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Core Curriculum

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  • CAS CC 101: Core Humanities I: Ancient Worlds
    An interdisciplinary study of the origins of narrative, epic, tragedy, and philosophical thought including works from ancient Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, and classical Greece. Focusing on close reading and effective writing, we consider the contrasting values of different cultures and explore the long-standing narrative and visual traditions motivated by creative readings and interpretations of these texts. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Creativity/Innovation. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, a First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 120).
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • First-Year Writing Seminar
  • CAS CC 102: Core Humanities 2: The Way: Antiquity and the Medieval World
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR 120 or equivalent) - Reading late antiquity and medieval texts in conversation, students compare and contrast pre-modern values of "The Way" one should live and asks: What is the best human life? A focus on oral and written communication helps students to articulate and interpret the influence these texts have had globally, and a visit to the MFA Boston enables students to explore the rich interpretive visual traditions that follow these texts.. Authors include: Aristotle, Confucius, Laozi, Virgil, the Gospels, Hrotsvitha, Dante, and texts from ancient India. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: First-Year Writing Seminar, Oral and/or Signed Communication. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Writing- Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS CC 111: Core Natural Sciences I: Origins- The Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Human Beginnings
    The origins of the physical world, and a scientific parallel to CC 101. Explores how the fields of astronomy, earth science, biology, and anthropology help us to understand our place in the cosmos from a scientific perspective. Topics include the Big Bang, evolution of the stars and earth, evolution of life, and the origins of human life and society. Assignments include computer-based and experimental laboratory work as well as team-based investigation and original research. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Quantitative Reasoning I
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS CC 201: Core Humanities 3: Renaissance, Rediscovery, and Reformation
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g. CAS CC 101 or WR 120). - Encountering works by Petrarch, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Milton, Cavendish, and Descartes, we consider the revival and imitation of the classics and explore the formation of genre and the emergence of the self. A study of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and works by Rembrandt add an artistic lens to our studies. A focus on writing and research complements our emphasis on authorship. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing, Research, and Inquiry; Research and Information Literacy. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Research and Information Literacy, Writing, Research & Inquiry (e.g., WR 150).
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing, Research, and Inquiry
  • CAS CC 202: Core Humanities 4: Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Modernity
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CAS CC 101 or WR 120). - IIn this fourth semester of Core humanities, we explore works of philosophy and literature that interrogate Enlightenment and Romantic ideals of social hierarchy, what it means to know, the relations of subjectivity to reason, and how freedom can be found. Works by Voltaire, Kant, Austen, Shelley, the English Romantic Poets, Beethoven, Goethe, Whitman, Dickinson, and Douglass are included. We cross the threshold of the twentieth century with drama by Chekhov, the perspectivism of Nietzsche, and a critique of inequality by W.E.B. Du Bois. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, Writing- Intensive Course..
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS CC 212: Core Natural Science II: Science, Reality, and the Modern World
    Studies the paradigm-shifting scientific theories of quantum theory and relativity that created a new world view and forced the 20th century into a new understanding of our relation to reality. Students parallel these theories with current debates about science, such as those concerning climate change and the phenomenon of "junk science." Considers the role of science in the modern world, how we know what we know, the roles of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and chaos theory, and the nature of truth in a 21st- century context. Effective Fall 2018, this course carries a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Scientific Inquiry II
  • CAS CC 220: Multimedia Encounters with Core Texts
    Allows Core students to reimagine a favorite Core text in a new, digital format. Each section has students develop a new mediation of a particular Core work to be made available to the Core community and beyond. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Digital/Multimedia Expression.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CAS CC 221: Making the Modern World: Progress, Politics, and Economics
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CAS CC 101 or WR 120) - Applying careful readings of Western social, political, and economic thinkers between 1600-1900, the course asks: How did "society" emerge as a distinctive object of political engineering, normative discourse, and social scientific inquiry? And what economic transformations helped shape theories of justice and social contract? Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS CC 222: "Unmaking" the Modern World: the Psychology, Politics, and Economics of the Self
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g. CAS CC 101 or WR 120). - Confronting the legacy of Enlightenment philosophy in the modern era, students encounter the postmodern psychological, political, and economic theories that expose the paradoxes behind freedom and individual rights ideologies framing slavery, colonialism, ethno-nationalism, capitalist exploitation, sexism, and institutional racism. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS CC 318: Public Speaking
    How can you make a connection with an audience when you speak? How can you find ways to make a rhetorical argument? This course puts students in conversation with texts and ideas that guide them to find authentic voices when constructing narratives, arguments, and presentations to different audiences. Students may not receive credit for both CAS CC 318 and CAS WR 318. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS CC 320: Extended Multimedia Encounters with Core Texts
    Invites students to re-imagine a favorite Core text in a new, digital format and context. Each section focuses on a particular Core text to consider, reflect and develop a new mediation of that work. Prerequisite: Students must demonstrate previous experience of studying, performing, or otherwise engaging with the text on a sophisticated level, or must receive consent from the instructor. In Fall 2024, sections will individually focus on: Confucian Analects, and Virgil’s Aeneid; in Spring 2025, sections will focus on Hamlet and Don Quixote. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Teamwork/Collaboration, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS CC 350: Core Capstone
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: completion of one of the Core Curriculum's four two-semester course sequences. A workshop for students pursuing the Minor in Core Independent Studies to develop skills in writing, presentation, and public speaking. Students learn to synthesize, refine, and share conclusions reached in pursuit of their capstone project. Offered in Spring when necessary. To declare this minor, use Hegis code 1432. This course is not required for the Core Minor (Hegis code 1431).

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