Cornerstone

GATEWAY COURSES

The Migration Series, Panel 58 by Jacob Lawrence, 1940-41, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The GATEWAY Advantage

Cornerstone Gateway courses, HMFNART 101 and HMFNART 102, provide a foundational and transformative educational experience for UMass students. These courses are designed to develop critical thinking, textual analysis, and ethical reflection skills. Plus, they fulfill General Education requirements, including AL (Literature) and DU/DG (Diversity) designations.

Explore your academic major/interest through the lens of the humanities and social sciences.
Engage in an interdisciplinary curriculum grounded in culturally significant works of literature, philosophy, history, and social thought.
Fulfill your Gen Ed AL DU and/or AL DG requirements.
Work with UMass faculty across departments and disciplines.

Enroll on SPIRE

HMFNART 101:

Traversing Differences with Critical and Creative Thinking: Local Questions

(4 credits, AL, DU)

HMFNART 101 is a 4-credit, discussion-based, interdisciplinary course focusing on transformative texts within the US context. You’ll explore a diverse range of works—from philosophical, historical, and sociological writings to fiction and poetry. This course tackles critical questions confronting US society today, such as community, human rights, migration, environmental justice, the role of technology, and the place of the arts. By engaging with influential texts that have significantly shaped the nation’s foundation and evolution, you’ll foster creative and critical thinking. This course encourages you to reflect on our society and your role within it, challenging your understanding of yourself and how you navigate the world as an ethical human being.

The gallery below showcases some of the transformative texts and authors studied in previous semesters.

*The Souls of Black Folk* by W.E.B. DuBois

*Walden / Civil Disobedience / and Other Writings* by Henry David Thoreau

Quote from Hannah Arendt's essay "We Refugees" featured in *Migration As Avant-Garde* by Michael Danner

Portrait of Frederick Douglass (engraved by J.C. Buttre from a daguerreotype)

HMFNART 102:

Traversing Differences with Critical and Creative Thinking: Global Issues

(4 credits, AL, DG)

HMFNART 102 is a 4-credit, small discussion-based, interdisciplinary course focusing on transformative texts within an international context. You’ll explore a variety of works—from fiction and poetry to philosophical, historical, and sociological writings—that investigate complex aspects of human experience. This course examines how texts inspire new and liberating approaches to expression, selfhood, community, and politics. By reading deeply and engaging with multiple perspectives, you’ll think through critical issues of the human condition, past and present. This course encourages you to think globally, analyze complex issues, and appreciate the interconnectedness of societies around the world. You’ll gain a richer understanding of global challenges and how they impact local realities.

The gallery below showcases some of the transformative texts and authors studied in previous semesters.

*The Universal Declaration of Human Rights* by Otávio Roth

Eleanor Roosevelt holding poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (in English), Lake Success, New York, November 1949

*Lysistrata and Other Plays* by Aristophanes

"The Laugh of the Medusa" by Hélène Cixous

*The Rights of the Reader* by Daniel Pennac

The Rights of the Reader illustrated by Quentin Blake