Culture and Expression (C&E) Fall 2020

CULTURE AND EXPRESSION FALL 2020 Faculty HUHC 011: Social Science: Professors Dardis, Frisina, Karofsky, Limnatis, Singer, Teehan, Terazawa, HUHC 013: Humanities: Professors Cipriani, Donahue, Keller, Bourignet-Kozol, Lay, Trasciatti, Zapata, CRISIS AND RESPONSE: THE PERSONAL AND POLITICAL While many describe today’s Covid-19 crisis as unique and unprecedented, it’s not. Extraordinary events have upended the social, political and economic status quo in communities of all shapes and sizes throughout human history. Pandemics are not new. Neither are volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and violent storms. And, in addition to natural crises, human warfare, cultural incursions, economic collapse and religious upheaval have repeatedly forced individuals and whole communities to reimagine via creative innovation their most basic assumptions regarding the sources of value and meaning.

In this semester-long discussion of “Crisis and Response” we ask: What can we learn from how others responded to crises? Are strategies developed in the ancient, medieval and early modern world applicable today? How do we know when to persist and when to resist? What makes life meaningful when the only appropriate response to a crisis is acceptance? And, what role does humor and joy play in helping us to navigate such moments?

The worlds we will visit this semester reach all the way back to the 20th century BCE and extend to the 17th century CE. We will draw upon works of history, philosophy, religion, stories, drama, music, poetry, art, architecture and cultural artifacts from Africa, the Near East, East Asia, Europe and the Americas.

By exploring these works we will see how others have confronted crises in order to survive and even thrive. We aim to allow these old ways to inform our own.

The Strategy C&E consists of two related courses in both fall and spring semesters. HUHC 011 and 012: Social Sciences has its emphasis on understanding the structures and values of a culture or civilization through the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, religion, economics and geography. HUHC 013 and 014: Humanities has its emphasis on artistic expressions of the cultures under examination through the disciplines of literary analysis (e.g. English, Classics, Romance and Comparative Literatures), linguistics, music, drama, dance, the visual arts, architecture and aesthetics. Faculty on both teams develop a reading list and lecture schedule that work in tandem to reinforce a student’s understanding of the ancient world through to the Middle Ages and the modern world since the Renaissance. Twice weekly faculty lectures set the context for studentbased discussion sections.