Humanities Core is a year-long course that examines how people across time and culture have interpreted their experiences and understood what it is to be human. Through the study of literature, film, history, philosophy, popular culture, and visual art, students delve into how meaning is made and learn various forms of analysis to gain a greater understanding of social interaction and human creativity.

The theme of this cycle of Humanities Core is Animal/Culture. Lectures by nine prominent faculty will present for students a variety of cultural artifacts and modes of understanding human experience in relation to other species. In small seminars, students will engage closely with this complex material while developing visual, oral, electronic, and written communication skills that will serve them in every academic discipline and in public life.

By addressing a wide range of topics and approaches to humanistic inquiry, Core meets seven General Education requirements, in the categories of lower-division writing, arts and humanities, multicultural studies, and international/global issues.