GAH - General Arts and Humanities

 

Students with easels and drawing pads holding pencils to determine the scale of a drawing.

GAH courses introduce students to the arts and humanities as areas of study, and thus provide them with the basis for intelligent curricular choice.

They aim to create awareness among students of the importance of arts and humanities in their education.  They seek to develop the ability of students to make critical and aesthetic judgments.

They introduce perspectives, techniques, and attitudes which can be used in the further study of the arts and humanities, and suggest ways of continuing to examine such issues.

GAH courses describe a number of the conceptual challenges and issues which artists and humanities confront, bringing a variety of approaches and viewpoints to bear on these.  They explore the techniques used in the arts and humanities solving aesthetic and intellectual problems, expressing feelings and ideas, clarifying meanings, defending judgments, and explaining historical transformations.

Types of Courses

Tradition and Background Courses

These courses will provide students with a broad perspective on substantial portions of the world’s philosophical, historical, literary, and artistic traditions, seeking to demonstrate the importance of tradition and historical perspective in understanding oneself and one’s relation to the present. 

Thematic and Topical Courses

These courses explore some of the conceptual challenges and issues that artists and humanists confront, or focus upon a particular theme, topic, or time period in which material is examined from a variety of disciplines that help to illuminate such themes.

Experiential and Creative Courses

In these courses students participate in creative and/or experiential activity in one or more of the arts and humanities disciplines in order to develop their own artistic and intellectual capabilities, thus expanding their capacity to appreciate and value the material of the arts and humanities.