The Introductory Arts and Humanities Seminar introduces students to questions about the place of the arts, humanities, and communication in a life well lived, in the university, and in the broader society. How do we make sense of the world through art and literature? How does familiarity with history help us place current events in a meaningful context? What concepts and terms do we use to arrive at our moral, ethical, aesthetic, and religious values? How might we communicate that meaning and those concerns to others in oral, written, and visual ways? Students participate in small group work, regular reading and writing, engaging discussions, and campus events. Over the term, they develop an academic ePortfolio, where they collect, select, and reflect on their learning. Throughout the class, students work closely with faculty and peers to critically examine the place of the liberal arts in higher education, relate their own goals to the curriculum, and become active participants in the School of Arts and Humanities.

This course explores the contemporary practice of archival work—including central questions about how the historical record is created—and examines who has the power to shape our understanding of what happened during a given time period. Students will consider the ways that information is created, shared and managed by individuals, organizations and communities through the lens of archives. Utilizing hands-on skills-based projects, students will shape their understanding of how historical memory is created. We will base our work in UNE's special collections and archives, but we will consider different practices and organizational perspectives. Students will explore the impact of technology and digital preservation on archives from information-based and sustainability perspectives. Students will learn basic workflows and tools used to create access, manage and preserve information in a variety of settings, from archives and museums to nonprofit, community and corporate organizations.

Topics in Arts and Humanities is a thematically focused, integrative course intended principally for students interested in upper-level work in the arts and/or humanities, as well as reflection on learning. The instructor-determined topic enables students to experience the course theme, engage actively in discussions, and learn by doing. Common across all iterations of LIL 320 is the centrality of integration, as students examine their learning over their first two-plus years of college to take stock as they look forward to their remaining semester(s). <p> Sample Topic: Digital Humanities. The rise of hypertext and the social web, the ability to digitize high-quality images and texts in archives, and the accessibility of low-cost computing power have yielded a range of developments in humanities research and in the production of texts. This advanced Topics in Arts and Humanities seminar, a working tour of the digital humanities, explores these developments from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Students will learn about the Text Encoding Initiative, the role of computing and “big data” in humanities research, the enduring importance of close reading, and tools for curating interactive digital exhibits. Following an approach central to much digital humanities scholarship, students will collaborate on several “live” scholarly projects.

This course provides a capstone experience for students majoring in the Arts, Humanities, and Communications disciplines. Combining shared readings and seminar discussion with independent projects and the development of an ePortfolio, the course provides structured opportunities for students to reflect on their education, showcase their learning and disciplinary skills, and translate them for professional environments. The course concludes with a celebratory Arts and Humanities symposium in which students present their projects and/or portfolios.