Humanities

Overview

The humanities comprise the academic fields concerned with the human experience. At New College, the Division of Humanities includes Art, Art History, Classics, Languages and Literatures (Chinese, English, French, German, Ancient Greek, Latin, Russian, Spanish), Music, Philosophy, and Religion. Humanities also connects with many interdisciplinary areas, including Environmental Studies; Gender Studies; International and Area Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. 

While it can be broken into various disciplines and modes of human expression, and connects with numerous other areas, “Humanities” is a complex area itself, with roots in the studia humanitatis, or the study of human thought, creation, and experiences. It has roots in ancient debates about the best path to developing “virtue” through balancing contemplation and action in the world. Studying the humanities encourages us to continue asking what it means to be human, what goes into the category of the human, and how the human intersects or ought to intersect with the non-human world. 

Humanities as an Area of Concentration (AOC) allows students to draw together work across the Humanities, to range widely, and engage with multiple lenses to develop a compelling senior project. Because of its range, a Divisional Humanities AOC is not usually combined with other AOCs.

Faculty in Humanities

Kim Anderson, Professor of Art
Tony Arza, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Tom Bailey, Professor of Creative Writing
Kat Baloff, Adjunct Instructor of Chamber Music
David Berry, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies
Dan Bethune, Instructor of Art
Virginia Bray, Adjunct Instructor of Piano
Katherine Brion, Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies
Ryan Buyssens, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Art
Magdalena Carrasco, Professor of Art History
Maribeth Clark, Professor of Music/Chair, Division of Humanities
Tania Coambs, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theater and Voice
Christa DiMarco, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History
Mark Dancigers, Assistant Professor of Music
Aron Edidin, Professor of Philosophy
David Edwards, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Douglas Estes, Associate Professor of Religion
Ashkan Fakhrtabatabaie, Assistant Professor of Music and Digital Media Arts
April Flakne, Professor of Philosophy
Fernando Gorab Leme, Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics
Jeffrey Hanson, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Melanie Hubbard, Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Mike Jones, Adjunct Instructor of Theater
Wes Kline, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Sonia Labrador-Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Spanish Language and Literature
Fang-yu Li, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture
Manuel Lopez, Associate Professor of Religion and Buddhist Studies/Associate Provost
Nova Myhill, Professor of English and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies/Director of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
Nassima Neggaz, Associate Professor of History and Religion (On Leave)
Christopher Noble, Assistant Professor of Philosophy (On Leave)
Tim O'Donnell, Instructor of Theater
John Park, Assistant Professor of English
Jose Alberto Portugal, Professor of Spanish Language and Literature/Co-Chair of the Faculty
Travis Ray, Adjunct Instructor of Theater
Amy Reid, Professor of French Language and Literature (On Leave)
David Rohrbacher, Professor of Classics
Hesam Sharifian, Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies
Carl Shaw, Professor of Classics
Wendy Sutherland, Professor of German Language and Black European and Diaspora Studies
Hugo R. Viera-Vargas, Associate Professor of Caribbean and Latin American Studies and Music
Avni Vyas, Assistant Professor Creative Writing
Leymis Wilmott, Dance Instructor and Artist in Residence
Alina Wyman, Professor of Russian Language and Literature
Jessica Young, Assistant Professor of Global English (On Leave)
Florence Zamsky, Visiting Assistant Professor of French
Robert Zamsky, Professor of English/Associate Provost
Jing Zhang, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture/Director of International and Area Studies

Requirements for the Divisional AOC in Humanities

A student who intends to complete a Divisional AOC in Humanities will meet the following requirements:

1. The student should demonstrate the ability to read, think, communicate, create, and perform in the humanities through successful completion of one or more undertakings in each of the following fields:
   1. The Arts
   2. Literature(s)
   3. Philosophy and Religion
2. The student should explore diverse approaches to the humanities through successful completion of at least one undertaking in each of the following areas (examples in parentheses are meant as suggestions, not as prescriptions):
   1. Historical study in one of the humanities disciplines (ex. The Western Art Music Tradition, Christian Scriptures, Art History courses, literature with a historical focus)
   2. Theoretical/critical study in one of the humanities disciplines (ex. Introduction to Music, Music Theory I, Postcolonial Literature and Theory, Introduction to Religion, courses in philosophy)
   3. Creative work in one of the humanities disciplines (ex. courses in art, acting or directing, creative writing, dance, music composition, or performance)
3. The student should complete 10-12 term-length activities in the humanities. Transfer students should discuss their coursework from other institutions with a faculty member in the humanities in order to determine if fewer than ten courses at New College in this area would be appropriate.
4. The student should study a foreign language (modern or classical) that is related to his or her special interest in the humanities. Students will be required to successfully complete at least one course in a foreign language sequence at New College at the intermediate level (third semester) or above. A course or tutorial studying literature or other material in the original language fulfills this requirement. Intermediate-level coursework taken at a regionally accredited institution focusing on a language not regularly taught at New College will be considered on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it fulfills the language requirement of the Humanities AOC.
5. Students who declare a Humanities AOC during their fifth contract are encouraged when possible to create a pre-thesis ISP that designs a plan to complete a thesis or thesis project in the humanities, to develop the thesis proposal, and consider the appropriate work for the 6th, 7th, and 8th contracts.
6. The student’s senior project should involve work in one or more of the disciplines in the division. The form and content of senior projects (thesis-monograph, creative project, or “academic portfolio”) will be defined in close collaboration with the academic sponsor and with the approval of the baccalaureate committee.

Representative Senior Theses in Humanities

• No Man’s Wasteland: A Critical Genealogy of the Anthropocene
• On the Outside: International Travel, Self-Transformation, and Alienation in Film and Literature
• Spiritual But Not Religious, Judaism in the New Age: A Case Study of Jewish Practitioners of Kundalina Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan in the United States
• Beyond Words: Poetic Authority and Voice in the Works of Claudia Rankine and John Taggart
• Masculinity on the Margins: Redefining American Manhood in New Orleans and Southern Louisiana
• Performance as Survival: Art, Activism, and Identity at the Nuyorican Poets Café
• A New Mythology: Irish Themes and Motifs in Modern Young Adult Literature
• “A Need to Know Basis:” An Account, Analysis, and Response of the Intersection of Prenatal Testing and Informed Consent
• Flitting Fairy and Haughty Harpy: Costuming Ariel in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
• Stendhal and the Heroines of His World
• The Evolution of Orpheus from the Classical World Period to the Renaissance
• “Feminist Fairy Tales”: Female Agency and Subversive Messages in Fairy Tales of the Traditional European Canon Tale Type AT425A