Humanities

Faculty List

As a broad and diverse collection of disciplines, the Humanities examine how we construct our aesthetic, intellectual, emotional, ethical, social, and political worlds, and they look comparatively at the differences in such constructions in different times and places, and for different people. The Humanities thus study human culture in all of its rich diversity while also seeking to understand the ways in which humans are interconnected.
As an approach to knowledge, the Humanities rely on analytic, critical, inductive, interpretive and evaluative methods of inquiry that are markedly distinct from the empirical methods of the natural and social sciences.  By focusing on the subjective constructions of the world around us as forms of identity and human expressions, study in the Humanities helps us better understand what it means to be human.

Humanities Courses

HUMA01H3    Exploring Key Questions in the Humanities

Academic study in the Humanities is distinguished by its critical and historical approaches to text, image, and sound. This course introduces students to key questions through lectures and readings, performances, and small group discussions. Students experience the dynamism and diversity of the Humanities and humanistic inquiry while refining their critical thinking and communication skills. HUMA01H3 is a writing intensive course that offers students regular constructive feedback.
Breadth Requirement: Arts, Literature & Language

HUMA02H3    Inquiry and Reasoning in the Humanities

A companion course in HUMA01H3, HUMA02H3 furthers students' knowledge of humanistic inquiry through an investigation and application of various research methods and approaches, including ethnographic, visual and archival, and qualitative and quantitative. Students develop critical inquiry and reasoning skills including locating, collecting and learning from data, analyzing evidence and assertions, and communicating results within a Humanities context.
Prerequisite: HUMA01H3
Exclusion: (HUMB11H3)
Breadth Requirement: History, Philosophy & Cultural Studies

HUMD91H3
HUMD92H3
HUMD93Y3    Supervised Readings

Independent study of an advanced and intensive kind, under the direction of a faculty member. The material studied should bear some significant relation to the student's previous work, and should differ significantly in content and/or concentration from topics offered in other courses.
Students are advised that they must obtain consent from the supervising instructor before registering for these courses. The student should submit to the instructor a statement of objectives and proposed content for the course; this should be done by 15 April for 'F' and 'Y' courses and by 1 December for 'S' courses. If the proposal is approved, two faculty members from relevant disciplines will supervise and evaluate the work.
Prerequisite: Three full credits at the B-level in the Department of Humanities.