Society for the Humanities (SHUM)Arts and Sciences
Showing 33 results.
Course descriptions provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025. The Catalog/Courses of Study 2025-2026 is scheduled to publish mid-June.
Last Updated
- Schedule of Classes - April 25, 2025 7:20PM EDT
- Course Catalog - April 25, 2025 7:07PM EDT
Classes
SHUM 1100
Course Description
This team-taught course introduces students to the History of Art as a global and interdisciplinary field. Led by a selection of professors from the department, in collaboration with staff and faculty ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: ARTH 1100
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Credits and Grading Basis
4 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
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Section Topic
Topic: Ornament
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- MW
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Robinson, C
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
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Section Topic
Topic: Ornament
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- F
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Robinson, C
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
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Section Topic
Topic: Ornament
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Class Number & Section Details
-
Meeting Pattern
- F
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Robinson, C
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
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Section Topic
Topic: Ornament
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- M
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Robinson, C
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
SHUM 1615
Course Description
Ancient Rome was a village the size of Ithaca that grew into a world empire. In this course students will be introduced to some of its literature, art, and famous personalities in the classical period ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: CLASS 1615
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 1900
Course Description
How might we engage with communities, whether here in Ithaca or across the globe, in our diverse histories, experiences, and perspectives? What structural forces shape inequalities and how do communities ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ANTHR 1900
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Graded(Letter grades only)
SHUM 2241
Course Description
In this course we will use the Game of Thrones series as a way of familiarizing ourselves with different tools of cultural analysis and approaches in literary theory (such as narratology, psychoanalysis, ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: COML 2241
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 2269
Course Description
This course introduces Korean popular culture in global context. Beginning with cultural forms of the late Chosŏn period, the course will also examine popular culture during the Japanese colonial period, ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: AAS 2269, ASIAN 2269, PMA 2465
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- MW
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Yi, I
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- F
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Yi, I
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
SHUM 2287
Course Description
No description available. view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ASIAN 2287, RELST 2287
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 2369
Course Description
No description available. view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: HIST 2369
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 2435
Course Description
Maoism and Chinese Communism are not history after Mao's death in 1976. In China, Maoism holds the key to the enduring success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), one of the most remarkable organizations ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Choose one seminar and one independent study. Combined with: CAPS 2435, HIST 2435
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Credits and Grading Basis
4 Credits Graded(Letter grades only)
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- TR
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Sun, P
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
SHUM 2437
Course Description
How do humans organize production, distribution, exchange, and consumption? What social, political, environmental, and religious values underlie different forms of economic organization? And how do they ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: ANTHR 2437
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- TR
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Welker, M
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
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Class Number & Section Details
-
Meeting Pattern
- F
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Welker, M
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
SHUM 2750
Course Description
These seminars offer an introduction to the humanities by exploring historical, cultural, social, and political themes. Students will explore themes in critical dialogue with a range of texts and media ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: HIST 2050
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
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Section Topic
Topic: 9/11 and Its Afterlives
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- TR
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Ghosh, D
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
Enrollment preference given to: accepted Humanities Scholars Program (HSP) students. For course description, see https://as.cornell.edu/research/hsp-core-courses.
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ARKEO 2750, ARTH 2750, CLASS 2750, VISST 2750
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
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Section Topic
Topic: Aesthetics of Scale
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Class Number & Section Details
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Meeting Pattern
- TR
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Platt, V
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
Enrollment preference given to: accepted Humanities Scholars Program (HSP) students. For course description, see https://as.cornell.edu/research/hsp-core-courses.
SHUM 3175
Course Description
This course uses the history of the Spanish Inquisition, and the richness of its archival records, to explore the variety of ways in which the pursuit of heresy was intertwined with transforming how knowledge ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Choose one lecture and one independent study. Combined with: HIST 3175, JWST 3175, NES 3175
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Credits and Grading Basis
4 Credits Graded(Letter grades only)
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Class Number & Section Details
-
Meeting Pattern
- MW
- Aug 25 - Dec 8, 2025
Instructors
Juni, M
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Additional Information
Instruction Mode: In Person
SHUM 3324
Course Description
This course examines major writers, works, and developments in modern and contemporary Korean literature from the early twentieth century to the present. Beginning with the cultural transition at the end ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ASIAN 3324
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Graded(Letter grades only)
SHUM 3465
Course Description
This class considers the relationship between the body, knowledge and experience. We investigate the production and reproduction of the body across different times and spaces. Students examine specific ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ANTHR 3465, BSOC 3460, STS 3460
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits GradeNoAud(Letter grades only (no audit))
SHUM 3475
Course Description
This course addresses central debates in the philosophy of legal punishment. We will analyze the leading theories of punishment, including the familiar retributivist and deterrent alternatives, as well ... view course details
SHUM 3555
Course Description
What are comics? While it's easy to identify a cartoon, graphic novel, or comic book, it's hard to understand the wide world of comics. As a medium, comics are part of a global tradition of visual storytelling ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: FGSS 3555, GERST 3555, LGBT 3555, PMA 3555, VISST 3555
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Graded(Letter grades only)
SHUM 3635
Course Description
This course engages classical antiquity and its reception through the prism of queer studies. Cruising Homer, Sappho, Euripides, Plato, Ovid and more, we will explore how queer theoretical frameworks help ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: CLASS 3635, FGSS 3636, LGBT 3635
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 3636
Course Description
No description available. view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: COML 3541, ENGL 3920, GERST 3620, GOVT 3636
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 3742
Course Description
When an African and an African American meet, solidarity is presumed, but often friction is the result. In this course, we will consider how Africans and African Americans see each other through literature. ... view course details
SHUM 4317
Course Description
No description available. view course details
SHUM 4561
Course Description
Evaluation is a pervasive feature of contemporary life. Professors, doctors, countries, hotels, pollution, books, intelligence: there is hardly anything that is not subject to some form of review, rating, ... view course details
SHUM 4666
Course Description
In this course, we will take an inter-and multidisciplinary approach that examines works of fiction, film, performance, and photography to explore how specters intervene in and mold the social, political, ... view course details
SHUM 4705
Course Description
How do queer people make family? What cultural and artistic practices sustain queer bonds? To answer these questions, this course examines queer and trans kinship narratives across a range of genres, including ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ENGL 4706, ENGL 6705, FGSS 4705, FGSS 6705, LGBT 4705, LGBT 6705, SHUM 6705, VISST 4705, VISST 6705
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 4706
Course Description
How can a small sculpture produce monumental effects? Recent shifts in metal-detecting and excavation practices have transformed our understanding of the scope of figural art after the Roman empire's collapse; ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ARKEO 4706, ARKEO 6706, ARTH 4706, ARTH 6706, MEDVL 4706, MEDVL 6706, RELST 4706, RELST 6706, SHUM 6706
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 4707
Course Description
When Beijing hosted the summer Olympics in 2008, its opening ceremony left viewers, journalists, and visitors impressed and sometimes alarmed by its enormity, encompassing a massive cast of dancers, musicians, ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ASIAN 4707, ASIAN 6707, SHUM 6707
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 4711
Course Description
No description available. view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ARKEO 4712, ARKEO 6712, ARTH 4361, ARTH 6361, SHUM 6711, VISST 4711, VISST 6711
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 4750
Course Description
This course is designed to support seniors in the Humanities Scholars Program working on their capstone projects. Students in the course will be guided in their project research and writing. The course ... view course details
Regular Academic Session.
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Credits and Grading Basis
1 Credit Sat/Unsat(Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory)
Regular Academic Session.
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Credits and Grading Basis
1 Credit Sat/Unsat(Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory)
SHUM 4916
Course Description
China, a cultural giant of East Asia, made a passive entrance into modernity. With the advent of Western and American colonialism and imperialism, coupled with recent successes in westernization by the ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ARTH 4816, ARTH 6816, ASIAN 4473, ASIAN 6673
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Opt NoAud(Letter or S/U grades (no audit))
SHUM 6317
Course Description
No description available. view course details
SHUM 6666
Course Description
In this course, we will take an inter-and multidisciplinary approach that examines works of fiction, film, performance, and photography to explore how specters intervene in and mold the social, political, ... view course details
SHUM 6705
Course Description
How do queer people make family? What cultural and artistic practices sustain queer bonds? To answer these questions, this course examines queer and trans kinship narratives across a range of genres, including ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ENGL 4706, ENGL 6705, FGSS 4705, FGSS 6705, LGBT 4705, LGBT 6705, SHUM 4705, VISST 4705, VISST 6705
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 6706
Course Description
How can a small sculpture produce monumental effects? Recent shifts in metal-detecting and excavation practices have transformed our understanding of the scope of figural art after the Roman empire's collapse; ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ARKEO 4706, ARKEO 6706, ARTH 4706, ARTH 6706, MEDVL 4706, MEDVL 6706, RELST 4706, RELST 6706, SHUM 4706
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 6707
Course Description
When Beijing hosted the summer Olympics in 2008, its opening ceremony left viewers, journalists, and visitors impressed and sometimes alarmed by its enormity, encompassing a massive cast of dancers, musicians, ... view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ASIAN 4707, ASIAN 6707, SHUM 4707
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)
SHUM 6711
Course Description
No description available. view course details
Regular Academic Session. Combined with: ARKEO 4712, ARKEO 6712, ARTH 4361, ARTH 6361, SHUM 4711, VISST 4711, VISST 6711
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Credits and Grading Basis
3 Credits Stdnt Opt(Letter or S/U grades)