Humanities College of Letters & Science

Program Director

Claire Goldstein, Ph.D., Associate Professor of French

Program Office

211 Sproul; 530-752-4999; Humanities; Faculty

The Program of Study

The Humanities program is an undergraduate and graduate curriculum emphasizing innovative approaches to ideas that matter. Courses offered through the program are interdisciplinary in scope and aim to develop critical thinking and writing skills in three principal areas: major figures, works, and ideas in world cultures; major themes in world literatures and societies; and relationships between history, society, language, and culture.

Humanities (HUM)

HUM 001 — Humanities Forum (2 units)

Course Description: Reading and discussion of a single work representative of a particular culture, historical period, or genre and significant for its ongoing cultural impact in the humanities, sciences, social sciences, technology, and popular arenas. Attention to provocative implications for contemporary society.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 2 hour(s).
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Concurrent enrollment in HUM 001D for an additional 2 units.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s) when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

HUM 001D — Issues & Concepts in the Humanities (2 units)

Course Description: Small group discussions and preparation of short papers for HUM 001.

Prerequisite(s): HUM 001 (can be concurrent); HUM 001 required concurrently.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 2 hour(s).
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Concurrent enrollment in HUM 001 required.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s) when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 002A — Global Humanities Forum (4 units)

Course Description: Introduction to humanities topics and methodologies; analysis of major figures, works, and genres in world arts and literatures, with emphasis on relationships between history, society, and culture.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s) when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 002B — American Humanities Forum (4 units)

Course Description: Introduction to humanities topics and methodologies; analysis of major figures, works, and genres in American arts and literatures, with emphasis on relationships between history, society, and culture.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s) when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); American Cultures, Governance, & History (ACGH); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 003 — Medicine & Humanities (4 units)

Course Description: Evolution of the "medical arts" into the "science of medicine." Culture of medicine in the context of society, medical ethics.

Prerequisite(s): Satisfaction of Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR).

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 004 — Animals & Human Culture (2 units)

Course Description: Meaning of human relations with animals studied across a variety of historical periods and cultures and from a variety of humanistic perspectives.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 2 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

HUM 004D — Animals & Human Culture: Discussion (2 units)

Course Description: Small group discussions and preparation of short papers for HUM 004.

Prerequisite(s): HUM 004 (can be concurrent); HUM 004 required concurrently.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 2 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 007 — Travel & Travel Literature (4 units)

Course Description: History of travel from the age of exploration to the modern era. Contemporary trends in travel, including mas tourism, adventure travel, and ecotravel. Social, economic, and cultural issues related to modern trends in travel. Analysis of literary representations of travel.

Prerequisite(s): Satisfaction of Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR).

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 008 — Introduction to Perspectives on Narrative (4 units)

Course Description: Interdisciplinary approach to the use of story across time, culture, and discipline. How the telling and retelling of particular stories reflect the values, concerns, and assumptions of their original audiences and genres.

Prerequisite(s): Satisfaction of Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR).

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 009 — Don Quixote & the Modern World (2 units)

Course Description: Reading Don Quixote as emblem of modernity in the West. Issues of reality versus illusion, heroism, freedom and self-fulfillment, racial tolerance and love. Don Quixote in other cultural and popular media: film, dance, art, musical drama, and television. GE credit with concurrent enrollment in HUM 009D: ArtHum, Wrt.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 2 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

HUM 009D — Don Quixote & the Modern World Discussion (2 units)

Course Description: Small group discussions and preparation of short papers for HUM 009.

Prerequisite(s): HUM 009 required concurrently.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 2 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 010 — How to be a Critic: Understanding Cultural Products & Practices (2 units)

Course Description: Introduction to key topics and methodologies of interest to humanists. Series uses a variety of critical approaches to examine the cultural significance of subjects such as: fashion, film, architecture, music, food, dance.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 2 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s) when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

HUM 010D — How to be a Critic: Discussion (2 units)

Course Description: Optional discussion section can be taken concurrently with HUM 10. Small group discussions and preparation of short papers.

  • Learning Activities: Discussion 2 hour(s).
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Concurrent enrollment in HUM 010 required.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 013 — Witches: Myth & Historical Reality (4 units)

Course Description: Examines the historical construction of the witch. Four areas covered are: European pagan religions and the spread of Christianity; the "Burning' Times" in early modern Europe; 17th-century New England and the Salem witch trials; and fairy tales.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 015 — Language & Identity (4 units)

Course Description: Introduction to topics related to the construction of identity through language use, including geographical and social factors affecting language groups. Language ideology affecting linguistic groups, including bilinguals and non-native speakers of English.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 060 — Narrative & Argumentative Approaches to Major Current Issues in the Media, Culture, & Society (4 units)

Course Description: Interdisciplinary approach to contemporary issues (abortion, AIDS, civil rights, war and peace, welfare state) around which individuals, communities and institutions define themselves in American society, by applying principles of narrative theory to the narratives where those issues are embedded.

Prerequisite(s): English A or the equivalent.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

HUM 092 — Internship (1-12 units)

Course Description: Internships in fields where students can practice their skills.

  • Learning Activities: Internship 3-36 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

HUM 144 — Marx, Nietzsche, Freud (4 units)

Course Description: Study of major texts of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, selected with an eye to their impact on 20th-century economics, ethics, and attitudes toward eros. Particular focus on conceptions of the self and the individual's relation to society.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Cross Listing: GER 144.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

HUM 180 — Topics in the Humanities (4 units)

This version has ended; see updated course, below.
Course Description: Analysis of interdisciplinary issues in the Humanities. Topics vary. May be taught abroad.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).
  • HUM 180 — Topics in the Humanities (4 units)
  • Course Description: Analysis of interdisciplinary issues in the Humanities. Topics vary.
  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).
  • This course version is effective from, and including: Fall Quarter 2024.

HUM 192 — Internship (1-12 units)

Course Description: Internships in fields where students can practice their skills.

  • Learning Activities: Internship 3-36 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

HUM 198 — Directed Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Directed group study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

HUM 199 — Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5 units)

Course Description: Special study for advanced undergraduates.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

HUM 250 — Topics in the Humanities (4 units)

Course Description: Topics in the humanities, selected by the instructor.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 1 time(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

HUM 292 — Graduate Internship (1-15 units)

Course Description: Individually designed supervised internship, off campus, in community or institutional setting. Developed with advice of faculty mentor.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Lecture/Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 15 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

HUM 298 — Directed Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Directed group study.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

HUM 299 — Individual Research (1-4 units)

Course Description: Individual research in the humanities resulting in a formal written research report.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

HUM 396 — Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (1-4 units)

Course Description: Teaching assistant training.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; graduate standing.

  • Learning Activities: Variable 3-12 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.