This course is a seminar on basic issues and methodologies in the humanities and arts. Matters treated in the course include social responsibilities of practitioners in the humanities and arts, the relation of humanities and arts to the natural and social sciences, and selected "modes" of knowing and doing in humanities and arts including philosophical, rhetorical, historical, artistic, linguistic, social, and cultural ways of making and applying knowledge. Students engage with primary materials in the course, including some of the most significant and influential texts in the Western tradition from scholars such as Emmanual Kant, Ferdinand de Sassure, Jean Baudrillard, Kenneth Burke, Judith Butler, Stephen J. Gould, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Michel Foucault, Joan Scott, and Patricia Hill Collins, among many others.
This innovative and rigorous course was initially developed with a CTE-Lilly Instructional Improvement grant by Professor Robert Gaines of the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. Subsequent offerings of the course have been expanded by Dr. Tanya Jung (University of Pennsylania) and Patrick Grzanka (American Studies/Honors Humanities, University of Maryland), as well as Justin Maher (American Studies/Honors Humanities, University of Maryland).
Keystone Project: During the third semester, students write an abstract for and complete the rough draft of their project; this involves the submission of three substantive "deliverables" during the course.
Course Syllabus (PDF) Updated for Fall 2009
Selected Course Readings (PDF)
