This introductory course explores the interaction of people from the past with their cultural milieu through a study of works that have cultural or historical importance.

This course studies the ways people talk about the past, specifically (in)famous women, through myths, legends, and history by focusing on subjects such as Eve, Mary, the Amazons, Cleopatra, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Joan of Arc, and Columbus, among others.

An introduction to the cultures of Korea, China and Japan through literature, history, and film.

This course looks at the lives of women such as Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, and Abigail Adams, and places them in the tradition of exceptional women. It examines that tradition as a form of both women’s history and feminist argument, from Roman antiquity to the present.

A social and cultural history of European aristocracy and monarchy from medieval times to the present.

This class will help you connect the dots between your love of books and your curiosity (anxiety?) about life after college, between analyzing a text and analyzing a data set. It will equip you with answers to big questions like what do we mean when we say the "humanities" and what can you do with a humanities degree?

The proposed course, “Worlds of Islam,” encourages students to questions their assumptions about Islam and its global impact. In order to contest and modify those assumptions, students would encounter writings from the many cultures influenced by Islam as well as writings of western origin which reacted to the expansion of Islam. This reaction could take many forms, from distrust and suspicion, to polemic and debate, to sacralized violence, attempts at conversion, treaties, and borrowing or collaboration. Topics will include the diversity and richness of Islamic cultures (in the Mediterranean, Central Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Africa) and the contributions of these cultures to literature, artwork, and scientific knowledge around the world, both in the past and the present.

Topics in Humanistic Studies not covered in regular department offerings. May be repeated with a different topic.

This course looks at the main elements of Greek and Roman culture in a global context through a variety of works: historical, philosophical, and literary. Special attention is paid to the role of women in Greek and Roman society.

A social, political, intellectual, and artistic history, from Greco-Roman antiquity to the High Middle Ages, focused on Europe in a global context with special attention paid to the role of Christianity. Topics include the “golden age” of Athens, the cultural influence of the Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity and Islam, monasticism, the medieval world view, the rise of royal government, the twelfth-century cultural revolution, and Gothic architecture. Corequisite: HUST 323.

A social, political, intellectual, and artistic history, from the Late Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance, focused on Europe in a global context with special attention paid to the role of Christianity. Topics include the Black Death and its impact, the power of Italian city-states, Renaissance humanism, the cult of the individual, Europe's global interaction, and the evolution of Renaissance art. Corequisite: HUST 324.

Major literary works from Greco-Roman antiquity to the High Middle Ages. Readings may include Homer’s Odyssey, Sophocles’s Antigone, Virgil’s Aeneid, Augustine’s Confessions, the Life of Muhammad, The Song of Roland, and The Romance of Tristan. Corequisite: HUST 321.

Major literary works from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Readings may include The Travels of Marco Polo, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Petrarch’s My Secret, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier. Corequisite: HUST 322.

Topics in Humanistic Studies not covered in regular department offerings. May be repeated with a different topic.

A political, intellectual, and artistic history, from the Northern Renaissance to the Age of Napoleon, focused on Europe with special attention paid to the role of Christianity. Topics include the Reformation, English constitutional history, baroque culture, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. Corequisite: HUST 463.

A political, intellectual, and artistic history, from the nineteenth century to the present, focused on Europe with special attention paid to the role of Christianity. Topics include ideology in the age of industry, the modernist movement, the world wars, the Cold War, and the post-modern outlook. Corequisite: HUST 464.

Major literary works, from the Northern Renaissance to the Age of Napoleon. Readings may include More’s Utopia, Montaigne’s Essays, Shakespeare’s Othello, Voltaire’s Candide, Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, Equiano's Interesting Narrative, and Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Corequisite: HUST 461.

Major literary works, from the nineteenth century to the present. Readings may include Romantic poetry, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Camus’s The Plague, and Allende’s The House of the Spirits. Corequisite: HUST 462.

Topics in Humanistic Studies not covered in regular department offerings. May be repeated with a different topic.

Independent study for outstanding students. May be repeated.

Practical experience in a field related to Humanistic Studies. Graded S/U. May be repeated.