Humanities Requirements

Technical Competencies - Humanities:

With adequate education, students must be able to do the following:

Demonstrate the ability to analyze, interpret, and evaluate a variety of texts
Communicate effectively both orally and in writing in a variety of modalities
Recognize and be able to discuss multiple elements of cultural meaning in various works
Analyze and understand the techniques for living a good and meaningful life
Demonstrate knowledge of and fluency in the conventions of literary and historical research, including print and electronic sources and professional standards of documentation

Overview

Program Description

The School of Education and Humanities offers a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) program in Digital Humanities, a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in History as well as minors in Digital Humanities, English and History. The Department provides many of the courses which comprise the University's core requirements – e.g. literature, history, philosophy, and religion.

The School's Bachelor of Arts program in English combines the best elements of the traditional English major (surveys of American and British literature and courses in major literary periods and writers) with non-traditional features including offerings in cross‐cultural, multi‐ethnic literature. Centenary's unique program prepares students for careers in teaching, marketing, corporate communications, law, and publishing, among other fields. The English program sponsors the English honorary society (Sigma Tau Delta). A Bachelor of Arts in English includes a choice of concentrations in Digital Humanities, Humanities or a writing-intensive concentration in Creative Writing.

The School's major in History introduces students to the study of change over time. It emphasizes the meaning of change rather than memorizing names and dates, and embraces the totality of human experience, including social and cultural developments as well as political and military events. History majors receive a solid grounding in World History and American History, and opportunities to explore a range of geographical and topical areas in depth, among them the African American experience, the History of New Jersey, the Middle East and Islam. Students interested in completing a minor in History must complete a minimum of 16 credits in History beyond the classes in their areas which may be used to fulfill the University core requirements or other program requirements.

Creative Writing Concentration (for English Majors):

Students concentrating in Creative Writing must take the following 16 credits in addition to their English literature requirements:

WRI-2005

Intro to Creative Writing

WRI-2005: a pre and/or co-requisite for the others

1 Workshop course

WRI-2040	Writing Poetry	4
WRI-2041	Writing Prose	4

1 Craft Course

WRI-3050	The Form and Theory of Poetry	4
WRI-3051	The Form and Theory Prose	4

1 creative writing elective

-	Workshop	4
-	Craft	4
-	Publishing	4
-	Special topics	4

The creative writing courses are as follows:

WRI-2005	Intro to Creative Writing	4
WRI-2040	Writing Poetry	4
WRI-2041	Writing Prose	4
WRI-3050	The Form and Theory of Poetry	4
WRI-3051	The Form and Theory Prose	4
WRI-3052	Hybrid and Digital Genres	4

English Minor:

Any student may minor in English by taking sixteen (16) credits of English coursework beyond ENG-1001. Students must take either ENG-2011 or ENG-2050 and then complete the remaining 12 credits in any English courses at the 2000‐level or beyond (with a maximum of 8 credits coming from creative writing, professional writing, or Composition and Rhetoric courses).

Creative Writing Minor (for non‐English Majors):

The Creative Writing Minor requires 4 courses:

WRI-2005	Intro to Creative Writing	4
-
WRI-2040	Writing Poetry	4
-	Or
WRI-2041	Writing Prose	4
-
WRI-3050	The Form and Theory of Poetry	4
-	Or
WRI-3051	The Form and Theory Prose	4
-
-	One Creative Writing Elective
Total Credit Hours:		16

The Humanities Department also supervises American Sign Language, philosophy, and religion courses.

Note: Internship Option:

The English faculty will grant two or four academic credits to English majors who serve an internship in an English‐related career field, such as public relations, corporate communications, or publishing.

Note: Some courses may meet several distribution requirements (within the major) depending on the particular semester’s emphasis. Please check with your advisor or the Department Chair for further information.

History Major

The Department's major in History introduces students to the study of change over time. We emphasize the meaning of change rather than memorizing names and dates, and our interest embraces the totality of human experience, including social and cultural developments as well as political and military events. History majors receive a solid grounding in World History and American History, and opportunities to explore a range of geographical and topical areas in depth, among them the African American Experience, the History of New Jersey, the Middle East, and Islam. Centenary students majoring in other disciplines, such as Criminal Justice, Government, Education, and Equine will find History electives that give them new perspectives on their primary field of study.

Participation in Centenary’s History program helps students to improve their critical thinking, complex reasoning, and oral and writing skills, all of which are vital to careers in Business, Law, and Criminal Justice. The program also meets the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Social Studies and, in conjunction with the Education program, prepares students for teaching careers in New Jersey schools.

While many majors become high school teachers, other recent graduates work in business, higher education and in the non-profit sector.

Centenary’s History faculty are active researchers as well as teachers. They also regularly present at national and international conferences. In recent years, this has included participation at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Palestinian Christians, and at Portland State University, on business and the environment (Haiduc-Dale); and at Harvard, on conspiracies in American history, and Yale on African American slave narratives (Frey).

The History faculty have received a number of prestigious scholarships and awards, including a Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship (Haiduc-Dale), and various research grants. In 2012, College Historian Raymond Frey was the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Achievement in History. In 2013, Frey was awarded a $3,000 grant by the New Jersey Historical Commission to write a new book about New Jersey in the Progressive Era.

The History faculty’s publications are highly regarded by their peers. For example, in the Journal of Palestine Studies, George Irani described Noah Haiduc-Dale’s Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948 (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) as ‘an important contribution to our understanding of the history of Christian communities in Mandate Palestine and in the Middle East in general.’ Raymond Frey’s, New Jersey, a Journey of Discovery (Gibbs Smith, 2004), is a widely-praised textbook used in many school districts throughout New Jersey. And in Centenary College, New Jersey (Arcadia, 2013), Frey presents the first complete history of the institution since 1947.

Many History majors study abroad. The major is also conducive to students adopting a minor or a double major, and the History faculty will help determine the most useful and meaningful academic track.

History Minor

Students interested in completing a minor in History must complete a minimum of 16 credits in History above and beyond the classes in their areas which may be used to fulfill the College core requirements or other program requirements.