2017-2018 Fall

This year’s cycle of Humanities Core is organized around the theme Empire and Its Ruins, which will emphasize how humans have made sense of the rise and fall of societies and the effects of dominant structures on people who are marginalized. Empire will take us to a variety of settings, including ancient Rome, the clash between Spanish and Inca civilizations, and U.S. imperialism in Asia.

This quarter, we will address the formation and maintenance of the Roman Empire, the concept of “ruins” in painting and film, and the American ideology of Manifest Destiny. We will reflect (among other things) on how empire structures the way we think about “civilization,” otherness, community, legitimacy, property, progress, resistance, and oppression. And we will analyze these ideas in written texts, images, and film.

Humanities Core promotes diversity, tolerance, and inclusion, regardless of personal identification or political status. We base these values on democratic ideals of political and structural equality. We reject forms of violence and oppression that undermine such equality, including perspectives that appropriate the term “humanity” as a way of excluding others. Our work aims to understand the many facets of humanity as a way of discerning what is best in all of us: what is most creative, most compassionate, and most just. As humanists committed to this vision of equity and human dignity, we unequivocally support each person’s humanity and reject ideologies grounded in bigotry.

Lectures are held:
M/W (not on Fridays) 9:00-9:50am in BS3 1200
M/W (not on Fridays) 11:00-11:50am in BS3 1200
Tu/Th 9:30-10:20am (not till 10:50am) in HIB 100

Students in Humanities Core enroll in a lecture and in a corresponding writing seminar. This calendar (subject to change) provides information about the lecturing faculty, readings, writing assignments, and special events.The reading assignment for each lecture should be completed before the lecture. The password for downloadable pdfs will be provided to enrolled students. If and when lecture slides are available for a particular lecture, a link to download them will be provided.

For information about your writing seminar, please sign in to MyEEE.