Humanities

The Northfield Mount Hermon Humanities Program has three dimensions: a core program for the first two grade levels, consisting of required interdisciplinary courses that integrate English, history, and religious studies; an elective program offering interdisciplinary and linked/integrated courses for upper-level students; and discipline-specific courses. All humanities courses emphasize the mastery and application of critical thinking skills and effective writing.

Core Courses
Students take two-credit interdisciplinary core courses in the ninth-grade. New sophomores are required to take a two-credit interdisciplinary core course in the tenth grade. Returning sophomores may also choose to take the two credit humanities option. These courses are taught collaboratively by pairs of teachers from different disciplines as listed below.

Ninth graders: Environmental Perspectives—English and religious studies
Sophomores: International Perspectives—history and religious studies (sophomores also take World Literature as a separate course).

Upper-Level Humanities Courses
There are two types of upper-level humanities courses—linked courses integrating two disciplines, open to juniors and seniors, and senior seminars, open only to seniors, which are selective and require an application.

Related Info

Senior Seminars
Senior seminars provide an opportunity for students to expand their interest and training in specific disciplines and build on the foundation of interdisciplinary study established in Humanities I and II. A senior seminar may be a special international or domestic studies program, focusing on a specific country or region, or an on-campus course developed by a teacher or an interested group of students. The key elements of a senior seminar are independent work and interdisciplinary study. For on-campus senior seminars, research is a major component, as are reading and writing. Seminar members work independently on topics of individual interest, learning to develop their methodology and share their study and research within the seminar group. The seminar group plans an appropriate public forum at the end of the term for reporting the results of their work.

Off-Campus Senior Seminar Programs
INT 072 International Studies Program: Italy
INT 076 East Meets West: Senior Seminar in Turkey

ENG 400 Satire and Film

Credit:

One credit. Seniors only.

Prerequisite:

Permission of the instructor. Does not fulfill the senior English requirement.

The course focuses on the study of film, especially satire, and the process of making a film, from concept through script, storyboard, the editing-room floor, and onto the silver screen. The class will make a film as the final project. Films studied include Day for Night; Brazil; Wag the Dog; Run, Lola, Run; plus documentaries on films, filmmakers, and the making of film. Books used include The Moviegoer, The Encyclopedia of Film, and The Oxbow Incident (and attendant short film).

HIS 311LM/ENG 311LM Shared Voices: Multicultural US History and American Literature

Credit:

Two credits.

Prerequisite:

None. This course fulfills both the junior-year English requirement and US history requirement.

This course is a linked exploration of American history and American literature. It will proceed through the typical stages of a US history course and an American literature course, but in any era special attention will be given to the voice and experiences of minority groups within US culture, as well as the voice and experience of dominant groups. Topics such as the American Revolution, the Constitution, Civil War and Reconstruction, westward expansion, industrialism and immigration, and civil rights will be covered in the history section of the course. The experience of women, African Americans, non-Christian religious groups, Asians, the poor, and gays and lesbians are examples of some of the subgroups that might be focused upon. Traditional history textbooks already in use by the department would serve well in the course, supplemented by additional reading materials that clarify the multicultural focus.

REL 424 Identity and Transformation: Models of Spiritual Adulthood

Credit:

Half credit. Open to seniors and postgraduates.

Prerequisite:

Permission of the instructor.

This course will pursue the essential question—What does it mean to be a healthy, skillful adult?—with the help of several others, including Who am I? What is my purpose? and What do I have to offer the world? Using the writings of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and other teachers and poets from a diverse range of religious, spiritual, and ethnic traditions, students will explore the role of radical transformation in the creation of healthy adult lives—including their own.

REL/HIS 2 The Islamic Middle East

Credit:

One credit: Half credit in religious studies and half credit in history.

Prerequisite:

None.

Open to juniors, seniors, and postgraduates.

An introduction to the Middle East that includes discussions of history, politics, culture, language, art and architecture, and literature in the context of the area’s chief religion, Islam. Emphasis on the region’s confrontation with the West in the modern period, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and Islamic revivalism.

REL/HIS 6 Global Futures

Credit:

One credit: Half credit in religious studies and half credit in history.

Prerequisite:

None.

Open to juniors, seniors, and postgraduates.

Taught collaboratively by a religious studies teacher and a history teacher, this course identifies and evaluates various scenarios for the future from an interdisciplinary perspective in light of the most pressing global issues in the present. Topics include climate change, energy, water, technology, geopolitical tensions, poverty and development. Guest speakers, field trips, and internet resources augment seminal texts in future studies such as the State of the World series and Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe.