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CCOG for HUM 100 Spring 2024

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Course Number:
HUM 100
Course Title:
Introduction to Humanities
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Introduces humanistic inquiry and the academic disciplines collectively known as the humanities, including literature, theater, art, art history, religious studies, music, film, architecture, and philosophy. Explores a broad range of topics such as artistic creation, human expression, cultural innovation, intellectual ideas and exchanges, political structures, and religious ideologies in different cultures around the globe in their historical context. Focuses on the ways human thought, creativity, and imagination reflect the cultures in which they arise as well as how they change through intercultural exchange and influence. Explores the answers to life's enduring questions and invites a sense of wonder about the meaning of life. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate through written essays, discussions, and presentations an understanding of humanistic thinking and the academic disciplines collectively known as the humanities, including literature, art and art history, philosophy, theater, film, world languages, architecture and religious studies. 
  • Critically evaluate creative works from diverse periods in history and geographical areas using various theoretical lenses. 
  • Identify and reflect on how humanistic achievements and the human imagination are reflections of and influenced by culturally grounded practices, values, and beliefs.
  • Reflect on and communicate about the ways the humanities connect to the student’s own, lived experience and the world as they know it.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Humanities 100 explores a broad range of artistic creations, human expressions, cultural innovations, intellectual ideas, and political and religious strategies from different historical time periods and different cultures around the globe. Through the examination of literature, theater, art and art history, religious studies, music, film, architecture, and philosophy students consider the ways human thought, creativity, innovation and imagination reflect the cultures from which they arise as well as from intercultural exchanges. Students will use their own lived experiences to examine and analyze the relationship between their culture and those of others. In these ways the class supports students in reflecting on their place in the world (including the natural environment), exploring life’s enduring questions, and becoming engaged, global citizens.

Course Activities and Design

Course Activities and Design

Class-time may include lectures, discussion, small group/collaborative work, individual writing assignments and/or field trips to cultural/arts events and lectures. Outside of class students may write response papers to readings and class discussions, as well as developed essays (including research). Presentations may be required in the context of the written assignments. 

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Outcome assessment strategies may include: 

  • Quizzes and exams.
  • Response papers for readings and discussions.
  • Participation in discussion.
  • Essays (including research).
  • Class presentations.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Themes 

  • Artistic and technological expression and society. 
  • Women’s roles in creating cultural artifacts. 
  • Cultural continuity and change over time. 
  • Political and economic developments in world cultures. 
  • Developments in the arts, including literature, film, and theater. 
  • World philosophy and religion. 
  • Cultural storytelling and myth. 
  • Colonization and communities of color. 
  • Violence, conflict, and cooperation between and within cultures.       

Concepts and Ideas 

  • Tools and technology
  • Civilization and culture 
  • Aesthetics and the arts
  • The self and the other
  • The deity
  • Urban evolution
  • Mores, norms and values
  • Labor
  • Societal institutions

Issues for Discussion 

  • Technology’s effect on values
  • Impact of technology on human settlements
  • Development and use of tools
  • Creation and significance of art
  • Relationship between societies and mechanical devices
  • Effect of religion and philosophy on society
  • Inter-cultural relations
  • Influence of history on cultural developments
  • Connection between political and religious power

Competencies and Skills

  • Critical and creative thinking about humanities topics, including historical and cultural contexts, as well as aesthetic value
  • Written and/or oral analysis of cultural creations: objects, music, ideas, etc.
  • Collaboration
  • Research
  • Communication (written and oral)