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2023-2024 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Humanities Courses
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Humanities
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 -
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 -
HUM 120 - Introduction to Material Culture Studies 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: SST 120 . This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of material culture studies. Participants explore extraordinary and everyday objects from the perspectives of anthropology, archaeology, art/craft histories, gender and sexuality, museum studies, literature, poetry, economics, and history. Meeting at the Stew Makerspace in downtown Grinnell, we blend readings and discussions with hands-on studio work exploring form, ornament, and function in clay, wood, and textile.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Maynard -
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 -
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 offerings review the variable topic course listing below or use the course search to filter by variable topic type.
Prerequisite: A course in English or another course in literature, with grade S, C, or better.
Note: Foreign language available in Russian or French.
Instructor: Staff
Special Topics-Fall
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HUM 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Ukraine Today: Thirty Years of Independence 4 credits (Fall)
See RES 195-01 .
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HUM 295-03 - Special Topic: Social Change in Middle East Cinema 4 credits (Fall)
Cross-listed as: ARB 295-03 . This course invites students to explore how modern aesthetic forms such as cinema coming from the East critiques rigid social realities as it strives to imagine modern social experiences, thereby pushing boundaries towards social change. By chronologically examining selected Arabic, Turkish, Persians, and Hebrew films in colonial and post-colonial contexts, we will explore how film as art reveals the nature of social myth and the role public intellectuals play in perpetuating or challenging that myth.
Prerequisite: Second-semester standing.
Note: Plus-2 option available. Foreign Language Option available in Arabic for course only.
Instructor: Abdelfattah -
HUM 295-04 - Special Topic: Queer African Stories 4 credits (Fall)
Cross-listed as: SAM 295-01 . This course will focus on Queer African stories to examine how the two controversial concepts of “queer” and “Africa” function for writers and artists, as well as the limits they represent in portraying the complex realities of what it means to be queer, African, and out to the world in the 21st century. We will engage with a range of fictional and nonfictional sources from across the continent. We will center experiences as told through various modes of storytelling, rather than numbers, outside representations or stereotypes to attend to the heterogeneity of the spaces, experiences, and media that we encounter.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Plus-2 Option Available.
Instructor: Tricoire
Special Topics-Spring
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HUM 295-01 - Special Topic: Digital Journal Publishing: Content Mapping 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: SST 295-01 . Course covers creation of Rootstalk: A Prairie Journal of Culture, Science, and the Arts (Spring 2024). Students shape content in text and images, and learn to create online digital content including podcasts, video essays, short films, and audio files. Special focus for this class: assembling a ”map” of life in the prairie region using multimedia content to define its culture, people, art and science. We’ll also discuss analytics, social media, and outreach to special populations.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Instructor: Andelsoin -
HUM 295-02 - Special Topic: Social Justice Theory and Praxis: Children’s Mental Health Justice 2 credits (Spring)
This course will discuss four social injustices currently faced by American children as symptoms of the same problem: the misrepresentation of control & punishment as care. We will examine the issues and social movements around the school-to-prison nexus, the foster industrial complex, the childrens mental health crisis and legislative & policy attacks on trans youth. We will consider how these issues are part of a larger crisis of care. Students will learn philosophical concepts and theories grounding these social justice movements and apply them in the production of learning materials appropriate for a public audience, such as infographics, videos, podcast episodes and blog entries. Students will be required to attend at least one event outside of class hours.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Dates: January 22 to February 28. Half-semester deadlines apply.
Instructor: Nyden
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