Introduction to HUMA 207 and Acknowledgements

Welcome to Humanities 207.  This course is designed to introduce you to a broad range of the Humanities (encompassing History and Geography, Art and Architecture, Religion, Literature and the Performing Arts.  This course meets CWI’s requirements for General Education’s GEM 5 (Humanistic and Artistic Ways of Knowing) and it meets the Research and Writing requirement for the General Studies Program.  Additionally it can transfer to Boise State University’s degree program in Humanities and Cultural Studies as part of the University Foundations prerequisites.

Our textbook uses open-access resources written by peer-reviewed experts from a number of open-access sources.  It has been organized by Karen Brown and Michal Yadlin, with considerable input from other Humanities instructors including Debbie Bonde, Elizabeth Cook, Goran Fazil, and Christian Purvis-Aldrich.  We are all instructors in the School of Arts and Humanities.  We’d like to acknowledge the support of Brenda Fisher, Department Chair of Visual and Performing Arts, Greg Wilson, Asst. Dean of General Education, Liza Long of the English Department, Jason Roach of the CWI Library and Justin Vance, Dean of School of Arts and Humanities.

How You Can Use This Text

How to access content:  Our content begins with a chapter that introduces the Humanities followed by five Chronological Periods.  Each Chronological Period is broken into Geographical  Regions which you can access or leave by clicking on the plus or minus sign in the left-hand column. The content in each Geographical Region is organized thematically and you can access specific sections through a hyperlink or by scrolling.

This is  a “use-it-as-you-need-it” kind of text. In other words, you don’t have to read every word from beginning to end. It helps if you start by reading the introductory information and then browsing the rest of the chapter, so you so you can see the depth and breadth of the content; some of which will be useful for your assignments.  Additionally, your instructor may select individual chapters as needed.

If you see errors (missing links, spelling, and syntax errors, or problems with content); please post in your course’s Discussion Forum in Blackboard for this book.  If you find other exciting information that might be a great addition to the course, you should add that, too.  For further comments or questions, please contact Karen Brown (karenbrown@cwi.edu) or Michal Yadlin (michalyadlin@cwi.edu)

Land Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the traditional and ancestral lands of the Shoshone-Bannock, the Shoshone-Paiute, the Coeur d’Alene, the Kootenai, and the Nez Perce tribes on which we are teaching, learning and working today. The struggle for Indigenous rights is deeply connected to human rights. It is important that the stories and traditions from tribal nations are heard, celebrated, and protected.

Creative Commons Licensing

Unless otherwise stated, this book is licensed under a Creative Commons as CC BY 4.0