The humanities consist of many fine arts including music and painting. Each genre of the fine arts includes many musicians and artists. A research paper on a fine arts genre may include the influential artists of the genre, the historical influence affecting the artists and analysis of the artwork produced throughout the genre. Use the same points to produce a comparative research paper on two different genres of the same art field.
When writing a fine arts history research paper, stick with one of the fine arts and thoroughly cover the history up until the current events of the art. For a more in-depth study, choose a time period and research the artists and significant events of the art that occurred during those years. You may consider choosing a time period and covering a variety of the arts instead of focusing solely on one. A comparative history research paper in the fine arts would compare two different time periods or two different artists or schools of art during the same historical period.
World religions are another aspect of a humanities study. When choosing to do a research paper on religion, you have many options. In-depth studies of the different religions of the world are the most obvious topics. If the history of religions interest you, consider a paper on the history of a single religion or, for a longer paper, the evolution of religion through history. Use a comparative research paper to compare differing world religions. You may find during research for a comparative paper that seemingly opposite religions share some ideas with each other.
Research papers on film can cover a wide variety of topics. Film history research papers can be presented in a number of ways such as the cultural history the film represents, the time period the film is set in, the film's production history, distribution history and the film's place in film history itself. You may choose to research one film and cover a variety of film history topics, or choose one history topic and research different films that correspond with the topic.