Course surveys cultural accomplishments of Western civilization from its beginnings in Mesopotamia through the Middle Ages. Content includes visual arts, music, literature, theater, architecture, and philosophy studied in historical context.
Course surveys the great artistic and intellectual accomplishments of Western civilization from the Renaissance through the 20th Century. Content includes visual arts, literature, drama, philosophy, architecture, and music studied in historical context.
Course concentrates on culture and arts of the last 50 years, with focus on appreciation and critical evaluation of contemporary culture. Content provides interdisciplinary perspectives on literature, music, drama, visual arts, architecture, TV, film, and cultural theory, as well as forces that influence the arts.
Course provides a survey of the visual arts (painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and architecture) emphasizing how art transmits cultural traditions and aesthetic values. Content includes the historical, social and technological factors that contribute to understanding the function and meaning of works of art.
Course offers an interdisciplinary and comparative survey of the intellectual, artistic, historical, and cultural achievements of people of African descent in America. Content includes examination of literature, philosophy, visual art, music, film, and other performing arts.
Course examines music through a basic stylistic survey. Content includes the vocabulary of sounds (rhythm, pitch, intensity and timbre), instruments and forms as illustrated by music from medieval times to the present. Music of Western civilization emphasized and compared to music from other cultures.
Course surveys the musical, dramatic and stylistic development of music theater, from the year 1600 to the present. Content includes selected major works of opera, operetta, musicals and ballet. Focus is on the cultural framework that gives rise to these art forms.
Course focuses on the most fundamental questions that human beings have always asked. Topics include a critical examination of theories about reality and truth, moral values and social justice, personal identity and free will, aesthetic values, and systems of religious beliefs.
Course offers an introductory survey of theater as a performing art form. Content includes analysis of historical, social, aesthetic and technical aspects of traditional and contemporary theatrical expression. This is an appreciation class, not a performance class.
Course introduces architectural thought and practice from the Egyptians to the present. Content includes philosophical and practical problems of providing habitable spaces for human beings.
Course introduces the diverse forms of dance that have emerged from and express the experiences of varied minority cultures in the United States. Course traces historical and contemporary dance practices to analyze the many ways in which diverse dance forms are shaped by race and ethnicity in the United States. At least four different communities and dance practices will be studied.
Course introduces the interdisciplinary field of women’s studies that seeks to understand and challenge gender inequalities. Course traces the philosophical, literary and historical emergence of the women’s studies discipline to explore the many ways it has addressed our cultural experiences.
Course introduces the interdisciplinary field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer studies, which seeks to understand and challenge inequalities related to sexuality and gender identity. Course traces the philosophical, literary and historical emergence of the LGBTQ discipline to explore the many ways it has addressed our cultural experiences, as well as diverse representations of sexuality and gender identity in literature and popular media.
Course explores selected creative work done by women. Content includes literature, art, music, film, and philosophy; may also explore women’s creativity as manifested through shaping of community and domestic institutions, and through domestic arts. Focus may be either historical or contemporary.
Course concentrates on culture and arts focused on relationships between humanity, the earth, and our environment. Content provides interdisciplinary perspectives on literature, philosophy, music, drama, visual arts, architecture, film, and cultural theory, as well as social forces affecting humanity’s relation to the natural world.
Course offers a survey of the historical development of film, emphasizing a study of films and innovations in film production that have had significant influence on film as an art form. Topics include basic film language, editing, light, sound,camera movement, and related topics.
Course offers a survey of the historical development of global cinema outside of Hollywood and the United States, emphasizing a study of films and innovations in film production, distribution, and exhibition, as well as changes in national identity, that have had significant influence on cinema as an international art form.
Course examines written works and their cinematic and televisual equivalents to encourage the ability to analyze and evaluate artistic expression and social meaning and to appreciate the dynamics of adaptation from one medium into another.
Course introduces world music. Content includes musical performance, instruments, basic music theory, and the cultural significance of music; several Asian, Middle Eastern, and African cultures will be considered.
Course explores the nature of mythology. Content includes themes, archetypal figures and situations, symbolism and figurative language found in selected folklore and legendary narratives.
Course offers an interdisciplinary and comparative survey of the intellectual and artistic achievements of several Asian cultures. Content includes examination of literature, philosophy, visual art, music, and other performing arts.
Course focuses on women as both creators and subjects of visual art. Through examining individual art works, course participants will consider how gender is relevant to the definition, creation and appreciation of visual art. Instructors may take either a topical or historical approach to course content.
Course presents different modes of filmmaking. Content includes narrative, documentary, and animation; variety of current critical methodologies for studying film, such as genre theory, authorship theory, star theory, national cinema, feminist film theory, and structuralist theory (hero studies).
Course explores selected topics in music, film, art history, architecture, or any other humanities discipline. Course content varies. May focus on a single artist or composer, group of artists or composers, stylistic period, or particular trends during one such period. Representative course titles might include: Mozart’s Late Opera, Contemporary American Film, or Chicago Architecture. Course can be repeated on different topics up to three times. Fee Varies. Prerequisite may vary by topic.