Month: September 2024

Looking Over Past Humanities Courses and Projects

Over the past six years as a UNE student, I have encountered numerous influential texts and media, and based off those, have had the opportunity to critique and expand upon them in various formats. As I look back, I recognize that the variety of projects has enriched me as a student. As a result, I have struggled to choose only a few. I find that my best loved projects are from my history classes or classes related to my Gender, Women, and Sexuality major.

From my “Women of the West” ENG 237 class, I fondly look back upon Willa Cather’s book, O Pioneers!. I had never read the book before and I instantly connected to Cather’s writing style and insights on gender. In response, I wrote an essay titled, “O Pioneers!- Gender and the New Woman Character”, where I discuss how Cather uses the character Alexandra Bergson to critique twentieth century views on feminism. As I review the paper, I wonder if there is room to expand upon my argument. I remember exhausting areas of the text, but I could look at other authors of the period and see how they present the “New Woman” character in literature.

I also took a Native New England class in 2021, where students were tasked with a historical research project. This was a semester long project, which I titled “Native American New England Female Sachems-Circumvented Authority”, in which I strove to argue that colonial documents downplayed Native New England American female sachems’ positions of leadership in order to seize Native lands. As I reviewed this paper recently, I remembered getting a good grade, but then wishing that I had more time to delve into the topic or could have found more historical resources to make my case. I still have questions on where I could expand with this idea. In my initial topic statement for the project, I had written, “I plan on writing a historical research paper based off the topic, but was also thinking about the possibility of creating a visual presentation or a podcast,”. This definitely seems like it could be a contender for my LIL project.

Another fascinating historical research paper I wrote was for a HIS 395 class, What Happened? Witch Hunts, Women, and Witches. In my paper entitled, “Warfare’s Influence on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692”, I made the argument that the French and Indian War fueled the conditions that led up to the Salem witch trials. Pieces of this theory included young women from Maine (which at the time was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony), which was of great interest to me. After reviewing this paper today, I noticed that I should have developed a more robust conclusion to drive my points. I would love to make this historical story come to life in another medium somehow. My advisor, Professor DeWolfe, taught this class. I was thinking that it would be wonderful to have her mentor me with the project if she had time. Perhaps she could also suggest local resources for the topic.

**Update**

I’ve chosen to focus on the young women from Maine from my “Warfare’s Influence on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692”. Rather than write another academic paper, my goal is to create an academic poster that will include visuals and information about how young women lived during that time, including specifics for the three that played a part in the witch trials. To develop my project, I’m going to tackle these questions (which ultimately will evolve over the project):

What’s My Project? What do I want to accomplish?-I am seeking to define what girlhood might have been like during the late 17th century in New England and at the same time, expand upon the Casco Bay girls’ influence on the Salem Witch Trials.

What Works? How can you build on the strengths of your draft?-I will use my original paper as a guide for the poster. I will also incorporate some of the same resources.

What Else Might Be Said? How might you acknowledge other views and possibilities?-Several historical authors have written on the topic. I will examine their views and see if I can incorporate them in my poster.

What’s Next? What are the implications of what you have to say? I would like to shed light on how Puritan customs/restrictions on young women led to the trials.

Part 1-Significance of the Humanities

This summer I took a psychology course; tasking students to take personality tests and interpret them are standard issue assignments.  I found that I am an INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging).  After doing some research on the personality type, I found that typical INTJ career choices are in engineering, IT, and perhaps law.  Although I do take these tests with a grain of salt, I remember thinking, “Well, why exactly am I a history major?  Why am I taking mostly humanities courses, versus the sciences?” 

My current job is firmly ingrained in IT, and requires analysis and logical reasoning.  After some reflection, perhaps the reason I gravitate towards the humanities is that it is the “non-science” (yes, I’m using that term!) aspect of my life.  The humanities offer an appealing “other” side of the coin.  Historical and literary storytelling, expression of the arts, learning the nuances of languages, all firmly commit to, as Small puts it, the “valuation of feeling over reason” (Small, 12).  As human beings, one of our natural instincts is to emote, express ourselves, and in turn, interpret other’s expressions.  You might say that I have gone down the argumentative path of “well-roundedness”, and you are probably correct. 

Another important factor is that the disciplines of the humanities intersect, often complimenting each other, providing a more complete picture of the human experience.  I believe that my work with the humanities has allowed me flexibility in the workplace to identify connections, patterns, and opportunity when looking a large project or organizational entity as a whole.  

Small presents arguments supporting the humanities for their economic value, utilizing the humanities as a method to understand how human happiness works, and as what seems as a “hail Mary”, as a claim to preserve and promote democracy.  These points seem reasonable, but upon scrutiny, seem to break apart.  I felt more in tune with Mill’s argument, where the humanities, “…help to preserve the cultural inheritance for following generations in ways that are not mere custodial but assist in ongoing human intellectual an cultural achievements,” (Small, 13).  As a history major, the custodial aspect appeals to me, but the application of the humanities for future progress is truly how I envision the broader social value should be explained.

Part 2- Write a brief description of the kind of work you enjoy doing and/or think you’re well equipped to do.

It appears that I dabbled in this topic in Part 1!  One of the reasons that the discipline of history appeals to me is the active research that is involved.  Researching in archives, organizing evidence, and then reconstructing a snapshot in time for others to learn about makes me energized and content.  The War Letters class with Professor DeWolfe helped me put these elements together in a collaborative group setting.  I am detailed oriented, enjoy putting presentations together with visuals, and even enjoy creating podcasts. Over the years I have put together many presentations that appealed to others (or have gotten a decent grade).  I also find satisfaction in writing an old-fashioned academic paper, but visuals and how I present something are very important to my work.  I am not the best at public speaking, but as long as I have had time to process the topic, I can manage very well.  My best projects are ones that I am passionate about.

What are the Humanities?

If I were to describe the humanities to someone that was not familiar with the topic, I would state that the humanities encompass many disciplines that study the human experience, such as art, literature, history, music, and philosophy.  These disciplines focus on how humans interact and relate to the environment around them.   Since all humans are unique due to genetics, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status, the works and expressions of the humanities are unable to be hypothesized, theorized, tested or reproduced through a series of laws, such as the mathematics and science fields.  As During states, the works of the humanities are unique interpretations, not truths, because what one experiences may be their truth, but not to another person (During, 2020). 

When speaking about the humanities, I would also note how our society currently perceives them in the “real” or “working” world. With the rise of technology, it seems that interest in studying the humanities has reduced over time.  As our society struggles with a lack of healthcare workers, electricians, cybersecurity analysts, etc., students may easily disregard the humanities for more lucrative fields of study. During addresses the humanities “crisis” within universities as they strive to come to terms with what the humanities should be in comparison to other interdisciplinary programs. Inadvertently, the humanities are becoming “flattened” or merged, through this process.   However, During recognizes that outside the universities, the humanities are thriving (During, 2020).  I would have liked him to expand on this and provide more examples, but I can identify that by definition, people need the humanities to enrich their life and to connect to the world around them.

As I was searching for humanities topics in the news, I found that some writers argue that the humanities will become more popular as technology improves and artificial intelligence takes over more analytical jobs.  The fact is that artificial intelligence will never truly be able to express the human experience on its own, so the humanities would solely become a human’s occupation.  During’s statement that the humanities are an “inherited archive” resonated deeply with me (perhaps as a history major?), as “a place where objects may disappear and reappear, and of an inheritance as a body of work that is intentionally delivered into the future and received from the past, but without necessarily constituting a tradition” (During, 2020).  The humanities archive is built upon past interpretations, its inventory able to be critiqued and appreciated, and impressing upon future generations experience of the world.

Part 2- Framing During’s Project Using Harris’ Terms

My understanding of During’s project is that he attempts to neutrally analyze what the humanities are, seek how to identify their unique characteristics, and to understand the complexities of the term and topic.  During states that instead of a basic humanities concept, there is a humanities world, which is “both open-ended and limited. It is open in that from the inside the humanities world one doesn’t see clear boundaries. But it is limited because, we, as if intuitively, know that the humanities are distinct from other worlds-from the worlds of science, sport, business, and so on…” (During, 2020). He argues that the humanities cannot be defined by certain objects, characteristics or purposes: the only way to identify what the humanities are is to tell their story.