Humanities

An interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the history of human culture and ideas. Major eras covered include India's Pala Empire; China's Song and Ming Dynasty; the Mongol Empire; Japan's Muromachi period; culture, people and empires of North, Central and South America; the Islamic Golden Age; and the European Middle Ages. Class discussions, projects and lectures address the development of worldviews, moral and ethical values and the arts in civilizations across the globe and throughout time.

An interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the history of human culture and ideas. Major eras covered include India's Pala Empire; China's Song and Ming Dynasty; the Mongol Empire; Japan's Muromachi period; culture, people and empires of North, Central and South America; the Islamic Golden Age; and the European Middle Ages. Class discussions, projects and lectures address the development of worldviews, moral and ethical values and the arts in civilizations across the globe and throughout time.

An in-depth study of myths and legends, including, but not limited to, those from ancient Mesopotamia, classical Greece and Rome, Asia, India, Africa, Europe, and the indigenous Americas, and their adaptation in literature, art and film. The course traces both the function and influence of myths from diverse cultural contexts on our understanding of the past and our experience of modern/popular culture.

This course applies theories of trauma to representations of trauma and violence in the visual arts, literature, film, and music, with an emphasis on the transformative potential of the creative process. Topics include the representation of war, genocide, and racism. Students will gain acuity to identify, understand, empathize, and respond to traumatic subjectivity, its images, and artistic as well as social intent.

An interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the history of human culture and ideas. Major eras covered include the Renaissance, the Age of Encounters, the Enlightenment, the Romantic period, the Industrial Revolution and the dark legacy of colonialism. Class discussions, projects and lectures address the development of worldviews, moral and ethical values and the arts in civilizations across the globe and throughout time.

An interdisciplinary and thematic approach to the history of human culture and ideas. Major eras covered include: Modernity (from cubism and expressionism to jazz and film), the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the Atomic Age, Post-Colonialism (India, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East), Post-Modernity, and the Digital Age. Class discussions, projects, and lectures address the development of worldviews, moral and ethical values, and the arts in Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa throughout the 20th century and beyond.

Interdisciplinary course that explores how religions shape our understanding of diverse topics such as human rights, war, peace, globalization and science as well as music, sport, humor, film and the visual arts. Course eschews a focus on a specific tradition (e.g., Western or Eastern religions), and instead examines the inter-relationship between religion and human meaning creation through the specific lenses of ethics, aesthetics and politics.

An inquiry into reality and human culture as a co-construct between technology and art. Through the study of film, video games, and other cultural products, the course traces how social media and artificial intelligence challenge our understanding of what it means to be human and how social engagement in the digital age is altered by the acceleration of time and the collapse of space.