COMP 273
The Magic of the Humanities: Reading novels, speaking languages, and traveling Spring 2025
Division I W Writing Skills D Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed GBST 273

Class Details

What kind of Humanities courses should a liberal arts student take today? How do literature, language, and art fit into your professional and personal present and future? How about study away and intercultural immersion? What subjects were popular 150 or 20 years ago, and what factors shaped these changes? What can this long view tell us about the present? We will kick off with a close look at the history of Williams College, and will blend materials from the college archives with other sources. Along with our Williams examples, we will read several novels and articles, see films, listen to music, and study cultural moments in the United States and abroad when interest in the Humanities flourished (for example, the GI Bill) and others when their value has been questioned, censored or come under threat (from the McCarthy era to AI). We will also consider how many people without the advantages of the liberal arts education model have become writers, artists, or leaders independently. Each student will embark on a unique semester-long research project that seeks to explore a facet of the value of the Humanities in today’s global world.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 18
Expected: 18
Class#: 3668
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: A semester-long research project, engaged daily class participation, midterm presentation of research, final paper, two in-class presentations (one in pairs, one individual), discussion leading.
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Preferences: Open to all students. If overenrolled, instructor will send out a survey to determine enrollment in the course.
Materials/Lab Fee: None
Distributions: Divison I Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
COMP 273 Division I GBST 273 Division II
WS Notes: Students will embark on a semester-long independent research project and they will submit drafts and present their work to the class at different points throughout the Spring. These projects will be like "mini-theses" with proposals, bibliographies, and shorter assignments that will be submitted and revised to be used as the basis for the final paper . Expected length of total assignments 20 pp.
DPE Notes: One of the goals of this course is to consider the democratizing role the humanities play within a Liberal Arts education, and the role of this type of education in the larger context of the world we live in. Is the pursuit of the study of literature, languages, and the arts in sync with career readiness goals that students are, very reasonably, concerned with? We will explore this and related questions.This course proposes the humanities as a space for all, not a luxury for the privileged few.
Attributes: TEAC Teaching Sequence Courses

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