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School of Humanities
Margaret P. Monteverde, Associate Dean

Vision:

The School of Humanities explores the human experience as expressed by the individual and by local and international communities. Through curricular and co-curricular activities, the faculty of the school engages students with the enduring questions of values and the struggle for fulfillment, self-expression, communication, and meaning as reflected in the languages, literature, cultures, and philosophies.

Purpose:

The School of Humanities promotes many ways to know and understand human thought, language, and culture. Because an advanced global civilization must give full value to the great branches of scholarly and cultural activity represented in the humanities, students and faculty engage in the study of specific cultures, languages, ideas, times, and places. Faculty within the school employ innovative pedagogies, technology, research, and scholarship to address the cultural and intellectual questions about what it means to be human.

Goals:

The School of Humanities consists of three departments:
     Department of English
     Department of Foreign Languages
     Department of Philosophy

The School of Humanities offers several undergraduate academic majors and minors:

In addition to its major and minor degree programs, the school offers: teacher licensure in English, French, German, Latin and Spanish; studies in Chinese; the M.A. degree in English, as well as other graduate courses which support the M.Ed. degree offered in the School of Education.

The School of Humanities sponsors the following initiatives for the university community: the World’s Fair; The Belmont Literary Journal; academic lectures; convocation programs; and a variety of writing awards, including the Stacy Awalt Essay Contest and the Ruby Treadway Creative Writing Award. The faculty in the school directs several learning facilities which are important parts of the educational experience of all Belmont students: the Writing Center; the Language Learning Center; the Computer Classroom for Composition; and the Language Houses.

The students of the school participate in many curricular and co-curricular activities including: the national honor societies Phi Sigma Iota (Foreign Languages), Phi Sigma Tau (Philosophy), Sigma Tau Delta (English); student clubs, such as the French Club, the German Club, the Italian Club, the Latin Club, the Spanish Club and the English club; service learning projects; and study abroad.

Humanities Courses (HUM)

HUM 100. Humanities Seminar (3). Through a variety of topics, students and faculty of the humanities explore the role of language in engaging the fundamental questions of humanity on individual, local, and global levels.

HUM 121. The Ancient World (6). An interdisciplinary survey of the classical period, focusing primarily on the beginning of western civilization to AD 500, with some contextual reference to the classical periods of other world civilizations. Cross-listed with HON 121.

HUM 150. Asian Humanities: The World of Asia (3). This class will introduce the undergraduate to the exciting world of Asia. The course will deal with both the ancient and modern eras, as it surveys the history, culture, religion, state, and society of India, China, and Japan, approaching the subject in an interdisciplinary way, focused on the humanities.

HUM 195-495. Studies Abroad (3-6). Prerequisite: ENG 110. Interdisciplinary courses in humanistic disciplines.

HUM 199-499. Special Studies (1-3). Prerequisite: ENG 110. Interdisciplinary courses in humanistic disciplines.

Classics

Classics Courses (CLA)

CLA 195-395. Studies Abroad (3-15). Study in Italy or Greece.

CLA 199-399. Special Studies (1-3). Prerequisite: Permission of instructor and department chair.

CLA 330. Classical Mythology (3). Prerequisite: ENG 110. This course concentrates on the myths of the Greeks and Romans, but it includes selected near eastern and Indian myths. The course emphasizes primary mythological texts, but also explores the “language” of myth; and for that purpose, includes philosophical and historical writers like the pre-Socratics and Plutarch, who give revealing glimpses of the ways in which myth was used and understood in the ancient world.

CLA 331. Special Topics in Classical Studies (3). Prerequisite: ENG 110. Each offering of this course will focus on a particular topic pertinent to the study of the classical world. Course may be repeated one time with different topics.