Humanities and Arts Requirements
A. Freshman Writing Requirement (9 units)
| Complete one of the following writing options for 9 units: | ||
| 76-101 | Interpretation and Argument | 9 |
| 76-102 | Advanced First Year Writing: Special Topics (by invitation only) | 9 |
| or two of these three writing minis for 9 units total: | ||
| 76-106 | Writing about Literature, Art and Culture | 4.5 |
| 76-107 | Writing about Data | 4.5 |
| 76-108 | Writing about Public Problems | 4.5 |
B. Breadth Requirement (minimum 27 units: 9 units each)
Complete three courses, one from each category. Students may use two minis totaling 9 units or more to satisfy one of the categories — with permission from the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education — if the minis meet the goals of the desired category.
Artificial intelligence majors should replace Category 1 with Category 1A: Cognitive Studies.
Category 1 (all SCS majors except Artificial Intelligence): Cognition, Choice and BehaviorThis requirement explores the process of thinking, decision making and behavior in the context of the individual. | ||
| 70-311 | Organizational Behavior | 9 |
| 80-130 | Introduction to Ethics | 9 |
| 80-150 | Nature of Reason | 9 |
| 80-180 | Nature of Language | 9 |
| 80-221 | Philosophy of Social Science | 9 |
| 80-241 | Ethical Judgments in Professional Life | 9 |
| 80-242 | Conflict and Dispute Resolution | 9 |
| 80-270 | Problems of Mind and Body: Meaning and Doing | 9 |
| 80-271 | Philosophy and Psychology | 9 |
| 80-275 | Metaphysics | 9 |
| 80-281 | Language and Thought | 9 |
| 80-330 | Ethical Theory | 9 |
| 85-102 | Introduction to Psychology | 9 |
| 85-211 | Cognitive Psychology | 9 |
| 85-213 | Human Information Processing and Artifical Intelligence | 9 |
| 85-221 | Principles of Child Development | 9 |
| 85-241 | Social Psychology | 9 |
| 85-251 | Personality | 9 |
| 85-261 | Psychopathology | 9 |
| 85-370 | Perception | 9 |
| 85-390 | Human Memory | 9 |
| 85-408 | Visual Cognition | 9 |
| 85-421 | Language and Thought | 9 |
| 88-120 | Reason, Passion and Cognition | 9 |
Category 1A (for Artificial Intelligence majors): Cognitive StudiesThis requirement explores how the brain and the mind work. | ||
| 85-211 | Cognitive Psychology | 9 |
| 85-213 | Human Information Processing and Artifical Intelligence | 9 |
| 85-370 | Perception | 9 |
| 85-390 | Human Memory | 9 |
| 85-408 | Visual Cognition | 9 |
| 85-421 | Language and Thought | 9 |
Category 2 (all SCS majors): Economic, Political and Social InstitutionsThis requirement explores the processes by which institutions organize individual preferences and actions into collective outcomes. | ||
| 19-101 | Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy | 12 |
| 36-303 | Sampling, Survey and Society | 9 |
| 70-332 | Business, Society and Ethics | 9 |
| 73-102 | Principles of Microeconomics | 9 |
| 73-103 | Principles of Macroeconomics | 9 |
| 79-245 | Capitalism and Individualism in American Culture | 9 |
| 79-299 | From Newton to the Nuclear Bomb: History of Science, 1750-1950 | 9 |
| 79-300 | History of American Public Policy | 9 |
| 79-310 | U. S. Business History: 1870 to the Present | 9 |
| 79-320 | Women, Politics, and Protest | 9 |
| 79-331 | Body Politics: Women and Health in America | 9 |
| 79-341 | The Cold War in Documents and Film | 9 |
| 79-383 | The History of Capitalism | 9 |
| 80-135 | Introduction to Political Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-136 | Social Structure, Public Policy & Ethics | 9 |
| 80-243 | Ethics of Leadership | 9 |
| 80-244 | Environmental Ethics | 9 |
| 80-245 | Medical Ethics | 9 |
| 80-324 | Philosophy of Economics | 9 |
| 80-335 | Social and Political Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-341 | Computers, Society and Ethics | 9 |
| 84-104 | Decision Processes in American Political Institutions | 9 |
| 84-275 | Comparative Politics | 9 |
| 84-310 | International Political Economy | 9 |
| 84-322 | Nonviolent Conflict and Revolution | 9 |
| 84-324 | The Future of Democracy | 9 |
| 84-326 | Theories of International Relations | 9 |
| 84-362 | Diplomacy and Statecraft | 9 |
| 84-380 | Grand Strategy in the United States | 9 |
| 84-386 | The Privatization of Force | 9 |
| 84-389 | Terrorism and Insurgency | 9 |
| 84-402 | Judicial Politics and Behavior | 9 |
| 84-414 | International and Subnational Security | 9 |
| 88-257 | Experimental Economics | 9 |
| 88-284 | Topics of Law: The Bill of Rights | 9 |
Category 3 (all SCS majors): Cultural AnalysisThis requirement seeks to recognize cultures that have shaped and continue to shape the human experience; courses in this category are usually either broad in place, time, or cultural diversity. | ||
| 57-173 | Survey of Western Music History | 9 |
| 60-205 | Critical Theory in Art III | 9 |
| 62-306 | Music-Cinema-Culture | 9 |
| 62-371 | Photography, The First 100 Years, 1839-1939 | 9 |
| 70-342 | Managing Across Cultures | 9 |
| 76-221 | Books You Should Have Read By Now | 9 |
| 76-232 | Introduction to Black Literature | 9 |
| 76-239 | Introduction to Film Studies | 9 |
| 76-241 | Introduction to Gender Studies | 9 |
| 79-104 | Global Histories | 9 |
| 79-201 | Introduction to Anthropology | 9 |
| 79-202 | Flesh and Spirit: Early Modern Europe, 1400-1750 | 9 |
| 79-223 | Mexico: From the Aztec Empire to the Drug War | 9 |
| 79-226 | African History: Earliest Times to 1780 | 9 |
| 79-229 | The Origins of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, 1880-1948 | 9 |
| 79-230 | Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1948 | 9 |
| 79-240 | Development of American Culture | 9 |
| 79-241 | African American History: Africa to the Civil War | 9 |
| 79-242 | African American History: Reconstruction to the Present | 9 |
| 79-261 | The Last Emperors: Chinese History and Society, 1600-1900 | 9 |
| 79-262 | Modern China: From the Birth of Mao ... to Now | 9 |
| 79-265 | Russian History: Tsar, Power, and Rebellion | 9 |
| 79-281 | Introduction to Religion | 9 |
| 79-282 | Europe and the World Since 1800 | 9 |
| 79-311 | PaleoKitchen: Food and Cooking in the Ancient World | 6 |
| 79-316 | Photography, the First 100 Years, 1839-1939 | 9 |
| 79-333 | Sex, Gender & Anthropology | 9 |
| 79-345 | Roots of Rock & Roll | 9 |
| 79-350 | Early Christianity | 9 |
| 79-395 | The Arts in Pittsburgh & Beyond: Experiencing Music & Art in a Time of Pandemic | 9 |
| 79-396 | Music and Society in 19th and 20th Century Europe and the U.S. | 9 |
| 80-100 | Introduction to Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-250 | Ancient Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-251 | Modern Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-253 | Continental Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-254 | Analytic Philosophy | 9 |
| 80-255 | Pragmatism | 9 |
| 80-261 | Experience, Reason, and Truth | 9 |
| 80-276 | Philosophy of Religion | 9 |
| 82-267 | Topics in Italian Language & Culture | 9 |
| 82-273 | Introduction to Japanese Language and Culture | 9 |
| 82-293 | Russian Cinema: From the Bolshevik Revolution to Putin's Russia | 9 |
| 82-294 | 19th Century Russian Masterpieces | 9 |
| 82-303 | French & Francophone Cultures | 9 |
| 82-304 | French & Francophone Sociolinguistics | 9 |
| 82-314 | Literature of the Arabic-speaking World | 9 |
| 82-327 | The Emergence of the German Speaking World | 9 |
| 82-333 | Introduction to Chinese Language and Culture | 9 |
| 82-342 | Spain: Language and Culture | 9 |
| 82-343 | Latin America: Language and Culture | 9 |
| 82-344 | U.S. Latinos: Language and Culture | 9 |
| 82-345 | Introduction to Hispanic Literary and Cultural Studies | 9 |
C. Humanities and Arts Electives (minimum 27 units)
Complete three nontechnical courses of at least 9 units each from any of the departments in the Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences or the College of Fine Arts. Some of the courses taught in these units are considered technical courses and may not be used to satisfy this requirement. Additionally, a select set of courses from Business Administration and Environmental and Public Policy can also count for this requirement. Students may combine humanities/arts courses with lower units together to form a single course of 9 units or more. Students are encouraged, but not required, to take courses from different departments to gain additional breadth and create new opportunities for engagement with the CMU community.
Exceptions
Some courses from the Dietrich College or the College of Fine Arts may not count toward the unconstrained electives in Humanities and Arts due to their technical (computing and/or mathematical) nature. Courses from the following departments do not count toward the unconstrained Humanities and Arts electives:
- Statistics and Data Science (36), except 36-303 Sampling, Survey and Society
- Information Systems (67)
- Economics (73), except 73-102 Principles of Microeconomics and 3-103 Principles of Macroeconomics
Additionally, the following courses do not count toward the unconstrained Humanities and Arts electives:
| 51-257 | Introduction to Computing for Creative Practices | 10 |
| 51-327 | Design Center: Introduction to Web Design | 9 |
| 51-328 | Design Center: UX for Digital Systems | 9 |
| 76-388 | Coding for Humanists | 9 |
| 76-481 | Introduction to Multimedia Design | 12 |
| 76-487 | Web Design | 12 |
| 80-110 | Nature of Mathematical Reasoning | 9 |
| 80-210 | Logic and Proofs | 9 |
| 80-211 | Logic and Mathematical Inquiry | 9 |
| 80-222 | Measurement and Methodology | 9 |
| 80-223 | Causality and Probability | 9 |
| 80-305 | Decision Theory | 9 |
| 80-310 | Formal Logic | 9 |
| 80-311 | Undecidability and Incompleteness | 9 |
| 80-314 | Causal Discovery, Statistics, and Machine Learning | 9 |
| 80-315 | Modal Logic | 9 |
| 80-405 | Game Theory | 9 |
| 80-411 | Proof Theory | 9 |
| 80-413 | Category Theory | 9 |
| 80-419 | Interactive Theorem Proving | 9 |
| 80-521 | Seminar on Formal Epistemology: Network Epistemology | Var. |
| 85-219 | Biological Foundations of Behavior | 9 |
| 85-310 | Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology | 9 |
| 85-314 | Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods | 9 |
| 85-414 | Cognitive Neuropsychology | 9 |
| 88-251 | Empirical Research Methods | 9 |
| 88-372 | Social and Emotional Brain | 9 |
Additions
The following courses outside of the Dietrich College and the College of Fine Arts may count toward the unconstrained Humanities and Arts electives:
| 11-423 | ConLanging: Lrng. Ling. & Lang Tech via Constru Artif. Lang. | 12 |
| 16-161 | ROB Freshman Seminar: Artificial Intelligence and Humanity | 9 |
| 16-397 | Art, Conflict and Technology | 12 |
| 17-333 | Privacy Policy, Law, and Technology | 9 |
| 17-562 | Law of Computer Technology | 9 |
| 19-101 | Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy | 12 |
| 19-351 | Applied Methods for Technology-Policy Analysis | 9 |
| 19-402 | Telecommunications Technology and Policy for the Internet Age | 12 |
| 19-403 | Policies of Wireless Systems | 12 |
| 19-411 | Science and Innovation Leadership for the 21st Century: Firms, Nations, and Tech | 9 |
| 32-201 | Leadership & Management | 9 |
| 32-402 | Leadership and Ethics | 9 |
| 70-100 | Global Business | 9 |
| 70-311 | Organizational Behavior | 9 |
| 70-321 | Negotiation and Conflict Resolution | 9 |
| 70-332 | Business, Society and Ethics | 9 |
| 70-340 | Business Communications | 9 |
| 70-341 | Team Dynamics and Leadership | 9 |
| 70-342 | Managing Across Cultures | 9 |
| 70-345 | Business Presentations | 9 |
| 70-350 | Acting for Business | 9 |
| 70-364 | Business Law | 9 |
| 70-365 | International Trade and International Law | 9 |
| 70-381 | Marketing I | 9 |
| 70-430 | International Management | 9 |