Mission and Student Learning Outcomes

Mission

The Humanities Program aims to help develop world citizens of broad perspective who think critically and creatively, who communicate effectively, and who make educated and ethical decisions. Toward this end the curriculum provides a course of study that encompasses past and present ideas and events concerning the individual, community, nature, and the divine, as well as the relationships among them. The courses examine what humanity has achieved in our several thousand years of recorded history, including diverse values and beliefs, and how these concerns and passions influence our times. The program’s courses are global and interdisciplinary. The Humanities Program draws together faculty and subject matter from all of the liberal arts including history, literature, and philosophy, but also religion, natural science, social science and fine arts.

Linkage to UNC Asheville Mission

The Humanities Program has stood at the center of UNC Asheville’s institutional mission to promote liberal learning and personal growth for over 35 years. UNC Asheville’s Humanities Program provides every undergraduate with a common academic experience from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Thus, students undertake concentrated study of the history of ideas in a global context while simultaneously developing an understanding of the connections among disciplines. The Program’s four courses establish a strong historical and cultural context within which students can refine and articulate their own values in a critical and informed manner.

Student Learning Outcomes

Student Learning Outcomes for All Courses:

Outcome 1. Students demonstrate knowledge in the interdisciplinary study of diverse cultures.

Outcome 2. Students identify the key features of a text, artifact, or art object.

Outcome 3. Students articulate their own values and beliefs and compare them with those of diverse cultures studied and identify the relationships between them.

Outcome 4. Students analyze source material and write a well-supported, clearly articulated argument.

Learning Outcomes for Individual Courses:

HUM 124

Outcome 1: Students demonstrate knowledge in the interdisciplinary study of ancient cultures, both in writing and orally

Outcome 2: Students identify the key features of a primary text or an artifact

Outcome 3: Students write a well-supported, organized, and clearly articulated argument

Outcome 4: Students articulate their own values and beliefs and compare them with those of diverse cultures studied, both in writing and orally

HUM 214

Outcome 1: Students demonstrate knowledge in the interdisciplinary study of pre-modern civilizations, both in writing and orally

Outcome 2: Students identify the key elements of a primary text and other cultural products

Outcome 3: Students write a well-supported, organized, and clearly articulated argument using both primary and secondary sources

Outcome 4: Students demonstrate knowledge of the belief systems and worldviews held by the diverse cultures studied

HUM 324

Outcome 1: Students demonstrate knowledge of the intellectual and cultural trends of modern civilization as global.

Outcome 2: Students identify different values and worldviews, with an emphasis upon understanding relationships: between government, religion, art, and science and between the individual , society, and the global community.

Outcome 3: Students write a well-supported, organized, and clearly articulated argument using both primary and secondary sources, and correct documentation style.

Outcome 4: Students critically analyze, in writing and orally, religious and secular philosophies, power-structures and their meaning in the modern world.

HUM 414

Outcome 1: Students demonstrate knowledge of contemporary human diversity--in cultures and in personal identities

Outcome 3: Students identify the connection of values, beliefs, and cultural forms to humanity’s economic, social and environmental sustainability

Outcome 3: Students write a well-supported, organized, and clearly articulated argument using both primary and secondary sources, and appropriate documentation style

Outcome 4: Students gather, document, analyze, and integrate information about contemporary texts and other cultural forms

• University Mission Statement
• University Student Learning Outcomes