Humanities

Galbraith Hall, Room 180, Revelle College
http://humanities.ucsd.edu

All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice.

The humanities program offers interdisciplinary courses in history, philosophy, and literature, with a focus on major aspects of the Western humanistic tradition. In these courses, students examine the development of a wide variety of ideas and forms of expression that exert a major influence on modern America. Through lectures and class discussions, and through the writing of essays, students learn to interpret literary, historical, and philosophical texts and to conduct independent critical assessments of documents and ideas.

The sequence of courses, HUM 1 through HUM 5, meets the humanities and writing requirement of Revelle College. Instruction in university-level writing is part of all five courses, but students in HUM 1 and 2 (six units each) receive intensive writing instruction.

Students must have satisfied the UC Entry Level Writing requirement before registering for any part of the humanities sequence. HUM 1 and HUM 2 must be taken before HUM 3-4-5.

For detailed description of the Revelle College humanities requirement, see “Revelle College, General-Education Requirements, Humanities.”

The Humanities Minor

The humanities minor consists of at least seven courses chosen from the listings of the departments of history, philosophy, literature, visual arts, music, and theatre and dance. All seven courses may be selected from the upper-division offerings, but at least five upper-division courses must be included. Students for whom HUM 1–5 fulfill general-education requirements may use two of these courses toward fulfillment of requirements for the humanities minor.

Courses selected for the minor must be selected from the offerings of more than one department. They must concern themselves with more than one historical, national, or ethnic culture; and they must offer broad treatment of centrally important topics in the humanities. Thus, a course on the history of the United States since the Civil War would be appropriate for the humanities minor, while a course in the history of California would not.

Here are some examples of study lists appropriate for the present humanities minor:

Example 1

HIEU 143. European Intellectual History, 1870–1945

HILD 2A-B. United States

HILD 11. East Asia and the West 1279–1911

LTEA 110B. Modern Chinese Fiction in Translation

PHIL 160. Ethical Theory

PHIL 177. Philosophy and Literature

VIS 121B. Church and Mosque: Medieval Art and Architecture between Christianity and Islam

Example 2

HIAF 111. Modern Africa since 1880

HILA 102. Latin America in the Twentieth Century

LTAM 110. Latin American Literature in Translation

MUS 114. Music of the Twentieth Century

TDGE 11. Great Performance on Film

TDHT 109. African American Theatre

VIS 105D. Art Forms and Chinese Calligraphy

Example 3

HUM 1. The Foundations of Western Civilization: Israel and Greece

HUM 2. Rome, Christianity, and the Middle Ages

LTEN 112. Shakespeare I: The Elizabethan Period

LTEN 158. Modern American Literature

LTWL 183. Film Studies and Literature: Director’s Work

PHIL 175. Aesthetics

PHIL 177. Philosophy and Literature

Students should review their plans for the minor with the humanities adviser as well as with the advisers in their college. Before undertaking the minor, students must submit a study list for approval to the humanities office.

The Humanities Majors

Normally, students interested in majoring in humanities must choose a specific major in the humanities departments, e.g., history, literature, or philosophy. But students from Revelle and Muir Colleges may request to graduate with an approved individual/special project major in the humanities.