In the Humanities Program, an emphasis is placed on experiential learning. That means you'll gain a deep understanding of Western civilization through firsthand interaction with literature, art, and music.

Some books or authors you'll likely read

• Plato or Aristotle
• Virgil - The Aeneid
• Augustine - Confessions
• Dante - Purgatory
• Voltaire - Candide
• Shakespeare - Henry V
• Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Jane Austen - Persuasion or Mansfield Park
• Frederick Douglass - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Friedrich Nietzsche - Selected Writings
• Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto and other writings
• Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents
• A modern novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, or Virginia Woolf
• T. S. Eliot or Robert Frost
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Cost of Discipleship
• François Lyotard - The Postmodern Condition

Some artists you'll learn about

• Michelangelo
• El Greco
• Rembrandt
• Monet
• Copley
• Salvador Dali

You'll also make several visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see works by these artists firsthand.

Some music you'll listen to

• Medieval chant
• Bach
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• Schumann
• Stravinsky

You'll also attend a concert by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra or the Minnesota Orchestra, and a play at the Guthrie Theater. Students also typically put on 2 plays and attend 2 dances as part of their experience in the program.