General Education: Humanities
Knowledge and its Application (HUM-103)
345-103-04 (3-1-3) 2.33 credits
This category of Humanities contains courses that study human knowledge, how it is acquired, how it may be analysed and used. A particular emphasis is on how these aspects of knowing affect the values of society.
Education and Society
This course introduces a student to the meaning of education in contemporary society by examining the relationship between education and the self, education and society and exploring the increasing importance of education in contemporary society and the world at large. It treats education essentially as a means of developing, on the individual level, an open personality, and, on the world level, peaceful emancipation.
Power to the People
Students will have the opportunity to explore the new and emerging uses of theatre in an experiential manner. The class will discover and explore how theatre can be used as an instrument for the empowerment of oppressed and disenfranchised peoples through an examination of theatre for social change. What happens when theatre removes itself from the traditional presentational mode, and the power of decision making and problem solving is placed in the hands of the audience? How does theatre then become an empowering political and social experience? How is this a reflection of the changing global times?
Media and Messages
Patterns of media ownership and control can affect what is made available to us through information and entertainment technology. Students will be coaxed to decode critically messages in the electronic media in order to understand better the types of knowledge that they are exposed to in the new millennium.
Stop the Presses!
How does the press define what is newsworthy? By analyzing local, national and international newspapers, students will learn to critique the printed presses and the types of knowledge that are purveyed through them. By investigating, writing and promoting their own feature articles, students will also experiment with the practicalities of this form of knowledge creation.
The Stuff of Nonsense
In this course students will explore a wide variety of examples of nonsense: jokes, nonsense literature, nonsense film, surrealistic painting and nonsense music. Students will see that successful nonsense contains internal, dynamic and cohesive qualities which make it meaningful —full of "sense." Students will be encouraged to re-evaluate the ingrained rationalistic system of value that dominates the modern, technological civilization of the West, and to consider whether, in a society which values reason over the emotions, the nonsense artist may provide a necessary escape valve from a narrowly rationalistic universe.
Gender Bender
This course is about gender and how it intersects with every aspect of our lives. It looks at the origins of gendered power relationships as well as gender in action, and explores ways of moving towards gender equality. Course content will include historical and contemporary situations, and an understanding and use of feminist methodology and queer theory.
Why Rome?
Ancient Rome experienced many troubles, including: constant war, slavery, plague, social inequality, dictatorship, military anarchy, and religious conflict. How then did this civilization last for over 1000 years? Topics will include: philosophy, literature, medicine, law, foreign policy, propaganda, slander, representations of sexuality, the roles of women, and the portrayal of the ancient world in film.
China & India: The Orient
How have we in the West formed our images of the ancient civilizations of India, China and the world of Islam? How did imperialism and "Orientalism" affect our Western creative development? We compare our views of "the Orient" today with past images in books, film, art and even food and music.
Science in Society
This course will examine science as a system of knowledge by looking at a series of case studies. We will contrast arguments for why science offers a unique form of knowledge with studies that show how scientific understanding, like other forms of knowledge, is informed by societal forces.
Ways of Knowing
This course uses the storyline and discussions in Robert Pirsig’s novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, as a starting point to explore the nature of human knowledge, and the connections that exist between our views on knowledge and our values—even our sense of reality. In the course of our explorations we will have the opportunity to examine the perspectives of both eastern and western philosophy, as well as the tension between the scientific and the creative/aesthetic attitude which has been a pervasive undercurrent in the development of contemporary culture.
The American Century
This course will attempt to help students to understand American civilization and evaluate its impact on the twentieth century. It will examine the achievements and limitations of American civilization both at home and abroad. The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge of American civilization. It will illustrate how different forms of knowledge: the social sciences, history, philosophy, the arts, and literature can help us to develop our knowledge of American civilization and evaluate its impact on the world.
