James Keating (Theology and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 1895, T/Th 11:30-12:45
No prerequisites and open to all students; required for Catholic Humanities minors and Catholic Studies majors; satisfies the Oral Communication proficiency of the Core Curriculum.

The Humanities explore what it means to be human through literature, art, philosophy, theology, history, and related disciplines. In this course we will read and discuss philosophical reflections, essays, novels (graphic and otherwise), and poetry about human life. Our purpose will be to uncover what our authors wish to say about how one ought to live and how one oughtn’t. Much of what they say depends on how they view the nature of reality itself. We will read Christians and those who have ceased to be Christians. It’ll be great.

Patrick Macfarlane (Philosophy and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 1894, T/Th 10:00-11:15
No prerequisites and open to all students; required for Catholic Humanities minors and Catholic Studies majors; satisfies the Oral Communication proficiency of the Core Curriculum.

This is the foundational course for the minor in Catholic Humanities and the major in Catholic Studies and introduces students to the humanities through the concept of culture. We will consider a broad and interdisciplinary selection of texts and authors, including Sophocles, Plato, Shakespeare, Newman, Nietzsche, Eliot, Joyce, and Kafka. We will also read selections from the Bible and consider the theological work of David Bentley Hart. All are welcome!

Robert Duffy (Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 1896, M/T/Th 4:30-5:20
No prerequisites and open to all students; required for Catholic Humanities minors and Catholic Studies majors; satisfies the Oral Communication proficiency of the Core Curriculum.

In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Miranda exclaims in wonder: “O brave new world, that has such people in it!” We all have some answer to the question, “What does it mean to be human?” How can we put our answers into words? How do we know we are right? This class considers philosophy, theology, literature, and the arts to help us find answers. Should we first pursue virtue or material success? What is the role of friendship in a good life? What does a good community look like? Is work a necessary evil or can it be humanizing? How should we relate to the natural world? How should we approach technology? Who is God and how is he important to our lives? Throughout we will be seeking to understand the true dignity and mystery of the human person.

Fr. Kenneth Gumbert (Theater, Dance and Film)
3 Credits, CRN 2394, T/Th 2:30-3:45
No prerequisites and open to all students. Crosslisted with Theater, Dance, and Film & American Studies

This course highlights the work of some of the most important American film directors from the classical era up to the present. We will look closely at the style and meaning of various films through a lens that examines the culture and imaginative influences at work upon these outstanding Hollywood film auteurs.

Matthew Cuddeback (Philosophy and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 2367, W 11:30-2:15
No prerequisites and open to all students; required for Catholic Studies majors. Satisfies the Ethics requirement of the Core Curriculum.

God is an artist, and the human person, made to God’s image, is called to create beauty in partnership with God. With that as guiding thread, this course is an interdisciplinary, humanistic study of beauty and human creativity. The course’s philosophy and theology of beauty will be drawn from Plato, Aquinas, Dante, Shakespeare, and John Paul II. Emphasis will be placed on personal encounter with beauty through artworks in different media (e.g. architecture, painting, sculpture, music, poetry, literature, liturgy) and from different historical periods.

Matthew Cuddeback (Philosophy and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 1892, T/Th 11:30-12:45
No prerequisites and open to all students; required for Catholic Studies majors. Satisfies the Ethics requirement of the Core Curriculum.

Working within the Catholic intellectual tradition, this course offers a humanistic, interdisciplinary study of man’s yearning for and pursuit of happiness, and of the possibility of attaining it through openness to divine grace, contemplation, desire for the “one sweet fruit” (Dante), and virtuous habits. The course will use works of philosophy, literature, poetry, and film, including authors such as Thomas Aquinas, Josef Pieper, Leo Tolstoy, and Walker Percy.

Gary Culpepper (Theology)
1 Credit, August 10-17, 2026
No prerequisites and open to all students; registration by permission of instructor only.

Verso l’Alto emphasizes leadership development within the spiritual and intellectual context of the Catholic and Dominican tradition. Participants travel to the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming where they learn outdoor skills, including backpacking and climbing, within the context of spiritual and intellectual study and professional leadership development exercises. Hosted by COR Expeditions. For more information, contact Dr. Gary Culpepper, Associate Professor of Theology.

Jay Pike (Chemistry)
1.5 Credits, CRN 2579, Th 4:00-5:15
Open to all students who are at least 21 years old by August 24, 2026. Contact the instructor to receive permission to register.

This Humanities Practicum will educate the palate and the mind when it comes to beer and its full and virtuous enjoyment. Each week we will learn about—and drink samples of—different beer traditions (everything from lagers and wheat ales to sours and smoked stouts), with an emphasis on the art of brewing and the crucial role that beer has played in the history and development of Western civilization (especially regarding community and conviviality). Cheers!

Fr. Humbert Kilanowski (Mathematics and Computer Science) 
1 Credit, CRN 2699, Th 7:00-8:00
No prerequisites and open to all students.

This Humanities Practicum is designed to foster wonder and appreciation of the night sky. Students will learn to identify stars, planets, and other luminous objects, as they have been viewed across cultures and epochs throughout human history. The class will involve lectures as well as observation sessions of the sky using binoculars, telescopes, and the unaided eye. While not a scientifically rigorous course, the class does blend some basic astrophysics with humanistic aspects of the study of the stars.

Christopher Berard (Humanities)
1.5 Credits, CRN 3188, M 6:30-7:45
No prerequisites and open to all students.

Within the context of medieval courtly poetry and historical writings (c. 1100–1400), we will be studying tales of revenants, werewolves, and shapeshifters. First, we will read various accounts of the myth of King Arthur’s return from the dead in Britain’s darkest hour and tales of how he resides in an otherworldly abode. We will be exploring such relevant concepts as the Wild Hunt, ghostly apparitions, and the corporeal undead. Second, we will read the leading medieval werewolf stories, including Marie de France’s lai Bisclavret, the anonymous lai Melion, and Arthur & Gorlagon. We will explore the dividing lines between man and beast and consequently what it means to be human. Third, we will read tales of knights transforming into hawks and beautiful maidens transforming into loathly damsels. We will explore the nature of beauty and nobility.

Robert Barry (Theology)
1 Credit, CRN 1898, T 2:30-3:20
No prerequisites and open to all students.

This one-credit Humanities Reading Seminar is a close reading of St. Augustine’s autobiographical Confessions. We will follow Augustine’s meditations on central issues important in every human life such as happiness, sin, death, memory, truth, time, friendship, sex, love, eternity, creation, and God.

Suzanne Fournier (English)
1 Credit, CRN 2534, F 1:30-2:20
No prerequisites and open to all students.

The decade of the 1970s represented another golden age for Hollywood, a period marked by advances in filmmaking, the emergence of innovative directors, and attention to new voices. The end of the 1960s and the lingering effects of the Vietnam War and Watergate produced major films marked by uneasiness and even paranoia. The films for this course will include The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, Girlfriends, The Last Picture Show, Nashville, All the President’s Men, The Conversation, and Star Wars.

Stephen Long (Theology)
1 Credit, CRN 3183, F 11:30-12:20
No prerequisites and open to all students.

This reading seminar will be a close, thoughtful reading of the greatest philosophical novel ever written: Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. Along the way, we will read some excerpts from Friedrich Nietzsche’s works (especially The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Antichrist and Ecce Homo) to see how Dostoevsky anticipated and answered Nietzsche’s proclamation that “God is dead.”

Raymond Hain (Philosophy and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 3090, M/W 1:00-2:15
No prerequisites and open to all students; required for Catholic Studies majors; satisfies the Philosophy requirement of the Core Curriculum.

This course is an interdisciplinary consideration of God and the transcendent. It introduces the history, methods, and importance of humanistic reflection on the source and measure of all created things and its influence on human culture. Themes include the existence and nature of God, our experience of the divine, the search for transcendent meaning, and the human aspiration to contemplative union.

Travis Lacy (Theology)
3 Credits, CRN 1901, T/Th 1:00-2:15
No prerequisites and open to all students; satisfies a core requirement for Catholic Humanities minors and Catholic Studies majors; satisfies the Writing I and Theology 300 requirements of the Core Curriculum.

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of what it means to think, live, and feel in a way informed by the Catholic intellectual tradition. Our readings and assignments will be structured around the three central themes of truth, goodness, and beauty, and we will consider these themes by attending to Catholic theology, philosophy, literature, and art. Possible authors and subjects of study include Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, Josef Pieper, Evelyn Waugh, Georges Bernanos, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mozart, and Caravaggio.

Matthew Cuddeback (Philosophy)
1.5 Credits, CRN 3154, Th 2:30-3:45
No prerequisites and open to all students.

Man and woman, created by God to His image, are made for friendship and made for each other. They are at once different and complementary. But how do a young man and woman prepare to find each other, befriend each other, freely commit to each other for the whole of life? We shall reflect on this question in light of Catholic teaching on marriage—especially as expressed in the thought of Pope St. John Paul II—and by drawing on works of theology, philosophy, literature, poetry, music, and visual art.

James Keating (Theology and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 1902, M 4:00-6:30 (day/time adjustable depending on student schedules)
Prerequisites: HUM 175, HUM 325 or HUM 326; open to seniors only, or with special permission of the Director of the Humanities Program. Satisfies the Writing II Proficiency of the Core Curriculum.

This is the required interdisciplinary capstone seminar for the Catholic Humanities minor. Themes will vary depending on the instructor and topics chosen by the students. Students will complete a substantial writing project designed in consultation with the instructor and requiring integration of prior coursework. Satisfies the Writing II Proficiency of the Core Curriculum.

James Keating (Theology and Humanities)
3 Credits, CRN 1893, M 4:00-6:30 (day/time adjustable depending on student schedules)
Prerequisites: senior status or permission of the Director required; Catholic Studies majors must have completed at least seven courses towards the major. Satisfies the Writing II Proficiency of the Core Curriculum.

This is the required interdisciplinary capstone seminar for the Catholic Studies major. Themes will vary depending on the instructor and topics chosen by the students. Students will complete a substantial writing project designed in consultation with the instructor and requiring integration of prior coursework. Satisfies the Writing II Proficiency of the Core Curriculum.