In addition to our degree programs, Harrison Middleton University offers continuing education units in the humanities.
As defined by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), “[o]ne (1) Continuing Education Unit (CEU) equals ten (10) contact hours of learner interaction with the content of the learning activity, which includes classroom, self-paced instruction, pre/post assignments, and/or homework in support of a learning outcome.” For more information about CEUs, visit the IACET website.
Many professionals, including educators, are required to earn continuing education units annually. Continuing education units are also available for students who want to enhance their academic skills for postsecondary education and/or to prepare for the General Education Development tests.
Harrison Middleton University is a DEAC accredited institution. Continuing education offerings are outside the scope of accreditation granted by DEAC.
October Quarterly Discussion
Consider joining us for the next Quarterly Discussion on Thursday, October 19th, or Saturday, October 21st. The 1.5 hour discussion will focus on two chapters from Machiavelli’s The Prince in combination with a chapter from Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. All readings are provided. Discussions take place on Zoom. For more information or to register, e-mail Alissa at as****@hm*.edu.
Past Film Series
Over the years we have covered a wide variety of films in our annual series. For questions, contact Rebecca Fisher at rf*****@hm*.edu.
Shakespeare
Macbeth with Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood
Hamlet with Kenneth Branagh and Julie Christie
King Lear (The Royal Shakespeare Company’s King Lear) with Ian McKellen and Frances Barber
Othello (1995) with Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Fishburne
The Hollow Crown: The Complete Series with Tom Hiddleston (Actor), Ben Whishaw (Actor), Richard Eyre (Director, Writer), Rupert Goold (Director, Writer)
Justice
Do the Right Thing (1989) directed by Spike Lee
Parasite (2019) directed by Joon Ho Bong
I am Not Your Negro (2017) directed by Raoul Peck
The Merchant of Venice (2004) starring Al Pacino
American Greats
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) starring Marlon Brando
A Raisin in the Sun (1961) starring Sidney Poitier
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962) starring Catherine Hepburn
Death of a Salesman (1985) starring Dustin Hoffman
Sophocles
Oedipus Rex Opera by Stravinsky (1992) directed by Julie Taymor and Seiji Ozawa
Oedipus (1967) Pier Paolo Pasolini’s version starring Alida Valli, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Julian Beck
Antigone (1944) directed by Jean Anouilh
The Gospel at Colonus starring Morgan Freeman, Clarence Fountain, Isabell Monk, et al.
Truth
Rashomon directed by Kurosawa
1984 (1984) with John Hurt and Richard Burton
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1991) starring Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss
Other Films
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) with Gregory Peck
The Crucible (1996) – Screenplay written by Arthur Miller with Daniel Day Lewis and Wynona Ryder
Lincoln (2012) with Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field
The Time Machine (1960) with Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Yvette Curtis
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) with Oskar Werner and Julie Christie
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964) starring Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal
Metaphors of Journey in the American Imagination
Is literature an artifact of culture or does the literary chronicle of a region or society create what we recognize as culture? What does American literature show us about American values, beliefs, and norms? Is American literature a cult of masculinity, a rationale for “manifest destiny,” or a dream of reconciliation? These are just some of the questions explored by Dr. Coulson and members of the HMU community when together they discussed classic American literature and the imaginative landscape that gives shape to American identity.
The Diploma Program provides an opportunity for students not seeking a degree to do in-depth study of major authors, works, and ideas in the humanities. The program consists of 30 continuing education units with an emphasis in imaginative literature, natural science, philosophy and religion, and social sciences. The program includes the reading and discussion of primary sources with selections drawn from Oxford University Press (Oxford World’s Classics and the Oxford Very Short Introductions series), The Great Books of the Western World (The Syntopicon I & II, including the Bibliography of Additional Readings), Norton Anthologies of English and American Literature, and the Annals of America. Book and material expenses will vary depending on the selections. Students can work with their Mentor to choose appropriate readings and editions. Please see the HMU Catalog for the Diploma in Humanities program fees.
A sampling of recent courses taken by Diploma Program students includes:
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (texts and film)
Anthony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare (text and film)
Antigone by Sophocles (text)
Remorseless Working of Things: three Shakespeare tragedies (MacBeth, King Lear and Hamlet texts and films)
Anarchy and Civil Disobedience: Thoreau, Kropotkin, Marx and Engels, Bakunin, Webb Miller, Martin Luther King Jr.
Language is integral to studying the humanities. As described by Mortimer Adler, “Some of the great books are expositions of logic or rhetoric. None is a treatise on grammar. But they all plainly exemplify, even where they do not expound, the special refinements of the arts of language; and many of them, especially the works of science, philosophy, and theology, and even some of the poetical works, deal explicitly with the difficulties of discourse, and the devices that have been used to overcome them. Language is their instrument, and they are consciously critical in its use” (vol. 1, 725).
Language may be studied as an idea for inquiry; in addition, Harrison Middleton University offers languages through the Rosetta Stone program for continuing education units. For a list of languages available, please see our Catalog.
