Introduction to Humanities I
Spring 2024
Prof. Kevin Modestino
Tuesday and Thursday 12:40-2:00 Douglass Hall 205/207 AND
Tuesday and Thursday 2:10-3:30 Banneker Trailers 05
Office Hours: Locke 234 Tuesday and Thursday 11:00-12:30 or by Appt.
There is a stranger outside your house. He is old, ragged, and dirty. He is tired. He has been wandering, homeless, for a long time, perhaps many years. Invite him inside. You do not know his name. He may be a thief. He may be a murderer. He may be a god. He may remind you of your husband, your father, or yourself. Do not ask questions. Wait. Let him sit on a comfortable chair and warm himself beside your fire. Bring him some food, the best you have, and a cup of wine. Let him eat and drink until he is satisfied. Be patient. When he is finished, he will tell you his story. Listen carefully. It may not be as you expect.
—Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey
In taking this class, I am offering you a deal:
1) There will be no quizzes, no tests, no grades, and your final grade will be determined by you proposing to me what grade you think you earned in a meeting at the end of the semester where we will discuss and come to an agreement.
2) But you must agree to read the course material closely and with deep focus; bring a physical copy of what we are reading and attend class everyday ready to participate in discussion, keep a physical reading journal, and turn off and put away all digital devices (laptop and phone) while you are in our classroom (except any needed for accommodations as cleared by the Office of Student Services).
Required Texts (Available in Bookstore)
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (1959)
The Odyssey of Homer, translated by Emily Wilson (2018)
The Sundiata as told to D.T. Niane (1960)
Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave, Written by Himself (1845)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
A small notebook to use as a reading journal
The Humanities, Attention, and Empathy in the Age of Social Media: A Statement of Intent
We read to cultivate empathy. While there are many vital reasons to read including curiosity, knowledge, and enjoyment, empathy is at the core of why humans read imaginative works.
From practitioners, to historians, critics, and even neuroscientists, this theme of empathy returns again and again. Human cultures tell eachother stories to help us imagine ourselves into the lives of others and those who spend time reading such works, in general, show greater sympathy, empathy, and understanding for others than those who do not. This is an absolutely critical part of being human in a diverse, multicultural, and globalized world. It is central to what we cultivate in the Humanities classroom. And the unfortunate news is that this practice is in crisis.
The cultivation of empathy offered by the humanities requires the ability to sit, quiet your mind, and engage with focus on an imaginative world and persons. Nonfictional stories have a lesser effect because we tend to be too invested (after all, nonfiction is about real stuff that might affect us), whereas imaginative fiction allows us to engage sympathetically without any stakes and with people we might not actually like were we to meet them in real life. Our imagination can freely play with what it must have been like to be another person with desires different from our own in different times and places and offer up a richer understanding of being human. Movies can offer a partial replacement, but generally speaking, the shorter the media, the less it absorbs our focus over time, the less empathy it cultivates. T.V. Shows are worse, Youtube gives us barely anything at all, and TikTox offers less than nothing in this regard.
But as many commentators, from novelists, to educators, journalists, tech engineers, and scientists have observed, our ability to focus, particularly on longer written material, as individuals and as a society is under crisis. The reason for this crisis is manifold. We live in stressful political and economic times, most of us are significantly overworked and our jobs, education, lives, leave little room for sitting still and focusing, calling us to a million and one microtasks rather than allowing stretches to focus on big projects. And when our attention is torn by these stresses and distractions all day long, we return home with little energy and little practice quieting our brains in the ways necessary to just sit and read a book (or practice an instrument, or do something creative, or get quality exercise—all the different so-called “flow states” available to us as humans that many think of as heightened forms of consciousness and the pinnacle of human experience). And when we are out of practice and distracted, reading feels insurmountably difficult rather than an opportunity for imaginative relaxation and curious play.
Into this perfect storm enters social media. Whatever you do on social media, it spies on you to build more and more sophisticated models in its algorithms of how to wrest your attention from whatever you are doing and keep you distracted, scrolling through the apps and making them ad revenue. As anyone who has watched the Netflix documentary, “The Social Dilemma” knows, social media apps have grown so sophisticated at stealing people’s focus that the people who program them and make money from them never use them and strictly ban their own children from using them. Simply put, social media apps might be the most addictive substances humans have ever created, utilizing sophisticated machine learning algorithms (AIs) to track everything you do and keep you hooked. And the main outcome of this is rampant misinformation, the sheltering of every single person in their own false reality of outrage and manipulation of their brain chemicals, and the promotion of values the opposite of empathy—snap judgments, righteousness, cruelty, bullying, senses of inadequacy, depression, and distraction from real social connections and the ability to think through problems and engage empathetically with others.
In this environment, the humanities classroom is a vital corrective, but it has a huge disadvantage. What chance do I have asking you all to sit with a book for hours and really think deeply about it, turn off all distractions, and engage in the deep focus that cultivates imaginative empathy and the play of curiosity? I have devoted my life to the study of literature and humanities education and I myself struggle with focus and with social media addiction. Yet, it is my belief that if we want a better future, a world of justice and empathy, and an ability, as a society to confront the problems facing us, from climate change to fascism, we must fight this fight, cultivate the habits of good readers and build the empathetic imagination that reading sustained works of fiction with attention and focus uniquely cultivates and has cultivated for the entire history of mass literacy. We must, together, learn to focus and through focus practice imaginative empathy.
As such, the primary goal of this class is to cultivate this practice, together, by creating a space away from digital noise; immersed in old-fashioned material objects; reading together (quietly and aloud); writing down questions, reflections, and reactions; and discussing deeply and with analytical focus what we have read.
In pursuit of this goal, I have re-thought how I teach this class around two principles.
- The less tech, the more analog objects in front of us, the better
- Intrinsic motivations and curiosity are more important than external measurements and pressures like tests and homework. I want you to become motivated to focus by your own curiosity, not by the external pressures and discipline that increase stress and distract the mind.
Reading Schedule
Required readings due by class on the day listed. All readings available from the bookstore unless otherwise noted.
Week 1
Tuesday, January 9th, 2024
Class Introduction: What are the Humanities?
Thursday, January 11th, 2024
China Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1-40)
Week 2
Tuesday, January 16th, 2024
China Achebe, Things Fall Apart (41-130)
Thursday, January 18th, 2024
China Achebe, Things Fall Apart (130-end)
Week 3
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 1-2
Thursday, January 25th, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 3-5
Week 4
Tuesday, January 30th, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 6,8,9
Thursday, February 1, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 10-12
Week 5
Tuesday, February 6th, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 13, 15, 16
Thursday, February 7th, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 19-21
PAPER #1 DUE
Week 6
Tuesday, February 13th, 2024
The Odyssey of Homer translation by Emily Wilson (2018): Books 22-24
Thursday, February 15th, 2024
The Sundiata as told to D.T. Niane (1960): pg. 1-43
Week 7
Tuesday, February 20th, 2024
The Sundiata as told to D.T. Niane (1960): pg. 43-84
Thursday, February 22nd, 2024
Catch Up Day
Week 8
Tuesday, February 27th, 2024
Franz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961): pp 1-63
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
Franz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961): pp 63-97
SPRING BREAK MARCH 2-10
Week 9
Tuesday, March 12th, 2024
Franz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961): pp 97-145
Thursday, March 14th, 2024
NO CLASS
Week 10
Tuesday, March 19th, 2024
Franz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961): pp 145-181
Thursday, March 21st, 2024
Franz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (1961): pp 181-End
PAPER #2 DUE
Week 11
Tuesday, March 26th, 2024
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave, Written by Himself (1845): pg. 3-32 (prefaces included)
Thursday, March 28th, 2024
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave, Written by Himself (1845): pg. 32-68
Week 12
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave, Written by Himself (1845): pg. 68-84
Thursday, April 4th, 2024
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower (1993): pg. 1-60
Week 13
Tuesday, April 9th, 2024
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower (1993) pg. 61-125
Thursday, April 11th, 2024
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower (1993) pg. 126-196
Week 14
Tuesday, April 16th, 2024
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower (1993) pg. 197-269
Thursday, April 18th, 2024
Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower (1993) pg. 270-end
Week 15
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024
End of Semester Meetings
Thursday, April 25th, 2024
End of Semester Meetings
FINAL PAPER DUE AT MEETING
Class Policies
As part of my commitment to cultivating space together, I want us to develop some of our own classroom policies about what is expected of each of us every day in class as a community. Nevertheless, we are still in an institution that requires things of us, so here are some ground rules:
1: Grades
There will be no grades in this class. This does not mean you automatically get an A. At the end of the semester I will meet with each of you individually and we will discuss what grade you think you deserve for your work in the class. We will take into account your attendance (which I will track), your participation in class discussions, your reading journal, writing assignments, and most importantly, what you think you got out of the semester and any ideas or topics you were able to develop and explore your curiosity about. The path to an A means showing up ready for this meeting with all your class work in hand.
2: Class Meetings
It is essential you attend class for this experiment to work and you are expected to attend everyday. Yet, obviously, there are unavoidable reasons why you might miss a class or two. If you do miss a class, there are no formally excused absences, but keep track of why you missed class and we can discuss it at the end of the semester in our grade meeting. Always come if you are late, but you will need to keep track of this and talk it through at the end of the semester as well if it becomes a regular problem.
In class, there are no devices allowed. Laptops must stay in your bag and phones in your pockets for the entirety of the class session. We are using class time to practice taking time away from the constant addictive fog of digital distraction in the hopes of building new attentive habits, together. If you take out a device, you will get one warning to put it away and after a second time you will be asked to leave and counted as absent for that day.
During class time we will often spend part of the period simply reading and/writing. We might do this collectively, outloud, or silently by ourselves. Other times we will be engaging in discussion of what we have read or of what sort of work we would like to do next, together. Sometimes I will briefly lecture on what background knowledge I have prepared on the material, but for the most part these are participatory sessions and you need to come prepared to engage and think.
You must bring a physical copy of what we are reading (the book or a print out is fine) and your journal everyday. This is central to being prepared for class.
3: Reading and Assignments:
Reading: Our books are available in the bookstore on campus and you should get them immediately. Reading is YOUR MAIN WORK for this class. You are expected to be prepared to discuss, write about, contemplate the pages assigned for each day as the semester goes on. Sometimes, we will spend tim in class reading so you can catch up or have extra time to focus, but please do the reading! It is what is being asked of you and essential to being part of this community.
Writing: Occasionally, we will work on writing assignments, whose topics will be determined by the class and our collective curiosity, with the goal of everyone writing about 9-10 pages of formal writing by the end of the semester, to be collected and reviewed in our final meeting. I will offer feedback on your writing as we go and you are always welcome to revise it, but you also will be presenting your ideas to the class as a whole.
Journal: You also must keep a handwritten journal responding to your reading over the course of the semester. This should be a single notebook dedicated to this class. You should be writing at least a page of reflection on your reading each week and we will review it in the meeting at the end of the semester.
ChatGPT and Large Language Generative AI models: My hope is that you will resist using these applications for writing your papers. They are deeply flawed at this point. They will happily regurgitate false information they have scraped from online sources and have no mechanism for telling truth from falsehood. They are collecting data on you as you use them like any social media application that their parent companies run. And most importantly, they draw all their information and ideas from actual humans who have spent time and effort developing them, without properly citing those sources and giving credit to the hard human work their massive databases represent. They mask and obscure how we develop knowledge rather than reveal them.
That said, there is no reliable way for me as a teacher to know what is generated by AI and what is written by a human. The detection software that exists is itself deeply flawed and carries its own ethical problems. So let’s work on the honor system. The outcome of your papers are not that important, they will not be graded. Rather, I am looking for you to show your engagement with the material through process. Writing is a type of thinking, and if you are doing your own thinking, that should be evident in a variety of ways as we work through the semester and in our final meeting. Since you don’t have to stress about grades on individual assignments, you have no reason to take these shortcuts and cheat yourself of a learning opportunity you are paying for.
College of Arts and Science Policies
Academic Integrity
Plagiarized papers (work copied from a written text without documentation, a classmate’s work, a previous assignment you have submitted for another class, or the internet) will earn a zero for the paper and potentially an “F” for the class. A record of this plagiarism may become a part of your record in the English Department and potentially in the office of the chairperson of your major department and in the office of the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
A second occurrence of plagiarism in the class or in the English Department will result in a failing grade for the class and a recommendation of expulsion from the university. You should familiarize yourself with the Academic Code of Conduct at this link:
http://www.howard.edu/policy/academic/student-conduct.html
Special Accommodations
Howard University is committed to providing equal access for individuals with disabilities to all programs and services offered by the University.
The University policy and practice is to create an inclusive and accessible learning environment in compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local disability and anti-discrimination laws. If you have already registered with the Office of Student Services, please provide your schedule.
If you have a documented disability that requires accommodations but have not established services through the Office of Student Services, please do so as soon as possible. The Office facilitates the interactive process that establishes reasonable accommodations.
The office is located in the Odd Fellows Building at 1851 9th Street NW, Second Floor. Please contact Ms. Glennis Daniels-Bacchus, Director of Student Services at glennis.danielsbacc@howard.edu.
Incomplete Grades
Incomplete grades will be submitted only in instances where documented emergencies occur near the end of the semester. A majority (over 70%) of the course’s requirements must have already been met. The written request must occur prior to the submission of final grades.
Statement on Sex and Gender-Based Discrimination, Harassment and Violence
Howard University is committed to creating a learning and working environment free from discrimination and harassment based on sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation or marital status. The following forms of conduct are prohibited by the University’s Title IX Policy: Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, Gender-Based Discrimination or Harassment, Sexual Exploitation, Dating and Domestic Violence, Stalking, Retaliation, and Complicity (any act that knowingly aids, facilitates, or encourages prohibited conduct by another person). It is important that you know the various campus resources and reporting options available to you if you have experienced or have any concerns related to sex or gender-based discrimination, harassment or violence.
You can always speak with a member of University administration, faculty or staff, but be aware that with the exception of Confidential Employees, all Howard University and Howard University Hospital employees and contractors—including faculty members—are considered Responsible Employees and are required to report any information regarding known or suspected prohibited conduct to the Title IX Office (TitleIX@howard.edu or 202-806-2550), no matter how they learn of it. Confidential Employees include licensed medical, clinical, mental health professionals, or clergy when acting in their professional roles in providing health or religious/spiritual services; and employees providing administrative/ operational or related support to these employees. Campus confidential resources include the Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program (phone: 202-238-2420), University Counseling Services (phone: 202-806-7540), Student Health Center (phone: 202-806- 7540), Howard University Hospital (phone: 202-865-1131), and the Chapel (phone: 202-806-7280).
The University’s Title IX Policy on Prohibited Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Violence and Other Forms of Interpersonal Violence is available at: http://www.howard.edu/secretary/documents/Howard-University-Interim-Policy- 20171113.pdf