HUM 201 Search

The Search curriculum is a three-semester sequence of humanities courses. In a small, seminar setting, students and faculty engage in a sustained examination of vital questions arising from an individual’s relationships to the natural world, human society, and the artifacts of human culture. This examination interrogates seminal texts in the intellectual traditions of societies from Mesopotamia, areas around the Mediterranean and Red Sea, in northern Africa, the Nile Valley and Europe. Throughout this experience students will develop skills that are vital for success in college and leading a life of intellectual engagement, such as the ability to read carefully, think critically, discuss topics with clarity and a command of relevant and factual information, and write clearly and persuasively.
The third semester of Search pursues questions raised in the first year as they evolve from the beginning of the early modern era to the present. Students explore the reception and transformation of ideas from antiquity, especially their role in the processes of shaping contemporary cultures and determining how humankind understands itself and its place in the universe. Different sections follow different themes within disciplinary domains determined by the instructor.