Great Books Minor

Advisor: Michael J. Neth, Department of English

The Great Books interdisciplinary minor is designed to offer students the opportunity to broaden their undergraduate education and supplement their own major field by studying the most important and influential texts in a number of different disciplines. Students will be presented with the ways in which some of the most significant books ever written shaped, altered, and influenced the formation of human civilization.

The Great Books minor requires a minimum of 18 hours of courses, with the provision that no more than 6 hours may be taken in a single department. The program advisor may approve the substitution of courses under some circumstances.

Interdisciplinary Minors

Interdisciplinary minors require the student to complete a minimum of 15 to 21 hours from a list of specific courses. Unless otherwise noted, a student may take no more than 6 hours of courses from a single department until he or she surpasses the required minimum number of hours necessary for completing the minor. Exceptions to this rule may be found within the discussions of several of the minors. In most cases, a student is also limited to just 3 hours of credit toward the minor in the same department or discipline in which he or she is taking a major. Except for the Paralegal Studies minor, no course may be counted both for major and minor credit. Students must fulfill all departmental prerequisites for any course within an interdisciplinary minor. In some cases, advisors may approve course substitutions within these program requirements.

Required Course (3 hours)

PHIL 4600 - Philosophy of History 3 credit hours

Electives (15 hours)

ANTH 3710 - Topics in Anthropology 1 to 6 credit hours
ENGL 3110 - English Literature: The Medieval Period 3 credit hours
ENGL 3120 - English Literature: The Sixteenth Century 3 credit hours
ENGL 3130 - English Literature: The Seventeenth Century 3 credit hours
ENGL 3160 - English Drama: 1475-1642 (excluding Shakespeare) 3 credit hours
ENGL 3210 - English Literature: Restoration and Eighteenth Century 3 credit hours
ENGL 3220 - English Literature: 1790-1850 3 credit hours
ENGL 3230 - English Literature: The Victorian Period 3 credit hours
ENGL 3310 - Nineteenth-Century American Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 3320 - Twentieth-Century American Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 3330 - Southern Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 3340 - African American Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 3400 - European Literature to 1400 3 credit hours
ENGL 3420 - European Literature: 1400-1800 3 credit hours
ENGL 3430 - Modern European Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 3440 - The Bible as Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 3725 - Nineteenth-Century Women Writers 3 credit hours
ENGL 3730 - Twentieth-Century Women Writers 3 credit hours
ENGL 4110 - Chaucer: Canterbury Tales 3 credit hours
ENGL 4130 - Shakespeare: The Sixteenth-Century Plays 3 credit hours
ENGL 4140 - Shakespeare: The Seventeenth-Century Plays 3 credit hours
ENGL 4180 - Milton 3 credit hours
ENGL 4230 - Selected British Writers after the Restoration 3 credit hours
ENGL 4240 - Modern British Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 4310 - The American Renaissance 3 credit hours
ENGL 4410 - Literary Criticism 3 credit hours
ENGL 4425 - Backgrounds of Modern Literature 3 credit hours
ENGL 4470 - Modern Drama 3 credit hours
ENGL 4930 - Studies in Prose Fiction 3 credit hours
HUM 2610 - Foreign Literature in Translation 3 credit hours
HIST 3020 - Topics in American History 3 credit hours
HIST 3090 - Topics in European History 1 to 3 credit hours
HIST 4410 - Classical History 3 credit hours
PHIL 3200 - Asian Thought 3 credit hours
PHIL 4010 - History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy 3 credit hours
PHIL 4020 - History of Modern Philosophy 3 credit hours
PHIL 4050 - Nineteenth-Century Philosophy 3 credit hours
PHIL 4200 - Existentialism 3 credit hours
PHIL 4300 - American Philosophy 3 credit hours
PHIL 4400 - Analytic Philosophy 3 credit hours
PHIL 4450 - Marx and Marxism 3 credit hours
PHIL 4500 - Philosophy of Science 3 credit hours
PHIL 4600 - Philosophy of History 3 credit hours (required for all students in the minor)
PS 4230 - Classical Political Theory 3 credit hours
PS 4700 - American Political Thought 3 credit hours
PS 4920 - Modern Political Theory 3 credit hours
PSY 4490 - Operant Conditioning 3 credit hours
SOC 4150 - Topics in Sociology 3 credit hours
THEA 4800 - Theatre History I: Greek Period to Restoration 3 credit hours
THEA 4810 - Theatre History II: Restoration to Present 3 credit hours
UH - Depending on whether the subject calls for close examination of important texts, some upper-division Honors courses may be designated as Great Books courses. Examples of Honors courses participating in the minor include “Legends of King Arthur” and “Great Books of the Middle Ages.”
UH 4600 - Senior Interdisciplinary Seminar 3 credit hours (Approved Great Books topics only)

Non-College of Liberal Arts Courses

JOUR 3650 - Free Expression, Mass Media, and the American Public 3 credit hours OR
RIM 3650 - Free Expression, Mass Media, and the American Public 3 credit hours OR
EMC 3650 - Free Expression, Mass Media, and the American Public 3 credit hours
JOUR 4800 - Seminar in Media Issues 3 credit hours