Student Learning Objectives

Objectives for GUR Courses

The department offers GUR courses which meet university requirements for Humanities, and for Class, Gender and Multicultural Studies.
  • Students should engage with texts and works of art by learning and practicing methods of close reading, careful analysis and critical thinking.
  • Students also should learn to locate works of the humanities in relation to social and historical contexts of their authors and audiences.
  • Students should acquire basic knowledge of an important part of the history of culture in the Western traditions, or they should acquire similar knowledge for a non-Western culture. Students should practice critical thinking, problem solving, and expository writing in the humanities.
  • Students should be prepared to be more knowledgeable and effective citizens by acquiring better skills in close reading, careful analysis, critical thinking, problem solving and expository writing, and by better awareness of cultural diversity and cultural change.

Objectives for Major & Minor Programs

The department’s B.A. Humanities degree program offers two concentrations, Humanities: History of Culture, and Religion and Culture.  The department offers six minor programs, in Humanities: History of Culture, Religion and Culture, Arabic & Islamic Studies, Digital Humanities, South & Southeast Asian Studies, and in African Studies.

Upon graduation, Humanities: History of Culture majors will have
1. engaged with texts of disparate origin and kind through close reading, and with a critical eye;
2. mastered multiple methods of inquiry used in humanistic disciplines;
3. acquired substantial knowledge of different worlds of thought and belief around the globe with a sensitivity to comparative dimensions;
4. contextualized books, works of art, practices, traditions, and other cultural artifacts within the worlds that gave them birth, and seen their influence over social, political, and religious dynamics;
5. gained an appreciation of a range of manifestations of cross-cultural contacts and exchanges across human history, and a capacity to use these in everyday life;
6. developed and employed analytical and communication skills which will be of use in many fields and professions beyond the university.

Upon graduation, Religion and Culture majors will have
1. engaged with texts of disparate origin and kind through close reading, and with a critical eye;
2. mastered multiple methods used in the academic study of religion;
3. acquired substantial knowledge of different religions around the globe with a sensitivity to comparative dimensions;
4. contextualized books, works of art, ritual practices, and other cultural artifacts within particular religions and within a larger world of cross-cultural study of religion, and so gained a sense of how they affect individuals and groups;
5. gained an appreciation of a range of manifestations of cross-cultural religious influences and exchanges across human history, and a capacity to use these in everyday life;
6. developed and employed analytical and communication skills that will be of use in many fields and professions beyond the university.

Other Objectives

The department also supervises the Student-Faculty Designed Majors in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

This program should allow students, in consultation with appropriate faculty, to design a well-integrated course of study with an interdisciplinary focus which is not available through existing departmental majors.

Finally, the department should cooperate with other departments in interdisciplinary programs, for example in the East Asian Studies program.