Foundation Courses
HUM 501 Building Textual Interpretation
This literature course familiarizes students with the processes of critical
analysis and scholarly research at the graduate level by examining texts —
both the read and the written — as constructed texts. It emphasizes
two skill sets necessary for graduate-level work in literature and cultural
studies: the first set focuses on the key building blocks of critical and
textual analysis; the second set relates to bibliographic and research methodologies,
drawing —where possible — on the wealth of resources in the Washington,
DC, metropolitan area. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 501.) (3)
HUM 502 Art in the City: Sources and Materials
This Art History course introduces graduate students to interpretive methods and research opportunities in the discipline. Students investigate different methods by which art historians practice their discipline from reading discussions of methodologies as well as writings by major authors who practiced those approaches. Students will apply different methods to interpret works of art housed in area collections. The class also introduces students to unique opportunities for studying art history in the Washington, DC, area by visiting works of art in regional collections, and by introductions to, and tours of, local research facilities. Discipline: Art History. (3)
HUM 503 Foundations of the City: History
This course is a graduate-level introduction to research methods in History. Students will focus on developing their methodological skills (identifying and weighing primary and secondary evidence, critical analysis of sources, proper methods of citation) and begin an advanced exploration of historiography (i.e. asking the question “What is history?”, surveying the history of studying history, identifying current schools of historical thought). As this class investigates different methods used by historians, it also will introduce students to unique research opportunities in the Washington, DC, area. Discipline: History. (3)
HUM 504 The Structure of Philosophy
This course is a graduate-level introduction to research methods in Philosophy. Students will learn how to interpret and evaluate primary source texts, how to properly frame philosophical questions for consideration, how to locate and use secondary literature, and finally how to present the results of their research in essays that meet professional standards. In addition, during the semester, students will visit one or more local research institutions to attend a conference, symposium, lecture, or similar academic event to learn firsthand about contemporary philosophical research in the Washington, DC, area. Discipline: Philosophy. (3)
Program Courses: Individual in the City
HUM 512 Socrates in Athens
In this Philosophy course, students will learn how to interpret and evaluate primary source texts, how to properly frame philosophical questions for consideration, how to locate and use secondary literature, and finally how to present the results of their research in essays that meet professional standards. Along with standard library work, the student will be encouraged to make applications from ancient Athens to the present political situation in Washington, DC. This can include concrete primary research to support his or her project. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 504 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Philosophy. (3)
HUM 518 St. Augustine and the Fall of Rome
This History course is an interdisciplinary seminar focusing on the Fall of the Roman Empire through the works of Augustine of Hippo and his contemporaries. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 503 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: History. (3)
HUM 525 King Arthur and Camelot: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
This History course examines “Arthuriana” in its many guises, including archaeology, art, film, history, literature, music, and pop culture. It is an interdisciplinary Humanities course, but will proceed chronologically and focus on the historical dimension. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 503 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: History. (3)
HUM 527 Dante’s Florence and the Divine Comedy
The Comedy masterfully treats the enduring issues of sin and retribution, worthy and unworthy love, forgiveness and redemption, but it emerged out of Dante’s deep involvement with the problems of political and ecclesiastical corruption that beset his own time and place. Through an intensive study of Dante’s major text in its political and cultural contexts, this Literature course seeks to heighten students’ ability to use close textual analysis as ways both of responding to the rich complexities of Dante’s poem and of gaining historical insight into the medieval world. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 527.) (3)
HUM 533 Shakespeare: Text and Performance
This literature course conducts an intensive study of several Shakespearean plays in both text and performance. Each play will be considered as representative of a specific genre (comedy, tragedy, history), and will be examined from both Renaissance/Early Modern and contemporary perspectives. In addition, there will be consideration for the staging and producing of plays through an experiential frame, examining the different methods for dramatic production, whether for stage, film, or television. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 533.) (3)
Program Courses: The City as Text
HUM 542 Origins of the “Novel”: Text, Context, and Critique
The 18th century, which saw the proliferation of print culture, the inauguration of Enlightenment thought, and the expansion of the British empire, also witnessed the emergence of a new literary form to figure that modern world. This course examines the earliest British “novels,” the historical and cultural contexts from which they developed in the 18th century, and important critical thought about the form both before and after Ian Watt’s watershed Rise of the Novel. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 542.) (3)
HUM 545 Social Upheaval and Dramatic Structure
The Vietnam War, violence in the streets, and the unrest on college campuses in America in the late ’60s worked profound changes in the fabric of American life, reflected in the plays of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. This course traces these changes from a background examination of major works by O’Neill, Hellman, Miller, and Williams. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 545.) (3)
HUM 549 Topics in Counter-Cultural Literary Movements
This is a topics course that will provide an in-depth study of a specific counter-cultural literary movement or time period. The course will examine works from several genres within a given literary movement or time period, and will study these works within their critical and historical context. In particular, the course will examine how recurrent thematic and structural patterns challenge or respond to Western European literary traditions. Specific topics will rotate, and the course may be taken more than once, provided the student selects different literary topics. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 549.) (3)
HUM 554 Renaissance Art and Humanist Society
This Art History course examines the visual arts in Florence, Siena, Rome and/or Venice from the 14th to 16th century within the historical context of Renaissance humanist culture in Italy. Students will interpret the subject and style of different works through comparisons with other manifestations of new Renaissance humanism in each locale, including contemporary literature, religious practices, philosophy, politics, socioeconomic developments, and science. The course will focus on examples of Italian Renaissance art in regional collections, with frequent visits to area museums. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 502 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Art History. (3)
HUM 560 Lies and Secrets
This Philosophy course will explore social and moral questions surrounding lies and secrets. It will place special emphasis upon lies and secrets in Washington, DC. When, if ever, is it morally permissible to lie? Is it always wrong to make someone’s secret public knowledge? And do government officials have a special obligation to be open with the public about political and personal affairs? In examining these questions, this course will consider important works written by historical and contemporary philosophers. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 504 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Philosophy. (3)
HUM 563 Revolutionary Philosophy: The City and Text Change
This Philosophy course is a graduate survey of revolution, both intellectual and political. Students will learn various ways revolutions come about and how to compare and evaluate the relative merits of different solutions within the construct of historical progress. The results of student scholarship will be expressed in critical essays that meet professional standards. In addition, during the semester, students will visit one or more local research institutions to attend a conference, symposium, lecture, or similar academic event in the Washington, DC, area to learn firsthand about the foundations of one example of revolution: the U.S. Revolution. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 504 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Philosophy. (3)
Program Courses: Beyond the City
HUM 572 Canterbury Tales and the Late Medieval World
This literature course explores both the artistic mastery Chaucer exhibits in The Canterbury Tales and the historical context in which his story collection took shape. Chaucer’s life is explored, intersected with major historical turning points: the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War, the Avignon papacy and the Great Schism, the Peasants’ Revolt, the rise of the Wycliffite heresy, the emergence of diplomacy in international politics, the increasing importance of the English language, and the shift from a primarily oral to an increasingly literate culture. The course strives to illuminate both the external world of business and politics and the inner world of philosophic and poetic insight. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 572.) (3)
HUM 574 Gender, Race, and Empire in 19th-Century British Literary Culture
This literature-based course explores the impact of empire in 19th century England on Victorian literature and culture, with an emphasis on attitudes concerning the “other” in society —women, the working class and people of color — and the ways in which empire shaped and is shaped by gender roles and race during this period. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 574.) (3)
HUM 576 Literary Proponents of Culture in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Working from a standpoint established by Matthew Arnold and Lionel Trilling, this literature course examines works by six authors. Goethe, Melville, and Joyce demonstrate the synthesizing activity of the creative imagination faithful to myth and literary tradition. Marx, Freud, and Wittgenstein demonstrate the analytical activity of the rational mind bent on changing society, the psyche, or language. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 501 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: English. (Also listed as EN 576.) (3)
HUM 580 Europe and the Barbarians
This History course examines the early history of Europe from the perspective of “civilized” peoples (Greeks, Romans, and other urban societies) versus “barbarians” (especially the Celts, the Germans, and the Vikings). The course will examine the way history has defined civilization and barbarian, and how together these peoples shaped Europe and much of the Western tradition. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 503 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: History. (3)
HUM 585 Art and Culture in Early Modern Northern Europe
This Art History course investigates visual arts in Germany and/or the Low Countries from the 15th to the 17th century within the historical context of Early Modern culture. Students will engage with a range of subjects, including developing spiritual and religious practices, popular literature, the rise of capitalist economies, and shifting political ideologies, each considered through the speculum of the Fine Arts. The course will focus primarily on examples of Northern European Renaissance and Baroque art in regional collections, with frequent visits to area museums. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 502 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Art History. (3)
HUM 591 Philosophy of Time and Culture
This Philosophy course explores the nature and experience of time with particular attention to the experience of time in the city and across cultures. Issues examined include continuity and discreteness; the A-series (past, present, and future) and the B-series (before and after); the reality or unreality of time; sacred time and profane time; cyclical and linear conceptions of time; the phenomenology of time-consciousness; time measurement; the time of natural science; the history of clocks and calendars; clock time and the time of human events; synchronization and acceleration in industrial and post-industrial culture; cultural variations in the experience of time; and the possibility of a synthetic understanding of time. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 504 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Philosophy. (3)
HUM 593 Metaphysics: The World Is Neither City Nor Text
This Philosophy course is a graduate survey of perennial problems in metaphysics and some contemporary solutions to these problems. Although basic metaphysical questions arise naturally from practical concerns and wonder at the world, they are transformed as each generation formulates the problems of metaphysics in new ways, and offers solutions of increasing complexity and ingenuity. Students will learn how contemporary approaches to basic metaphysical problems differ from their historical predecessors, how to compare and evaluate the relative merits of different solutions to metaphysical problems and how to present the results of their scholarship in critical essays that meet professional standards. In addition, during the semester, students will visit one or more local research institutions to attend a conference, symposium, lecture, or similar academic event to learn firsthand about contemporary research in metaphysics in the Washington, DC, area. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, HUM 504 or 2 other Foundation Courses. Discipline: Philosophy. (3)
Program Course
HUM 599 Independent Study
An interdisciplinary investigation of a topic under the supervision of a faculty advisor. Topics must be approved by the Humanities program director; students should refer to the Guidelines for Independent Study issued by the School of Arts and Sciences. The thematic group and the disciplinary focus of each section will be determined by the topic of the individual investigation. Prerequisite: completion of, or enrollment in, the associated Foundation Course or 2 other Foundation Courses. (3)
Capstone/Final Project Courses
HUM 610 Capstone Seminar: The Washington Scene
This course investigates Washington, DC, as a text by focusing on current
events in the Humanities (temporary exhibitions, seasonal theater programs,
election year event, etc.). Students will be challenged to synthesize their
knowledge, skills, and experiences by addressing issues raised by these unique
opportunities from an interdisciplinary perspective. The theme of the Seminar
will change from semester to semester, as will the disciplinary focus. Prerequisite:
completion of 3 Foundation Courses and at least 4 Program Courses. (3)
HUM 690 Final Project: Internship
This course offers the student an opportunity to gain experience in a humanities-based institution in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region. All students will keep a journal of their on-site experiences; each student will choose either to contribute in a substantial way to a major project at the institution or to produce a researched essay based on that experience. The disciplinary focus of the course will be determined by the mission of the humanities organization. Prerequisites: completion of 3 Foundation Courses and at least 5 Program Courses. (3)
HUM 695 Final Project: Thesis
This course offers the student an opportunity to research and write a substantial and original critical/interpretive thesis on an interdisciplinary topic in the Humanities, and to present its main features to an audience of peers and faculty members. This thesis must demonstrate the student’s ability to integrate materials from different disciplines, and must support independent conclusions in writing of commendable quality. The disciplinary focus of the project will be determined by the primary focus of the thesis. Prerequisites: completion of 3 Foundation Courses and at least 5 Program Courses. (3)