Humanistic Studies

Program Offerings

Offering type
Minor

The Program in Humanistic Studies, under the auspices of the Council of the Humanities, hosts courses that take interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-cultural approaches to the humanities.

The minor in humanistic studies is open to students from all majors who wish to pursue their intellectual interests and commitments within an interdisciplinary curriculum. HUM minors are encouraged to reflect on the presuppositions of their major field and to become versatile thinkers and researchers. Some HUM minors prefer to connect disciplines across and within the scholarly humanities (e.g., literature with philosophy); others are drawn to connect the humanities to the creative arts, engineering, or social or natural sciences. Still others engage with such interdisciplinary fields of study as medical, environmental, urban and digital humanities.

At the introductory level, we offer three year-long, team-taught "Humanities Sequences" exploring the events, ideas, texts and artifacts of Western, Near Eastern and East Asian cultures, respectively. These three sequences are historical in sweep. They attend closely to revolutions in thought and politics; to works that grapple with justice, human rights, racism and social transformation; and to how thinkers, writers and artists have imagined relationships among human beings, the natural world and the built environment.

First- and second-year students study these challenging texts in a supportive, communal setting, and are mentored by upper-level students in the program. Having acquired a strong grounding in an interdisciplinary study, juniors and seniors elect courses that invite them to reflect explicitly on the theory and practice of disciplines and to approach one field with the questions and methods of another. At the advanced level, the program offers team-taught capstone seminars, many of which are taught by faculty from the introductory sequences. When students select courses, we encourage them to be guided by their own intellectual interests and commitments.

HUM students share in a lively and congenial community throughout their years at Princeton. We are committed to values that lie at the heart of humanistic inquiry: critical thinking, reasoned discourse, diversity, civility, empathy and compassion. All HUM minors automatically become members of the Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows (BUSF), a monthly enrichment and community-building program that may include student presentations of independent work, dinners with guest speakers, trips to cultural events and performances, museum tours, etc.

Students generally declare their interest in the sophomore spring term after having completed one of the sequence courses, but no later than the spring of junior year. The application is available on the humanistic studies website.

Goals for Student Learning

The Program in Humanistic Studies is a minor about major questions: What is it to be human? What do we do with our humanity? How do we experience difference and what role does it play in the good life? How do tradition and transformation make our lives deeper and more dynamic? We address these questions by inviting students to reflect explicitly on the theory and practice of disciplines and to build bridges among them.

HUM courses forge new paths to knowledge; we take interdisciplinary, comparative and cross-cultural approaches to issues both urgent and timeless. We train students to approach one field with the questions and methods of another. In our three team-taught sequences, students follow the chronological sweep of a tradition, with emphasis on transformation, adaptation and cross-cultural encounter. In our team-taught “capstone” seminars, such as “Incarceration in Antiquity,” “Medical Story-worlds,” “Witness,” and “When Worlds Collide: Poetry and Computation,” scholars trained in different fields engage students in the lived experience of multidisciplinary exchange. We offer faculty incentives to develop fresh topics not normally taught in departments, as well as innovative pedagogy; many of our courses highlight emerging fields that offer new horizons for humanities research.

Program of Study

To earn the minor in humanistic studies, students must fulfill the following requirements:

  1. At least one semester of a 200-level Humanities Sequence course, whether double-credit (Western Humanities) or single credit (East Asian and Near Eastern Humanities), normally taken in the first or second year. The three sequences fulfilling this requirement are HUM 216-217 and 218-219 (Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture); HUM 233-234 (East Asian Humanities); and HUM 247-248 (Near Eastern Humanities).
  2. Four additional interdisciplinary courses:
    • At least two of the four courses must be HUM courses, originating in the Program in Humanistic Studies.
    • Two of the four courses must be taken at the 300 or 400 level. The capstone seminar for the minor, HUM 470, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, is highly recommended as one of these two courses. This team-taught course varies from year to year, depending on the focus of the faculty teams. These courses are a site of innovation and experimentation, offering cutting-edge, hands-on experience with new constellations of texts, objects and images. Designed specifically for HUM minors, the seminars have wide appeal, and seats are always reserved for HUM minors.
    • The four courses must also be drawn from at least two of the following clusters, which demonstrate the broad reach of the humanities. Each semester, students will be furnished with a list of preapproved courses for each cluster and the specific HUM courses and HUM cross-lists included in each; some courses will appear in more than one cluster.

Tradition and Transformation

These courses deepen the study of particular partnerships among the possible combinations of religion, philosophy, history, literature and the creative arts. They pay attention to the landmark achievements in an intellectual tradition, considering continuities as well as societal change, upheaval and transformation.

Global or Comparative Humanities

Illuminating their study of one culture with comparative approaches to other areas of the world, these courses investigate one or more regions through various methodologies. To enhance their intercultural studies, program students have benefited from participating in global seminars or other study abroad opportunities.

Engaged or Public Humanities

These courses explore links to the social sciences through such emerging fields as cognitive science, environmental studies, medical humanities, urban humanities, indigenous studies and disability studies, among other fields. Students may pursue community-engaged research and scholarly activism.

Humanities and Sciences in Dialogue

These courses consider how advances in natural science and engineering technology empower us to ask new kinds of questions and forge new kinds of knowledge.

Data and Culture

Addressing an increasingly datafied society, these courses teach the ability to contextualize and interpret data as humanistic skills. This cluster requires HUM 346 / CDH 346, Introduction to Digital Humanities.

Additional Information

Up to two courses may be double-counted with permission of the home department’s director of undergraduate studies and the humanistic studies program adviser.

 

Faculty

  • Director

    • Esther H. Schor

  • Executive Committee

    • Elizabeth A. Davis, Anthropology
    • Martin Kern, East Asian Studies
    • Christina H. Lee, Spanish & Portuguese
    • Rosina A. Lozano, History
    • Carolina Mangone, Art and Archaeology
    • Kinohi Nishikawa, English
    • Kim Lane Scheppele, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Esther H. Schor, English, ex officio
    • Anna M. Shields, East Asian Studies
    • Nigel Smith, English

  • Associated Faculty

    • Bridget Alsdorf, Art and Archaeology
    • Elizabeth M. Armstrong, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
    • Sandra L. Bermann, Comparative Literature
    • Ksenia Chizhova, East Asian Studies
    • Maria A. DiBattista, English
    • Brigid Doherty, German
    • Andrew M. Feldherr, Classics
    • Sophie G. Gee, English
    • Branko Glisic, Civil and Environmental Eng
    • Michael D. Gordin, Office of the Dean of College
    • Barbara Graziosi, Classics
    • Lara Harb, Near Eastern Studies
    • Johannes Haubold, Classics
    • Wendy Heller, Music
    • Samuel Holzman, Art and Archaeology
    • Paize Keulemans, East Asian Studies
    • Eve Krakowski, Near Eastern Studies
    • Joel B. Lande, German
    • Federico Marcon, East Asian Studies
    • Gaetana Marrone-Puglia, French & Italian
    • Sarah E. McGrath, Philosophy
    • Yair Mintzker, History
    • Benjamin C. Morison, Philosophy
    • Afia Ofori-Mensa, Emma Bloomberg Ctr Access&Opp
    • Dan-El Padilla Peralta, Classics
    • Spyros Papapetros, Architecture
    • Efthymia Rentzou, French & Italian
    • Esther H. Schor, English, ex officio
    • D. Vance Smith, English
    • Michael A. Wachtel, Slavic Lang & Literatures
    • Stacy E. Wolf, Lewis Center for the Arts

For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Courses

HUM 216 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture I: Literature and the Arts Fall LA

This course, taken simultaneously with 217, forms the first part of an intensive, four-course (216-219) interdisciplinary introduction to Western culture. Part I extends from antiquity to the Middle Ages. These courses bring together students and several faculty members to discuss key texts, events, and artifacts of European civilization. Readings and discussions are complemented by films, concerts, museum visits, guest lectures, and other special events. Students enroll in both 216 and 217. Three lectures, two discussion sessions. B. Kitzinger, K. Chenoweth, A. Feldherr

HUM 217 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture I: History, Philosophy, and Religion Fall HA

In combination with 216, this is the first part of a year-long interdisciplinary sequence exploring Western culture. Students enroll in both 216 and 217. All meetings are listed under 216. S. Baralay, S. Marchesi, E. Schor

HUM 218 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture II: Literature and the Arts Spring LA

This course, taken simultaneously with 219, forms the second part of an intensive, four-course (216-219) interdisciplinary introduction to Western culture. Part II extends from the Renaissance to the modern period. These courses bring together students and several faculty members to discuss key texts, events, and artifacts of European civilization. Readings and discussions are complemented by films, concerts, museum visits, and other special events. Students enroll in both 218 and 219. K. Chenoweth, M. Wachtel, B. Sincox

HUM 219 - Interdisciplinary Approaches to Western Culture II: History, Philosophy, and Religion Spring EC

In combination with 218, this is the second half of a year-long interdisciplinary sequence exploring Western culture from the 15th to the 20th centuries. All meetings are listed under 218. C. Mangone, B. Conisbee Baer, S. Morrison

HUM 233 - East Asian Humanities I: The Classical Foundations (also COM 233/EAS 233) Fall EM

An introduction to the literature, art, religion, and philosophy of China, Japan, and Korea from antiquity to ca. 1400. Readings are focused on primary texts in translation and complemented by museum visits, films, and other materials from the visual arts. The lecturers include faculty members from East Asian studies, comparative literature, art and archaeology, and religion. Students are encouraged to enroll in HUM 234 in the spring, which continues the course from ca. 1400 into the 20th century. B. Steininger, T. Wilson

HUM 234 - East Asian Humanities II: Traditions and Transformations (also COM 234/EAS 234) Spring EM

An introduction to the literary, philosophical, religious, and artistic traditions of East Asia. Readings are focused on primary texts in translation. Lectures and discussions are accompanied by films, concerts, and museum visits. Lecturers include faculty members from East Asian studies, comparative literature, art and archaeology, and religion. K. Chizhova, X. Xia

HUM 335 - A Global History of Monsters (also EAS 376/HIS 334) Fall CD or HA

This class analyzes how different cultures imagine monsters and how these representations changed over time to perform different social functions. As negative objectifications of fundamental social structures and conceptions, monsters are a key to understand the culture that engendered them. This course has three goals: it familiarizes students with the semiotics of monsters worldwide; it teaches analytical techniques exportable to other topics and fields; it proposes interpretive strategies of "reading culture" comparatively beyond the stereotype of "the West and the Rest." F. Marcon

HUM 365 - Freud on the Psychological Foundations of the Mind (also PSY 365) Fall EC

Freud is approached as a systematic thinker dedicated to discovering the basic principles of human mental life. For Freud, these basic principles concern what impels human thought and behavior. What moves us to think and act? What is it to think and act? Emphasis is placed on the close study and critical analysis of texts, with particular attention to the underlying structure of the arguments. Two 90-minute classes. S. Sugarman

HUM 450 - Empathy and Alienation (also ARC 450/ART 482/GER 407) Fall HA or LA

In 19- and 20-c. debates that crossed borders among disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, art history, philosophy, and political theory, empathy and alienation emerged as key terms to describe relations among human beings, works of art, and commodities. This seminar addresses the dynamics of empathy and alienation across a range of discourses and artifacts in European culture. Our explorations of how relationships between empathy and alienation were variously conceptualized in psychological aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and critical theory will aim to open up new perspectives on recent debates about identity and affect. B. Doherty, S. Papapetros

HUM 470 - Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (also CLA 470/ECS 470/MUS 470) Spring LA

This team-taught seminar examines texts, objects, periods and themes from an interdisciplinary perspective. Although designed to be the capstone course for students pursuing a certificate in Humanistic Studies, it is open to other students if space is available. The specific topic varies each year depending on the focus of the faculty team. Staff

AAS 239 - Introduction to African Literature and Film (also AFS 239/COM 239/HUM 239/TRA 239) Fall CD or LA

African literature and films have been a vital (but often unacknowledged) stream in and stimulant to the global traffic in invention. Nigerian literature is one of the great literatures of the 20th century. Ethiopian literature is one of the oldest in the world. South Africans have won more Nobel Prizes for Literature in the past forty years than authors from any other country. Senegalese films include some of the finest films ever made. In this course, we will study the richness and diversity of foundational African texts (some in translation), while foregrounding questions of aesthetics, style, humor, and epistemology. W. Belcher

AAS 303 - Topics in Global Race and Ethnicity (also GHP 313/GSS 406/HUM 347) Not offered this year HA or SA

This seminar uses the prevailing analytical tools and critical perspectives of African American Studies to consider comparative approaches to groups, broadly defined. Students will examine the intellectual traditions, socio-political contexts, expressive forms, and modes of belonging of people who are understood to share common boundaries/experiences as either (1) Africans and the African Diaspora outside of the United States; and/or (2) non-African-descended people of color within the United States. Staff

ANT 240 - Medical Anthropology (also HUM 240) CD or EM

Exploration of cross-cultural constructions of sickness, disease, health, and healing interrogates our basic ethical, moral, and political positions. Our healing and disease models derive from specific cultural assumptions about society, gender, class, age, ethnicity, and race. Categories of disease from one culture can compromise ethical positions held by another. We pursue the moral implications of a critique of medical development and the political and ethical implications of treating Western medicine as ethnoscience as well as universal truth. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. J. Biehl

ART 228 - Art and Power in the Middle Ages (also HLS 228/HUM 228/MED 228) HA or LA

In twelve weeks this course will examine major art works from the twelve centuries (300-1500 CE) that encompass the European Middle Ages. Presenting works from Europe and the Middle East, the course will introduce students to the art of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam; the great courts of the Eastern- and Holy Roman Empires, and the roving Vikings, Celts and Visigoths. Students will not only be invited to consider how art can represent and shape notions of sacred and secular power, but will also come to understand how the work of 'art' in this period is itself powerful and, sometimes, dangerous. Staff

ART 311 - Arts of the Medieval Book (also HUM 311/MED 311) Spring HA or LA

This course explores the technology and function of books in historical perspective, asking how illuminated manuscripts were designed to meet (and shape) cultural and intellectual demands in the medieval period. Surveying the major genres of European book arts between the 7th-15th centuries, we study varying approaches to pictorial space, page design, and information organization; relationships between text and image; and technical aspects of book production. We work primarily from Princeton's collection of original manuscripts and manuscript facsimiles. Assignments include the option to create an original artist's book for the final project. B. Kitzinger

CLA 212 - Classical Mythology (also GSS 212/HLS 212/HUM 212) Not offered this year LA

A study of classical myths in their cultural context and in their wider application to abiding human concerns (such as creation, generation, sex and gender, identity, heroic experience, death, and transformations). A variety of approaches for understanding the mythic imagination and symbol formation through literature, art, and film. Two lectures, one preceptorial. K. Stergiopoulou

CLA 326 - Topics in Ancient History (also HIS 326/HLS 373/HUM 324) Fall/Spring HA

A period, problem, or theme in ancient history or religion with critical attention to the ancient sources and modern discussions. The topic and instructor vary from year to year. Format will change each time, depending on enrollment. Prof. Marc Domingo Gygax will teach the Fall. Prof. Harriet Flower will teach the Spring. M. Domingo Gygax, H. Flower

COM 205 - The Classical Roots of Western Literature (also HLS 203/HUM 205) Fall CD or EM

An introduction to the methods and some major texts of comparative literary study. It will focus on the Greco-Roman tradition, asking what it means to call a work a "classic": it will consider the outstanding characteristics of this tradition, how it arose and gained influence and attempt to place it in a global context. Readings will be divided into three topics: Epic Heroes (centering on Homer's Odyssey), Tragic Women (in ancient and modern drama), and the "invention" of modernity (Aeneid). Selected additional readings in non-Western literatures and in influential critical essays. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Barkan

COM 206 - Masterworks of European Literature (also HUM 206) Spring LA

This course seeks to discover (or rediscover) a series of significant works in the European tradition, and also to ask once again what a tradition is. The focus will be firmly on the close reading of particular texts, but discussions will also range freely over large questions: What is a classic, what difference does language make, can we think both about world literature, in Goethe's phrase, and about the importance of national and local loyalties? No easy answers promised, but astonishing adventures in reading guaranteed. Staff

COM 310 - The Literature of Medieval Europe (also HUM 312/MED 308) Not offered this year LA

An introductory survey of major representative Latin and vernacular texts in modern English versions, including hagiography, romance, lyric and philosophical poetry, allegory, religious and secular prose, and drama. Special attention will be paid to Christian transformations of classical traditions and to the emergence of the Continental vernaculars of the late Middle Ages. Lecture and preceptorials. D. Heller-Roazen

COM 369 - Beyond Crisis Contemporary Greece in Context (also ECS 369/HLS 369/HUM 369) Fall SA

This course examines an emergent historical situation as it unfolds: the ongoing financial, social, and humanitarian "crisis" in Greece, including the "refugee crisis." It offers a comparative approach to current Greek cultural production, through literature and film of the past decade and writings drawn from history, anthropology, political science, economics, news sources, and political blogs. We also probe terms like "crisis," exploring how language shapes our understanding of events and how our perceptions of an unfamiliar culture, history, and society are mediated not just by linguistic translation but by market forces and media spin. K. Emmerich

COM 370 - Topics in Comparative Literature (also ECS 386/HUM 371) Not offered this year LA

Study of a selected theme or topic in comparative literature. Subjects will range from historical and cultural questions (literature and politics, the literature of the avant-garde) to the study of specific literary themes or topics (feminine autobiography, the grotesque in literature). Staff

ENG 390 - The Bible as Literature (also COM 392/HUM 390/TRA 390) Fall/Spring LA

The Bible will be read closely in its own right and as an enduring resource for literature and commentary. The course will cover its forms and genres, including historical narrative, uncanny tales, prophecy, lyric, lament, commandment, sacred biography, and apocalypse; its pageant of weird and extraordinary characters; and its brooding intertextuality. Students will become familiar with a wide variety of biblical interpretations, from the Rabbis to Augustine, Kafka and Kierkegaard. Cinematic commentary will be included--Bible films, from the campy to the sublime. Two lectures, one preceptorial. E. Schor

ENG 409 - Topics in Drama (also HUM 409/THR 410) Not offered this year LA

A detailed discussion of different bodies of theatrical literature, with emphasis and choice of materials varying from year to year. The focus will be on a group of related plays falling within a specific historical period, the developing work of one playwright, or the relationships among thematics, characterization, and structure. Two lectures, one preceptorial. B. Sincox

MED 227 - The Worlds of the Middle Ages (also HIS 227/HLS 227/HUM 227) Spring LA

We will begin in 476 with the fall of Rome and will end in 1453, with the fall of New Rome (Constantinople). In between, we will trace the different trajectories that the area stretching from Iceland to Iran traveled along over the course of this fateful millennium. We will meet Northern barbarians, Arab armies, Vikings, Crusaders, Mongols, and the Ottomans; we will witness the birth of Islam and medieval Islamic civilization; Charlemagne's creation of the Western Roman empire; will see clashes between Popes and rulers and Caliphs and Muslim religious authorities. We will do all this and more, all the while asking: what were the Middle Ages? W. Jordan

PHI 309 - Political Philosophy (also CHV 309/HUM 309) Not offered this year EM

A systematic study of problems and concepts connected with political institutions: sovereignty, law, liberty, and political obligation. Topics may include representation, citizenship, power and authority, revolution, civil disobedience, totalitarianism, and legal and political rights. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff

PHI 326 - Philosophy of Art (also COM 363/HUM 326) Fall LA

An examination of concepts involved in the interpretation and evaluation of works of art. Emphasis will be placed on sensuous quality, structure, and expression as aesthetic categories. Illustrative material from music, painting, and literature. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. Smith

POL 412 - Seminar in Political Theory (also HUM 411) Fall EM

Investigation of a major theme in political theory. Reading and intensive discussion of selected issues in the literature. One three-hour seminar. D. Halikias

PSY 210 - Foundations of Psychological Thought (also HUM 210) Spring EC or HA

An exploration of original texts in the history of ideas about the workings of the human mind starting in Antiquity and leading to the development of the empirical discipline of psychology in the 19th century and some of its modern trends. Subsequent developments, including the child study movement, are explored though 20th century writings, culminating with Sartre's philosophical psychology and sources in Eastern thought to put the Western trajectory in perspective. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Sugarman

REL 229 - Great Books in Buddhism (also HUM 229) Not offered this year LA

Close reading of great stories in the formative period of Buddhism, 50 BC to 400 AD. Examines Buddhist literature against the background of religious doctrine and cultural history. Explores themes such as: previous lifetimes, rebirth and cosmology, genres of Buddhist narrative, parables, personal quests versus social justice, emptiness, and changing conceptions of the Buddha. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Teiser

REL 364 - Love and Justice (also GSS 338/HUM 364) Not offered this year EM

Analysis of philosophical and theological accounts of love and justice, with emphasis on how they interrelate. Is love indiscriminate and therefore antithetical to justice, or can love take the shape of justice? What are the implications for moral, political, and legal theory? The seminar also considers recent efforts to revive a tradition of political theology in which love's relation to justice is a prominent theme. One three-hour seminar. E. Gregory

TRA 200 - Thinking Translation: Language Transfer and Cultural Communication (also COM 209/HUM 209) Spring LA

What is translation? What is a language? So essential and widespread is translation today that it has become a central analytic term for the contact of cultures, and a paradigm for studying many different aspects of our multilingual world. This course will consider translation as it appeared in the past, but especially as it constructs everyday life in the contemporary world. It will look at issues of anthropology, artificial intelligence, diplomacy, film, law and literature that involve interlingual and intercultural communication. Students should acquire an understanding of the problems and practices of modern translation. D. Bellos

TRA 304 - Translating East Asia (also COM 373/EAS 304/HUM 333) Fall CD or LA

Translation is at the core of our engagement with China, Japan, and Korea, influencing our reading choices and shaping our understanding of East Asia. From translations of the classics to the grass-root subtitling of contemporary Anime movies, from the formation of the modern East Asian cultural discourse to cross-cultural references in theater and film, the seminar poses fundamental questions to our encounters with East Asian cultural artifacts, reflecting on what "translation" of "original works" means in a global world where the "original" is often already located in its projected "translation." M. Kern

TRA 400 - Translation, Migration, Culture (also COM 409/HUM 400) Fall SA

This course will explore the crucial connections between migration, language, and translation. Drawing on texts from a range of genres and disciplines - from memoir and fiction to scholarly work in translation studies, migration studies, political science, anthropology, and sociology - we will focus on how language and translation affect the lives of those who move through and settle in other cultures, and how, in turn, human mobility affects language and modes of belonging. S. Bermann