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General Education: Studies in Arts & Humanities
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 Yvette Kisor
- Section 03: Professor James Hoch
- Section 04: Professor Ira Spar
- Section 05: Professor Tae Kwak
- Section 06: Professor Diane Tomko
- Section 07: Professor Riki Traum
- Section 08: Professor Ziva Piltch
- Section 09: Professor Tae Kwak
- Section 10: Professor Roark Atkinson
- 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 John Gronbeck-Tedesco
- Section 17: Professor Maria Molinari
- Section 18: Professor Paula Carabell
- Section 19: Professor TBA
- Section 53: Professor Fabien Rivière
Section 01: Professor Ira Spar
Tuesday & Friday, 9:55-11:35
Title TBA
Description TBA
Section 02: Professor Yvette Kisor
Tuesday & Friday, 1:45-3:25
Title TBA
Section 03: Professor James Hoch
Monday & Thursday, 9:55-11:05; additional work asynch
“Get a Life?!”
Get a life?! Make a life.
| Or, as the poet Mary Oliver put it…
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do |
| With your one wild and precious life?” |
In this section of Studies in Arts and Humanities, we will consider poems and films, stories and essays, which ask us to consider what it means and what it takes to make a life meaningful. In the gray dust of the universe, why does the need to make our lives matter still persist? Is it luck, tragedy, absurdity, awe? Is it a cosmic joke, a god prank? And why?
Our exploration will seek to localize the question in notions of self and identity and how those notions are formed and evolve from particular historical and cultural contexts while recognizing the practice of meaning making converses across the boundaries of these contexts. We will seek to encourage wonder and joy amid a rather cranky existential dread.
Section 04: Professor Ira Spar
Tuesday & Friday, 3:45-5:20
Title TBA
Section 05: Professor Tae Kwak
Monday, 6:05-9:35
Title TBA
Description TBA
Section 06: Professor Diane Tomko
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 Tae Kwak
Thursday, 6:05-9:35
Title TBA
Section 10: Professor Roark Atkinson
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?!”
Get a life?! Make a life.
| Or, as the poet Mary Oliver put it…
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do |
| With your one wild and precious life?” |
In this section of Studies in Arts and Humanities, we will consider poems and films, stories and essays, which ask us to consider what it means and what it takes to make a life meaningful. In the gray dust of the universe, why does the need to make our lives matter still persist? Is it luck, tragedy, absurdity, awe? Is it a cosmic joke, a god prank? And why?
Our exploration will seek to localize the question in notions of self and identity and how those notions are formed and evolve from particular historical and cultural contexts while recognizing the practice of meaning making converses across the boundaries of these contexts. We will seek to encourage wonder and joy amid a rather cranky existential dread.
Section 12: Professor Edward Shannon
Monday & Thursday, 9:55-11:05; additional work asynch
“Weird Tales”
Weird Tales is the title of a “pulp fiction” magazine published in the 1920’s in the US. It is also as good a title for the human experience as any. Being human is weird, eerie, grotesque, beautiful and sublime. The stories we tell, the images we create, and the way we remember the past sometimes mystify before they crystalize. This semester we’ll look to find links between stories about mythical heroes, golems, ice mummies, and monsters. One strand we will follow through this course is how difficult it sometimes is to tell the heroes from the villains and the truth from fiction. The plan is to meet epic figures like Gilgamesh and Cuchulainn, think about documentary film and audio, read some comics and maybe an animated film!
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 John Gronbeck-Tedesco
Wednesday, 9:00-12:30
Title TBA
Description TBA
Section 17: Professor Maria Molinari
Wednesday, 6:05-9:35
“The Fractured Self”
Literature, art, music, dance, and every form of artistic expression often addresses the very real human question of how we, as human beings, think, feel, and experience life from multiple perspectives.
Sometimes these experiences may feel strange or confusing. Literature can help us understand and come to terms with our awareness of the vast space that we inhabit as human beings. As an instructor, I am energized by these conversations, and I want to hear your thoughts!
We read, discuss, and write about fiction and nonfiction (from the ancient world, middle ages, and 20th and 21st centuries, etc.). We seek to acknowledge the many parts of ourselves, all the while considering the anthropology, mythology, psychology, and art that informs our reading.
Section 18: Professor Paula Carabell
Tuesday & Friday, 11:50-1:30
Title TBA
Description TBA
Section 19: Professor TBA
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.
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