Fall 2016 Course Syllabi

Humanities 101

Introduction to Humanities

Policies and Procedures

Gary Albrightson

Office: Thatcher 2207

Office Phone: 228 5602

Office Hours: 1-2 Monday, Wednesday, Friday but also by appointment

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce beginning university students to the major disciplines of the

Humanities: philosophy, history, religion, drama, music, and the arts. This course accomplishes

this by presenting a chronological survey of the humanities produced in European civilization.

This survey starts with the Paleolithic era and ends in the Late Middle Ages.

Required Texts

The Western Humanities Complete

9780073376622

Reading in the Western Humanities Vol 1 6E

9780073136395

Humanities 101 Objectives

• Develop students’ ability to read, view, and listen to various forms of cultural production and to

write and speak about those experiences.

• Identify cultural productions created by people in different cultures and in different

historical periods.

• Enable each student to fashion his or her own answer to the question of why humans create

and use art.

Course Content

This course starts with the Paleolithic era and surveys the centuries from that era to the

Renaissance. This course surveys painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, philosophy, music,

and religion to identify the humanities created during this period but also to see connections

among these cultural productions and between cultural productions created in different places

and times during the Paleolithic era and the late Middle Ages.

Course Requirements

Students earn a final grade in this class by reading the textbook and reading other assignments,

by participating in class discussions, by successfully passing quizzes and examinations on the

reading assignments and lectures, and by writing in-class essays.