HUMAN 1A-B-C Humanities Core Course 2004-2005
Associations/Dissociations: The Social Instinct and Its Consequences
The Humanities Core Course introduces students to the methods and objectives of humanistic inquiry by example and practice. In lectures, faculty from a wide range of disciplines will exemplify the ways in which humanists approach issues from three general perspectives: philosophical, historical, and cultural. In small discussion sections, students will put those perspectives into practice in their own writing and in classroom conversations and debates designed to engage each student intellectually in the examination of the year's theme.
The current cycle of Humanities Core Course, “Associations/Dissociations:
The Social Instinct and Its Consequences,” will focus on certain standard
forms of human association that have organized and classified us, directed our
endeavors, and formed the broad basis for our self-understanding(s). In the
Fall Quarter, we will address Family and State, investigating these categories
both individually and in their interactions. To this end, we will study Sophocles
and Shakespeare, Locke, accounts of feral children and alternative families,
and histories of state regulation of the families that arise from the immigrant
experience. Winter’s theme is Nation and Empire, and this quarter’s
curriculum explores the notion of nation, as modified and extended by imperialist
“associations.” Texts include literary and historical documents
of the US imperialist debates, and of the colonial experience under the British
empire. A final unit on political theory and ethics will investigate the philosophical
foundations for national and imperialist transactions. Spring Quarter focuses
on Globalization and Society, conceiving the former category not just in terms
of trade and technology, but also as the spread of religion. We will follow
missionaries and study the converts and their stories, as well as the hybrid
architectures that resulted from conquest and the globalization of Christianity.
Then we will move to the de-colonization of Mexico and conclude the year, by
scrutinizing inter-species communication in an episode of Star Trek: The Next
Generation. Throughout the year, students will write carefully planned essays
on the course material and will build their research skills through a series
of targeted tutorials. The final assignment will be an independent research
paper.
FORMER
STUDENTS SPEAK ABOUT CORE (high-speed connection recommended)
Requires Flash plug-in