{"id":170,"date":"2020-01-14T09:35:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T14:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/?page_id=170"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:25:39","slug":"welcome","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/about\/welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Core Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Welcome from the Director<\/span><\/h1>\n

\u201cI was simply putting off the trouble of climbing; but no one\u2019s wit can alter the nature of things, and there is no way to reach the heights by going downward.\u201d<\/span>
Petrarch, \u201cThe Ascent of Mount Ventoux\u201d (CC201)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 1989, faculty at BU embarked on an \u201cexperiment\u201d to introduce students to \u201cclassic works in literature and the arts, great ideas in science, and the significant social events of the modern world.\u201d Now, 36 years later, this experiment called the Core Curriculum has become a distinguished BU tradition.<\/p>\n

Centered around weekly common lectures and small discussion classes capped at 18 students, \u201cThe Core\u201d engages with enduring and transformative texts, art, and ideas that help students think critically and meaningfully about the world. While many of the texts have not changed since 1989, the range of discussions and our students certainly have. In BU\u2019s Core, we believe that building a learning community requires many voices and perspectives, and we aim to foster a learning environment where students from all backgrounds, majors, and specialties can contribute to the conversations. Core\u2019s pathways through Humanities, Natural Science, and Social Science courses are designed to address questions common to all disciplines and foster intellectual growth. BU\u2019s Core is a learning community where books, teachers, and students come to learn and grow together. In Core, we plant the seeds to help students learn to learn<\/em>, to grow intellectually, and to cultivate a foundation of knowledge to bring to the major.<\/p>\n

In designing a Core pathway, students can elect to have Core classes fulfill all of their Hub requirements.<\/a> Core\u2019s pathways also enable students who fulfill six Core courses to receive a Core Minor<\/a>. Core Honors<\/a> enables students to pursue a non-credit bearing research paper or project that may be eligible for funding. See some of the projects that students have worked on here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Core\u2019s intellectual community is not limited to the classroom since we thrive on experiential learning. Student conversations continue in museums, at the theater, in dorm rooms, through shared meals, on exciting opportunities to go to Florence, New York, and London, and in our lively office in CAS. The Core experience is complex, absorbing, satisfying, and sometimes difficult, but it will ground your experiences at BU. We invite you to begin your journey with us.<\/p>\n

Kyna Hamill
\nDirector and Assistant Dean, Core Curriculum
\nkyna@bu.edu
\n617-353-5404
\n8.26.25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Welcome from the Director \u201cI was simply putting off the trouble of climbing; but no one\u2019s wit can alter the nature of things, and there is no way to reach the heights by going downward.\u201dPetrarch, \u201cThe Ascent of Mount Ventoux\u201d (CC201) In 1989, faculty at BU embarked on an \u201cexperiment\u201d to introduce students to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3480,"featured_media":0,"parent":40,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5495,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170\/revisions\/5495"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}