About the Division of Humanities
The humanities are so called because they have traditionally been conceived as a set of studies that contribute in specific and precise ways to our continuing attempt to understand what makes us human. Furthermore, these studies have been understood to develop those powers that underlie our humanity and to put them to work in the world. The disciplines making up the humanities have been conceived differently at different times and in different places. Here at Quincy University, these disciplines are represented by English, Foreign Languages, Philosophy, and Theology.
The humanities provide students with opportunities to integrate their studies. They engage students in the development of their abilities to read and think critically, to write effectively, to speak articulately, and to inform and teach themselves by doing research. Our graduates succeed in their careers because society and the working world place a high value on both the ability to communicate and the ability to continue to learn and to adapt to change.
The study of foreign language is an important feature of our program. Knowledge of other cultures and other languages is becoming ever more important in many professions. It is also becoming ever more important for citizenship in the modern world, which is marked by a kind of globalism unique in human history; it could be said that a mark of modernity is that it is global. For these reasons, our program stresses language study and multiculturalism in general.
Studies in the Humanities prepare students for both specific fields of work but also for general application to a wide range of human endeavors. Our majors can become teachers, professors, lawyers, journalists, counselors, chaplains, and executives in business or service sectors. Some go directly into the teaching field, while others attend graduate or professional schools. Many have found employment in corporations, public service agencies and businesses where communication skills, intercultural awareness, and principled decision-making are a valuable asset.
Professors in the Humanities division work within the overall mission to bring an academically sound and personally challenging liberal arts education to students within a Catholic and Franciscan framework. The courses encourage students to think with fairness and scholarly objectivity about specific historic and contemporary matters. The aim is to assist students in achieving a fully satisfying and authentic human existence.
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