Summer 2025

In this interactive course, students will use a humanities lens to explore questions about what it means to be human: How and why have individuals throughout history and around the globe sought to make sense of their world through creative expression? How do our interactions with society and the environment around us shape our sense of self? How do we in turn shape society and our environment? Throughout the course, students will engage with examples of cultural products from a range of humanities disciplines, such as art history, literature, religion, music history, theater, film, philosophy, and language and linguistics. In the course of this engagement, students will practice skills that are not only essential for humanities classrooms but extend to any workplace: thinking critically, interpreting evidence, and communicating effectively, all while striving towards a deeper understanding of diversity in order to respond creatively and constructively to the challenge of difference.

Introduction to the fundamental vocabulary, principles, analytical processes, and styles of the creative arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, and the printed image) with an emphasis on the performing arts (theatre, dance, music, film, and television). The course will include a variety of individual and group activities focused on creativity and performance in the classroom and in the community.