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What are the humanities?

The standard starting point for this question is to quote the National Endowment for the Humanities:

"According to the 1965 National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, 'The term 'humanities' includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.'"

That is a fairly good start.  At NAU, the Humanities faculty work to bring together many of the various disciplines represented above.  We provide interdisciplinary explorations of the important historical and contemporary issues these disciplines, often antiphonally, raise.  Our area has special expertise in Philosophy, History, Literature, Film and critical theory, with emphases in questions of nature and Humanities, representation and meaning, and ethics and art.