Public Humanities
Do you consider yourself an out-of-the-box thinker, a cultural critic, a citizen of the world? With a focus in Public Humanities, students explore the world in an interdisciplinary way, developing the skills of analysis, interpretation, and communication crucial to their professional and academic development in the twenty-first century. Through interdisciplinary academic coursework, experiential learning, and professional development, students gain global cultural knowledge and skills enabling them to apply public humanities principles to a wide array of career fields and personal endeavors.
Coursework
Interested in learning more about our emphasis in Public Humanities? Contact Program Coordinator Dr. Becky Pratt-Sturges for more information about pursuing a focus or minor in Public Humanities.
Learning outcomes
Students who pursue a focus in Public Humanities will gain the following skills:
Critical thinking Accordion Closed
- Analyze how their own cultural, aesthetic, ideological, and disciplinary perspectives constrict or expand an awareness of textual, cultural, and disciplinary plurality.
- Synthesize differences across diverse ancient and modern cultures and disciplines, including traditional humanities disciplines and the social and environmental sciences, in order to contribute original definitions, evaluations, comparisons, causal analyses, problem-solution arguments, and applications that enable better participation in an increasingly international and interdisciplinary world.
Critical reading Accordion Closed
- Recognize the plural methods in which texts reveal similarities and dissimilarities over issues and themes common to humankind, including those of birth rights, individual rights, community expectations, governance, freedom, war, gender, migrations and borders, environment, technology, and the pursuit of knowledge about self, community, and nature in terms including love, empathy, suffering, death, dying, and ethics.
- Interpret texts across diverse ancient and modern cultures with an understanding of their socio-cultural, civic, historical, philosophical, aesthetic, environmental, theoretical, and biographical contexts.
- Evaluate the insight, accuracy, clarity, aesthetic, usefulness, and persuasiveness of diverse modes of expression, including creative, speculative, personal, academic, professional, and public texts in the fields of philosophy, religion, visual art, environment, music, theatre, literature, film, technology, and media.
Effective writing Accordion Closed
- Compose clear, specific, well-organized, persuasive, and relevant prose in several rhetorical styles, genres, and conventions in response to the needs of varying audiences and purposes in business, non-profit, research, academic, public relations, and public situations.
- Combine information to inquire into and create relevant arguments about the plurality of cultural observation, value, and expression, including the philosophical, religious, aesthetic, and technological frameworks wherein humans organize perceptions and interactions with their communities and environment.
Interdisciplinarity Accordion Closed
- Generate viewpoints integrating the history, nature, experiences, values, and expressions of diverse cultures and communities over multiple topics including borders and regions; ideas and values; and environment and technology.
- Plan, organize, and implement a model or theory, informed by insights from multiple disciplines—including traditional humanities disciplines and the social and environmental sciences—that may be applied as problem-solving approaches for public art and cultural organization, management, activities, and expressions.
- Develop practical, well-reasoned, historically aware, and culturally sensitive models or theories to initiate just and sustainable social and environmental change in the interest of public issues, concerns, and decisions.