humanities essay intro

Professor Celia A. Easton Department of English State University of New York College at Geneseo  

Read a successful essay on Thucydides written by a student in my Fall 1999 section of Humanities 220.

Conventions of Writing Papers in Humanities

approximately one inch margins on all sides page numbers in the upper right hand corner of each page (you may do this by hand; do not number page one) your name, the course number, your professor's name, and the date typed in the upper right hand corner of the first page of your paper (no cover sheet). one staple or paper clip to hold the pages together (no report covers) a final page (which should be numbered but does not count in your total pages) headed with the title "Works Cited."  Do not put that phrase in quotation marks.  List all books you have cited, even if there is only one book in your list. no footnotes or endnotes, unless they are explanatory (all citations will be parenthetically noted in your text).

Fielding satirizes the hypocritical intellectualism of the clergy through the utterances of Parson Barnabas in Joseph Andrews .  Pushed for an explanation of spiritual requirements by Joseph, who believes he will die shortly, Barnabas defines by tautology: "Joseph desired to know what [Christian] forgiveness was.  'That is,' answered Barnabas, 'to forgive them as -- as -- it is to forgive them as -- in short, it is to forgive them as a Christian'" (Fielding, 49).  Exhausted by his physical condition, Joseph abandons his spiritual quest. Fielding implies that Barnabas' healthy parishioners are regularly exhausted by their spiritual leader's obfuscated doctrine.

Pantheon, 1985.

Heights: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1982.

Mifflin, 1960.

Literary History 10 (1979): 557-580.

in Europe from Prehistory to the Present .  Vol. 1.  New York: Harper and Row, 1989.  2 vols.

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Humanities essays

What are the humanities.

The humanities refer to subjects that study people, their ideas, history, and literature. To put that another way, the humanities are those branches of learning regarding primarily as having a cultural character.

For example, one of the UK’s academic funding bodies, the Arts & Humanities Research Board or AHRB, tends to concentrate on the following sorts of subjects: Classics, Visual Arts and Media, Modern Languages, Music and Performing Arts, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Medieval and Modern History.

Key features – primary & secondary texts

In the majority of these subjects you begin with a primary text – e.g. a play or a film or a set of historical events. You are expected to show good knowledge of the primary text and to mount a discussion of it – or of aspects of it – that is located within current critical debate about it. You are expected to use your own judgement about other people’s judgements of the primary text.

Key features – logical argument

Readers of your essay will look for an argument that is clearly expressed in a logical order. They will not expect your essay to follow a specific set structure. For example, an English Literature essay might start with a plot summary of the work being discussed, a quote from the work or a quote from critical writing on the work. The important thing is to use your starting point to say clearly what you are going to write about and why; and to make the rest of your discussion flow naturally from it

Key features – balanced discussion

This is probably the one feature that distinguishes humanities essays from other sorts of writing. This does not mean that scientific papers or social science essays aren’t balanced discussions: it means that a humanities essay is more likely to have review various opinions and interpretations.

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Your Guide to Writing a Humanity Essay

Humanity is showing compassion and kindness to others. Writing a humanity essay involves analyzing various aspects of humanity in detail. This article gives you a guide on how to write a humanity essay.

Humanity essay examines the traits, beliefs, relationships, and experiences of people. It focuses on what it is to be human, as well as the struggles, victories, and bonds we make. The human experience is vast and complex, and writing a humanity essay paper allows you to explore this whether your assignment is to write on historical events, personal experiences, philosophical ideas, or societal issues.

How to write a humanity essay

Below is how you write a humanity essay:

• Choose a topic

Humanity is a broad subject thus you should narrow it down to one of its subtopics. For instance, on a topic like war, you can narrow down to the causes and effects of a war. You should choose a topic that you are interested in and compose a good essay about it.

• Write an essay outline

After choosing the topic, you should conduct in-depth research and write the information from the research in an essay outline. You should properly structure your essay outline where you note down the key points of every section of the essay. This includes the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Once you start writing your humanity essay, you should use the essay outline as the point of reference.

• Write the introduction

You should begin the introduction with a hook to grab the reader’s attention. This could be an interesting fact about your topic or a rhetorical question. Give background information on the topic and state its relevance. Write a strong thesis statement describing the essay’s main idea. For a better understanding of how to write the introduction, you should research various humanities essay introduction examples.

• Write the body

The body describes the essay’s theme in depth. You should write well-structured paragraphs with a topic sentence that introduces the paragraph’s key point. Then write middle sentences giving fact-based information or examples of the paragraph’s key point. You should also give your interpretation. Complete the paragraphs with a concluding sentence.

Each paragraph should have a unique key point and if two paragraphs are about the same point use proper transition words such as ‘in addition’, ‘however’, or ‘moreover’. When writing the paragraphs, you should explore the essay’s theme giving your analysis and backing it with factual information or statistics. Always cite all the sources you researched your essay from using the instructed writing format.

• Write the conclusion

The conclusion is a summary of the humanity essay thus you should not bring new information to it. You should summarize the essay’s key point. Rephrase the thesis statement and state its significance. Complete the conclusion with a closing statement or a call to action.

Using the steps above, you will be able to compose a good humanity essay. You can structure your humanity essay into a 5-paragraph essay . Research various humanities essay examples to properly comprehend the humanities essay structure.

What kind of essays do humanities use

Below are the various kinds of essays that humanities use:

• Analytical essays

Analytical essays dissect a complicated subject into its constituent parts and examine the connections, importance, and ramifications of each. Critical thinking and making connections between various aspects are prerequisites for these writings.

• Expository Essays

Expository essays give in-depth explanations of a concept on a topic. These essays offer a thorough and impartial investigation of the topic, frequently with the use of illustrations, proof, and understandable explanations.

• Comparative essays

A comparative essay entails comparing and analyzing two or more concepts, books, artworks, and historical events. These essays draw attention to the similarities and differences between the concepts being compared as well as a thorough comprehension of each.

• Literary Analysis Essays

Literary analysis essays analyze and interpret literary works, including plays, novels, and poetry. The topics, characters, symbolism, storytelling devices, and historical background of the work are all explored in depth in these studies.

• Argumentative essay

Argumentative essays provide a coherent argument and back it up with facts, logic, and refutations. These essays require the writer to take a stance on a certain subject and defend their argument throughout the essay.

Importance of humanities in our lives

Below is the importance of studying humanities and the importance of humanities in our lives:

• Promoting cultural understanding and empathy

People can immerse themselves in many cultures and historical eras through the study of the humanities. This exposure develops empathy and promotes a culture that is more understanding and aware of the world around them by enabling children to recognize the challenges, victories, and distinctive viewpoints of others.

• Investigating the state of humanity

The humanities investigate the fundamental aspects of life on Earth, including feelings, goals, worldviews, and social structures. Students learn to struggle with age-old concerns about life, morality, and purpose as well as gain knowledge about the intricacies of human nature via the analysis of literature and philosophy.

• Developing analytical and problem-solving skills

Education in the humanities fosters critical thinking, the assessment of opposing points of view, and the methodical solution to challenging issues. Students can challenge presumptions, take into account different viewpoints, and make well-informed decisions by delving into complex texts, artwork, and historical settings.

• Improving expression and communication

Good education is characterized by effective communication. Humanities studies improve one’s ability to write, speak, and read critically, allowing one to express ideas nuancedly, convincingly, and clearly.

• Cultural heritage preservation

Humanities subjects like literature and art conservation guarantee that human civilization is preserved for coming generations. Societies can comprehend the development of human expression and preserve a close relationship to their historical heritage by studying ancient writings, artifacts, and creative works.

Using the key points above you can compose an importance of humanities in our lives essay and the importance of studying humanities essay.

Tips for writing a humanity essay

• Write an outline

Before you start writing your essay, you should write an outline. Writing an outline helps to properly plan and organize your ideas for the essay. In the outline, you should write the key points of the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Once you begin writing the essay, use the outline as a guide.

• Come up with a strong thesis statement

The thesis statement describes the main purpose of the essay. It should be able to show the reader what your essay entails. For an argumentative essay, the thesis statement should be your stance in the argument while for an expository essay, the thesis statement should be the essay’s key idea.

• Use the correct structure

When writing your essay, you should use the correct humanities essay structure. This ensures there is a flow of information throughout your essay. You should start with the introduction describing what your essay will entail, write the body paragraphs that describe the theme of the essay in-depth, and complete with a conclusion which is a summary of the whole essay.

• Use proper transition words

When transitioning from one paragraph to the next, you should use proper transition words. You should always have a unique idea for each paragraph and if one paragraph has the same idea as the next you should use proper transition words. Examples of transition words include ‘additionally’, ‘therefore’, or ‘however’. Using transition words provides a consistent flow of information throughout your essay.

• Cite all the sources

When writing humanities essays, you conduct research from different academic sources such as books, articles, journals, or internet blogs. You should properly cite all the sources used in your essay. When citing the sources, you should use the writing format instructed to use in your essay.

• Follow all the instructions

When writing your essay, you should follow all the given instructions. This includes the word count and the writing format. You should avoid plagiarism and write an original paper. Plagiarized essays can be easily detected and you can get harsh academic repercussions for that.

• Proofread the essay

You should proofread the humanity essay severally to omit any mistakes. Proofreading also helps you to check if your work is properly organized. In addition, you can also run your essay on Grammarly to remove any missed mistakes.

Humanities topics ideas

Below are the humanities topics for the essay:

• Importance of human rights
• Social changes in third-world countries
• Causes of interstate conflicts
• Eradication of worldwide poverty
• Importance of preservation of historical facts
• Ethical issues in the society
• Ways to fight corruption in developed countries
• Benefits and disadvantages of early marriages
• The role of the judicial system
• Effects of racism

The above are a few humanities research paper topics you can use for your humanities papers. When choosing a topic, you should choose a topic that you are interested in and can write a good essay about it.

Writing a humanity essay requires you to choose a topic, do research, and compose a well-structured essay. This article gives you a guide on how to write a humanity essay. If you need help with your humanity essay, we provide professional help with essays .

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Introduction

The modern conception of the humanities has its origin in the Classical Greek  paideia,  a course of general education dating from the sophists in the mid-5th century  BCE , which prepared young men for active citizenship in the polis, or city-state; and in Cicero’s  humanitas  (literally, “human nature”), a program of training proper for orators, first set forth in  De Oratore  ( Of the Orator ) in 55  BCE . In the early Middle Ages the Church Fathers, including St.  Augustine, himself a rhetorician, adapted  paideia  and  humanitas —or the  bonae  (“good”), or  liberales  (“liberal”), arts, as they were also called—to a program of basic Christian education; mathematics, linguistic and philological studies, and some history, philosophy, and science were included.

The word  humanitas,  although not the substance of its component disciplines, dropped out of common use in the later Middle Ages but underwent a flowering and a transformation in the Renaissance. The term  studia humanitatis  (“studies of humanity”) was used by 15th-century Italian humanists to denote secular literary and scholarly activities (in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, moral philosophy, and ancient Greek and Latin studies) that the humanists thought to be essentially humane and Classical studies rather than divine ones. In the 18th century, Denis Diderot and the French Encyclopédistes censured  studia humanitatis  for what they claimed had by then become its dry, exclusive concentration on Latin and Greek texts and language. By the 19th century, when the purview of the humanities expanded, the humanities had begun to take their identity not so much from their separation from the realm of the divine as from their exclusion of the material and methods of the maturing physical sciences, which tended to examine the world and its phenomena objectively, without reference to human meaning and purpose.

Contemporary conceptions of the humanities resemble earlier conceptions in that they propose a complete educational program based on the propagation of a self-sufficient system of human values. But they differ in that they also propose to distinguish the humanities from the social sciences as well as from the physical sciences, and in that they dispute among themselves as to whether an emphasis on the subject matter or on the methods of the humanities is most effectual in accomplishing this distinction. In the late 19th century the German philosopher  Wilhelm Dilthey called the humanities “the spiritual sciences” and “the human sciences” and described them, simply, as those areas of knowledge that lay outside of, and beyond, the subject matter of the physical sciences. On the other hand,  Heinrich Rickert, a turn-of-the-century Neo-Kantian, argued that it is not subject matter but method of investigation that best characterizes the humanities; Rickert contended that whereas the physical sciences aim to move from particular instances to general laws, the human sciences are “idiographic”—they are devoted to the unique value of the particular within its cultural and human contexts and do not seek general laws.

• Humanities. Authored by : Encyclopaedia Britannica. Provided by : Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.. Located at : https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanities . License : All Rights Reserved

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How to Write a Humanities Essay

The Uni Tutor is very much aware of the challenges that students need to bear while learning how to write a humanities essay. Humanities essay uses a lot of topics. Other topic associated to humanity may include philosophy, literature, world history, sociology, news, education, international studies and more. Our essay writing service in UK will not just aid you in picking a subject for the paper, but we will also help you in giving your lecturers with different sources, originality, and analysis and in submitting the paper with a precise and lucid conclusion.  Getting to enough know how on how to write a humanities essay recommend the use of solid skills & expertise too. With our affordable essay writing service in UK, pupils can work on full pledged study & eagerness along with devoutness.

When you chose a subject that captures your interest, the humanities essay will have an attention from the readers. The Uni Tutor assignment writers will be the one to work on the paper according to your specifications, structure requirement and it will be crafted with a good humanities paper. To structure the essay accordingly, you must split the subject into different parts like the headings & sub-headings, but there must be a logical & comprehensible approach. The paper must be interlinked, neglecting inconsistent details & broken thoughts or concepts.

Writing the paper

  A humanities essay must start with an introduction where you will indicate the subject. In the introduction, you must be able to describe the subject that will be measured in the description part of the essay. Every description should be carefully justified, with quotes, ideas, concepts taken from different sources. While you are seeking for ways to find out how to write a humanities essay, our team of experts will help you by validating argumentative thoughts to be able to make your essay one of a kind and eye catching at the same time.

It is important that every paragraph in the body has 1 primary idea. The Uni Tutor give academic support and guide for pupils who need a hand while working on persuasive paragraphs of an essay, this will make sure that the paper will be filled with consistent and comprehensible content. Keep in mind that this part gives sustaining material to justify the paper. The paragraphs are interconnected, so that the accuracy of the paper is kept.

The conclusion must be very enticing. It must conform to the statement of the paper in a logical manner by simply using some resources. When you buy The Uni Tutor UK essay writing service, we highly guarantee that you will get the value for your money. You will also learn how to become a good writer of humanities essay according to the writing style set by the lecturers nowadays like the Chicago, Harvard & APA. W have writers that are MSc & PhDs in different aspects of Humanities, so they are very much qualified to compose your paper.

The Uni Tutor offer affordable paper in the UK, which is especially made to aid the pupils in proofreading the essay to recheck for any plagiarized content, and to also be sure that the conclusion will adhere to your paper. The student who has learned the ways to compose an essay in humanities must always keep in mind that there must be cited pages of the essay.

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Defining the Humanities Essay

Defining the humanities, cultural event, music as an expression of humanity, comparison of the cultural expressions.

Various definitions have been given to the term humanity. Therefore, humanities are the many characteristics and branches of humanities such as theater, human being, art, culture, literature, food, music and the stories that try to bring out the sense in the world as we see it.

It is a discipline that introduces us into place and ideas that otherwise would not have crossed our minds. To elaborate further, humanities shows how events that took place in the past affect the present and the future, and how a person can evolve from the experience he has gone through and by what he has seen.

Humanities also look into the contributions of people either collectively or individually. An individual may think of the many discipline that humanity has to such as psychology, science and math and others that impact human culture.

“The humanities can be distinguished from other disciplines such as the social sciences, physical and biological because the humanities include the study of human subjects and the study of languages and literatures, the arts, history, and philosophy while all other forms of human inquiry are limited to the study of subjects that are not human (Proctor, 2008)”

These essay aims at bringing out the differences between humanities and the other forms of human inquiry and expressions.

The essay will aim at relating a particular cultural event that took place at a particular point in time and try to explain how the specific cultural event brought to the fore the lessons learnt concerning the humanities, cultural practice, art, style and genius of the period represented.

One of the most important cultural events I have experienced and which relate too is music. By definition, “music an artistic form of sound communication via musical instruments and voice that produce sounds and tones (Shaw, 2010)”. Music has been sung from time immemorial and it is as old as mankind.

The past cultures had music as does the present cultures. Some of the oldest songs were composed in 4 th century and written in cuneiform. By definition, cuneiform is a composition of characters made up of a collection of small wedge-shaped basics that were in use in traditional Persian and Sumerian writing.

“The certainty of how or when the first musical instrument was invented, however, most historians point to early flutes made from animal bones that are at least 37,000 years old (Reich, 2009)”

The music that was played in the late 50’s in Greece represented the humanities or the specific culture of the people of Greece during that era. Therefore, it can be seen that, music as a humanity reflects and mirrors the values and practices held through the life of an individual.

The music played today has undergone dramatic changes from the music that was played 50 years ago. The instruments used have also improved with the use of more modern instrument. The music has also changed with new genre of music coming up.

In the medieval age, only two styles of music were played and they were monophonic and polyphonic music only. From the medieval age, we came to the renaissance period which changed the way songs were composed and sung.

The classic genre of music was practiced in the Baroque era where music writers started composing and singing using various instruments and singing different styles of music. This allowed the artist to tell his story in his own unique way by the use of music.

In the 20 th century, music writers and artists were in a position to use varied instruments which far much sophisticated than instruments used in the medieval era. They make use of computers to change what they want in music, add sound effects and conduct computer work to enhance the sound quality of music.

This period was characterized by the emergence of various styles of music that are widely listened today. The styles include blues, hip-hop, rap, rhythm, rock and roll, gospel among others.

Music was used to express the inner feelings of human beings. There were songs sung during particular periods only to express certain feelings. For example, dirges were sung during funerals to console with the bereaved family. There were war songs that were sung to give the fighters morale to fight.

Music was used a symbol of cultural heritage. Music is conceived through the ear and thus used to express what the human is feeling such as sadness and happiness

The selected form of cultural expression which is music compares to other forms such as literature and storied in that they talked about the issues affecting people at that particular period and how the experiences shaped the future lives. The stories were told by the elderly and passed on to the next generation.

These impacted the present lives. The literature written during this time touched on the contemporary issues affecting people at that time. The literature was written in pamphlets and in scribes while currently it is written in more sophisticated materials such as the computer and laptops.

Therefore, music and literature compare in the sense that they were used to disseminate information that would help shape the lives of people in the future. These cultural expressions have undergone major changes which have made them more refined than in the 19 th century.

Proctor, R. (2008). Defining the Humanities. Indiana : Indiana University Press.

Reich, J. (2009). Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. New York: Cengage Learning.

Shaw, P. (2010). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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UCI Humanities Core

Winter: Essay Assignment 3

Visual analysis of a worldbuilding artwork by a contemporary african american artist.

Downloadable Essay Rubric

Select a work of art by Sanford Biggers, Titus Kaphar, or Carrie Mae Weems using the online resources linked below. Conduct a close visual analysis of the artwork and consult relevant scholarly secondary sources about the artist’s practice and larger oeuvre. Construct an interpretive thesis about the meaning represented by the artwork and provide specific evidence from your close visual analysis and secondary sources in support of your argument. As you develop your ideas and claims, consider the following questions: How do the materiality, composition, and iconography of this artwork create meaning? If the artwork is part of a series, in what way does it relate to the project of the larger whole? Does the artwork remake an earlier object or reimagine a preexisting genre? If so, how and why? In what specific ways does the work of art engage with history and politics? How does the artwork negotiate with the representation and/or lived experiences of Black people? What way of seeing the world does this artwork create?

Your final paper will be between 5–6 pages in length and will be worth 40% of your writing grade.

Learning Goals

• Make specific, complex, arguable claims
• Produce unified, cohesive body paragraphs that contain arguable topic sentences, well-selected and properly-integrated evidence from visual objects and scholarly reference sources, and rhetorically-effective introduction, conclusion, and transitions between ideas
• Adopt the appropriate stance, style, and genre conventions of visual and art historical analysis
• Begin to evaluate scholarly claims, identify scholarly conversations, and integrate secondary source material in writing
• Practice process-oriented writing and learn flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading drafts while also reflecting on the process of writing itself

Required Reading

Before you begin brainstorming for this assignment, make sure you have read the following:

Cooks, Bridget. “What’s Wrong with Museums? African American Artists Review Art History.” Humanities Core Handbook: Worldbuilding 2023–2024 , XanEdu, 2023, pp. 154–67.

Beauchamp, Tamara. “Visual Analysis and Close Looking.” Humanities Core Handbook: Worldbuilding 2023–2024 , XanEdu, 2023, pp. 168–182.

Primary Sources

Sanford Biggers

Sanford Biggers: Work (Note: If this site does not load in your browser, you can view the archived version on Internet Archive . Additional information about specific works can be found in the Checklist in Anderson and Betta’s Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch , pp. 167–9 [ PDF ])

Codeswitch exhibition website from the Rivers Institute

Marianne Boesky Gallery

Titus Kaphar

Kaphar Studio: Work (Note: This site works best on desktop browsers and in a wide browser window.)

Roberts Projects

Gagosian Gallery

Carrie Mae Weems

Carrie Mae Weems: Bodies of Work

Museum of Modern Art

Getty Museum

The Hampton Project at the Williams College Museum of Art

Fraenkel Gallery

The Whitney Museum of American Art

Reference Resources, Scholarly Secondary Sources, and Exhibition Catalogues

UCI Libraries has compiled a guide to resources on African American Art and History specifically for this assignment. For more information on using library resources, review the Humanities Core Library Introduction Tutorial .

The following materials are available online or are in the Course Reserve at UCI Langson Library for two hours at a time. To check out any material on Course Reserve, read the Reserves policy and then visit the Check Out desk at Langson Library .

Andersson, Andrea, and Antonio Sergio Bessa. Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch . The Bronx Museum of the Arts, 2020. [ PDF of excerpts available on Canvas ]

Bernier, Celeste-Marie. Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965-2015 . University of California Press, 2018. [ On reserve at Langson Library N6538.N5 B475 2018 ]

Bey, Dawoud, and Carrie Mae Weems. Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: in Dialogue . Delmonico, 2022. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR645.G73 D39 2022 ]

Biggers, Sanford and Miki Garcia. Sanford Biggers: Moon Medicine . Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, 2010. [ On reserve at Langson Library N6537.B5225 A4 2010 ]

Catlett, Elizabeth, et al. Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with Sanford Biggers, Carrie Mae Weems, et al. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 2010. [ On reserve at Langson Library N6537.C38 A4 2010 ]

Cooks, Bridget R. Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum . University of Massachusetts Press, 2011. [ On reserve at Langson Library N510.C67 2011 ]

Cooks, Bridget R. “Intricate Illusion.” Titus Kaphar: Classical Disruption . Friedman Benda, 2011, pp. 5-40. [ PDF ]

Cooks, Bridget R., and Sarah Watson, editors. The Black Index . Hunter College Art Galleries, 2021. [ On reserve at Langson Library N8217.B535 B53 2021 ]

Delmez, Kathryn E. Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video . Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2012. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR647.W383 2012 ]

English, Darby, et al. Among Others: Blackness at MoMA . The Museum of Modern Art, 2019. [ On reserve at Langson Library N8232.E55 2019 ]

Feldman, Zeena, editor. Art and the Politics of Visibility: Contesting the Global, Local and the in-Between . I.B. Tauris, 2017. [ Online and on reserve at Langson Library NX180.S6 A78 2017 ]

Jacob, Mary Jane. Carrie Mae Weems . Fabric Workshop/Museum, 1994. [ On reserve at Langson Library N6537.W344 A4 1994 ]

Kaphar, Titus. “A Fight for Remembrance.” The Georgia Review , vol. 69, no. 2, 2015, pp. 199–208. JSTOR , http://www.jstor.org/stable/44077632 .

Kaphar, Titus, and Jason Stanley. “Titus Kaphar.” BOMB , no. 147, 2019, pp. 81–88. JSTOR , https://www.jstor.org/stable/26876294 .

Lewis, Sarah Elizabeth, editor. Carrie Mae Weems . The MIT Press, 2020. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR187.C375 2020 ]

Lewis, Sarah Elizabeth. “The Insistent Reveal: Louis Agassiz, Joseph T. Zealy, Carrie Mae Weems, and the Politics of Undress in the Photography of Racial Science.” To Make Their Own Way in the World: The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes , edited by Ilisa Barbash, et al., Aperture, 2020, pp. 297-328 [ PDF ]

Millstein, Barbara Head. Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers . Brooklyn Museum of Art in association with Merrell, 2001. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR645.N532 B7 2001 ]

Patterson, Vivian, et al. Carrie Mae Weems: The Hampton Project . Aperture, 2000. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR647.W54 2000 ]

Rothenberg, Ellen and Carrie Mae Weems. Telling Histories: Installations by Ellen Rothenberg and Carrie Mae Weems . University of Washington Press, 1999. [ On reserve at Langson Library N6537.A6284 A4 1999 ]

Weems, Carrie Mae. And 22 Million Very Tired and Very Angry People . Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, 1992. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR647.W375 1992 ]

Weems, Carrie Mae. Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment . Savannah College of Art and Design, 2008. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR647.W443 2008 ]

Weems, Carrie Mae, et al. Carrie Mae Weems: The Louisiana Project . Newcomb Art Gallery, 2004. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR645.W54 W384 2004 ]

Weems, Carrie Mae. Then What? Photographs and Folklore . CEPA Gallery, 1990. [ On reserve at Langson Library TR647.W415 1990 ]

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A Short Handbook for Writing Essays in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Allosso and Allosso)

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A retired master teacher of English and Comparative Literature teams up with his son, a History professor, on a new version of the writing manual he wrote and used for decades at the University of California, Davis.

Intro to Humanities essay

With the foundation laid by Descartes, Galileo, Copernicus, the emergence of modern science and the scientific method, the Enlightenment saw a new approach to human experience and understanding. A wave of change swept across European thinking, exemplified by the natural philosophy and scientific discoveries of Isaac Newton. Enlightenment rationalists realized the changing world in which they lived and saw better than most the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

They also realized the erosion of religious faith and the many evils it sought to overthrow in exchange for science and reason, and began to reject the artifice of cultural and institutional constructs such as education and labor. These themes became prominent in the work of such others like William Blake and William Wordsworth, as they observed the natural world and humanity’s place within it, exploring and emphasizing an understanding of nature as a key to positive human progress and knowledge.

This new faith of Blake’s in the natural goodness of humans contradicts the concept of the fall of Man, espousing that the evils of modern culture is a mode of psychic disintegration and of resultant alienation from oneself, one’s world, and one’s fellow human beings (Abrams 39). To Blake, like later poets of the Romantic age such as Wordsworth, the only hope of recovery for humanity rested in reintegration into the social and natural worlds.

Often credited with officially ushering in the Romantic era, William Wordsworth lamented that poetry spanning John Dryden to Alexander Pope consisted of scarcely an image from external nature: “from which it can be inferred that the eye of the poet had been steadily fixed on his object” (9). Wordsworth searches for moral, spiritual, and emotional value in the natural world, instead of tradition.

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In “The Preface to Lyrical Ballads” in 1798, Wordsworth wrote that “I have endeavoured at all times to look steadily at my subject” (9), hoping to capture the sensuous nuance of natural phenomena that the reasonable eye of the Enlightenment poet missed. Like Blake before him, Wordsworth asserts that faith in many traditional beliefs pale when compared to faith in the truths of Nature.

With the revolutions in America and France, Napoleon’s ascension to power, and the growth of the common man as a political force, the end of the Romantic era would soon usher in the modern world that is known today.

Works Cited:

Abrams, M. H. “William Wordsworth: 1770-1850. ” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Abrams, M. H. 7th Ed. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

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Guest Essay

The Next Frontier? Philosophy in Space.

By Joseph O. Chapa

Dr. Chapa is a U.S. Air Force officer and the author of “Is Remote Warfare Moral?”

The window to apply to be a NASA astronaut — a window that opens only about every four years — closes this month, on April 16. Though I’ve submitted an application, I don’t expect to make the cut.

The educational requirements for the astronaut program are clear: Applicants must possess at least a master’s degree in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), a doctorate in medicine or a test pilot school graduate patch. Though I have a Ph.D., it’s in philosophy. (And though I’m an Air Force pilot, I’m not a test pilot.)

I hesitate to tell NASA its business. But I think its requirements are closing the astronaut program off from important insights from the humanities and social sciences.

Of course, the requirement for astronauts to have technical training makes some intuitive sense. NASA was founded in 1958 “to provide for research into problems of flight within and outside the earth’s atmosphere.” Who better to solve flight problems than scientists and engineers? What’s more, NASA’s space missions have long conducted science experiments to learn how plant and animal life behaves in the far-flung emptiness between us and the moon.

But the need for STEM in space might be waning — just as the need for humanities and the social sciences waxes. After all, the “problems of flight” that once tethered us to this planet have largely been solved, thanks in no small part to all those scientist and engineer astronauts who blazed the trail to space.

By contrast, the future of our relationship with the cosmos — a colony on the moon? Humans on Mars? Contact with intelligent alien life? — will require thoughtful inquiry from many disciplines. We will need sociologists and anthropologists to help us imagine new communities; theologians and linguists if we find we are not alone in the universe; political and legal theorists to sort out the governing principles of interstellar life.

Naturally, some scholars can study these topics while still earthbound. But so can many of today’s astronauts, who often end up working on projects unrelated to their academic training. The idea behind sending people with a wider array of academic disciplines into the cosmos is not just to give scholars a taste of outer space, but also to put them in fruitful conversation with one another.

My own discipline, philosophy, may be better suited for this kind of exploration than some might think. To be sure, much philosophy can be done from an armchair. Descartes arrived at his famous conclusion, “I think, therefore, I am,” while warming himself by the fire and, as he noted, “wearing a winter dressing gown.”

But some of the greatest philosophical breakthroughs occurred only because their authors had firsthand experience with extreme and uncomfortable conditions. We might not have the Stoic philosophy of Epictetus had he not faced the hardship of slavery in Nero’s court. We might not have Thomas Hobbes’s “Leviathan” (and his principle of the “consent of the governed,” so central to the American experiment), but for his flight from the English Civil War. And we might not have Hannah Arendt’s insights on the “banality of evil” had she not attended the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a chief architect of the Holocaust.

Not all philosophers who want to learn what it means to be human in this vast and expanding universe need to experience living in space. But perhaps some of us should.

Throughout the history of Western philosophy, space has often served as stand-in for life’s deepest truths. Plato thought that the things of this world were mere images of true reality, and that true reality existed in the heavens beyond. What inspired admiration and awe in Immanuel Kant was not just the moral law within all of us but also the “starry heavens above.” The Platos and Kants of today are in a position to take a much closer look at those very heavens.

In general, the work of philosophy is to ask, “And suppose this proposition is right, what then?” When faced with a proposition — say, “The mind and body are separable,” or “One must always act to achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number” — the philosopher takes another step and asks, “What are the implications of such a view?”

Though Earth has been our only home, it may not be our home forever. What are the implications of that proposition? What might that mean for our conception of nationhood? Of community? Of ourselves and our place in the world? This would be the work of space philosophers.

These days, unfortunately, the prestige of STEM continues to eclipse that of the social sciences and humanities. It seems unlikely that NASA will buck this trend.

That would be bad news for me, personally — but I think also for humanity at large. One day we may all echo Jodie Foster’s character in the sci-fi movie “Contact . ” When the mysteries of space-time were unfurled before her, all she could manage to say was, “They should have sent a poet.”

Joseph O. Chapa ( @JosephOChapa ) is a U.S. Air Force officer and the author of “Is Remote Warfare Moral?”

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