This course is designed to give you an introduction to culture in its broadest sense. By reading a selection of literary texts ranging from 1500 BCE to 1700 CE, we will consider some of the different ways people lived and thought in the last 3000 years. Our purpose, in considering these narratives closely, is to come to a better understanding of the world of human experience in some of its astonishing diversity. We will consider how ideas and attitudes have evolved and how some of the most important texts have shaped the world we live in.

Rest assured, World Humanities 101 is not just a history of “Western Civilization” or of the western subject. Rather, it is an attempt to understand the world as made up of many stories and voices, some of which influence each other, but not all of which are always in harmony with each other. The texts we will encounter during this semester will offer you a set of starting points from which you can begin to investigate the many forces that have defined peoples’ lives in the past and have continued to shape history into the present.

So, come prepared for an exciting journey we are about to take through the centuries and across continents. The only entry requirement? Your curiosity about the world and humans who share it.