By Trenton McMillen

Two new humanities courses will be available to take for the second eight-week term of this spring: Advocates of Peace and History of Science. 

Advocates of Peace isn’t an entirely new course to campus. 

“[It] was a very successful course at one time and mainly because it involves a lot of leadership skills. We had a lot of campus leaders come out of that course” Stephen Morrow, Chair of the Humanities Division, told the Pioneer. 

Last taught in 2016, Morrow is thrilled about its return. 

“The main gist of the course; a couple things,” Morrow said. “One is practice in nonviolent communication. I use Marshall Rosenberg for that. People practice this all around the world using his work. And that has a real world impact for students and I was often told how it helped them converse at home or in bumpy times in relationships, etcetera.”

Philosophers and notable figures that will be studied include Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Howard Zin, Tom Shadyac, and Mahatma Gandhi. 

“This is just a really energetic, active course and this is just been laid to rest for whatever reason for several years now and it’s certainly time with Me Too and Black Lives Matter, etc. that we give our students a chance to look at leadership and social change. I love this course and I just want some students to get it off the ground this semester with.” 

The second new course that will be offered by the humanities will be the History of Science. 

“I found the greatest book for History of Science,” Morrow said. “It’s this little read, but it takes us from all those incredible ideas the Greeks came up with through Galileo and Newton and up to the questions of ‘do I get a vaccine or not?’ Science has deep roots in how we think and look at the world and so we’re going to explore that. We’re [also] going to have a book of essays written by current scientists. It’s edited by Richard Dawkins from Oxford. So we’ll kind of balance out, here’s the history but how does that make us who we are today or how does that affect an individual engaging with the world.” 

Morrow is excited to see a new life be found in the humanities and plans to connect all students on campus with the humanities. 

“We are going to work very closely with student life to bring back more of that humanities energy to campus. There was a time when we had lots and lots of that going on. The one lineage that we’ve kept is the Absolute, the student publication. But we’re going to come back with open mics, and forums, and social debates etc., and bring that richness of the humanities back to the college campus,” Morrow said. 

With the leadership of his staff consisting of himself, Pam Stout, Jeff Provine, former Pioneer Faculty Adviser Mark Zindelo and Jake Nelson, Morrow plans to begin introducing new courses with a wide variety of interests. 

“We’re going to come back in the fall with women’s literature. This spring we have African-American literature back up online. I’m very proud of that. We’re bringing back Native American literature. So we have a waiting list, so-to-speak, to present to the students as we go forward here. Hopefully [this is] a list that will engage them and widen their worlds for their particular interests,” Morrow said.

Advocates of Peace (HUM-2423) will be offered Thursday afternoons from 1:30pm to 3:30pm and History of Science (HUM-2353) will be offered Tuesday afternoons from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. 

Morrow will instruct both courses. 

Contact your advisor for assistance with enrollment and scheduling.