College of the Humanities
(Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences)
Humanities (HUMS) Courses
Myth and Symbol
Recurring symbols in myth, epic and ritual representing the relation between the sacred and the profane, the origin of the cosmos, the basis of community, and formative human experiences. Primary sources drawn from ancient India and China, Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, and Indigenous cultures.
Lectures three hours a week and tutorials one and a half hours a week.
Early Human Cultures
Cultural experiences of small scale societies, including kinship, rituals, magic, social structure, and subsistence. Reading may include the works of classic anthropologists such as Maine, Tylor, Morgan, and Boas.
Prerequisite(s): restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lectures three hours a week.
Humanities and Classical Civilisation
The ideas which animated ancient Greek and Roman civilisation and which influenced later western cultural movements through a reading of literary, historical, and philosophical works. Authors include Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, the Greek Tragedians, Plato, Vergil, and Cicero.
Lecture three hours a week.
Introduction to the Humanities: Five Books that Changed the World
A reading-intensive course on five influential books from Antiquity to the present day. Works may include the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, Homer’s Odyssey, Plato’s Republic, Dante’s Inferno, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
Lecture three hours per week.
Reason and Revelation
The origins of philosophy in ancient Greece and its pursuit in the medieval West, with special attention to knowledge, happiness, and love. Readings include works by Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Boethius, Aquinas, and Dante.
Lectures three hours a week and tutorials one and a half hours a week.
Art from Antiquity to the Medieval World
A chronological and thematic survey of the Arts from the earliest times to ca. 1400.
Prerequisite(s): restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lecture three hours a week.
Modern European Art 1527-2000
A chronological and thematic survey of the Arts from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century.
Prerequisite(s): HUMS 2101 and restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lectures three hours a week.
Culture and Imagination
Major forms of literary, artistic, and philosophical expression from 1500-1800. Sources drawn from renaissance humanism, reformation theology, enlightenment and romantic philosophy.
Lectures three hours a week and tutorials one and a half hours a week.
Western Music 1000-1850
Introduction to basic theory, harmony, history and interpretation of Western music including the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and early Romantic periods.
Precludes additional credit for HUMS 4102 (no longer offered).
Prerequisite(s): restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lectures three hours a week.
Western Music 1850-2000
Western music from the mid-nineteenth century to the present with emphasis on the seminal contributions of Liszt, Wagner, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schönberg and others.
Precludes additional credit for HUMS 4102 (no longer offered).
Prerequisite(s): HUMS 3102 and restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lecture three hours a week.
European Literature
Major movements and works from Dante's Divine Comedy through Voltaire's Candide. Themes include the New Humanism vs. old Chivalry in the Renaissance and Baroque periods; the rise of the modern novel and drama; reason, nature, and the Enlightenment project.
Prerequisite(s): HUMS 2000 and third-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program. English students should have third-year standing with a GPA of B or above.
Lectures three hours a week.
Ancient and Medieval Intellectual History
Examination of some of the major philosophical, religious, political, artistic, and/or literary ideas, works, and movements from Archaic Greece to the High Middle Ages.
Lectures three hours a week.
Renaissance and Early Modern Intellectual History
Examination of some of the major philosophical, religious, political, artistic, and/or literary ideas, works, and movements from the Early Renaissance to 1800.
Lectures three hours a week.
Humanities in Context
Designed for students studying humanities, this travel course explores art, literature, politics, philosophy, architecture, religions, and cultures in their historical and contemporary contexts in a particular geographic locale. Travel destinations and themes vary from year to year.
Prerequisite(s): 2.0 credits in HUMS and permission of the department. Permission of the unit is required to repeat this course.
Hours to be arranged.
Politics, Modernity and the Common Good
Modern and post-modern ways of thinking and doing, including revolutionary new ideas in politics, philosophy, culture, economics, and international relations. Thinkers considered include Arendt, Foucault, Hegel, Heidegger, Hobbes, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Polanyi, Rousseau, Said, and Taylor.
Prerequisite(s): HUMS3000 and enrolment in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lectures three hours a week and tutorials one and a half hours a week.
Directed Studies in the Humanities
A course for independent study and writing, under the supervision of a College designated faculty member. This course involves supervised readings and written essays.
Prerequisite(s): fourth-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Directed Studies in the Humanities
A course for independent study and writing, under the supervision of a College designated faculty member. This course involves supervised readings and written essays.
Prerequisite(s): fourth-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program and Good Standing in the program.
Science in the Modern World
An introduction to the major scientific ideas of our time (such as Big Bang theory, molecular genetics, evolution, atomic structure), and the impact of technology on society (e.g. global warming, pollution, genetically modified foods, viral infections).
Precludes additional credit for HUMS 4100 (no longer offered).
Prerequisite(s): restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lectures three hours a week.
Modern Intellectual History
Examination of some of the major ideas and ideologies from 1800 to the present, including romanticism, liberalism, nationalism, symbolism, socialism, Freudianism, communism, feminism, and postmodernism.
Precludes additional credit for HUMS 4104.
Prerequisite(s): restricted to students in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Lectures three hours a week.
Research Seminar: Antiquity to the Middle Ages
An interdisciplinary seminar on a selected topic in the humanities from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The topic will vary from year to year.
Prerequisite(s): fourth-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Seminar three hours a week.
Research Seminar: Renaissance to Enlightenment
An interdisciplinary seminar on a selected topic in the humanities from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. The topic will vary from year to year.
Prerequisite(s): fourth-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Seminar three hours a week.
Research Seminar: Romanticism to the Present
An interdisciplinary seminar on a selected topic in the humanities from Romanticism to the present. The topic will vary from year to year.
Prerequisite(s): fourth-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Seminar three hours a week.
Research Seminar: Non-Western Traditions
An interdisciplinary seminar on a selected topic in the humanities as expressed in aboriginal and Non-Western cultures. The topic will vary from year to year.
Prerequisite(s): fourth-year standing in the Bachelor of Humanities program.
Seminar three hours a week.
Note: Not all courses listed are offered in a given year. For an up-to-date statement of course offerings for the current session and to determine the term of offering, consult the class schedule at central.carleton.ca.
Summer session: some of the courses listed in this Calendar are offered during the summer. Hours and scheduling for summer session courses will differ significantly from those reported in the fall/winter Calendar. To determine the scheduling and hours for summer session classes, consult the class schedule at central.carleton.ca