An essential part of the General Education Program, the 200-level AIID 201 Studies in Arts & Humanities course addresses the objectives of the General Education Program by providing an opportunity for students to engage with enduring questions and issues in an interdisciplinary fashion by studying texts and other sources drawn from a range of different times and cultures.

Course Description

The Studies in Arts & Humanities is an interdisciplinary liberal arts course.  It provides students with an introduction to key texts, concepts, and artifacts from different fields in the humanities including, for instance, history, literature, philosophy, music, and art history. Each section of the course covers a variety of different cultures and at least four different periods in human history, which can range from the ancient world to contemporary works. The course is designated Writing Intensive and will require students to complete at least two different types of writing assignments. This is a core General Education course, required of all students

Class Schedule

AIID 201 - STUDIES IN THE ARTS & HUMANITIES

SIAH Section Descriptions, Spring 2025

Note:  We will do our best to maintain this list of instructors, times, and topics.  However, unexpected schedule changes may happen due to enrollment and other issues.

• Section 01: Professor Ira Spar
• Section 02: Professor Francis Meegan
• Section 03: Professor James Hoch
• Section 04: Professor Ira Spar
• Section 05: Professor TBA
• Section 06: Professor TBA
• Section 07: Professor Riki Traum
• Section 08: Professor Ziva Piltch
• Section 09: Professor Carrie Esposito
• Section 10: Professor Diane Tomko
• Section 11: Professor James Hoch
• Section 12: Professor Edward Shannon
• Section 13: Professor Yvette Kisor
• Section 14: Professor John Peffer
• Section 15: Professor TBA
• Section 16: Professor Johanna Almiron
• Section 17: Professor Maria Molinari
• Section 18: Professor Paula Carabell
• Section 19: Professor Meredith Davis
• Section 53: Professor Fabien Rivière

Section 01: Professor Ira Spar

Tuesday & Friday, 9:55-11:35
Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 02: Professor Francis Meegan

Tuesday & Friday, 1:45-3:25
“Spirits, Hauntings, and Memories as Agents of Change”

This course explores the themes of haunting, spirits, and memory as they relate to periods of
significant social, cultural, moral, economic and political change. We will engage with texts and
materials drawn from a variety of humanities disciplines, including drama, music studies, history, ethnography, and theory from various fields. Through these texts and resources we will consider how the seemingly immaterial notions of spirits, haunting, and memory exert agency on physical and social events. We will look at representations of the physical powers of spirits and magic in in the early modern period of colonization with a reading of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, which we will relate to the European conquest of the Caribbean. We will then investigate Caribbean history of the late eighteenth century as we discuss the Haitian Revolution, which led to the first permanent abolition of slavery in the Americas. We will explore the role that spirits and collective memory had in inspiring and animating the revolution, and the role that music and dance has in interacting with spirits in traditional Afro-Caribbean religion. We will then move to late nineteenth century Europe, reading Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and consider how spirits, ancestors, and memory affect the moral reform movements that were passionately debated. We will relate this to other moral crises at the time, including economic and philosophical debates that touch on the theme of haunting. We will round out our survey of different historical periods by looking at contemporary electronic dance scenes. Here we will consider how themes of collectivity and memories of friends and loved ones inform the identities of dancers, DJs and organizers. Throughout the class we will analyze how notions of spirits and haunting transform as they accommodate to the ideologies of different historical contexts, yet remain powerful despite their mutations.

Section 03: Professor James Hoch

Monday & Thursday, 9:55-11:05; additional work asynch

“Get a Life?!”

Section 04: Professor Ira Spar

Tuesday & Friday, 3:45-5:20

Title TBA

Section 05: Professor TBA

Monday, 6:05-9:35

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 06: Professor TBA

Tuesday & Friday, 3:40-5:20

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 07: Professor Riki Traum

Monday & Thursday, 2:15-3:55

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 08: Professor Ziva Piltch

Wednesday, 1:00-4:30

“The Hero’s Journey”

Our theme for this section will be the hero and hero’s journey and the ways in which the hero reflects the values of her/his culture in literature and in art. The term “hero” is both male and female and includes antiheroes as well.  Readings that emphasize this include The Epic of Gilgamesh, Oedipus or Medea, Othello, Candide, The Doll’s House, and The Metamorphosis. Through writing and discussion we will examine our own values as well.

From the Garden of Eden story in the Bible to the thoughts of early Greek and Hindu philosophers and from a story of love and murder set in 16th century Istanbul to the writings of a 19th century Hasidic master.

Studies in Arts and Humanities is a course in which we examine ancient and modern cultures through the lens of different disciplines.  We will examine the differing ways societies manage and question issues of proper government, morality, and personal relationships.  We will explore the process by which individuals and groups challenge authority and change perceptions of divinity, belief, social conventions, and norms of behavior.

Section 09: Professor Carrie Esposito

Thursday, 6:05-9:35

“Narratives, Perspectives, and Global Responsibilities”

In this course, we will explore how our narratives shape perception of ourselves and how shared narratives shape external perceptions of world events and personal histories. As we grapple with questions of who we are and who we want to be personally, in our relationships with others, and in relationship to the broader world and world events, we often turn to the creation of or the interpretation of literature and philosophy to understand our own humanity. We will read texts from various perspectives, cultural contexts, and time periods as you build your own artifact through a multi-genre project you will create throughout the semester, shining light on your unique values, perceptions, and ideas and what you believe to be important specifically in this time and place.

Section 10: Professor Diane Tomko

Monday & Thursday, 4:10-5:50

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 11: Professor James Hoch

Monday & Thursday 8:30 – 9:40; additional work asynch
“Get a Life?!”

Section 12: Professor Edward Shannon

Monday & Thursday, 9:55-11:05; additional work asynch

“Weird Tales”

Section 13: Professor Yvette Kisor

Tuesday/Friday, 11:50 – 1:30

“The Epic Quest”

This iteration of the course will focus on the epic quest, exploring how the concept of the heroic quest has grown and changed over time and across different cultures. As we read the major works introduced here, we will be examining a variety of critical and interpretive issues, including the meaning of the epic as a generic category, the changing role of the hero and the definition of the epic quest, the role and meaning of monsters and other figures featured in the epic quest, how understandings of gender interact with the epic quest, and the relevance and meaning of translation and reinterpretation. We will consider these and other questions through class discussion and close reading, supplemented by occasional lectures to provide cultural and literary contexts. Our examination will span over 2500 years, moving through ancient Greece, medieval England and Italy, and nineteenth-century America, concluding with a modern quest narrative that will allow us to explore the evolution of the concept of the hero quest.

Section 14: Professor John Peffer

Friday, 9:55-1:25

“Talk to the Animals”

     At this time of environmental crisis and rapid loss of global biodiversity, it is important to think of our interdependence with the natural world. How has this been thought and written about critically, and how have creative works been used to respond or draw attention?

            In this course we explore aspects of being and becoming animal. We examine philosophy, literature, art, film, music, and popular culture made about, or with, or by animals, from a global historical perspective. The format is a seminar with an open group discussion each week focusing on examples viewed in class and readings assigned in advance. With these preliminary readings as a foundation, students then do a series of mini research projects related to their own personal interests to share with the group during the second part of the semester.  A partial list of possible sub-topics for our weekly discussions includes: Monkeys, elephants, and cats that paint. Music and birdsong. Companion species and animal husbandry. Traditional animal divination in Africa. The philosophy and ethics of the animal and the human. Animals as metaphors. Animal/human creative interaction and interspecies communication. Bio art. Cyborgs, science fiction, and “wet” computing.

Section 15: Professor TBA

Tuesday, 6:05-9:35

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 16: Professor Johanna Almiron

Wednesday, 9:00-12:30

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 17: Professor Maria Molinari

Wednesday, 6:05-9:35

“The Fractured Self”

Section 18: Professor Paula Carabell

Tuesday & Friday, 11:50-1:30
Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 19: Professor Meredith Davis

Monday & Thursday, 9:55-11:05; additional work asynch

Title TBA

Description TBA

Section 53: Professor Fabien Rivière

Online, asynchronous course
“Self, Identity, Culture”

Literature, art, music, dance, and every form of artistic expression often address the very human question of how we, as human beings, think, feel, and experience life from multiple perspectives.