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2024-2025 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 295-01 - Special Topic: Swissness - More than the Alps 1 credits (Fall)
This class provides an interdisciplinary introdcution to the culture of Switzerland. Topics include direct democracy (the Swiss political system: “Can the people rule?”), history, neutrality, mentality, economy and banking (CH has the world`s highest wealth per capita), discussions of traditional and modern Swiss art, religion, design (Le Corbusier) etc. The class fosters critical engagement with the politics, traditions and various iconic representations of Switzerland in order to apprehend the country`s complexities and contradictions. We will engage the campus community as a class and offer a Swiss-style culinary reception and screen a film.
Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Dates: September 24 to October 17. Short course deadlines apply.
Instructor: Staff
Special Topics-Spring
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HUM 195-01 - Introductory Special Topic: Digital Native American Indigenous Studies 2 credits (Spring)
What means the internet in Indian Country? What links hypertext to wampum, rounddances to TikTok, treaties to podcasts? This course will combine approaches from digital and information and media studies, Indigenous studies, and performance studies to investigate the movement of Native artmaking and community-building in digital spaces, and how digital projects support offline Indigenous resurgence. While we will parallel performance dramaturgy (information design) with digital storycrafting, students from a variety of majors are encouraged.
Prerequisite: None.
Note: Dates: January 21 to March 6. Half-semester deadlines apply.
Instructor: Shook -
HUM 195-02 - Introductory Special Topic: Theorizing Dance and Language 4 credits (Spring)
This course investigates the ways that dance and language intersect. We will play the role of detectives, exploring cross-disciplinary collaboration between linguistics and choreography, fields that both study human expression. We will examine a specific collaboration between these two disciplines that emerged in Europe during the 1920s and 30s, acting as detectives and using readings, movement activities, archival research, and course-embedded travel to Prague and London as our tools. No prior dance experience is required.
Students interested in this course will need to complete an application by October 10, 2024 in addition to doing thenormal registration process. The application materials are available here: https://www.grinnell.edu/academics/global/flag/glp There is a $2,100 course fee for participating in Global Learning Program classes that will be added to the student’s bill during the first week of the semester. Scholarships are available for students who qualify for need-based financial aid at Grinnell and will be automatically provided. There is a $2,100 scholarship for very high need (net cost added to the bill $0), a $1,575 scholarship available for high need students (net cost added to the bill $525), a $1,050 scholarship for moderate need students (net cost added to bill $1,050), a $525 scholarship for low need students (net cost added to bill $1,575) and no scholarship for students with no need. If you have questions about your need level and scholarship eligibility, please contact Meg Jones at jonesmeg@grinnell.edu.
Prerequisite: Second-semester first-year student.
Instructor: Hansen, C.Miller -
HUM 195-03 - Special Topic: Modern Arab World Through Literature 4 credits Spring
This course studies the global significance of the 380 million Arabs as the fourth largest community in the world and Arabic as the fifth most widely spoken language from a historical and thematic perspective (1400 CE to the present) through literary selections covering the periods of premodernity, Arab renaissance, colonialism, state-building, and globalization.
Prerequisite: None.
Instructor: Obiedat
Variable Topics- Spring
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HUM 251-01 - Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature 4 credits (Spring)
Cross-listed as: GLS 251-01 . This course takes a theoretical approach to canonical and contemporary children’s literature. This section will focus primarily on the history of constructions of race and sexuality in American children’s literature, primarily picture books.
Prerequisite: A course in English or another course in literature with grade S, C, or better.
Note: Foreign language option available in Russian or French.
Instructor: Greene
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