“Humanities has helped me understand what it means
to be a human being, living here and now, based on the
cultural landscape of the past.”
—Robin Rotman, Rhodes Scholar, class of 2004
How does Humanities work?
Humanities combines the benefits of the large lecture and the small seminar classroom. Most often we meet in classes of no more than 15, with a seminar leader who will be your primary teacher. Several times a semester, however, the seminar meet as one large to hear a lecturer speak on topics like Homer’s Iliad, Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy, Michaelangelo’s David, The Communist Manifesto, Russian film, or the Holocaust.
Should I take Humanities?
Yes—if you like to read, can concentrate on challenging readings and struggle to understand without frustration, can and will prepare for seminars and lectures on a fairly regular schedule;
if you write well or want to write well and appreciate rereading and rewriting to improve your work;
if you can consider that evaluating the language of great writers like Augustine, Shakespeare, and Hemingway will deepen your awareness of your own writing;
if you enjoy fairly abstract political, philosophical, religious, or theoretical discussion or controversy even though you know that smart well-intentioned people often respectfully disagree;
if you are interested in knowing why thinkers from Plato on have struggled with ideas of a world beyond our everyday sense of reality.
Will Humanities benefit me?
Through its emphasis on the major events and works of Western culture, Humanities helps students to refine their skills in critical thinking and clear expression. In addition, the Humanities Program fulfills the prerequisites for upper-level major courses in English, History, Philosophy, Religion, Music History, Theatre History, and History. For those planning to major in the Sciences, the Program offers an efficient route through the non-science requirements, and insight into the contemporary critique of the role of science in the post-modern world. Every year, furthermore, a significant number of our undergraduate Writing Tutors (whom the entire faculty consider to be the very best undergraduate writers) have been drawn from the Humanities Program.
How do students like Humanities?
In the past decade, more than 90% have expressed contentment and satisfaction that they chose the Humanities sequence. As Colt Segrest, class of 2005, writes: “I cannot emphasize enough the beneficial influence of Humanities upon my understanding of the historical, artistic, and literary movements that define modernity.” Sewanee’s most recent Rhodes Scholar, Geology major Robin Rotman, class of 2004, writes: “Humanities has helped me understand what it means to be a human being, living here and now, based on the cultural landscape of the past. I am a geology major, but what I’ve learned in Humanities is very applicable to my scientific discipline. Science, like Humanities, is a search for truth in the physical and spiritual worlds, a discovery of the limits and limitless possibilities of human existence.”
