Humanities

In this course, students will develop the skill of perceptive listening and an understanding of the elements, forms, and styles of several music periods. The course offers discussion of the musical style along with societal and historical significance of the period. Students will also learn to critically perceive musical selections. Field trips may be part of this curriculum and will incur nominal fees, usually no more than $25 per semester.  

This interdisciplinary course in Western culture integrates the arts of literature, painting, music, sculpture, film, and the discipline of philosophy. To better understand why we are the way we are, our studies are centered on our cultural heritage, from Greece, early Christianity, and the Renaissance to the present day. The course involves students and teacher in an analysis of the human issues and achievements in Western culture to make sense of the universe. Attention will be given to the following universal concepts in human thought: search for freedom, search for truth, search for beauty, identification with God, identification with the natural world, and relationship with society.

This interdisciplinary course utilizes both the social sciences and the humanities to examine the making of American Culture. The central driving force is Twentieth Century American Popular Culture. Students will study a variety of sources (fiction, speeches, movies, television, and advertisements) to uncover the numerous myths transmitted by these sources and to verify the validity of those myths that forge America's national identity. Several questions guide the students' investigation: What is the relationship between myths, culture, and society? Why do we behave the way we do? How do myths shape our attitudes? Our norms? Our mores? What makes us Americans?  

This is a survey course of US History from 1877 to the present. This course is concerned not just with names and dates, but rather the historical processes that made the US the way it is. The course will focus on the political history, but more importantly the struggles between labor and capital, women and minorities versus the dominant patriarchal state, and the status of the working poor and the way in which they either made, influenced, or were exploited by the American system.

An interdisciplinary approach to the major themes which have shaped Western Civilization since the 1800's. Topics include the scientific revolution, classical liberalism, fascism, and war. The course incorporates the use of film and multi-media as a way of focusing on themes and issues.

Topics in World Culture will provide students with a solid foundation in world culture and history from prehistory to 1600.  Through an interdisciplinary approach that links the study of cultural texts with the analysis of primary historical documents, students will gain a deeper appreciation of the human condition.  Special attention will be given to such universal concepts in human thought as:  search for freedom, search for truth, search for beauty, identity with the divine, identification with the natural world and relationship with society.  This seminar-style class will explore world culture from a broad perspective that includes art, literature, architecture, music, and philosophy.

The purpose of this course is to critically view these Vietnam War films for the students to analyze Hollywood's discourse on the war. In conjunction with uncovering the underlying meaning of the Vietnam War films, the students will study the physical geography of Vietnam, survey the historical memory of the Vietnam War, and compare the two war chronicles for the purpose of seeing more clearly the legacies of a lost war.

Since the course is a seminar students will share their findings and thinkings with one another formulating an oral analytical text of the Vietnam War. Students will be evaluated on discussions and several short position papers.