HUMANITIES HUMANITIES ENGLISH HUM 120 HUMANITIES I: Part A and HUM 130 HUMANITIES I: Part B Required for third-formers. Two course periods totalling 2.0 credits. Dual credit, English and History These yearlong, place-based, interdisciplinary humanities courses will ask students to consider the variety of forces that have shaped the land, cultures, and places they inhabit. Through sequential semesters students will focus on local, national and global themes including the environment, the Native American experience, colonization, the growth of trade and industry, enslaved labor, and immigration. The course emphasizes reading, writing, researching, speaking, and critical thinking, so students develop foundational skills and a shared vocabulary in the humanities. Students reflect on their own personal journey as well as investigate the world beyond their own experiences through an examination of literature, poetry, historical narratives, and archival documents. In doing so, students make connections across texts and experiences, both academic and personal, and develop an understanding of community, its continuity and change over time. Students produce work in various modalities that explores how they contribute to that story. These courses fulfill the third-form English requirement.
HUM 220 HUMANITIES II: WORLD LITERATURE Required for fourth-formers. Humanities II English, in conjunction with Humanities II History seeks to expose students to the rich tapestry of global culture. Humanities II English focuses on the role of stories in creating and defining both individual experiences and cultures. Specific focus is given to the African diaspora, the societies of Central and South Asia, Latin America, Northern Europe and China. The course addresses the cultural legacies of colonialism, forced migration, and the systemic inequalities resulting from these legacies. Specific skills include close reading and analytical writing, the development of clarity through the mechanics and art of expository writing, as well as oral presentation skills, critical thinking, and synthesis.
HUM 450 HUMANITIES III: AMERICAN LITERATURE HUM 460/A HUMANITIES III: ADVANCED AMERICAN LITERATURE (A) Required for fifth-formers. HUM 460/A requires department approval. American Studies English covers the full sweep of American literature/cultural history. Texts are chosen based on interdisciplinary interest and intrinsic literary merit. Students learn how to be critical readers of texts both written and visual in order to be thoughtful analysts and consumers of American culture, ideology, and history. The reading pace is brisk. Students engage with content through daily discussions and writings in an effort to convey their understanding of the development of American cultural identity. Works may include, but are not limited to, fiction and poetry, as well as speeches, memoirs, and literary non-fiction by a range of authors, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Toni Morrison. The advanced section of this course includes more extensive readings, more in depth literary analysis, and more comprehensive essays and papers.
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