Liberal Arts College Courses
Description:
In this multidisciplinary seminar, key philosophical and historical texts from Greek, Roman, and Hebrew antiquity are read and discussed. Major political and philosophic questions concerning the best life, the best government, the nature of knowledge, the nature of God, and the basis of morality are examined and debated. The approach to the assigned texts combines careful historical contextualization with attention to contemporary issues and perspectives. The course also seeks to develop writing, reading, and discussion skills. Readings may include Plato’s Republic, The Bible, and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.
Component(s):
Lecture; SeminarNotes:
- Students who have received credit for LBCL 291 or for this topic under a LBCL 298 number may not take this course for credit.
Description:
In this multidisciplinary seminar, key philosophic and historical texts from the medieval and early modern periods are read and discussed. Major political and philosophic questions concerning the best life, the best government, the nature of knowledge, the nature of God, and the basis of morality are examined and debated. The approach to the assigned texts combines careful historical contextualization with attention to contemporary issues and perspectives. The course also seeks to develop writing, reading, and discussion skills. Readings may include Augustine’s City of God, Teresa of Avila’s Autobiography, and Machiavelli’s The Prince.Component(s):
Lecture; SeminarNotes:
- Students who have received credit for LBCL 291 or for this topic under a LBCL 298 number may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Registration in the Liberal Arts College, or permission of the College is required.Description:
In this multi-disciplinary seminar primary texts from antiquity to the mid-17th century that continue to shape Western culture are read and discussed in a chronological sequence. Questions are asked about justice and injustice, evil and its punishment, social responsibility, the nature of the gods, the meaning of suffering, the source of happiness, social constructions of gender and sexuality and attitudes towards nature and culture. Historical context as well as contemporary perspectives are brought to epics, poetry, essays, plays and philosophical texts that still influence our lives today. The class develops confidence in speaking and improves writing skills through the building of original, convincing and informed arguments to support interpretation. Readings may include Homer’s Odyssey, Sappho’s poetry, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Milton’s Paradise Lost.Component(s):
SeminarPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Registration in the Liberal Arts College, or permission of the College is required.Description:
This course familiarizes students with the historical development of the visual arts of the Western tradition, from the Archaic Greek to the Postmodern periods, both in terms of the broad currents of that tradition and in terms of specific works. Emphasis is placed on reading artworks as artifacts that provide important insights into the cultures that produced them. The course introduces some of the literature in the field of Art History and criticism, and explores some of the most influential theories and methodologies that have shaped the discipline. It also develops an understanding of the formal characteristics and language of art, and equips students with the methodological tools necessary to analyze, interpret, enjoy. and write about architecture, painting, and sculpture.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
Specific topics for this course, and prerequisites relevant in each case, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.Description:
Specific topics for this course, and prerequisites relevant in each case, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.Description:
This course introduces developments in the history of European music from antiquity to the 18th century. Course content includes musical structure, period styles, and selected works by major composers, setting these within their historical contexts.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Students who have received credit for LBCL 396 may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following courses must be completed previously: LBCL 289, LBCL 290, LBCL 292, LBCL 295. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the College is required.Description:
In this multidisciplinary seminar, key philosophic and historical texts from the 17th-century and European Enlightenment to the beginning of the 20th-century are read and discussed. Major political and philosophic questions concerning the origin of rights, the basis of knowledge, the meaning of history, and the nature of freedom are examined and debated. This seminar introduces both historical contexts and contemporary issues and perspectives to our readings, and seeks to develop writing, reading, and participation skills. Readings may include Rousseau’s Social Contract, Voltaire’s Candide, Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mill’s On Liberty, and Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals.Component(s):
ConferenceDescription:
This course introduces developments in the history of European music from the 18th century to the present day. Course content includes musical structure, period styles, and selected works by major composers, setting these within their historical contexts.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Students who have received credit for LBCL 396 may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following courses must be completed previously: LBCL 289, LBCL 290, LBCL 292, LBCL 295. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the College is required.
Description:
In this multi- disciplinary seminar primary texts from the Enlightenment to the beginning of the 20th century are read and discussed in a chronological sequence. Questions are asked about the value and limitations of reason, the influence of Romanticism, the consequences of technology, the effects of colonialism, different conceptions of beauty, transgression and rebellion, monstrosity, the challenges of modernity, the pressure of social conformity, the role of the artist within society, urbanization and globalization, values and nihilism, and other challenging topics. Historical context as well as contemporary perspectives are brought to novels, poetry, plays and philosophical texts. The class develops confidence in speaking and improve writing skills through the building of original, convincing and informed arguments to support interpretation. Readings may include Kant’s Critique of Judgment, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Goethe’s Faust, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, Dickinson’s poetry, Melville’s Moby Dick, Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.Component(s):
SeminarDescription:
This course explores the history of science from antiquity to the Renaissance. Primary sources may include Aristotle, Physics, Plato, Timaeus, and Copernicus, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres.Component(s):
Lecture; SeminarNotes:
- Students who have received credit for LBCL 397 may not take this course for credit.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
Description:
This course emphasizes the nature of modern science from the scientific revolution to the present day. Primary sources may include Darwin, Origin of the Species, Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Bacon, Advancement of Learning, and Einstein, Relativity.Component(s):
SeminarNotes:
- Students who have received credit for LBCL 397 may not take this course for credit.
Description:
Specific topics for this course, and prerequisites relevant in each case, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.Description:
Specific topics for this course, and relevant prerequisites, are stated in the Undergraduate Class Schedule.
Prerequisite/Corequisite:
The following courses must be completed previously: LBCL 391; LBCL 393. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the College is required.
Description:
This course emphasizes key texts and issues in contemporary society and culture, from modernism, liberalism, and stories, poetry, psychoanalysis, non-fiction, and contemporary theory, and examines themes such as the disruptions and challenges of modernist and postmodern art, the rise of fascism and the responses of testimonial literature, shifting understandings of the self and the unconscious, technological change and society, and critiques of contemporary civilization through authors that may include Freud, Primo Levi, Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, Franz Fanon, Ralph Ellison, and Rachel Carson.
Component(s):
SeminarPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Permission of the College.
Description:
This course addresses a selected field within the chronological period above, emphasizing focused study of specific primary texts, as well as significant works of interpretation as appropriate to the selected field. Themes normally vary on a year-to-year alternating basis, so as to reflect the broad orientations (Structures and Dynamics of Western Civilization, Modes of Expression and Interpretation) which inform the core curriculum.
Component(s):
SeminarPrerequisite/Corequisite:
Permission of the College is required.