Nov 22, 2024  
2019 - 2020 Academic Catalog 
    
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2019 - 2020 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Humanities Courses

Humanities

Courses

Humanities

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    HUM 101 - Humanities I: The Ancient Greek World

    4 credits (Fall and Spring)
    A foundation for further study in the liberal arts, developing skills of critical reading, writing, and imaginative thinking through the study of selected works from ancient Greece. Readings include Homeric epic, tragic drama, Platonic dialogues, Thucydides’ History and Aristotle’s Poetics.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Staff
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    HUM 102 - Humanities II: Roman and Early Christian Culture

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Major works of Roman and early Christian culture, exploring private and public paths to happiness from Cicero’s ideal commonwealth to the City of God. Readings include Virgil’s Aeneid, Stoic and Epicurean philosophy, satire and drama, Christian scripture, St. Augustine, and Boethius. Emphasis on close reading, discussion, and short essay assignments.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Staff
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    HUM 140 - Medieval and Renaissance Culture: 1100–1650

    4 credits (Spring)
    Cross-listed as: SST 140 . This interdisciplinary course explores European culture and the social and political forces that shaped it between 1100 and 1650, paying special attention to feudalism and the Crusades, the intellectual efflorescence of the 12th and 13th centuries, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the advent of the Scientific Revolution. In our exploration of medieval and Renaissance culture we will draw on art, science, literature, political theory, philosophy and theology, music, the writings of mystics, and advice manuals for heads of households and would-be courtiers.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Instructor: Staff
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    HUM 200 - Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni

    See SST 200 .

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    HUM 251 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature

    4 credits (Fall or Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 251 . This course takes a theoretical approach to canonical and contemporary children’s literature. Content is variable, but may include The Young Adult Problem Novel, Dystopian Fiction for the Young Adult Reader, and Constructions of Race, Slavery, Class and Gender in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. For current course content please see the variable topic course listing below or search the online live schedule of courses.

    Prerequisite: A course in English or another course in literature.
    Note: Foreign language available in Russian or French.
    Instructor: Staff

Special Topics-Fall

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    HUM 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Futurities: Marooning, Imagining, Dreaming, Acting

    1 credits (Fall)
    There is No Alternative. With this statement in 1980 Margaret Thatcher summarized a neoliberal vision of our world: a world with no dreams of emancipation, change, transformation, a world where time and space would aim to one single goal, to consume. We will practice different ways of decolonizing everyday life from the effects of these ideas, cleansing our minds and senses to awaken our imaginations to other possibilities. Dare to dream, dare to act! This course includes a one day field trip to Des Moines on September 15.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Dates: September 11 to September 20. Short course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Verges
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    HUM 295-01 - Special Topic: Digital Stories for Social Justice

    2 credits (Fall)
    Cross-listed as: PHI 295-02 . Students will learn digital storytelling skills and study ethical and epistemological issues that arise when data and personal stories are used in social justice work. Students will work with quantitative and textual data related to School-to-Prison Pipeline practices and policies and use that data to tell digital stories. This process includes learning various techniques (e.g. data visualization, audio editing, video editing, infographic techniques, and digital mapping) and consulting with community activists on final projects.

    Co-requisite: AMS 295-01 , EDU 295-01 , or PHI 295-01 .
    Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
    Instructor: Nyden, Walden
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    HUM 295-02 - Special Topic: Decolonizing the Curriculum

    2 credits (Fall)
    This course will introduce you to core concepts and themes on the subject of decolonizing educational institutions and curricula. We will read and discuss work by scholars writing from a diversity of perspectives and locations, consider the implications of different approaches to decolonizing curricula and institutions, and collaborate to develop a practical toolkit for change. Beginning  September 12, the course will meet roughly every other week, Thursdays, with additional off-week student-only meetings.

    Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
    Note: Dates: September 12 with remainder of dates to be determined once classes begin. S/D/F only.
    Instructor: Elfenbein

Special Topics-Spring

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    CLS 395-01 - Advanced Special Topic: Gender and Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Italy

    4 credits (Spring)
    An exploration of attested gender roles and expressions in ancient Greece and Italy in order to recover the gender identities and sexualites of the Greeks and Romans. Some discussion of socio-economics class and ethnicity. Consideration of diverse aspects of life as found in literary, scientific, and documentary texts, as well as art and archaeology. Application of theorticial approaches. Longer-range historical and typological comparisons inside and outside Indo-European.

    Prerequisite: HUM 101  or GWS 111  required. Recommended: ARH 248 , ARH 250 , CLS 248 , CLS 250 , CLS 255 , CLS 257 , CLS 258 , GWS 249 , HIS 222 , HIS 255 , HIS 257 , HIS 258 , or SOC 270 .
    Instructor: Mercado
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    HUM 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: The Social Impact of Documentary Film

    .5 credits (Spring)
    See SST 195-01 . 

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    HUM 295-01 - Special Topic: Designing Museum Displays

    4 credits (Spring)
    See ANT 295-01 .

    Instructor: Kamp, Wright
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    HUM 295-02 - Special Topic: You’ve Got Questions? We’ve Got Polling: Preparing the Grinnell College Poll

    2 credits (Spring)
    Cross-listed as: SST 295-01 .  One of the core goals of the Grinnell College National Poll is to ask respondents their views on topics that go beyond traditional political polling. In this short course, we will work together to generate questions for the Grinnell Poll that reflect this goal, drawing on the diversity of our liberal arts experiences to gather information about some of the most pressing social and political issues of the day.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Dates: January 21 to February 20. Short course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Elfenbein
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    HUM 295-03 - Special Topic: Digital Journal Publishing: Growing an Audience

    4 credits (Spring)

    Cross-listed as: SST 295-02 . This course will involve students in all steps in producing the Spring 2020 issue of Rootstalk: A Prairie Journal of Culture, Science, and the Arts. In addition, we intend to administer an alumni survey with an eye toward deepening our understanding of, and ultimately increasing our audience. These results will guide us as we develop future content and shape the journal’s direction. Students who have taken other publishing courses taught by Andelson and Baechtel may also take this course.

     

    Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
    Note: Plus-2 option available.
    Instructor: Baechtel

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    HUM 295-04 - Special Topic: The Migrant State of Mind: New Translated Literature from India

    1 or 2 credits (Spring)
    Cross-listed as: GLS 295-03 .  The course will explore the figure of the migrant wandering the pages of new translated fiction from India, and will broaden the definition of migration and migrants to include journeys between cultures: from rural to urban, between social class and caste, and migration that is not defined by physical movement but as a state of mind. We will read four acclaimed novels translated into English from Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali.

    Prerequisite: None.
    Note: Dates: April 7 to April 30. Short course deadlines apply.
    Instructor: Staff

Variable Topics- Spring