Humanities

HUM 101 introduces students to the development of different types of human expression - including art, architecture, literature, theater, music, and philosophy - from around the globe from prehistorical times to the present. Students will also explore motivations for, similarities and differences among, and changes in the different types of human expression. Students will consider how the various types inform one another, shape society, and are shaped by society. Pre or co-requisite(s): ENG 101 or instructor permission. Three lecture hours per week. Instructional Support Fee applies. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression, Information Literacy and Multicultural and Social Perspectives.

HUM 110 is an introductory survey course providing an overview of queer-feminist studies through major writers and thinkers within the field. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course provides historical background on how modern Western culture created and structured gender and sexual binaries and the critiques that deconstructed gender binaries. Themes include the construction of gender and sexual identity, material oppression based on gender or sexual difference, the state and power in relation to gender equality social movements, the role of queer and feminist theories in a transnational context, and ways of imagining otherwise. In revealing sex and gender as integral axes of analysis in our culture, this course provides critical skills to assess western culture and act in accordingly ethical ways. In addition to queer theory and feminist theory, other concepts covered may be critical ethnic studies, disability studies, neoliberalism, and migration studies. Prerequisite(s): A passing score on the college's reading and writing placement tests, or CD or higher in ENG 091 or ENG 092, or concurrent enrollment in ENG 092. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Critical Thinking, Ethical Dimensions, Multicultural and Social Perspectives.

HUM 120 focuses on intersectionality as a way to understand the unique lived experience of those most marginalized in society. We will begin with Kimberlé Crenshaw’s coining of the term “intersectionality” in 1989 as way to discuss justice for those with identities situated at the intersections of overlapping modes of discrimination and move to study a variety of films and texts that demonstrate the interrelated axes of race, class, gender, sexuality, borderlands, migration, and nationality in visually complex ways. Specific attention is given to images and film, and how they characterize and shape our everyday lives. The course instructs how to recognize, read, and analyze visual media within the social, cultural, and political contexts of cinema. Intersectionality is considered as a praxis, as we bring this theory into the real world through applied readings to visual culture, (social) media, literature, and pop culture. Prerequisite(s): ENG 091. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Critical Thinking, Ethical Dimensions, Human Expression, Multicultural and Social Perspectives, Oral Communication and Written Communication.

This course investigates how educational theory and practice should respond to 21st Century ecological challenges such as climate change, health and food crises, degradation of culture, language and knowledge, as well as the destruction of sustainable indigenous practices and other convivial social relationships under globalization. Through a vigorous survey of contemporary post-industrial society, the course tries to offer practical and theoretical venues for sustainable educational experiences. Students are introduced to multiple educational perspectives to literacy and learning, which address the crucial inter-relationship of all life and all living things, in an effort to foster sustainable and democratic sensibilities of learning, knowledge, and society. Prerequisite(s): A passing score on the College's writing and reading placement tests, or C or better in ENG 091 or ENG 092. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Critical Thinking, Ethical Dimensions, Global and Historic Awareness and Multicultural and Social Perspectives.

This course presents an in-depth study of the interpreting and translating profession, beginning with the underlying differences between the interpreting and translating process. Students examine various models of the interpreting process for consecutive and simultaneous interpreting as well as the best practices for sight and written translation. The course focuses on both roles of interpreter/translator and the fundamentals of their vocation, including ethical behavior, professional standards, business practices, cross-cultural mediation, settings, audience, and special populations. Students explore the various professional associations and literature available, pertinent laws, opportunities for further study or employment, and/or the procedures and requisites of credentialing. Pre or co-requisite: ENG 101. Three lecture hours per week. Instructional support fee applies.

This course examines the major books of the Old Testament from historical, literary, and philosophical perspectives and through a variety of critical lenses. Its influence on literature, film, theater, and global culture will be considered as well as its relevance to the modern secular world. Pre or co-requisite(s): ENG 101 or permission of instructor. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This course examines the major books of the New Testament from historical, literary, and philosophical perspectives and through a variety of critical lenses. Its influence on literature, film, theater, and global culture will be considered as well as its relevance to the modern secular world. Pre or co-requisite(s): ENG 101 or permission of instructor. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

A one-semester course on a specified topic or period in the arts, literature, philosophy, or the humanities. Topics or major themes are announced each semester. Prerequisite: ENG 102. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Human Expression.

This interdisciplinary seminar traces the archetype of the criminal across the arts, including literature, film, music, theatre, literary non-fiction, graphic novels, cartoons, architecture, and the fine arts. The way in which socioeconomics, racism, homophobia, and gender discrimination influence the criminal archetype will be considered as will the historical context of the texts assigned. The course will examine the impact that this archetype has made upon popular culture through a variety of critical lenses. Writers and artists are chosen broadly, such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ian Fleming, Mario Puzo, Erik Larson, Dr. Dre, and Viet Than Hguyen. Prerequisite(s): ENG 102 or permission of instructor. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Ethical Dimensions and Human Expression.

The Holocaust, or as it has come to be known, the Shoah, is one of the most horrific events in all of world history. Even more than 50 years after the fact, the world continues to struggle with the enormity of this human catastrophe. Nevertheless, a body of writing--both historical and literary--exists that enables us to confront this key moment in world history. This course serves as an introduction to this work. Students gain an understanding of the historical facts, including circumstances leading up to the Holocaust itself and the event's critical aftermath. In addition, students reflect on the role of literature, principally through accounts of that time written by survivors and the children of survivors in the struggle to represent an event that many have described as beyond the limits of language to capture. Three lecture hours per week. Prerequisite: ENG 101 and ENG 102. Open to Commonwealth Honors Program students and others with permission of instructor. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Ethical Dimensions, Human Expression and Multicultural and Social Perspectives.

This course examines portrayals of death and dying through literature, philosophy and the arts. Students will examine works from specific historical periods such as ancient Greece, early Christianity, and the Renaissance. Students will evaluate works from both in and outside of the artistic and literary canons as a means of understanding the diverse spectrum of human expression. Prerequisite: ENG 102. Instructional Support Fee applies. Three lecture hours per week. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Multicultural and Social Perspectives.

This interdisciplinary humanities course introduces postmodern theory as it applies to contemporary popular art, architecture, literature, philosophy, music, film, and the Web. Considered as both a reaction to modernism and an extension of American civil rights and counterculture movements, postmodern texts challenge culturally oppressive notions of Absolute Truth through the practice of deconstruction. Students create a final project that may be showcased at a state-wide conference. Practitioners may include The Beatles, Jorges Luis Borges, Caryl Churchill, Don Delillo, Jacques Derrida, Matt Drudge, Philip Glass, Michael Graves, Marshall McLuhan, Camille Paglia, Suzi-Lori Parks, Art Spiegelman, and Andy Warhol. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Commonwealth Honors Program or permission of the instructor. Three hours of lecture per week. Instructional Support Fee applies. Gen. Ed. Competencies Met: Ethical Dimensions and Multicultural and Social Perspectives.

This course will provide an introduction to contemporary Native North American art, literature, television, and film, highlighting the ways in which Native peoples are telling their own stories and speaking out against persistent stereotypes—such as the “vanishing” Indian of American westerns. Students will examine Native-led media (newspapers, journals, podcasts) and movements (language reclamation, land acknowledgements, mascots) burgeoning across the United States and Canada. Though we will examine the harsh and lingering effects of Settler-Colonialism, this course will highlight the modern, creative expressions of Indigenous North American peoples. Three lecture hours per week. Prerequisites: A passing score on the college's reading and writing placement tests or, a C or better or concurrent enrollment in ENG 091 or ENG 092. Gen. Ed. Competencies: Ethical Dimensions and Human Expression.

This capstone course provides students with actual field experience in the interpreting/translating field in combination with a one-hour professional development seminar in class. Students spend 90 supervised hours in their pre-approved placements. Students are expected to spend approximately 20 hours shadowing a professional interpreter and 70 hours interpreting/ (sight) translating in a community hospital, medical office, human services agency, legal office, court, or institution. The seminar provides students with a safe environment to analyze and reflect on their experiences, performance and progress as well as to prepare for employment. Prerequisites: For Spanish: ENG 101, HUM 156, SPA 321, SPA 322, SPA 353, SPA 354 with a grade of "C" or better; COM 160 and CRJ 101 or CRJ 113 or MAA 101. For Portuguese: ENG 101, HUM 156, POR 321, POR 322, POR 352, POR 353 with a grade of "C" or better; COM 160 and CRJ 101 or CRJ 113 or MAA 101.