Requirements
Arts and Humanities
Course Characteristics
Courses in the Arts and Humanities enable students to understand and interpret expressions and artifacts of human experience in word, image, music, and gesture. In these courses, students investigate the varieties of aesthetic, intellectual, and cultural expression from both contemporary and historical perspectives. They also develop the abilities to think rationally and to construct and assess opinions, ideas, and arguments. Arts and Humanities courses further encourage students to explore their own identity and traditions, so that they may craft their own responses to a changing and complex, modern world.
In the Arts, students explore human expression through (a) writing in various literary forms, (b) visual arts (painting, sculpture, textiles, etc.), (c) musical composition and performance, and (d) dramatic performance (live theater, video and film, dance, etc.). In the Humanities, students explore areas of knowledge and analysis relating to human history, philosophy, and/or culture.
Courses approved in Arts and Humanities (a) investigate and analyze modes of symbolic representation and artistic and/or literary conventions; (b) explore cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts of literature, art, music, and drama; (c) grapple with religious, philosophical, and moral questions; and/or (d) create and/or re-create artistic works culminating in individual or group publication, production, or performance. Courses included in this last category will integrate analytical papers or formal critiques demonstrating students' ability to express opinions and ideas, and to argue rationally about them.