HUM 101Transformative Texts Part 1: Foundational Knowledge

3 credits · Humanities -​ CA · Penn State

This 3-credit General Humanities (GH) course with an International Cultures (IL) designate offers an introduction to transformative texts from around the world. Students will learn foundational knowledge from various disciplines in the humanities and arts, while developing basic interpretive, close-reading, writing, communication, and critical-thinking skills. This first course of the Keystone sequence engages students with core texts and arts-based materials from antiquity to the modern era, offering a roadmap of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, historical, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives within which to contextualize interpretation. Students will read texts from a variety of humanities disciplines alongside appropriate historical context to learn how ideas transformed, and were transformed, by social, economic, political, and historical events and institutions. The course supports open dialogue and critical engagement among students and faculty, to promote curiosity, reflexivity, and mindfulness, while cultivating the spirit of life-long learning. Students will learn about the value of the humanities and the arts in the context of its historical, sociopolitical, cultural, and global contributions. Student engagement will focus on close textual analysis, critical thinking, and synthesis skills with an emphasis on promoting excellence in written communication through a variety of written assignments designed to prepare students for the oral communication skills expected in our increasingly high-tech, global economy.