Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Core Curriculum

While we don’t minimize the importance of specialized, professional education, we also believe that the general education component is vitally important for success in the modern world. What knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values should everyone who is college-educated have? How can you find or flourish in a career without finding the work that is suitable for you as a person? In this modern era, economical, political, and social revolution is the norm. Changes in science and technology seem to be exponential. New industries, economic and financial institutions emerge and shift fluidly around our flat world. Upheaval in the Middle East, explosive growth in East and South Asia, global climate change, biological breakthroughs—these challenges all have positive and negative implications. A diversified education is the best strategy to succeed in an emerging, changing future.

The interdisciplinary core curriculum is a coherent, two-year sequence of courses to build the perspective that modern students need. Core courses are organized by four divisions and complemented by four elective courses taught outside of our College and usually relevant to the student’s intended major.

The curriculum below was changed in 2008-2009, eliminating freshman natural sciences courses and adding a first semester freshman elective, effective fall 2009 for the class of CGS’11, BU’13.

Freshman Semester 1	Freshman Semester 2	Sophomore Semester 1	Sophomore Semester 2
SS101 Social Science I Introduction to Historical Sociology and the Social Sciences Anthropology Sociology Economics Social Psychology	SS102 Social Science II Social Change and Modernization in the Western World History	SS201 Social Science III Social Change and Modernization in the Non-Western World: China and Russia History Political Theory	SS202 Social Science IV America’s Response to Aggression and Revolution: U.S. Foreign Policy since the 1930s Political Science International Relations
HU101 Humanities I Traditions in the Humanities: The Ancient World through the Renaissance Literature, with Film &Art History	HU102 Humanities II Breaks with Tradition: The Enlightenment to the Present Literature, with Film & Art History	HU201 Humanities III History of Western Ethical Philosophy: Plato to Nietzsche Philosophy, with Art, Film, and Literature	HU202 Humanities IV History of 20th C. Ethical Philosophy and Applied Ethics Philosophy, with Art, Film, and Literature
RH101 Rhetoric I English Composition: Argument and Critical Thinking	RH102 Rhetoric II English Composition: Argument and Research	NS201 Natural Sciences I The Origin, Evolution, and Diversity of Life: An Integrative View Geology, Organic Chemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology	NS202 Natural Sciences II Human and Global Ecology Climatology, Environmental Chemistry, Population Biology
Elective (in another college)	Elective (in another college)	Elective (in another college)	Elective (in another college)
			Capstone

The Humanities courses look at the classic forms of literature, visual arts, and film and then follow the rise of the modern and postmodern sensibility. The history of ethical philosophy considers major philosophers who answered the questions: What is the good life? How can we tell right from wrong? Why lead a virtuous life?

In Natural Science, students consider the history, epistemology, and societal context of the scientific revolutions which have shaped our understanding of the modern world. The key roles of Darwin and biology (e.g., genetics and ecology) are stressed.

The Rhetoric course (persuasive writing, the college essay, and the research paper) ties it all together. It is universally acknowledged that the ability to think, articulate, argue, analyze, and create in writing is at the heart of a liberal arts college education and the key to success in every job, profession, and career.

In Social Science, students first learn social analysis methodologies (history, sociology, anthropology, economics, social psychology) and examine a traditional society. Then they turn to the origins of our contemporary world in centuries of revolutions and modernization leading to our familiar Western European Civilization. In the second year, rapid modernization and revolutions are studied in non-Western contexts—Russia, China, and American foreign policy and the response to terrorism.

CGS students take one elective each semester outside of the College, typically language, mathematics, or courses of special relevance to their intended majors.

Capstone is a CGS tradition in which groups of students work together to research social problems and then argue in writing and orally for a specific policy proposal to solve the problem.