Humanities

Director: Margaret L. Woodhull, PhD
Program Assistant: Angela Beale
Office: Student Commons 3203
Telephone: 303-315-3565
E-mail: masterhs@ucdenver.edu
Website: https://clas.ucdenver.edu/mhmss/humanities-minor

Overview

The Humanities Minor is an interdisciplinary studies program. Students take courses in a range of disciplines with a variety of faculty.

Undergraduate Information

The Humanities Minor is a 15-credit hour undergraduate interdisciplinary minor available through CU-Denver’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). The study of Humanities offers students ideas and concepts for being ethical, creative citizens equipped with tools for critical thinking in a global, multinational world. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the Humanities Minor cultivates humanistic concepts through historically grounded texts and traditions. It teaches critical engagement with society’s most pressing issues by developing a human-oriented perspective in which creativity and critical, theoretical thinking frame ethical being in the world. Comprising Humanities-based coursework, students gain important foundations in personal and community values by pursuing a concentration in one of three interdisciplinary pathways:

Story-telling and Meaning: comprised of Humanities electives focused on how humans make ethical decisions and meaning in life through literature, philosophy, history, and religion.

Picturing Humanity: comprising Humanities courses emphasizing the aesthetic role of art, history, film, and visual studies in the constitution of diverse cultural and social perspectives.

Theorizing Humanity: comprised of coursework focusing on the public role of social theory, philosophy, ethnic studies, and social justice in the formation of culture and society

Student Learning Goals

A Humanities Minor offers valuable skills demanded by today’s competitive global market. Students who study Humanities have strong writing and communication skills that make them successful in a wide range of careers, like teaching, non-profits leadership, advertising, law, and medicine. Humanities Minor pathways tailor coursework within humanistic traditions and ideas that offer meaningful exploration of issues in contemporary life and society. Students learn analytic thinking and reasoning demanded by careers, like law, technology, marketing, and politics. Humanities study provides knowledge that transcends the limitations of individual disciplinary majors and minors. Pathways within the interdisciplinary Humanities Minor offer students the opportunity to bring together content and themes from diverse, but related disciplines within the framework of humanistic inquiry and critical analysis. Students pursue course work in disciplines, such as Art History, Ethnic Studies, Film Theory, History, Literature, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Social Justice, and Women and Gender Studies

Click here to learn about the requirements for the Humanities Minor.

Humanities (HUMN)

HUMN 1012 - The Humanistic Tradition: Modes of Expression (3 Credits)

Familiarizes students with humanistic modes of expression through the study of history, literature, philosophy, music, and the visual and dramatic arts. Term offered: fall, spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.

HUMN 1111 - First Year Seminar (3 Credits)

Restriction: Restricted to Freshman level students. Term offered: fall, spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to Freshman level students

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.

HUMN 4251 - Introduction to Legal Studies (3 Credits)

A survey of the United States legal system, including lawmaking powers, jurisdiction, court procedures, professional ethics and major principles of business law, contracts, estates and probate, family law, property and torts. Cross-listed with HUMN 5251/SSCI 4251/SSCI 5251. Term offered: fall. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Fall.

HUMN 4325 - First Amendment: Theory and Context (3 Credits)

First Amendment jurisprudence including free speech/responsibility, sedition/seditious libel/dissent, prior restraints, time/place/manner restrictions, hate/intimidating speech, defamation, privacy/security tensions, intellectual property/public good, advertising, corporate speech, sexual expression, and public status of religion. Cross-listed with HUMN 5325, SSCI 4325, SSCI 5325, PSCI 4325 and PSCI 5325. Term offered: spring. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Spring.

HUMN 4660 - Visual Arts: Its Past, Present, and Interpretations (3 Credits)

Provides graduate-level interdisciplinary study in the historiography, methodologies, and theories used to understand how visual arts, including painting, sculpture, photography, film and performance art influence the making of culture. Students gain critical skills for analyzing a variety of visual and aesthetic products of culture. Cross-listed with HUMN 5660, IDST 4660, IDST 5660. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

HUMN 4720 - Sex, Gender, and Visual Representation (3 Credits)

Studies sexuality, gender and identity representation from classical antiquity through the present in the visual arts. Uses the literature of visuality, feminism, race and queer theory. Explores representations of femininity, masculinity and androgyny and their reinforcement and challenge to gender-identity norms. Cross-listed with HUMN 5720, IDST 4720, IDST 5720, WGST 4720, WGST 5720. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.

HUMN 4770 - Viewing Empire: The Art of Imperial and Colonial Propaganda (3 Credits)

Western empires disseminate political, social, economic & cultural practices through complex interplay of cultural practices. Visual production is a complex site for meaning making within imperialism. Examines how visual discourses operated to create meaning for audiences, through focus on postcolonial critique. Cross-listed with HUMN 5770, IDST 4770, IDST 5770, SSCI 4770, SSCI 5770, WGST 5770, WGST 4770, SJUS 4770, SJUS 5770. Max hours: 3 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.

HUMN 4880 - Directed Research (1-6 Credits)

Students will engage in original research projects supervised and mentored by faculty. Students must work with faculty prior to registration to develop a proposal for their project and receive permission to take this course. Note: Students must submit a special processing form completely filled out and signed by the student and faculty member, describing the course expectations, assignments and outcomes, to the CLAS undergraduate advising office for approval. Term offered: fall, spring, summer. Repeatable. Max Hours: 6 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.

HUMN 4984 - Topics: Interdisciplinary Humanities (1-3 Credits)

Concerned with specialized aspects of the humanities from various theoretical and research perspectives. These courses are interdisciplinary and serve as a forum for discussion of individual projects and theses. Term offered: fall, spring. Repeatable. Max Hours: 6 Credits.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.

University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Humanities

Overview

Undergraduate Information

Student Learning Goals

Programs

Humanities (HUMN)

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