Disciplinary Perspectives (3 credit hours)
This component offers students an opportunity to bring
insights from different disciplines to the analysis of a complex issue.
Courses incorporate content and approaches from at least two
disciplines, ask students to draw on their own disciplinary
perspectives, and challenge them to approach and analyze issues from
various points of view.
Requirements: One course from the list below.
Junior or Senior standing required.
AMS 311 American Science & Technology| A study of American science and technology and their interrelations with economic, cultural, political and intellectual developments. |
| This team-taught, interdisciplinary course will critically examine how films reflect, construct, and question the dominant image and understanding of the American identity. |
| This course immerses students in a thematic investigation of color in human culture from ancient times to the present. Using case studies from the histories of art, literature, and philosophy, students examine the role color plays in our understanding of the world, particularly in relation to economic, moral, and spiritual value systems. |
| This class will critically examine video games as historical and cultural artifacts, as narratives, as works of art, as a technologically dependent medium, as part of human play and as a powerful social influence. |
| An examination of the origins and history of HIV/AIDS, including its economic, political, social, psychological and legal repercussions as well as the basics of virology, serology, epidemiology and diagnostic testing. |
| This team-taught course is offered in coordination with the College's annual colloquium series. Specific topics are announced at the time of registration |
| An exploration of those forces that profoundly changed the institutions and structures of society in the Twentieth Century including migrations within and across national borders, responses to environmental opportunities and threats, and uses and misuses of technology. Examines the rate, direction, and implication of societal and cultural change at national and global levels. |
| An exploration of the relationship between a president's character and leadership using several administrations as case studies. Provides exposure to the historiographic literature on historical biography, presidential memoirs, the use of primary sources and the interpretation of public opinion. |
| This team-taught, interdisciplinary course will critically examine how films reflect, construct, and question the dominant image and understanding of the American identity. Disciplinary perspective. |
| How do human beings experience the sacred? How is faith connected with doubt? What might "God" mean? What's the point of it all? Readings will include fiction, poetry, and essays drawn from a range of historical periods. This course examines what William James called "the varieties of religious experience" from the disciplinary perspectives of literature and religion. |
| Looks at the significance Greek and Roman myths hold for us today from the perspectives of literature, psychology, religion, sociology, and anthropology. |
| Dependence on certain plants has shaped historical events and cultures, and continues to influence human lives today. This course explores the extent of the impact of plant life on the history, culture, and daily life of human beings. Through lectures, student class presentations, hands-on exercises and field trips, and a one-day field trip to Longwood Gardens, the effect of plants in past and present human lives will be investigated. |
| The development and use of the atomic bomb in many ways defined the 20th Century and the Modern World. For understanding and insight, a multidisciplinary approach to this subject is required. In this course, the disciplines of history, physics, politics/international relations, ethics, and literature/film will be brought to bear on the "Bomb" and its significance for the Modern World. |
| This survey course is designed to familiarize students with the physiological, psychological, social and legal aspects of various drugs including alcohol, marijuana, caffeine, over-the-counter drugs, cocaine, heroin and the opiates, LSD hallucinogens, barbiturates, and amphetamines. |
| Karl Marx is among the most influential thinkers in the modern world, and the ideology of Marxism has helped shape the cultural, religious, economic, and political history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This course will examine Marx and Marxism(s) from an interdisciplinary perspective, first by exploring the life and word of Marx, and Marxist parties and movements, and then by examining the effects Marx's thinking has had on global politics, economic theory, religion, and philosophy. By examining the historical and philosophical roots and continuing significance of Marx and Marxism, students will have an occasion to practice a multidisciplinary study of a historical figure and movement and become better informed about intellectual and political history and how those continue to shape the world around us. |
| This course will focus on Europe after 1945. The class will begin with a segment on historical background after which it will be organized around a series of issues including geography and environment, the differences between American and European society, immigration and citizenship in Europe, ethnic conflict, the reunification of Germany, and European integration (the EU). The class sessions will center on discussion of readings from scholarly and news sources, and the films. Students will complete a project related to each student146s major with a writing component and oral presentation. |
| This multi-disciplinary seminar will consider the relationship in contemporary society between individual freedom and moral-political equality. To this end, students will study the main doctrines advanced in libertarian, classical liberal, modern liberal, and communitarian thought, and critically evaluate the various strengths and weaknesses of each approach. |
| By combining ideas from the social and natural sciences, as well as religion and philosophy, this course focuses on the importance of skepticism, scientific analysis, and valid logic when evaluating fringe-science topics such as ghosts, near-death experiences, psychics, astrology, UFOs and alien abductions, creationism, faith healing, alternative medicine, and other paranormal claims. |
| This number designates a special topics course in the disciplinary perspectives component of the General Education Program. Faulty may make use of this opportunity to design a course outside normal departmental offerings. The course selection booklet that appears before registration each semester will describe individual courses in this category. A student may petition the director of general education to substitute another course in the curriculum for an approved course in any component of the program. |
| This course offers students an introduction to evolutionary theory and empirical research, especially as it applies to history and society. Evolution is powerful, elegant and easily understood. The human frame and brain evolved over time, and understanding how that happened will help understand the past and present of society. |
| Students in this course study the development of Western political thought from Classical Greece to modern times, examining the conceptual evolution of citizenship, civic obligation, and the nature of justice and exploring the connection between moral and positive law in the western tradition. |
| This course examines the moral responsibility of institutions in German society, 1939-1945, for acquiescing to and perpetrating the state- sanctioned killing of European Jews and others. |
| A survey course of the psychosocial implications of illness and disability. Specific attention is given to cultural differences, adjustment models, family stress from caregiving, family violence, and normal grieving processes. |
| Students in this course study the development of Western political thought from Classical Greece to modern times, examining the conceptual evolution of citizenship, civic obligation, and the nature of justice and exploring the connection between moral and positive law in the western tradition. |
| This course will offer an enriching, hands-on, interdisciplinary exploration of the dynamic processes of policy formation in the core institutions of the European Union. Students will prepare for participation in the simulation held each November in Washington D.C., organized by the Mid-Atlantic European Union Simulation Consortium (MEUSC). This experiential learning program endeavors to connect American students to EU policy makers and policy making in a unique way, utilizing the simulation experience to bridge the gap between the academic study of the EU and the actual political processes of the European Union. Students will be engaged in discussions and debates about the EU that are current and topical in EU decision-making circles. A distinct theme is chosen as the focus of the simulation each year . |
| This course will examine ancient texts, contemporary commentaries, historical reconstructions, and artistic and literary depictions in its search for Jesus. |
| This course will engage the different religious answers to the fact that humans are mortal. Its aim is to introduce students to the variety of human reactions to the finitude of our corporeal existence and challenge them to engage the variety of responses from a variety of responses from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. |