HUM 2211 Humanites I

Course Syllabus

 

Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of ENC1101 with a grade of “C” or higher.

The course focuses on the Ancient through the Medieval periods of man’s culture and history. It is designed to acquaint the student with literature, philosophy, art, and music in the Prehistoric, Classical, and Medieval periods. Major emphasis is upon understanding and appreciation of man’s cultural heritage. HUM2211 meets half (3,000 words) of the 6,000 word writing requirement of SBE Rule 6A-10.30.

Course Content:

  1. The Beginnings of Civilization
    1. Ancient Egypt
    2. The Culture of Mesopotamia
    3. Aegean Culture
    4. Jerusalem and Biblical Tradition
  2. Greece
    1. The Heroic Age
    2. The Archaic Period
    3. Athens in the 5th Century B.C.
    4. The Hellenistic Period
  3. Rome and Byzantium
    1. The Etruscans
    2. Republican Rome and the Age of Augustus
    3. Life in the Roman Empire
    4. The Rise of Christianity and Decline of Rome
    5. Byzantium and Ravenna
  4. The Middle Ages
    1. Charlemagne: Ruler and Legend
    2. Monasticism
    3. Scholasticism
    4. The Gothic Style
    5. The 14th Century: A time of transition

Required Books and Materials:

  • Matthews, Roy T. and F. Dewitt Platt. The Western Humanities. 5th ed. McGraw Hill, 2004. ISBN 0-07-255632-2
  • Readings in The Western Humanities the 5th ed volume I Early Renaissance through Post Modernsm
  • College level Dictionary and Thesaurus
  • The latest edition of The Bedford Handbook or another MLA reference text. All research papers must meet MLA standards.

Required Technology:

Students are not required to have a personal computer, a particular computer program, or Internet access at their home.  However, students are required to have dependable regular access to these things, whether at home, on campus, or somewhere else.

Grading Criteria:

  • 50%: Average of 5 Exams
  • 50%: Average of 10 Module Postings and Replies

Grading Scale:

A 90-100
B 80-89
C 70-79
D 60-69
F 59-0 

Course Requirements and objective:

Upon completion of this course the student will be able to achieve all of the following:

  1. Understand the beginning of civilization in relation to the origins of architecture, sculpture, and painting in relation to man’s awareness of his environment.
  2. Understand the cultural achievements of the Egyptian civilization in relation to architecture, sculpture, and painting.
  3. Understand the unique culture of the Ancient Near East in relation to the geographical considerations that affect the arts, including architecture, sculpture, and painting.
  4. Understand the beginnings of the Greek culture through its Aegean roots including a study of the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures in relation to architecture, sculpture, painting and pottery.
  5. Understand the cultural changes in western civilization that appeared with the rise of the influence of Jerulalem and the Biblical tradition.
  6. Understand the cultural influences of Greek civilization through a study of the Heroic Age, The Archaic Age, The Classical Age, and concluding with the Hellenistic Period including a focus on architecture, sculpture, painting and literary forms, such as poetry, epic literature, and both tragedy and comedy in the theater.
  7. Understand the Etruscan and Roman Civilizations in relation to epic and dramatic literature, architecture, sculpture, and painting with a focus on propaganda in the arts and the effect of the arts on everyday life in the empire.
  8. Understand the complexity of the Byzantine Empire and its transitional effect on the Western World in relation to a change in art forms including architecture, sculpture, painting, mosaics, and literature.
  9. Understand the drastic change in civilization in The Middle Ages in relation to the composition of medieval society and the changes in the art forms such as architecture, sculpture, painting and literature as seen through the chaos after the fall of the Roman Empire and the influence of Charlemagne and his brief empire.
  10. Understand the differences in Medieval Society through a study of both Feudalism and Monasticism.
  11. Understand the Late Middle Ages and Gothic Style in relation to scholasticism and its influence on the art forms of literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, and stained glass with a focus on the transitional aspect of this historical period.

*Attendance Policy:

Although this is an online class and you will not be attending in the traditional sense, this course does have an attendance policy and in keeping with SJRCC's attendance policy, you may be dropped for non-attendance.  I understand that you might not have a PC, but it's imperative that you log in twice a week.  Following the assignment critera that I have given you will help you fulfill this requirement.  According to SJRCC's Student Handbook:

"If a student accumulates recorded absences totaling three or more instructional hours during the withdrawal period, the instructor may initiate an official warning to the student that he/she has reached the limit of allowed recorded absences. Further, the loss of instructional time through absences will result in the student being withdrawn from the course."

During a traditional-length semester, three instructional hours of attendance equals one week's missed work.  If you miss a week's worth of work in an online class, you may receive a warning for non-attendance, and if you miss more than one week's work in an online class, you may be dropped from the course due to non-attendance. 

*Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Cheating:

Academic Integrity: Students in this class must know, observe, and not compromise the principles of academic integrity. It is not permissible to cheat, to fabricate or falsify information, to submit the same academic work in more than one course without prior permission, to plagiarize, to receive unfair advantage, or to otherwise abuse accepted practices for handling and documenting information. The grade for this course includes the judgments that the student’s work is free from academic dishonesty of any type. Violations or infractions will be reported to the VP for Student Affairs and may lead to failure of the course and other sanctions imposed by the college.

*Plagiarism and Cheating: Plagiarism, according to the SJRCC Student Handbook includes, but is not limited to, "the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials." Plagiarism and cheating are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Students are expected to write their own original work for each college course. Under no circumstances are students to use anyone else's work other than their own to submit to class. Doing so will result in a failure not only of the work but also in the course.