Note this form is to be completed in conjunction with a regular course request form.
Please answer the following questions as clearly and as succinctly as possible. For more details see the CA course description attached below.
Name of Requester:
Course Number:
Course Title:
1. What cultural knowledge and methods will be covered in your course?
2. What primary and secondary sources will be used in your course?
3. What will be the final project for your course?
4. What assignments and teaching methods will be used to develop and evaluate the students’ analytical and synthetic abilities? How will they serve to prepare the students to complete the final project for the course?
The general objective of the Cultural Analysis course requirement is to develop students’ understanding of human culture and of the ways that culture affects one’s perceptions of human life and of the world. Students will both encounter and analyze different forms of cultural expression.
CA courses will deal with human culture in the variety of its philosophic, literary, artistic, economic, social, political, scientific, or other forms. Each course will focus on how relationships between ideas and institutions have shaped both societies and the thoughts and behaviors of individuals and groups. Approaches may include, but are not limited to: historical approaches that examine the development of a given culture or society over time; approaches that examine encounters or conflicts between two cultures or societies; approaches that examine the variety of interactions among individuals and sub-groups within a given culture or society; or approaches that interpret or evaluate different forms of aesthetic expression. Faculty members proposing courses must include in their course proposal a description of the cultural knowledge and methods to be acquired in the course.
Cultural Analysis courses will build on the skills of insightful reading, analysis, and writing acquired in the first year of study. Courses will provide a basic familiarity with some concepts and methods of cultural analysis. They may be offered as either 3- or 4- credit courses. In CA courses, students will make use of both primary (textual or other artifacts) and secondary sources. (Secondary works are those which interpret primary sources, or develop a method for the study of primary sources.) These primary and secondary works will provide the raw materials for a synthetic project. Such projects will normally include either a synthetic paper of ten or more pages, or student-generated presentations or productions (for example, original art, music or drama) accompanied by a shorter written commentary. Any project must be designed to demonstrate the student’s capacity for independent research and critical thinking. Students will be expected to show an awareness of their own presuppositions and of the possibilities and limitations of their methods. Faculty members proposing courses must include in their course proposal an explanation of how course assignments will demonstrate the student’s capacity for analysis and synthesis with an appropriate degree of rigor.
CA proposals will be reviewed by the director of General Education (Assistant Provost) and the Curriculum Committee. CA instructor(s) must justify to the committee how the proposed course develops the above-mentioned skills, methods, and knowledge.
CA courses will be capped at 20-25 students.