2013-2014 Undergraduate Courses

Fall 2013 | Winter 2014 | Spring 2014

Click here for Graduate Courses in Humanities Departments and Programs

 

Fall 2013

HUM 101-6/ HUM 210-0
FRESHMAN HUMANITIES SEMINAR/HUMANITIES IN THE WORLD I

GLOBAL ORIENTS

Instructors: Hannah Feldman, Rebecca Johnson, and Jessica Winegar

NOTE: this course is only open to students in the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program

 

HUM 205-0-20

THE WORLD OF HOMER

Instructor: Ann Gunter

Day: TTH

Time: 11:00-12:20

What do we know of the world inhabited by the heroes of Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey? Do the poems describe a largely imaginary realm created by their author, or do they reflect a particular period of ancient Greek history—and if so, which one? This course explores the society, economy, and culture of “Dark Age,” Geometric and Archaic Greece, emphasizing what scholars have learned through archaeological discoveries along with study of the poems themselves. Topics include the excavations at Troy, Athens, and other sites; contacts with Egypt and the Near East and colonization in the Mediterranean world; trade, exchange, and the technology of travel; literacy and oral tradition; political communities and warfare; religion, burial practices, and the art of ritual and commemoration.

HUM 301-0-20

Topics in the Humanities

ARISTOTLE: SCIENTIST AND PHILOSOPHER

Instructor: David Ebrey

Day: MW

Time: 2:00-3:20

In addition to being one of the world’s greatest philosophers, Aristotle was one of its greatest scientists. He did detailed scientific investigations, especially of animals, that were completely unlike anything that had come before him. He presented his findings using a new type of systematic, explanatory account. He was guided, in his investigations, by a new scientific methodology that he had developed, and by new foundations of natural science that he had laid. More than 700 pages of his scientific works survive. In this course, we will work through a number of treatises to see how the different parts of his science, methodology, and foundations fit together. In doing this, we will examine fundamental concepts that Aristotle played a key role in developing, such as matter, function, and axiomatic explanations.

Winter 2014

 

HUM 102-6/ HUM 211-0
FRESHMAN HUMANITIES SEMINAR/HUMANITIES IN THE WORLD II

MORAL DRAMA, MELODRAMA: THE ORIGINS OF POPULAR CULTURE

Instructors: Susie Phillips, Sara Maza, Julia Stern

NOTE: this course is only open to students in the Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program

HUM 220-0-20

HUMANITIES EXPLORATIONS

HEALTH, BIOMEDICINE, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY

Instructor: Steven Epstein

Day: TTH

Time: 3:30-4:50

Present-day medicine and health care are flashpoints for a bewildering array of controversies—about whose interests the health care system should serve and how it should be organized; about the trustworthiness of the medical knowledge we rely on when we are confronted with the threat of illness; about the politics and ethics of biomedical research; about whether health care can be made affordable; about how the benefits of good health can be shared equitably across lines of social class, race, and gender; and about the proper roles of health professionals, scientists, patients, activists, and the state in establishing medical, political, and ethical priorities. By providing a broad introduction to the domain of health and biomedicine, this course will take up such controversies as matters of concern to all. We will analyze the cultural meanings associated with health and illness; the political controversies surrounding health care, medical knowledge production, and medical decision-making; and the structure of the social institutions that comprise the health care industry. We will examine many problems with the current state of health and health care in the United States, and we will also consider potential solutions.  

 

HUM 260-0-20

HUMANITIES EXPLORATIONS

ALTERNATIVES: MODELING CHOICE ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES

Instructors: Morton Schapiro and Gary Saul Morson

Day: TTH

Time: 12:20-1:50

This course will offer a cross-disciplinary approach to the concept of alternatives and choices.   At any given moment, how many alternatives are possible?   Is there really such a thing as chance or choice?   On what basis do we choose?  How do students select a college, and how does a college decide which students to select or fund?   Professor Morson, a specialist in literature, and Professor Schapiro, a labor economist specializing in the economics of higher education, will themselves offer alternative approaches to these questions based on the presuppositions of their respective disciplines.   The class will be structured as a debate with no single right answer to each question.   Readings will be taken from literature, philosophy, economics, history, the Bible, evolutionary theory, and other disciplines.

 

HUM 301-0-20

TOPICS IN THE HUMANITIES

EARLY MODERN LITERATURE OF GRIEF

Instructor: Kasey Evans

Day: TTH

Time: 2:00-3:20

Spring 2014

 

HUM 301-0-20

TOPICS IN THE HUMANITIES

JUSTICE FOR THE HOLOCAUST? PROSECUTING NAZI WAR CRIMINALS IN COURT AND BEFORE HISTORY

Instructor: Ben Frommer

Day: MW

Time: 3:30-4:50

 

HUM 301-0-21

TOPICS IN THE HUMANITIES

TOPIC: TBA

Instructor: Ipek Yosmaoglu

Day: TTH

Time: 3:30-4:50

HUM 302-0-20

NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE HUMANITIES

TOPIC: TBA

Instructor: Katherine Hoffman

Day: W

Time: 3:00-5:00

HUM 302-0-21

TOPICS IN THE HUMANITIES

TOPIC: TBA

Instructor: Emily Rohrbach

Day: MW

Time: 2:00-3:20

 

HUM 395-0

HUMANITIES SEMINAR

KNOWLEDGE AND THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE: RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY IN MODERN SCIENCE

Instructor: STEVEN EPSTEIN

Day: TTH

Time: 11:00-12:20

Past Courses