This cluster combines courses in the humanities, French culture, and performance studies, providing an engaging introduction to various studies in the Division of Arts and Humanities. You will improve their writing skills, learn about global cultures, and explore the dynamics of social institutions. You will also fulfill many requirements: Arts & Literature breadth, Historical Studies breadth, Philosophy & Values breadth, and American Cultures requirement.
Course Descriptions
- FRENCH 80: The Cultural History of Paris, 3 Units
An in-depth “forensic” exploration of the urban artifact that is Paris through the study of a variety of texts, films, paintings, engravings, and maps. The course will explore competing ambitions, economic pressures, and ideologies that have, over centuries, produced one of the most visited cities in the world. - HUM 10: A.I. and Writing, 4 Units
In the age of generative AI, writing is both under pressure and precious. If text can be automated at scale by machines, it also finds itself newly valued as a distinctly human craft and as a practice of thought beyond mechanization. This course introduces students to the long debates about writing as a technology of communication and cognition, while engaging directly with the promises and perils of machine co-writing. Through readings across philosophy, literature, media history, and computer science, as well as hands-on writing experiments with and against the machine, students will ask: Is writing process or product? What is lost and what is gained when machines write? What is writing’s relationship to technology—is it one itself? How do digital writing environments influence writing practices and products? And what can remain distinctively human about writing once its basic competence has been automated? Students learn that writing may be more than just making a text: it is a way of thinking, of being in the world, it is a technology with its associated material infrastructure, and a human practice worth re-imagining in the age of language machines. As someone once said about thinking, the same can be said about writing: “A life without writing is not merely meaningless; it is not fully lived.” - THEATER 52AC: Dance in American Cultures, 4 Units
Dance as a meaning-making expressive form. Develop the tools necessary for looking at dance, analyzing it, writing about it, and understanding its place in larger social, cultural, political structures. We will look at a variety of U.S. American dance genres, understanding them through their historical and cultural contexts, to explore how issues of race, gender, sexuality and class affect the practice and the reception of different dance forms, and how dance might help shape representations of these identities. Ethnic groups that the course studies include African, Asian, and European Americans, indigenous peoples of the U.S., and Chicanos/Latinos. Accessible to students with no dance experience. Not a studio-based class.
Meeting Schedule
- FRENCH 80: MWF 3:00-4:00 PM
- HUM 10: TR 4:00-5:00 PM; Discussion F 1:00-2:00 PM
- THEATER 52AC: MWF 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM; Discussion F 10:00-11:00 AM
Major Prerequisites and L&S Breadth/General Requirements
| Course | Major Prerequisite | L&S Breadth/General Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| FRENCH 80 | N/A | L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature, Historical Studies |
| HUM 10 | N/A | L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature, Philosophy & Values |
| THEATER 52AC | Requirement for Theater and Performance Studies, Dance and Performance Studies |
L&S Breadth: Arts & Literature |
