CONCENTRATION: Arts & Humanities (con’t) Rome: Honour and Glory (HUM 3108) Prerequisite: Fate and Virtue (HUM 2100) In this course, we study the literature, mythology, philosophy, and culture of ancient Rome. Rome was the greatest power of the ancient world. But the Romans did not merely conquer the civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean; they took disparate ideas and institutions and bound them together. In doing so, Rome gave to us much that makes us who we are: language, literature, government, law, and art. And so by better understanding ancient Rome, we come to a better understanding of ourselves.
Topics in Philosophy: Logic (HUM 3205) Prerequisite: none. Recommended: A Foundation Mathematics course other than Mathematics: A Historical Tour of the Great Civilizations (MAT 2001) What is formal logic? This course explores propositional logic and predicate logic. Optional topics include non-classical logics (modal, relevance, fuzzy); the Halting Problem; the undecidability of First Order Logic. No background knowledge is necessary: the course assumes students have no familiarity with the subject. Topics in the History of Science (HUM 3106) The course examines topics in the history of science, exploring the relationship among science, society, and culture, and between the humanities and the practice of science.
Testimonials (HUM 3902) What does it mean to testify to historical events? How does one textually represent presence? And how do the multiple dialogues that are often part of the testimonial genre engender belief in the truth claims of testimonial narrative? Using theoretical approaches that emerge from anthropology, cultural studies, literary theory, and philosophy we consider examples of testimonial, the testimonial novel, and testimonial filmmaking. Works confront topics as diverse as the conquest of the Americas, the institution of slavery, the Holocaust, and dictatorial abuses in Latin America.
Understanding Scientific Inquiry (HUM 3904) Prerequisite: Any Foundation Physical Sciences or Life Sciences course, and one Foundation Mathematics course, and one Foundation Humanities course What makes a theory or a practice scientific? How are scientific debates resolved? How are scientific ideas communicated? In addressing these questions, this course draws on methods from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science. We begin by examining how philosophers from the seventeenth century to the present day have sought to understand what science is and what separates it from other modes of inquiry. To investigate how scientific disputes are resolved, students engage in a debate over the merits of the Ptolemaic, Copernican, and Tychonic systems of astronomy, learning the characteristic attributes of each. The course ends with student presentations of original research on the communication of scientific ideas, drawn from experience as participant observers in Quest science courses.
Theatre: Acting and Directing (HUM 3340) Students explore the director’s creative approach to the play and its staging. Other topics include the fundamentals of movement, speech, theatre games, and improvisation as an actor. This course involves intense physical practice, script study, and hands-on rehearsal to ensure group bonding and personal expression. The goal of the course is to produce a play. Topics in European History (HUM 3105) Students examine decisive moments in modern European history. The course provides students with the opportunity to use primary and secondary sources to come to a deeper understanding of the important themes of the modern world. Topics vary, but may include the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution and development of capitalist and industrial economies, the rise of powerful states, and the development of liberalism, nationalism, romanticism, and socialism.
Women of Scant Virtue: Adultery in the Nineteenth Century (HUM 3901) The theme of this course is adultery–in particular, adulterous women–in nineteenth century fiction. Not only do we study the socio-cultural background against which these “fallen women” are created, we see how the figure of the adulterer/adulteress blurs boundaries between interior and exterior, between private and public, between social classes, and between low and high literary culture.
Topics in French and Francophone History (HUM 3104) French political, social, economic, intellectual, religious, and military conflicts helped shape the modern world. French is spoken not just in France, but also in other European countries, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania; the legacy of French rule survives in legal codes throughout the world; French art, architecture, and music continues to enrich culture the world over; and the vocabulary of French political struggles still shapes the way we think about ourselves and our relations to one another. While topics vary, this course uses primary and secondary source to encourage students to think historically and rigorously about France and the Francophone world. (The topic for 2013-14 is the Great War.)
Women’s Voices (HUM 3010) Through selections from medieval through contemporary literature written by women, we consider the question of whether there is a distinctly female authorial voice and how women’s literature might differently consider or express the human condition. Historical and theoretical readings provide additional context for understanding women’s roles across time and cultures. Readings may include works by Aphra Behn, Madame de Lafayette, Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Mariama Ba, Isabelle Allende, and Margaret Atwood.
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