2024-2025

Humanities, Minor

Department of Comparative Cultural Studies

College of Arts and Letters

Do you consider yourself an out-of-the-box thinker, a cultural critic, a citizen of the world? In this minor, students explore the world in an interdisciplinary way, developing the skills of analysis, interpretation, and communication crucial to their professional and academic development. Come learn about the ideas that matter to you, today, and about people across cultures and eras through art, literature, media, and technology.

  • A minor is earned in conjunction with a bachelor's degree.

    To receive a minor (18 - 24 units) at Northern Arizona University, you must complete a planned group of courses from one or more subject matter areas with a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.0. At least 12 units of the minor must be unique to that minor and not applied to any other minor.

In addition to University Requirements:

  • Complete individual plan requirements.

Students may be able to use some courses to meet more than one requirement. Contact your advisor for details.

No more than fifty percent of the units used to satisfy minor requirements may be used to satisfy major requirements.

Minimum Units for Completion 18
Major GPA C

Purpose Statement
 
The purpose of the Humanities minor is to provide students with multiple opportunities to engage with the values and concepts found in matters such as fine art vs popular art, nature and the city, politics and the arts, music and commerce, and identity and history. Through this ongoing engagement, students are prepared to analyze, synthesize, and interpret perennial and contemporary societal issues from a variety of cultures and epochs. Students gain critical reading and thoughtful writing ability that translates into practical skills for careers as diverse as teaching, law, diplomatic service, the arts and cultural sector, and international studies.

 
Student Learning Outcomes

  • Critical Thinking
    • Evaluate a variety of creative compositions, including visual art, film, literature, built environments (architecture, landscaping), and intellectual histories (philosophy, religious texts).
    • identify social, cultural, and historical contexts and values influencing the creation of these compositions
    • Understand cultures and their values from across the globe in order to better participate and work in an increasingly global marketplace.
  • Critical Reading
    • iidentify themes common to humankind (i.e., birth rights, community expectations, individual rights, love, death and dying, freedom, war, gender, and the environment; and how describe these themes differ according to culture)
    • Evaluate modes of art, literature, ideas, and media in order to make judgments on the efficacy of texts and their uses in public forums
    • Analyze the ways in which texts reveal similarities and differences in the human experience throughout time and space.
  • Effective Writing
    • Write in several rhetorical modes (styles and genres) for a variety of community and professional audiences. These audiences include cultural and business entities that recognize how cultural knowledge/communication skills are essential in building professional relationships with diverse people at home and around the world. These entities are as diverse as medicine, business, technology, and public policy.  The Minor in Humanities graduates will also have the ability to explain clearly and specifically the plurality of cultural values from which human expression arises for a variety of community and professional audiences.
  • Civil Discourse And Cultural Awareness – armed with structural knowledge of diverse cultures and their arts and ideas, the graduate in the Minor in Humanities will bring balanced perspectives to community and professional problem solving that is inclusive of difference and enhanced by an awareness of the growing interconnectedness of cultures globally. This knowledge of diverse cultures and genres, combined with a balanced perspective, makes the Humanities graduate poised to engage in community, public, and professional life.
  • Interdisciplinarity – integrate viewpoints representing diverse cultured, historical, gendered, and national values and genres; plan, organize, and coordinate multi-dimensional problem solving approaches using insights from several disciplines, including traditional humanities disciplines and the social and environmental sciences; and develop reasonable options to initiate inclusive, just, and sustainable social change that is well-reasoned and historically aware and culturally sensitive.

Minor Requirements

  • Take the following 18 units with a Grade of "C" or better in each course:

    • Select six or more HUM or CCS courses in consultation with a humanities advisor (18 units)
Additional Information

  • Be aware that some courses may have prerequisites that you must also successfully complete. For prerequisite information, click on the course or see your advisor.