Creating an Interdisciplinary Humanities Minor for Career-Focused Students
FAIN: AC-269129-20
National-Louis University (Chicago, IL 60603-6191)
Christopher Martin Caver (Project Director: July 2019 to present)
The creation of a six-course interdisciplinary
humanities minor for undergraduate students pursuing pre-professional majors.
This project creates an interdisciplinary humanities minor program for students pursuing existing professionally-oriented major tracks. We propose to create six new courses. Two core courses will be created in aesthetic judgment and interpretive methods that use Chicago artists, writers, histories, and communities as their primary context of application and illustration. Four electives will also be created to provide humanistic counterparts to major coursework. These will be courses in storytelling and the digital humanities (Computer Science and Information Systems), the ethics of work and business (Business Administration), philosophical approaches to mortality (Human Services), and histories of crime and punishment (Criminal Justice). Additionally, our project develops opportunities for students to intern at Chicago-area humanities organizations or pursue original research as part of completing their minor, and it creates a capstone colloquium to showcase these experiences.
Associated Products
HUM 305: Art and Power (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 305: Art and Power
Author: C. Martin Caver
Abstract: This course is an introduction to aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty. Specifically, we will examine beauty’s relationship to the political sphere. We will begin by examining some theories of aesthetic judgment, before turning to look at the relationship between art and politics, the way art is central in both propaganda and protest, and how we make sense of art’s relationship to political power. In particular we look at aesthetic movements such as the Black Arts Movement (BAM), the Chicano movement, and others to evaluate how aesthetic judgment relates to political judgment.
Year: 2020
Audience: Undergraduate
HUM 306: A People's History of Chicago (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 306: A People's History of Chicago
Author: Bethany Harding
Abstract: This course examines the history and culture of Chicago through the experiences of ordinary people of all races and backgrounds who have lived and worked here. How did Chicago go from a minor outpost on the frontier to a major metropolis? What social and cultural conditions inspired Chicago’s great artists, writers, and activists, and how did those individuals drive the events that define the city’s past? What made Chicago into a cradle of progressivism, home to racial and social justice movements that have inspired the nation and the world? These and other questions inform our study of the “City of Big Shoulders.”
Year: 2020
Audience: Undergraduate
HUM 311: In Search of the Meaning of Life (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 311: In Search of the Meaning of Life
Author: Sarah Syed
Abstract: This course engages with the following fundamental questions: What is the meaning of life (and death)? What is the value of life? How do we define death? What aspects of our humanity are visible in how we confront life’s temporal limitations? Students in this course apply philosophical theories to humanistic exemplars from history, art, and literature. They do this through a variety of student-centered activities, close readings of texts, and in-class debates. In particular they are called to reflect on their own experiences and encounters with birth, life, and death, grappling with the status of both our natality and our mortality.
Year: 2021
Audience: Undergraduate
HUM 308: Mass Incarceration (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 308: Mass Incarceration
Author: Karin Steinbrueck
Abstract: This course is an interdisciplinary study of mass incarceration in the modern world. Using interpretive analyses of history, literature, philosophy, and other humanistic disciplines, students will examine, explore, and debate the role of the modern nation-state in establishing and maintaining carceral systems. This will include the historical role of state-sponsored police and the experiences of people imprisoned. Students develop an understanding of mass incarceration and state-sponsored policing through case studies from the United States and comparative global contexts. They will engage with a variety of media, including content created by and about incarcerated people. In so doing, students will consider the community impact of these carceral systems. The course uses a variety of student-centered activities, close readings of texts, in-class debates, and reflection.
Year: 2021
Audience: Undergraduate
HUM 309: Grind, Hustle, & Flow: Humanity at Work (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 309: Grind, Hustle, & Flow: Humanity at Work
Author: Martin Caver
Abstract: This course is an examination of the role of work in society and the ethical implications of its organizational patterns. Students will engage with a variety of texts that serve to historically ground the rise of the division of labor, its disparate effects on individuals and communities, and the ethical dilemmas raised in changing patterns of domestic and global economic activity. In doing so, students will develop their own views on work’s relationship to civic life and democracy, evaluating and deliberating on ideas and proposals discussed in class. They will do this while reflecting on work experiences they or community members have had, and they will relate these and other ethnographic narratives discussed to their own professional goals.
Year: 2021
Audience: Undergraduate
HUM 307: Digital Humanities and Narrative Storytelling (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 307: Digital Humanities and Narrative Storytelling
Author: Suzanne Clores
Abstract: This course features a broad examination of the field of digital humanities, its methods, and its relationship to various careers alongside a specific engagement with narrative storytelling and digital civic journalism. In this course, students gain a deeper impression of how digital tools are used in humanistic forms of expression and research, and they have the opportunity to create narrative artifacts and stories that engage with their communities or are identified as relevant to their individual contexts. Through this exploration, creation, and reflection, students will gain exposure to a variety of storytelling techniques that help them hone their oral and written skill sets, while exploring the relevant connections of the digital humanities to potential career paths.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
HUM 490: Independent Study in the Humanities (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: HUM 490: Independent Study in the Humanities
Author: Martin Caver
Abstract: This course is designed for students participating in the Humanities Minor to complete their research or internship requirement. Students will spend a term further exploring a theme or topic from their humanities courses or a relevant question or topic pertinent to their professional interests. Working independently with the guidance of an instructor, students will engage in humanities-related research while developing career skills within a professional setting, incorporating at least two humanistic fields or exemplars. This will culminate in the production of a summative work presented in a public forum.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate