Humanities Department

The Humanities Department at Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech) includes courses in Fine Arts, Language (American Sign Language, English, and Spanish), Communication, History, Humanities, and Philosophy. All of these courses share a focus on “how people process and document the human experience” (Stanford Humanities Project). 

Courses in the Humanities Department examine the creativity, expressiveness, historical perspective, social interaction, and aesthetics of people and societies. Emphasis is placed on creating, interpreting, performing, and valuing creativity in art, film, history, language, literature, philosophy, religious thought, and story-telling. Students who complete Humanities distribution courses at LWTech will demonstrate an understanding of vocabulary, concepts, historical perspectives, and materials, techniques, and methods of intellectual inquiry central to the selected Humanities course of study.

Students at LWTech are required to take at least one Humanities class for an AAS degree and at least three for a DTA/MRP direct transfer degree. Although courses focused on such topics as art and creativity might seem unrelated to a student’s career growth, the skills taught in humanities are central to their employment. As business author Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, illustrates, professional success in the modern workforce will be based upon humanities-based skills like the ability to design items that are emotionally engaging, to craft compelling stories from data, to fit the pieces of a project together, and to relate well to one’s co-workers. 

See descriptions of Humanities courses at LWTech in the college catalog.