Editing Core Curriculum (Columbia College) (section)

=== The humanities sequence ===
[[File:Homer British Museum.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Iliad]]'', traditionally attributed to the Greek poet [[Homer]], is one of the few works that has never left the Core Curriculum.<ref name=":0" />]]
The "General Honors" course was instituted in 1920, formed around a list of "[[Great Books]]" created by professor [[John Erskine (educator)|John Erskine]], who would go on to create the core curriculum at the [[University of Chicago]].<ref name=":0" /> The course was discontinued in 1929, but was resurrected three years later as the "Colloquium in Important Books".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=Alan Willard |date=July 1948 |title=The Columbia College Colloquium on Important Books |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27795222 |journal=[[Journal of General Education]] |edition=4 |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=278–286 |jstor=27795222 }}</ref> The Great Books curriculum was officially incorporated into the Core in 1937 with the inauguration of the humanities sequence, which consisted of "Humanities A", a first-year survey of Western literature and philosophy from classical antiquity to the end of the 18th century, and "Humanities B", a sophomore elective that covered the visual arts and music.<ref name=":1" /> Structured after "Contemporary Civilization", "Humanities A" expected students to read one book per week, a workload that placed unique burdens on freshmen.<ref name=":0" /> "Humanities A" would eventually morph into the modern "Masterpieces of Western Literature" course, while "Humanities B" split into "Music Humanities" and "Art Humanities" in 1941. The list of books read in "Literature Humanities" would constantly shift over time; the first female author to be included in the curriculum was [[Jane Austen]] with the addition of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' to the syllabus in 1985, two years after Columbia College became coeducational,<ref name=":1" /> while the first Black author to be incorporated into "Literature Humanities" was [[Toni Morrison]], whose [[Song of Solomon (novel)|''Song of Solomon'']] was added in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |date=Fall 2015 |title=Toni Morrison Joins Ranks of Lit Hum Authors |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/archive/fall15/around_the_quads_1 |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=Columbia College Today}}</ref>