Humanities Program

University of New Hampshire

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Humanities at UNH
Humanities students explore the fundamental questions of human existence. What does it mean to be a human being? For answers, humanities students look everywhere: from Greek tragedies, postmodern novels, and High Renaissance sculpture to pop art, baroque music, and contemporary psychological and social theories. Humanities students are in the company of scientists, artists, musicians, historians, revolutionaries, philosophers, and writers who, for thousands of years, have been engaged in the same quest.

To introduce students to their fellow explorers, the University has assembled an interdisciplinary faculty. You will find professors of art, literature, philosophy, and science teaching a course on the search for spiritual life, or instructors of history, political science, and theater offering a course on law and the meaning of justice.

The interdisciplinary faculty reflect an integrated curriculum in which students quickly learn that no human feat stands alone. You will have the opportunity to study how a work of art and literature, for example, was shaped by that which preceded it and how it influenced what followed. And in the process, you may develop a new way of thinking-not only about art and literature, but also about life and yourself. Students from any academic program may enroll in a humanities course. The program offers a major, a minor, and many courses that satisfy general education or elective requirements.
 

Courses

• 401. Introduction to the Humanities

An interdisciplinary study of the humanities that focuses on an "entry text" and the questions it has spawned in other works, selected and arranged to spark lively, intellectual debate. Recent entry texts have included Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and "The Idea of the University." Four humanities faculty members lead group lectures and smaller weekly discussion groups. 4 credits. Covers Gen. Ed. 8.
Click here to see some recent 401 syllabi.

• Humanities 500. Critical Methods in the Humanities

This course provides students with a solid foundation in what it means to do academic research and writing in the humanities. Students delve into one field of study and, with the help and guidance of the professor and their peers, produce a substantial research project on themes that have ranged in the past from trends in cultural studies to representations of evil in literature.
 
• The Western Tradition: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (the 510-515 series of courses)

Explore the development of Western culture from biblical times to the 20th century through the perspectives of art history, comparative literature, philosophy, and the history and philosophy of science. Attend weekly lectures by some of UNH's most gifted teachers and small discussion groups led by course instructors, each of whom has a different specialty.
TIP: All Western Tradition courses offer four discussion group categories: A) art history, B) comparative literature, C) history of science, and D) philosophy. Each category satisfies a different general education requirement. If you enroll in four courses from this sequence and choose a different category for each course, you can satisfy five general education requirements.

• 510. The Ancient World: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

What is a human being? How should we explain or understand what happens to us? How ought we to live? This team-taught course examines these questions by focusing on the literature, art, philosophy, and science of ancient Greece and Rome. 4 credits

• 511. The Medieval World: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

What is the soul, and how is its health related to temptation and Christian virtues? How does the medieval definition of an eternal God determine the good and evil in daily life? How does hope for immortality affect the practices of writing literature, creating art, studying philosophy, and investigating science? This team-taught course considers these questions in the light of literature, art, philosophy, and science from the collapse of the classical world to the rise of capitalism. 4 credits

•  512. Renaissance and Early Modern: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

What are the roots of the modern imagination? Where is God in the scientific revolution? What is the relationship between experience and reality? This course looks for answers among the interrelationships of art, literature, philosophy, and science from the High Renaissance to the 18th century. You will examine the works and ideas of such influential figures as Shakespeare, Milton, Raphael, Rembrandt, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and Hume. 4 credits

•  513. The Modern World: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

Is there such a thing as "progress"? If so, what is its nature? What is the relationship between the conscious and unconscious? Is the contemporary world devoid of meaning? This course explores central, cultural paradoxes of our modern age in relation to literature, science, philosophy, and art from the eighteenth century to the present. 4 credits

•  514. The Twentieth Century, 1900-1945: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

This course examines the relationships between literature, art, philosophy, and science in the first half of the twentieth century. Study the rise of modernism in literature and the arts, the distinctive themes of twentieth-century philosophy, and crucial innovations in the sciences through the works of such figures as Picasso, Woolf, Einstein, Freud, and Wittgenstein. 4 credits

•  515. The Twentieth Century, 1945-99: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

This course examines the relationships of literature, art, philosophy, and science since the middle of the twentieth century. Study the philosophical and literary implications of the Holocaust and nuclear weapons, movements in the arts and literature since World War II, postmodernism, and the rise of life and information sciences through the works of such figures as Arendt, Turing, Beckett, and Pollack. 4 credits

• 510---515. The Western Tradition: An Interdisciplinary Introduction, 8 credits
• 500.   Critical Methods in the Humanities, 4 credits
• 700.  Seminar in the Humanities, 4 credits
• 798-799.  Research Project in the Humanities, 4 credits

Each major must also fulfill

• A minimum of 8 additional credits from other humanities program courses.
• An additional 12 credits from Humanities Program courses or-with the advice and approval of your major adviser or the Humanities Program coordinator-courses from other departments and programs.

The Minor

The humanities minor consists of the following courses:

• Two courses (8 credits) from the 510-515. sequence.
• Two courses from other humanities program courses, one of which should be at the 600 level.
• Seminar in the humanities (700) or another approved course.

For more information about the Humanities Program, contact huma@unh.edu