service
- RE351E A Culture of Science and Faith
- WG320H Feminisms and Gender Theories
- Any 300 or 400-level course in any humanities discipline OR any other 300 or 400-level course approved by the Humanities discipline coordinator
D: Nature, Culture, and the Humanities
Three of the following courses, from at least two different disciplines:
- AM 319E Environmental Film Colloquium
- HI207H Florida History
- HI225E Western Myth and the Environment
- HI253E Environmental History
- HI254E European Environmental History
- HI316E Empire and the Environment
- LI106E Southern Literature and the Environment
- LI208E Children's Literature and the Environment
- LI245H Regional American Literature
- PL210E Ideas of Nature
- PL240H Animal Ethics
- RE201H Understanding Religion
- RE212H Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
- RE270E Asian Religions and the Environment
- RE283E Nature Religion
- RE312H Feasts & Fasts: Religion, Food, Eating
- RE381E Ecotheology
- Any 300 or 400-level course in any humanities discipline OR any other 300 or 400-level course approved by the Humanities discipline coordinator
Courses
HU 101H: Race & Sex Across Cultures
In this course we explore the history of ideas about race and sex cross-culturally, including social adaptations and political exploitations of those ideas, and on-the-ground experiences of being raced and sexed.
HU 120E: Ecocriticism & Environmental Ethics
An introduction to both environmental ethics and to the interpretation of film and literature from an environmental perspective and an examination of the connections between literary ecocriticism and philosophical environmental ethics.
HU 213H: House & Home: Shaping Identity
Humans are meaning-making animals. We organize, design, structure, label, classify, and systematize, all of which are ritualistic activities. This course will explore individual and collective ritual practices of everyday life, focusing on ideas of home.
HU 301G: Ancient Barbarians
Uses modern theory to explore representations of "barbarian" peoples in various ethnographic texts from ancient Mediterranean and Asian traditions. Mellon Research Seminar in the Humanities; enrollment by professor's signature only.
HU 306H: Mediated Identities
This seminar engages with representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality in moving image, audio, gaming, and online media as examples of how visual rhetoric shapes identity. This course is part of the Mellon Foundation-sponsored "New Frontiers in the Humanities" program.
HU 320H: Art and Interpretation: "Strange Bedfellows"
Explores boundaries between the world of art and the world of humanistic interpretation in writing, performing arts/theatre, critical reviewing and aesthetic theory. Mellon Humanities Research Seminar; enrollment by instructors' permission.
HU 388: Humanities Research Symposium
This seminar provides senior students interested in conducting humanities research projects a supportive workshop environment in which to address questions about the craft of humanistic research and share findings as an interdisciplinary team.
HU 498: Humanities Colloquium
This senior humanities capstone experience offers students the opportunity to connect and synthesize their knowledge bases, intellectual journeys, and research projects as an interdisciplinary learning community.
HU 499: Senior Thesis
