Learning Outcome Five: Knowledge of Human Cultures - Humanities

Learning Outcome Five: Knowledge of Human Cultures – Humanities
Students will be able to apply knowledge and methodologies from diverse fields (arts, humanities, social science, and histories) to explain, analyze and reflect upon human experiences. This involves the ability to identify patterns in human behaviors and cultures, noting commonalities and differences and the ability to creatively produce works that synthesize these concepts.

• 3 s.h. Humanities from list of courses approved for this outcome by the Essential Education Committee
  Sustainability Theme
  ENGL2370 World Literature
  ENGL2410 Creative Writing: Poetry
  ENGL2420 Creative Writing: Fiction
  ENGL2540 Global Eco-Cinema
  ENGL3260 American Environmental Literature
  ENGL3320 Creative Writing: Nonfiction
  ENGL3570 Documentary Film
  Equality and Peace Theme
  ENGL2280 The Graphic Novel
  ENGL2320 Britain, Empire, and Modernity: 19th and 20th Century British and Irish Literature
  ENGL2330 Our Bondage and Our Freedom: Literatures of the Americas, 1491-1865
  ENGL2350 American Ethnic Literature
  ENGL2360 African American Literature
  ENGL2600 Gender and Sexuality
  ENGL2610 Whiteness and the Working Class
  ENGL3240 Poetry and Social Justice
  ENGL/THTR3350 Shakespeare
  ENGL3480 Cultural Studies
  ENGL3560 Race, Space, and Place in American Cinema
  Innovation Theme
  COMM1250 Introduction to Communication Theory
  ENGL2310 British Borders: British Literature to 1800
  ENGL2340 Legacies of Conquest: American Literature 1900 to Present
  ENGL2510 Introduction to Film
  ENGL3300 Creative Writing Experiments
  ENGL3420 Structures of Modern English

COMM1250 Introduction to Communication Theory 3 s.h.
Survey of the major theories that support research and study of communication, such as interpersonal communication, organizational communication, rhetoric, media, culture, and ethics. The course gives students a foundation in communication vocabulary, basic knowledge of key theories, and an introduction to practical application of theory to human communication. Offered every Fall. ELO5 Humanities – Innovation

ENGL2280 The Graphic Novel 3 s.h.
Investigates how the comic medium crafts narrative in ways both similar to and different from traditional novels. Students will analyze the use and impact of a variety of comic conventions in the context of works that push beyond the realm of entertainment (the stereotypical category for such work) and investigate the human experience in meaningful ways. Emphasis on how the comic form can be used to promote equality and peace. ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

ENGL2310 British Borders: British Literature to 1800 3 s.h.
Survey of significant works originating from the British Isles through the eighteenth century, with an emphasis on poetry and drama. Examines the fluctuating concept of “Britishness” in literature in relation to the national borders of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland as they were shaped throughout this period. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – World Citizenship, ELO5 Humanities – Innovation

ENGL2320 Britain, Empire, and Modernity: 19th and 20th Century British and Irish Literature 3 s.h.
Survey of significant works by “British” and Irish writers from the beginning of the nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth century. Emphasizes literary visions of peace and conflict amidst major political and social upheavals. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Peace, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

ENGL2330 Our Bondage and Our Freedom: Literatures of the Americas, 1491-1865 3 s.h.
Survey of writers from North and South America stretching from the advent of European colonization in the Western Hemisphere to the conclusion of the U.S. Civil War. The course will pay special attention to the legacies of colonialism and slavery, and the ways that literature and language, as oral storytelling and print culture, both underwrote systems of enslavement and created social movements for freedom and equality. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

ENGL2340 The Stories That Made Us: American Literature, 1900 to Present 3 s.h.
Survey of U.S. Literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. Special attention given to the making (and unmaking) of U.S. national mythologies, the major formal transformations that have taken place in U.S. Literature since 1900, and the function of literature as an innovative and adaptive technology that expands human capacities. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – World Citizenship, ELO5 Humanities – Innovation

++ENGL2350 American Ethnic Literature 3 s.h.
A survey of multi-ethnic U.S. literature, including Latino/a literature, Asian American literature, Native American literature, and American Jewish literature. As a complement to literary texts, students will also examine a range of introductory theoretical texts in the interdisciplinary field of ethnic studies. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

++ENGL2360 African American Literature 3 s.h.
A survey of African American literature from the eighteenth century to the present. An array of discursive modes, including songs, folklore, speeches, poetry, fiction and drama, will be analyzed across various African-American artistic and social movements, from sorrow songs, abolitionist tracts, and the Harlem Renaissance to civil rights speeches, the Black Arts avant-garde, and spoken word performance. As a complement to literary texts, students will also examine a range of introductory theoretical texts in the interdisciplinary field of African-American studies. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

+ENGL2370 World Literature 3 s.h.
Examines literary works by authors from a broad range of artistic and cultural traditions, emphasizing literature in translation. Designed to offer students an introduction to literature as a point of access into global communities. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – World Citizenship, ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

+ ENGL2410 Creative Writing: Poetry 3 s.h.
Study of poetry writing through the lens of sustainability. Investigates the maintenance of various systems that meet human needs (e.g. emotional, physical, social, environmental) through extensive poetry writing and class discussion. Emphasis on poetry as a means of self-discovery as well as an art form. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

+ ENGL2420 Creative Writing: Fiction 3 s.h.
Study of fiction writing through the lens of sustainability. Investigates the maintenance of various systems that meet human needs (e.g. emotional, physical, social, environmental) through extensive fiction writing and class discussion. Emphasis on fiction as a means of self-discovery as well as an art form. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

ENGL2510 Introduction to Film 3 s.h.
Study of cinema as an artistic endeavor, form of rhetoric, cultural mirror, and purveyor of ideology. Introduces the fundamentals of the discipline, to include vocabulary, concepts of film production, film reception, film analysis, film interpretation, and film criticism. Exploration of the artistic, commercial, entertainment, and ideological relationships between cinema and American culture, along with practice in the film literacy skills needed to qualitatively assess and communicate cinema’s artistic and cultural contributions. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Innovation

+ENGL2540 Global Eco-Cinema 3 s.h.
A transnational survey of films that deal with environmental issues and, more broadly, with human relationships to the nonhuman world. An examination of the impact of urbanization on rural communities, the mysterious allure of wild and uncultivated landscapes, the threat of climate change to daily life around the world, and the cinematic representation of environmental apocalypse. Explores different genres and styles, including neo-realism, eco-horror, anime, and avant-garde cinema. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

++ENGL2600 Gender and Sexuality 3 s.h.
An exploration of issues of gender and sexuality in literature, with a focus on fiction, drama, and poetry by women and LGBT+ writers. As a complement to literary texts, students will also examine a range of introductory theoretical texts in the interdisciplinary field of gender and sexuality studies. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

++ENGL2610 Whiteness and the Working Class 3 s.h.
An exploration of the racial category of whiteness and its historical relationship to social class and power in the United States. Representations of the white working class in literature, music, film, and television will be analyzed alongside cultural histories of multiracial, antiracist labor movements in the United States. As a complement to cultural texts, students will also examine a range of introductory theoretical texts in the multidisciplinary fields of Critical Whiteness Studies and working class studies. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

+ENGL3240 Poetry and Social Justice 3 s.h.
An investigation of the role of poetry as a vehicle for social change. With a focus on the poetry of emancipatory social movements, this global survey course includes a range of modern poets who merged the personal with the political, including William Blake, Walt Whitman, Muriel Rukeyser, Pablo Neruda, Amiri Baraka, Adrienne Rich, June Jordan, Dennis Brutus, and Mahmoud Darwish. Students examine how poetry and poetic form function as a means of engaging ethical and social concerns, and eliciting emotions in readers-from rage and defiance to observation and understanding-that might serve to promote social justice. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Peace, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

ENGL3260 American Environmental Literature 3 s.h.
What makes a work of literature “environmental”? How have humans thought about nature throughout history, and how does that intellectual and artistic history affect us today? Can works of literature help humans prevent environmental catastrophes like climate change and species extinction? We’ll seek answers to these questions as we engage with fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry. We’ll discuss the ways that literary and cultural forms can shape who we are, what we value, and what we imagine for the future. We’ll also work to build your skills of critical reading, analytical thinking and persuasive writing, skills that will serve you in the future, in whatever environment you inhabit. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

ENGL3300 Creative Writing Experiments 3 s.h.
An investigation of experimental writing and the ways it disrupts preconceived notions of genre. Students will write individually and collaboratively, composing short stories, poems, nonfiction pieces, and comics that reimagine the uses and possibilities of language. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Innovation

ENGL3320 Creative Writing: Nonfiction 3 s.h.
Study of nonfiction writing through the lens of sustainability. Investigates the maintenance of various systems that meet human needs (e.g. emotional, physical, social, environmental) through extensive nonfiction writing and class discussion. Emphasis on nonfiction as a means of self-discovery as well as an art form. ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

+ ENGL3350 Shakespeare (Also THTR3350) 3 s.h.
Study of a selection of plays and poems likely authored or co-authored by Shakespeare, emphasizing the plays as historical performance texts. Encourages students to locate Shakespeare’s works within Renaissance-era notions of harmony and discord, and war and peace. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Peace, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

+ ENGL3420 Structures in Modern English 3 s.h.
An introduction to grammatical structures of the English language. Emphasizes the history and development of English in different cultural communities as a means to understand, rather than prescribe, how English-speakers use language. Encourages active participation in, rather than passive observance of, language’s evolutionary processes and social functions. ELO5 Humanities – Innovation

+ ENGL3480 Cultural Studies 3 s.h.
Explores cultural systems of meaning and attendant issues of power, particularly in terms of class, gender, nation, race, nature, and sexuality. Emphasis on commercial and media culture. ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

ENGL3560 Race, Space, and Place in American Cinema 3 s.h.
An investigation of intersecting representations of race, space, and place in postwar American Cinema and the different ways that films reproduce dominant cultural notions of “racialized space” that contribute to ongoing problems such as segregation, economic inequality, and police brutality. Emphasis on how films can challenge systems of spatialized racism and other forms of oppression and help in the struggles for racial and environmental justice. Additional emphasis on formal qualities of films, such as editing and cinematography, as ways to develop and enrich interpretations of what we see on screen. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Equality, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace

ENGL3570 Documentary Film 3 s.h.
Explores the history, economics, and formal qualities of the “documentary tradition” in filmmaking, with a special focus on documentary films that engage issues of sustainability, broadly defined (environmental, social, and economic). Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Sustainability

+ THTR3350 Shakespeare (Also ENGL3350) 3 s.h.
Study of a selection of plays and poems likely authored or co-authored by Shakespeare, emphasizing the plays as historical performance texts. Encourages students to locate Shakespeare’s works within Renaissance-era notions of harmony and discord, and war and peace. Goal 2B, ELO5 Humanities – Peace, ELO5 Humanities – Equality and Peace