The Humanities Department is the largest department at ASMSA. Our courses include two levels of English Composition and multiple levels of four foreign languages, interdisciplinary history and literature courses, and many specialized courses including speech and literature/history electives. We offer three interdisciplinary courses with the Science Department: American Folk Music and Acoustics, Science of Art, and Art and Science of Photography. The philosophy of the Humanities Department has developed from three key beliefs. First, team organization and teaching is superior to the isolated, solitary classroom. Secondly, Socratic seminars - in which questions are more important than answers - are preferable to the teacher dispensing knowledge through lecture. Third, the most effective way for students to demonstrate mastery of concepts and skills is by the varied means of assessment which range from research papers to debates, from student-produced films to game simulations, from in-class essays to re-enactments of historical events, while including traditional text-based content tests.

COURSE OFFERINGS
English
Junior English Composition (JEC), Senior English Composition (SEC), Speech, Ancient Greek Literature, Survey of Women Writers, Journalism, The Study and Creation of Contemporary Writing, Comic Books in America, Heros and Villians, World Literature, African American Literature, Liturature of the Contemporary South, Modern American Novels

Social Sciences
American Studies, AP U.S. History, World Studies, U.S. Government and Politics, AP U.S. Government and Politics, Comparative Government and Politics, AP Comparative Government and Politics, Sociology, AP Psychology, American Civil War, Twentieth Century America, Comparative World Religions, Studies in Genocide and Human Rights, Introduction to Philosophy Through Film and Literature

Fine Arts
Art and Science of Photography, American Folk Music and Acoustics, Multi-Dimensional Art, AP Studio Art, Art History

Languages
French I, French II, French III, AP French, German I, German II, German III, AP German, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV/Advanced Spanish Language and Literature, Japanese I

Additional Courses
Health, Physical Education, Band, Choir

For a complete listing and descriptions of these courses, please see the Course Catalog.

FACULTY
Get to know our experienced Humanities Faculty, as well as links to their web pages.   Click here.

ARKANSAS MEMORY PROJECT
The Arkansas Memory Project is a student-produced archive of Arkansas History research and teaching materials. Begun in 1998, it is modeled after the American Memory Collection of the Library of Congress. It is a collection of official documents, publications, maps, letters, narratives, recordings, photographs, art, and other artifacts. Students find and archive primary document(s) that capture family, local, or state history and then show the interplay between Arkansas and American history and personal experience. The archives can be found here.