Being on a diverse college campus, aspects of the humanities are all around us. Passing people of different heritage, and interacting with people from different backgrounds expands our understanding of culture and each other. Every day experiences like sitting in the union studying, I will hear strangers speak a different language with one another, which I can sometimes recognize and sometimes cannot, broaden our perspectives. One specific humanities experience I remember from this week is learning about Appalachian dance in my Introduction to Folklore class. Dance is very cultural, it carries meaning and a sense of identity with it. It is also simultaneously art, and personal expression. Hearing about the history of dance and the development of Appalachian step dance, tap dance, clogging, and other rhythmic dances, opened my eyes up to a new culture and new art form that I never really knew much about. Having new experiences through the humanities expands our knowledge about each other and ourselves.
