What is the meaning of "Humanities"?

This site is an online resource for those interested in interdisciplinary Humanities courses at Community College of Philadelphia. We hope that faculty, students, and others interested in world cultures will find many teaching materials that will help students become actively engaged in the learning process.

Humanities is sometimes defined as "what makes humans human." We try to understand people's cultures - their beliefs, values, traditions and practices. This effort meets two goals of Community College of Philadelphia's Mission: To encourage all students to achieve "greater appreciation of their own cultural background and experience" and to increase their "awareness and appreciation of a diverse world where all are interdependent."

Interdisciplinary Humanities courses integrate different disciplines of art, architecture, history, literature, music and philosophy. Disciplines such as cultural anthropology and cultural geography also contribute to the humanities to help understand human societies. To read the descriptions of CCP Humanities courses that focus on Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Humanities 101 and 102 that compare Western and Non-Western cultural traditions, please see the link below.

What materials are on this website?

For students, the website will give an idea of the type of courses they might want to take and will give sample assignments. For faculty, the website will demonstrate different ways courses can be creatively taught within course guidelines. For many primary texts there are sequenced assignments, study and discussion questions that help meet goals in the College's Mission: to heighten students' "curiosity and active interest in intellectual and social issues," and to improve "ability to pursue paths of inquiry, to interpret and evaluate what is discovered , and to express reactions effectively."

For information, please contact Professor Fay Beauchamp, Humanities Coordinator, fbeauchamp@ccp.edu, 215 751 8668, BR-4

Faculty listing

last updated: 11/14/2006