The Kenyon College faculty voted to change from Kenyon units to semester hours. This change will go into effect for all students who start at the College in the fall of 2024. Both systems will be used throughout the course catalog with the Kenyon units being listed first.
To know where to go, one needs to know where one has been. Join us on our intellectual odyssey as we trace the history of ideas, political revolutions and technological changes that have shaped our shared human culture. We begin with the earliest efforts to understand ourselves and the world around us. Through a highly diverse and inclusive conversation among philosophers and poets, historians and artists, scientists and humanists, we explore the vast system of interconnected ideas that makes us who we are. Focusing on texts, political movements, cultural changes, religious beliefs and scientific discoveries that have transformed the world, this course challenges students to ask some of life’s most fundamental questions: What is a truly happy life? Is there an ideal human community? Why do we tell stories? When confronted with other ways of living, how do we evaluate our own life? We also consider the relative value of human reason and emotion: Which should guide our lives and the organization of our political communities? In a secular world, does art replace religion as a way to make sense of and give value to life? And does the radical violence of revolutions and world wars challenge our very premise of human excellence and exceptionalism? Near the end of our odyssey, we touch on the origins of computer science in ideas borrowed from math, philosophy and linguistics. Do the sometimes centuries-old answers to life's fundamental questions still hold? With guest lectures by professors from a wide range of Kenyon departments and weekly seminars during which smaller groups of students debate the material with one another and their seminar leader, our unique course provides one of the best introductions to liberal education. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to IPHS 112Y for the spring semester. IPHS 111-112Y fulfills the Humanities diversification requirement.
To know where to go, one needs to know where one has been. Join us on our intellectual odyssey as we trace the history of ideas, political revolutions and technological changes that have shaped our shared human culture. We begin with the earliest efforts to understand ourselves and the world around us. Through a highly diverse and inclusive conversation among philosophers and poets, historians and artists, scientists and humanists, we explore the vast system of interconnected ideas that makes us who we are. Focusing on texts, political movements, cultural changes, religious beliefs and scientific discoveries that have transformed the world, this course challenges students to ask some of life’s most fundamental questions: What is a truly happy life? Is there an ideal human community? Why do we tell stories? When confronted with other ways of living, how do we evaluate our own life? We also consider the relative value of human reason and emotion: Which should guide our lives and the organization of our political communities? In a secular world, does art replace religion as a way to make sense of and give value to life? And does the radical violence of revolutions and world wars challenge our very premise of human excellence and exceptionalism? Near the end of our odyssey, we touch on the origins of computer science in ideas borrowed from math, philosophy and linguistics. Do the sometimes centuries-old answers to life's fundamental questions still hold? With guest lectures by professors from a wide range of Kenyon departments and weekly seminars during which smaller groups of students debate the material with one another and their seminar leader, our unique course provides one of the best introductions to liberal education. IPHS 111-112Y fulfills the Humanities diversification requirement.
Centered on the big questions emerging from the rise of big data and AI, this course offers an interdisciplinary, humanities-centered introduction to programming and data analysis. As part of the new data humanities movement, our focus is on telling the stories we find in data, exploring how to count what counts and critically quantifying issues of bias and representation. With hands-on projects like analyzing Netflix data and exploring the Twitterverse, we also build the foundation for topics covered more fully in intermediate courses: natural language processing, social network models, and machine learning and artificial intelligence. No prerequisite.
In the early 17th century, Galileo's writings on physics and astronomy helped establish modern scientific thought. Three centuries later, Einstein's work on relativity and quantum theory helped transform it. The ideas of both men proved influential and ignited controversy far beyond the bounds of their scientific disciplines. In this class, we read essential works by Galileo and Einstein (among others) and explore not only their discoveries, but also their wider views of nature and the human striving to understand her. What principles guide the scientific quest? Are there limits to scientific knowledge? What are the relationships between observation and imagination, between genius and ethics, between science and religion? This course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. Offered every other year.
Cultural analytics is the study of culture using diverse sources and data-driven methods. We analyze language from texts to tweets and social networks from film to the Twitterverse. In this project-based course, students code ways to explore phenomena like the social networks in "Game of Thrones" and the classification of tweets as Trump or Trudeau. They apply what they have learned for a final project of their choice. Students new to coding should contact the instructor for information on how to complete a self-paced mini coding course before the start of the semester. This course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. No prerequisite. Offered every other year.
This course is an interdisciplinary, humanities-centered coding course that explores the philosophical and ethical questions raised by AI. Ethical questions include issues of bias, fairness and transparency, as well as AI-human value alignment. We explore AI as a mirror of both our best and worst natures: how it can surveil, disemploy and police, but also play games, write text, create images and compose music. Prerequisite: any IPHS course.
Today, political comedians are a mainstay of our culture, some of the most famous being Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah and John Oliver. But while their insights are often astute, they are rarely profound and never add up to a comprehensive political teaching. To see the heights and depths that are possible in comedy, we study four plays by Aristophanes, the unrivaled master of combining comic vulgarity with a wisdom equal to that of the philosophers. Through a close examination of these plays, we find and consider Aristophanes’ insights on such obviously political and some not so obviously political topics as the founding of cities, father-beating, the tension between the private good and the public good, the Muses and the other gods, the respective power of nature and convention, the danger of philosophy, war and peace, property and the political role of women. Throughout, we also consider Aristophanes’ view of the political purpose of comedy. Prior coursework in political science is not required. This counts as an upper-level seminar for the political science major. This course is the same as PSCI 423D and must be taken as PSCI 423D to count toward the social science diversification requirement. This counts toward the IPHS concentration. No prerequisite. Sophomore standing.
This course, designed as a research and/or studio workshop, allows students to pursue their own interdisciplinary projects. Students are encouraged to take thoughtful, creative risks in developing their ideas and themes. Those engaged in major long-term projects may continue with them during the second semester. This course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement. No prerequisite. Junior standing.
Individual study in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies is reserved for juniors and seniors who have completed at least one course in the program. Individual study projects are designed to offer the opportunity for directed reading and research in areas not generally covered by the regular offerings of the program, or by the regular offerings of other programs or departments. Alternatively, such projects may offer the opportunity for more advanced research in areas already addressed in program offerings. In some instances, they may offer the possibility of studying languages not otherwise available, or not available at an advanced level, in the College curriculum (e.g., Old Icelandic, Old English). Students undertaking an individual study project are expected to meet with their advisors on a regular basis, ordinarily at least once a week. Individual study projects are expected to embody a substantial commitment of time and effort, which, at the discretion of the project advisor, may result in a major essay or research report. Students wishing to undertake such a project should first gain, if possible a semester in advance, the permission of a potential advisor or mentor and then submit a written prospectus of the project for the approval of both the prospective advisor and the program director. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study by the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval. This course does not count toward the completion of any diversification requirement.