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Humanities

Overview Courses

Humanities is the study of painting, sculpture, literature, music, theater, and philosophy with the goal of discovering important ideas about our human condition. Humanities courses examine key arts and ideas as found in ancient through modern Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. The Humanities department also offers courses in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the New Testament, world religions, and atheism.

Humanities is an interdisciplinary program committed to learning, reflection, and action predicated upon engagements between and across academic disciplines including religion, philosophy, literature, music, theater, painting, architecture, and sculpture. Our courses recognize and explore the dynamics of differences throughout human history, thought, experience, and expression by examining individual thinkers, artists, works, and ideas in their particular cultural and historical contexts. To pursue Humanities is to become a caring and critical co-investigator of how human beings encounter culture, community, place, time, consciousness, faith, meaning, representation, and change in a complex and globally interconnected world.

Division Dean Dr. Nicole Porter
Department Chair Bill Zangeneh-Lester
Phone (916) 484-8653

Humanities (HUM) Courses

HUM 300 Classical Humanities

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or 312, AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course is a survey of Western culture that focuses on the human values expressed through painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature, and philosophy. Emphasis is on the civilizations of Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages. Field trips may be required.

HUM 301 Introduction to the Humanities

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This is a non-chronological course that introduces the humanities, primarily architecture, music, painting, poetry, sculpture, theatre, and film. It emphasizes identifying, appreciating, analyzing, interpreting, and understanding various significant arts and how they have shaped our understanding of the world.

HUM 302 Global Humanities: Atheism in Creativity, Thought, and Inspiration Traditions

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLR 340 AND ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This academic and non-sectarian course emphasizes the historical and cultural frameworks of atheism. It takes a basic, integrated humanities approach to global non-religious traditions. This course analyzes a broad range of visual and performance arts, as well as literary documents, that explore diverse atheist philosophies over time and around the world. It reviews the difference between atheism and related conceptual traditions in creative expression. This course studies works and ideas comparatively, analyzing their relation to their contexts and to their impacts.

HUM 310 Modern Humanities

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course is a survey of Western culture that focuses on the human values expressed through painting, sculpture, architecture, music, literature, and philosophy. Emphasis is on the period from the Renaissance to the Modern Age. Field trips may be required.

HUM 320 Asian Humanities

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course surveys traditions, cultures, literatures, art, music, and film of India, China, and Japan from ancient times to the present. Emphasis is on the inter-relationships of the arts, literatures, and philosophies in their historical contexts within each geographical area. Topics may include arts and cultures of other Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Korea.

HUM 324 Global Islam: Culture and Civilization

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course is a comprehensive introduction to Islamic cultures in a variety of geographic settings from the 7th century to the present, with emphasis on religious/philosophical concepts, and their expression in literature and the arts. It focuses on Arab, Persian, African, Asian, and American contributions. Topics include the origins and development of the religion in its formative period (the prophetic career of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur’an, Islamic belief and ritual, Islamic law, early artistic expressions, and popular spirituality) as well as debates surrounding Islam in the contemporary world.

HUM 326 Middle Eastern Humanities

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLR 340 and ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course surveys the cultures of the Middle East, with an emphasis on the analysis and appreciation of the arts, architecture, music, and sacred and secular texts of Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and other countries from ancient to modern times, as they apply to cultural and political developments.

HUM 330 Humanities of the Americas

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course examines the fine arts of the Western Hemisphere from antiquity to contemporary times, with an emphasis on an awareness of and a sensitivity to the literature, philosophy, art, and music of the past and present. It compares the various cultures indigenous to the Western Hemisphere both among themselves and in contrast to the cultures of Europe on their arrival in the 15th century. The course explores the ethnic and cultural conflicts and resolutions that constitute the confluence of ideas and beliefs in the Americas. It provides specific attention to the distinctively American aspects of the arts and their difference from the European tradition.

HUM 355 Introduction to World Religions

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 OR ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course surveys selected major world religions. Emphasis is on the origins, development, beliefs, practices, social ethics, and ethnic / cultural issues of indigenous tribal religions, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This course focuses on the central beliefs and practices of these religions using selected material from each religion's sacred texts and arts.

HUM 360 Introduction to the Old Testament (The Hebrew Bible)

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This academic and non-sectarian course provides a literary, theological, and historical approach to the Hebrew Bible (also called the Old Testament). Ancient Israelite society and beliefs prior to the Common Era are explored primarily through a study of this biblical text, supported by the study of Middle Eastern cultural artifacts, non-biblical texts, and scholarly theories and archaeological studies related to the Hebrew Bible.

HUM 365 Introduction to the New Testament

Units:3
Hours:54 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; OR ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU; UC
General Education:AA/AS Area I; CSU Area C2; IGETC Area 3B
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This academic and non-sectarian course provides a literary, theological, and historical approach to the New Testament. These canonical texts of the early Christian community are analyzed in relation to both Judaism and the Greco-Roman world. Topics include contemporaneous religious ideas about the Messiah, the afterlife, the origin of the gospels, the nature of inspiration, transmission of documents and ideas, important Jewish groups, the politics of Palestine under the Romans, and the role of Paul.

HUM 494 Topics in Humanities

Units:0.5 - 4
Hours:9 - 72 hours LEC
Prerequisite:None.
Advisory:Eligible for ENGRD 310 or ENGRD 312 AND ENGWR 300; Or ESLW 340.
Transferable:CSU
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This course provides the opportunity for concentrated study on specialized topics in the Humanities. Each offering focuses on the integration of arts and ideas in the works of a particular time and place and/or illuminates a selected theme. Refer to class schedule for current topic. Individual field trips may be required.

HUM 495 Independent Studies in Humanities

Units:1 - 3
Prerequisite:None.
Transferable:CSU
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

HUM 499 Experimental Offering in Humanities

Units:0.5 - 4
Prerequisite:None.
Transferable:CSU
Catalog Date:January 1, 2023

This is the experimental courses description.