Liberal Studies

This course offers an introduction to the thought, values, and arts of Western culture through an exploration of the fine and performing arts in the twentieth century.

A study for non-English majors of the most significant and influential movements of the 20th century as those movements have shaped the course of human experience. Provides an opportunity for students to discuss and analyze a broad range of writers from several countries, drawing on cultural and ethnic issues particularly relevant to those writers. Offered annually.

This course is designed to help the student consider how human societies must change in order to create a long-term sustainable interdependent relationship between humans and the rest of the ecosphere. Current rates of human population growth, habitat destruction, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, soil erosion and desertification, extinction of species, air and water pollution, living and mineral resource depletion, and waste production point towards an unsustainable future without significant changes. The scientific, social, economic, ethical, political, religious, social justice, and technological aspects of the problems and their solutions will be considered. Students will be challenged to participate in the creation of an ecologically sustainable future. This is a required course for the B.A. in Liberal Studies.

This is an online course that develops critical and analytical skills necessary to engage in courses in the liberal studies major. Through readings reflecting representative disciplines included in the major, students will begin to improve their ability to think effectively and express themselves through clear, cogent writing.

Topics include rigorous thought, number contemplation, geometry and contortions, meaning from data, and uncertainty.

Explorations in the Liberal Studies is the capstone course for the Liberal Studies major. This course will provide an in-depth study of a single text and its connections to the disciplines studied in the major. Students will base a senior research project on a theme or issue related to the text, taking a particular perspective from the social sciences, the natural sciences, the humanities/fine arts, or business, allowing students to apply and integrate their earlier learning in the liberal studies courses.

This course is a study of interrelationships among business, government, and society. The complex, continuously evolving and closely linked business-government-society system will be studied. Academic theory and actual management concerns at the strategic, global, national, regional, and local levels are covered in the course.

Examines moral problems that arise in the practice of medicine. Various theories about what is good and what is right are considered and related to bio-ethical and socio-ethical issues.

This course explores social and cultural issues in psychology as they relate to the application of psychological theories and principles to diverse groups. Special attention is given to racial/ethnic minority issues and cultural diversity, a key component of which is developing an understanding of personal cultural development and how this pattern of development influences perceptions of interactions with others and general human behavior.

A study of the place of personal experience in the discovery of religious meaning. May use autobiographical accounts and investigate methods of enhancing consciousness and nurturing spiritual growth. Offered annually.

An introduction to cultural anthropology and an application of anthropological principles, data, and concepts, combined with the cross-cultural perspective, to a disciplined examination of other cultures and U.S. culture and its social problems. The course emphasizes that knowledge gained from an understanding of other cultures can contribute to the solution of those societal problems. Also, emphasis is placed on learning to appreciate cultural diversity. Offered spring semester in odd years.

This course is a study of the development of Western social science thought from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. In this course, we will explore the development of Western thinking and ways of knowing from the perspectives of the social sciences, including anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology and sociology. The course allows students to examine the major contributions to the intellectual ferment of ideas that helped reshape the Western world's concepts of human nature.