Arts and Humanities

Immersed in these modes of inquiry, students will observe the world around them, listen to and engage diverse perspectives, draw conclusions, and spark communication and dialogue through the creative process.

Associated Student Learning Outcomes

The following learning outcomes will be introduced:

Arts in Practice Courses

4. Demonstrate an ability to communicate to a specific audience by employing multiple approaches, media, or languages.

100-Level Perspectives Courses

1. Examine fundamental or emerging questions about humanity, the natural world, or God by seeking answers through different modes of inquiry.

200-Level Perspectives Courses

4. Demonstrate an ability to communicate to a specific audience by employing multiple approaches, media, or languages.

5. Analyze evidence or data to solve problems, reach informed conclusions or make sound judgements.

Philosophical Perspectives Courses

3. Practice Hope College's Virtues of Public Discourse: humility to listen, hospitality to welcome, patience to understand, courage to challenge, honesty to speak the truth in love.

Courses (11–12 Credits)

Art in Practice (2–3 Credits)

In this area of the Anchor Plan, students explore enduring and contemporary questions of what it means to be human. Immersed in these modes of inquiry, students will observe the world around them, listen to and engage diverse perspectives, draw conclusions, and spark communication and dialogue through the creative process.

Humanistic and Artistic Perspectives (9 credits)

These are courses where students examine artistic and humanistic approaches to knowledge, the first of which must be at the 100 level, and the other two at the 200 and above level. The three required areas are:

Human Creative Perspective

These courses will explore the creative endeavor, past and present, within the visual, performing and literary arts. Students will encounter the myriad ways in which people across time and cultures have used creative expression for unlocking humanity's greatest potential for love, beauty and wonder, as well as documenting the human capacity for destruction and folly. Students will learn strategies for interpreting the arts and related primary sources, while also building empathy and a deeper understanding of the human condition.

Philosophical Perspectives

These courses will explore the ways people ask and answer questions fundamental to understanding humanity, the natural world, and God. Students will explore these questions through deep reading as well as written and oral argument. In these courses students cultivate skills of intelligent inquiry and practice the virtues of public discourse.

Historical Perspectives

These courses will explore the ways in which people in the past imagined, understood, and lived in societies, as well as the social, political, and cultural contexts in which societies changed over time. Students will engage in historical interpretation by examining multiple perspectives , using a variety of written, visual, oral, and/or musical primary sources, and employing strategies for interpreting them.

100-Level Course Requirements

• A focus on reading, viewing, listening to, discussing, and analyzing original or primary sources
• Close reading, viewing or listening to of texts and objects
• Introduction to approaches to knowledge from a specific disciplinary perspective in the arts and humanities
• Reflective and/or analytical writing to develop a deeper understanding of human thoughts, experiences and creations.

200 Level (or above) Course Requirements

• Prerequisite: Completed ENGL 113 requirement and one introductory Arts and Humanities course
• More advanced/focused approaches to knowledge from a specific disciplinary perspective in the arts and humanities
• Two or more academic writing assignments that total at least 20 pages (This is a course page total, not necessarily a total for one assignment. One could, for example, assign four 5-page essays that total about twenty pages).
  • At least one of these is a thesis-driven assignment that integrates research an demonstrates information literacy.
  • The courses will have writing process activities in the syllabus that include feedback from peers and the instructor. These processes will include the opportunity for students to revise their writing based on critiques of their written work.
  • One of the significant writing assignments will go through a revision process - a substantial work that participates in process writing.