INTG 101G.
Introduction to Liberal Arts
4 sem hrs
A seminar required of all freshmen and taught by
faculty from a number of different
disciplines. Theme-related texts in the course raise basic questions about the
variety of
human experience, and about personal and shared values and goals. Students are
expected to think critically about the issues raised, to participate in
discussions, and to write papers
on the works studied.
INTG 2xxG. Global
Perspectives
3 sem hrs
An exploration of communities, societies,
institutions, and issues from a global perspective, emphasizing not only
differences and diversity but global interconnections and integration. Each
course will highlight the influence and importance of cultural differences and
ask the student to understand culture as a lens through which we view the world.
To be taken in the sophomore year.
INTG 201. Global Perspectives: World Impact
of East Asian Science 3 sem hrs
A comparative study of the world impact of
science from Western cultures, such as those of Europe and the United States,
and Eastern cultures such as those of China, Korea, Singapore, and Japan.
Diverse approaches to science will be discussed, such as the relative importance
of group versus individual achievement. These distinctions are rooted in
cultural differences that manifest both locally and globally.
INTG 202. Global
Perspectives: World Drama
3 sem hrs
A study of drama as a reflection of cultures and
an insight into society. Drama has often been used to bolster political ends or
to question government policies. This course will focus on how drama causes
people to reflect upon values in society, as well as significant issues and
events in the world.
INTG 203. Global Perspectives: Food
3 sem hrs
A study of food as a key to unlocking cultures
and a lens for comparing different societies. This course will show how human
nutrition has been produced, marketed, and consumed as a series of cultural,
political, and economic products.
INTG 204. Global
Perspectives: The Environment
3 sem hrs
A study of global environmental issues such as
human population growth, resource consumption, and environmental alterations.
Through the context of environmental problems students will develop an
understanding of the planet’s interconnectedness.
INTG 205. Global
Perspectives: Communication in Global Contexts
3 sem hrs
A study of the ways in which culture and
communication intersect and influence each other. An emphasis will be placed on
understanding the importance of context—social, cultural, historical, and
political—in intercultural interactions and communication. This course explores
cultural dynamics both within the United States and abroad.
INTG 206. Global Perspectives: Town and
Country
3 sem hrs
An exploration of the relationship between rural
and urban sectors of society. Areas of comparison include: pre- and post-World
War II societies, economic beneficiaries and losers, cultural values and
practices, and the effects of ecology and geography. Similarities and
differences will illuminate larger, global transformations.
INTG
207. Global Perspectives: Terrorism
3 sem hrs
An
exploration of the local and global contexts for terrorism. This course examines
the politics, cultures, and societies from which different types of terrorism
emerge, as well as how globalization impacts the growth of militant movements
and the choice to engage in terrorist acts.
INTG 208. Global Perspectives: Work and
Leisure
3 sem hrs
A study of how different cultures and regions of
the world approach work and leisure time. Topics discussed include: how history
and culture impact our perception of meaningful work, compensation, and business
and leisure practices in various regions of the world. The course also examines
how work and leisure time are influenced by the trend toward globalization.
INTG 209. Global Perspectives: Ethnic
Conflict
3 sem hrs
A study of the phenomenon of ethnic conflict. The
course will look closely at several instances of such conflict, ranging from the
relatively non-violent separatist movement in Quebec to incidents of genocide
such as occurred in Rwanda. In doing so, it attempts to better our understanding
of these occurrences by placing them in a global and historical context.
INTG 210. Global Perspectives: Security in
the Age of Globalization 3 sem
hrs
An overview of the contemporary perspectives and
the theoretical approaches used to study economic, environmental, human, and
national security in the age of globalization. In this course we will examine
the role of nation-states, traditionally viewed as the most important actors in
the international arena, as well as non-state actors, in creating security and
insecurity in global society.
INTG 211. Global
Perspectives: Music and Culture
3 sem hrs
An exploration of music’s role in shaping
cultural identity, the status of musicians and composers within these cultures,
and music as a commodity in the global economy. These aspects and others are
considered within a larger picture of global historical development.
INTG 212. Global
Perspectives: Love, Marriage and the State
3 sem hrs
A study of the evolution of love, marriage and
family in historical and cross-cultural perspectives, with attention to the
complex interplay between individual agency and the constraints imposed by
social, economic, and political environments. Concepts and practices of
students’ family lives will be compared to South Indian, Middle Eastern, and
Japanese practices.
INTG 213. Global
Perspectives: Global Cities
3 sem hrs
An examination of the dynamic growth and
significance of a variety of the world’s largest metropolitan areas and their
role in shaping the political, economics, environmental, and cultural conditions
of the modern world. Different cities and particular case studies will be
selected each semester by the instructor.
INTG 214. Global
Perspectives: Contemporary Art and Culture
3 sem hrs
A study of contemporary art as a tool for
expressing culture values relating to universal issues such as food and shelter,
religion, and politics. The often similar concerns of artists from widely
varying backgrounds highlight the connections between the global and the local.
INTG 215. Secret Lives of Women in
Literature
3 sem hrs
This course examines the lives of women in
Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, India, Russia and the United States as revealed in
literature. It deals with the various ways women in different cultures deal with
marriage, childbirth, infertility, motherhood, child raising, ageing, infidelity
and sexual abuse. Each of these problems is circumscribed by tradition, and
status, yet solutions to problems are often ingenious and practical.
INTG 216. Global Perspectives: Economic
Development
3 sem hrs
An examiniation of the challenges to economic
development as they have occurred in the past several centuries. Students will
study industrialization and the problems of economic inequality in Africa, Asia,
and South America, as well as lessons learned from Europe and North America. The
class will culminate in written and oral presentations of proposals for economic
development in nations chosen by students.
INTG219.
Global Perspectives: Dances of the World
3 sem hrs.
A study of the relationship between dances of the
New World through the African Diaspora. Through select readings, listening,
films, and lectures we will, from a global perspective, explore the ways in
which individuals and communities in specific social and cultural contexts
around the world use dance to inform and mediate social identity and social
relations.
INTG288. Global Perspectives
3 sem. hrs.
INTG 200 is a designation for new Global
Perspectives courses being piloted. Topics and course descriptions for this
course number will vary. All courses offered under this number designation meet
the Global Perspectives general education requirement.
INTG 3xxG. Reflections
3 sem hrs
An exploration of one’s
own and others’ ideas about the ultimate meaning and purpose of our
lives. Courses from which each student will choose will be taught from
philosophical, religious, artistic, and scientific perspectives. To be taken in
the junior year.
INTG 300. Reflections: Pilot Course
3 sem hrs
INTG 300 is a designation for new Reflections
courses being piloted. Topics and course descriptions for this course number
will vary. All courses offered under this number designation meet the
Reflections general education requirement.
INTG 301. Reflections: Spirit and
Story
3 sem hrs
Long before abstract speculation thought about
religion and the realm of the spiritual, human beings told one another stories
about the gods and of our relationship with them. And, we continue to tell
stories about such things as sacrifice and suffering, communion and celebration,
stories of our origins and of our ends, and of what is expected of us. This
course examines various spiritual and religious themes within works of
literature and the cinema. The spiritual informs art just as our understanding
of the spiritual may be influenced by our stories and how we tell them to
ourselves.
INTG 302. Reflections: The Pursuit
of Well-Being
3 sem hrs
What is well-being and how do we develop it? It
is the goal of this course to critically evaluate the experience of well-being
and understand it in the context of the individual, family, society, culture and
history. We will examine the role of money, exercise, religion, struggle,
sacrifice, volunteerism, gender, age and happiness. Other topics include: Amish
voluntary simplicity, the lifestyle of 100-year-old Okinawans, materialism and
self-actualization. Readings will include:
Man’s Search for Meaning, Walden,
and Aristotle’s
Nichomachean Ethics. Students will also participate in various
practices including Tai Chi, meditation, and developing a personal mission
statement, while reflecting on their own experience.
INTG 303. Reflections: Bodies,
Nature, Power
3 sem hrs
This course will
examine the “death of nature” in early modernity (roughly the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries). The emphasis will be on the role of modern philosophy,
theology, and science in European colonial expansion, on the witch burnings in
Renaissance Europe and the rise of “scientific racism.” Post-colonial and
feminist alternatives will be explored as we rethink human relationships with
the natural world.
INTG 304. Reflections: Beyond
Belief
3 sem hrs
This course will
track the history of science (from the Enlightenment) and its naturalistic
approach to knowledge as it conflicts with religious belief. Using
examples such as the heliocentric universe, evolution and creation, neurology
and the soul, and evolutionary psychology we will illustrate increasing
challenges to religious authority and the concept of god(s). Arguably, science
has weakened theism by continually narrowing the scope of God’s provenance and
challenging the authority of religious proclamations. Therefore, we will
consider the relationship among science and agnosticism and atheism, concluding
with how atheists defend their views and answer the fundamental questions of
meaning and existence. Students in this course will seriously consider how
individuals throughout history have approached the dichotomies of faith and
reason; the transcendental and the physical; and the material and immaterial.
INTG 305. Reflections: Ancient
Religious Reflections: Sacred Places
3 sem hrs
This course focuses on a number of important
religious sites in the ancient Mediterranean world. We will compare and contrast
these holy places and consider what makes them sacred. You will be challenged to
compare these sacred places to your own sense of the spatial sacredness. We will
examine the geography of the place, its history, its religious rituals, etc. The
course will approach these sacred places from a variety of materials including
texts, painting, sculpture and archaeology. The basic premise of this course is
that a sense of sacred space is an important aspect of what it means to be
human. The places sacred to a culture illustrate the values and attitudes upon
which that society is based. Some of the sacred places this course could examine
include: the Acropolis in Athens, the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, the Dome of
the Rock in Jerusalem, the Vatican in Rome, and the Mormon Temple in Nauvoo,
Illinois. Participants in this course will be challenged to compare one or more
of these sacred places with places they consider to be sacred in their own
lives.
INTG 306. Reflections: The Psychological
Aspects of Civil Rights Issues
3 sem hrs
This course asks students to reflect upon their
personal values and moral belief systems, and to develop an understanding of how
societies have struggled to formulate ethical and moral frameworks. In order to
do this, we will examine a variety of civil rights issues, including slavery,
suffrage, genocide, and apartheid, and discuss how societies have struggled to
deal with these issues. We will also examine various psychological aspects of
oppression and civil rights struggles, to better understand the psychological
impact on both the individual and the society.
INTG 307.
Reflections: Friends, Neighbors, Lovers, Enemies 3
sem hrs
This course offers students the opportunity to
reflect on their lives and the lives of others through the medium of story.
Using stories from the world’s religious traditions as well as novels and
biography, students will be asked to examine how narratives shape our ideas of
who we consider to be friends, neighbors, lovers, and enemies and how we are to
respond to them. Students will explore their beliefs about themselves and
others, their images of God and how they have been formed, how these
understandings of the divine influence human behavior, the importance of caring
for self, and the need to connect with our global human society and help care
for the earth. The course will continually ask students to consider the
possibility that there is more than one “right” answer to basic questions of
creaturely being and relating to the divine.
INTG 308.
Reflections: The Just War
3 sem hrs
This course will
introduce students to some of the standard theories of “just wars”
(jus ad
bellum) and just war
practices (jus
in bello). We will consider questions about the moral and legal
acceptability of force. We will study international rules of warfare, and how
they have changed over the centuries. We will contemplate whether the killing of
civilians is “collateral damage” or an immoral act, or something else. We will
ask questions about accountability and justice. We will proceed roughly
chronologically and explore how the ideas of the earliest thinkers have held up
or been changed by wars, terrorism, and weapons development.
INTG 309.
Reflections: Personal Identity
3 sem hrs
This course provides an examination of the
biological, behavioral, and social foundations of the sense of personal
identity. It considers the way in which personal identity may be a gift, a
biological imperative, a challenge, a social creation, or even an illusion. The
multiple anchors of our identity in memory, body, society, and experiences are
explored.
INTG 310.
Reflections: Questions of Life: Creating a Rhetoric of
Personal Values and Identity
3 sem hrs
This course asks students to contemplate fifteen
of the most defining questions of one’s life and examine the answers that have
been given by the famous and infamous. Questions to be discussed include: “Who
am I?”; “What do we know and how did we come to know it?”; and “What is fair in
civil discourse?” Through discussion, readings, media viewings, field trips and
experiential opportunities, students will formulate their personal answers to
the critical questions of personal identity and humanity. Using value
clarification, epistemological readings, and texts of pop culture, students will
engage in structured controversy and writing assignments that invite each to
consider world views other than their own and formulate answers to key life
questions, following that exposure. Students will gain practical experience in
civil discourse on highly conflicted policy choices while taking a journey of
self-discovery and personal enrichment. This is a course in personal
epistemology via rhetorical dialectics.
INTG 311. Reflections: Warrior Ethos
3 sem hrs
What does it mean to be a warrior? “Warrior” has
become an overused and misunderstood word. Professional wrestlers, football
players and ultimate fighters are all described as “warriors.” But are they? In
this class, we will read about, think about, and talk about warrior qualities.
Some of the subjects we will discuss include: the warrior in history; warrior
codes; warrior spirituality; warrior and technology; warrior and self; women as
warriors; and warrior and community.
INTG 312. Reflections: Sacred Voices: Music
and Literature
3 sem hrs
This course will examine important themes
inherent to the human condition: faith, freedom, war, and love. Each exploration
will begin with a musical work and branch into a literary counterpart. Our
spiritual stories and journeys have inspired some of our finest music.
Conversely, the intuitive and emotional language of music has the power to
intensify and reinterpret our words. Central to
the course will be discussion of how the artist helps to define us.
INTG 313. Reflections: Suffering, Evil, and
Hope
3 sem hrs
Why is there suffering and evil? What is our
responsibility in the face of suffering? Are there grounds for hoping that
suffering may one day cease? This class focuses on the long tradition of
religious and philosophical reflection on these and related questions. The
course material includes classic texts, novels, and film as points of departure
for class discussion.
INTG 314. Reflections: Faith and Solidarity:
American Perspectives
on Religion, Ethics and Politics
3 sem hrs
This seminar provides students with the
opportunity to think about the relationship between religion, ethics and
politics in the American context through the close reading of texts by classic
American thinkers, including philosophers, theologians, literary figures and
social commentators. The course examines the development of the culture of
individualism and engages criticisms and concerns about the effect of
individualism on the forming and sustaining of communities. Along the way, we
look at such themes as America as an ideal, nature and nature religion, loyalty
and patriotism, democracy and religious pluralism, race, self-expression and
communal identity.
INTG 315. Reflections: Cosmology and
Creation
3 sem hrs
The primary objective of this course is to
explore possible answers to the questions, “Where do we come from?” “What is our
place in this universe?” and “What is our destiny?” In the process of so doing,
students will be encouraged to consider several theories of the
universe—classical models, biblical doctrines and arguments, scientific theories
based on compiled data, and a variety of Western and Eastern concepts. The
course will also attempt to acquaint students with scientific methods used to
address these weighty issues and balance them with theological considerations
and philosophical systems, in order to see that these modes of inquiry can work
with and not necessarily against each other.
INTG 316. Reflections: Poetics of the Self
3 sem hrs
An investigation of some questions that arise
from an awareness of one’s own self.
The intent is to place the question “Who am I?”
into a critically manageable context. The course emphasizes discovery of the
self and various strategies for making sense of one’s self. Particular emphasis
is on the need for models (plots, paradigms, myths) in defining our existence.
INTG 317. Reflections: Food For Thought
3 sem hrs
One of the central metaphors for food in our
culture is “fuel”, however, it may also be “communion” in the broadest sense.
This course will explore some essential issues of food including its spiritual
dimensions, health implications, family farming and agribusiness, fast food,
slow food, and local food, animal and human rights, and genetically modified
organisms. To quote Wendell Berry: “How we eat determines to a considerable
extent how the world is used.” As we live in a largely agricultural area, we
will start locally and gradually extend to more global perspectives.
INTG 318. Reflections: The Meaning of Sports
3 sem hrs
This course centers on discourse analysis, where
we will learn early in the semester how to actively “read” our surroundings and
examine how meaning is constructed in a variety
of “texts,” such as television, advertising, the Web, public spaces, and
across our own campus. We will then focus on the industry of contemporary sports
(local, national, and international), which is rich with conventions,
expectations, power struggles, and gender, ethnic, and racial implications.
Using discourse analysis, we will examine sports from a variety of perspectives,
for the purpose of better understanding how sports shapes and reflects our own
personal identities.
INTG 320. Reflections: Comparative Issues in
World Religions
3 sem hrs
This course will introduce students to the
world’s major religious traditions—the religions originating in India (Hinduism
and Buddhism), the religions originating in China (Confucianism and Taoism), and
the “religions of Abraham” (Judaism, Christianity and Islam)—by approaching the
religions comparatively through the lens of a particular issue, aspect or theme.
The comparison will either be based on readings of sacred scripture or on the
basis of religious ritual and practices. Students will learn how to analyze and
interpret and will be engaged in the difficult but compelling exercise of
comparison, which prompts the questions about the similarities of the world’s
religious traditions as well as their profound differences. Students will learn
a basic overview of the religions and then delve into the specific details,
depending on the topic. Possible topics include: mysticism, religious founders,
religious ethics, peace and non-violence, and heaven and hell.
INTG 321. Reflections: A History of Humanist
Ideas
3 sem hrs
In this course, students will be exposed to the
thoughts and ideas of those who have struggled with all aspects of the human
condition without a belief in God. Beginning with the materialism of early Greek
thought, the course will survey the roots and content of secularism as expressed
in Renaissance-inspired humanism, Enlightenment rationalism, nineteenth-century
freethinking movements, and twentieth-century philosophical debates. Atheists’
and agnostics’ writings and ideas will be read and examined to see the myriad
contributions made to humanity by non-religious thinkers. Special emphasis will
be placed on linking the meaningful, ethical, and productive work of these
humanist thinkers to their focus on secular, and not religious, values. The
humanist tradition has sought to affirm the finite nature of human existence, to
maintain an inherent relationship to the world.
INTG 333.
Reflections: Machiavelli and Gandhi—Meaningful
Ethics in an Amoral World
3 sem hrs
This course looks for common ground between two
highly compelling philosophies, moral realism, which assumes that effective
behavior requires ethical compromise, and moral idealism (best exemplified by
pacifism), which assumes that ethically tainted means can never lead to a
morally desirable end. Machiavelli and Gandhi are presented as the respective
archetypes of these two philosophies. We will also examine the work of
contemporary writers from a variety of disciplines who struggle with the issues
of situational vs. pure ethics and short- vs. long-term effectiveness.
INTG 4xxG. Citizenship
3 sem hrs
The senior capstone course of the four-year General
Education program. Chosen from a menu of courses, the Citizenship course will
take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding important social issues. To
be taken in the senior year.
INTG 400. Citizenship
3 sem hrs
INTG 400 is a
designation for new Citizenship courses being piloted. Topics and course
descriptions for this course number will vary. All courses offered under this
number designation meet the Citizenship general education requirement for the
curriculum.
INTG 401. Citizenship: Building Communities
3 sem hrs
This course investigates the concepts of
community, civic engagement, social capital, and the like, through study of
classic statements (deTocqueville,
Democracy in America) as well as contemporary studies
(Putnam, Bowling
Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community). As
students engage in academic study of these concepts, they will simultaneously
involve themselves in the local community through community-based research.
INTG 402. Citizenship: Green Initiatives
3 sem hrs
This course will focus on defining and proposing
a solution to a specific, local campus or community environmental problem. The
end product of the course will be a concrete, detailed proposal for action
submitted to appropriate authorities that is based on research and discussion
with all stakeholders. The majority of our work will be collaborative and
intensive; every member of the course will be expected to produce and contribute
significantly to the final product which will ultimately be a catalyst of for
measurable progress in solving an environmental problem.
INTG 403. Citizenship: Taxes and the
Citizenry
3 sem hrs
An examination of the political, social,
cultural, and economic issues affecting tax policies. The course will address
the rights as well as the responsibilities of citizens with regards to taxes.
Students will delve into issues such as the common good, fairness, economic
growth, wealth, and age. They will investigate these issues in relation to
current tax policy as well as ways in which citizens can be involved in change.
The course will also involve an experiential component in which students will
understand basic income tax through instructional workshops and be certified to
prepare income tax returns by passing a certification test. The experiential
component is in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income
Tax Assistance Program in which students assist the members of the community,
who are the benefactors of tax policy, in the preparation of their tax returns.
Common issues encountered in these returns are social security; capital gains;
credits such as the earned income credit, education credit, child tax credit,
and dependent care credit; income exclusions; and itemized deductions. Previous
knowledge of tax, accounting, or business is not required. Students may not be
concurrently enrolled in ACCT 364 or INTG 364. Prerequisite: Senior standing.
INTG 404. Citizenship: Civic Leadership
3 sem hrs
Civic leadership is a rare, but essential,
element in effectively accomplishing the goals that stem from engaged and
committed citizenship. Fundamentally, most citizen determination to seek
objectives achieves minimal success without skilled, effective leadership. Civic
leadership, then, is the ability to motivate and effectively move citizens to
action or accomplishment related to the community (worldwide, nation, region,
locale, or group) of the respective citizens. The purpose of this course is to
focus on, explore deeply, research accomplishments from, shadow exemplary
examples of, and engage in team-competing strategies and stratagems related to
civic leadership.
INTG 405. Citizenship: The Democracy Project
3 sem hrs
The Democracy Project is an exercise in applied
political philosophy, sociopolitical reform, and real world advocacy. While the
required texts will provide background, the bulk of the course will consist of
emulating a “think tank” devoted to enhancing democracy in the U.S. and abroad.
The work of The Democracy Project is meant to be cumulative—each class will
build on the work of previous courses.
INTG 406. Citizenship: Theatre and Social
Change
3 sem hrs
From the Federal Theatre Projects of the Great
Depression to the disruptive performances of the l960s and 1970s, theatre has
played an important role in American radicalism. This course will report on
socially conscious, politically active theatres in the United States. Despite
(or perhaps especially because of) the evaporation of Cold War passions and the
rise of conservatism in the 1980s and 1990s, such theatre work remains a
persistent and evolving presence on the political landscape. The course will
track the historical evolution of political theatre and will also explore the
current state and future prospects of different modes, including agit-prop,
demonstrations, solo performance, Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and
community-based production. A significant means of developing a dialogue for
social change (e.g., civic engagement). Students will select problems (local,
state, national, international) and will create theatre pieces as a means of
opening community dialogue and exploring potential solutions.
INTG 407. Citizenship: Monmouth’s Immigrant
Communities
3 sem hrs
This course examines citizenship through the eyes
of Monmouth’s immigrant community. Students will first explore the local history
and politics of immigration, then collect living testimonies, or oral histories,
of first- and second-generation immigrants, as well as local leaders in health,
law, government, business, education or law. Through this experiential learning,
students will bring information into action, working together to suggest avenues
for social change to improve immigrant lives.
INTG 408. Citizenship: Consumerism and Civic
Duty
3 sem hrs
An overview of the linkages between the
consumption of material goods and civic duty. Focus on the issues raised by
connections, contradictions, and discourses of consumerism and citizenship.
Includes participation in a debate and in the Monmouth College sustainability
initiative.
INTG 409. Citizenship: Creating Change
through Art
3 sem hrs
An inquiry into the ways that artists across
time, culture, and media utilize and react to political, social, and cultural
issues and problems through their art forms. Students will create and publicly
present or display an original artwork based on research with the purpose of
activism.
INTG 410. Citizenship: Voluntary Action
3 sem hrs
This course examines the shift away from state
agency toward private provision of social services, and concurrent changes in
the voluntary sector. Students in this course will be invited to interrogate
critically theories and practices of voluntarism by examining social capital,
corporate philanthropy, and voluntary action in order to create and propose ways
to perpetuate a think tank which might tentatively be call the Monmouth
Institute on Voluntary Action and Citizenship.
INTG 411.
Citizenship: Outside-School Learning Programs
3 sem hrs
Students in this course will explore the history
and mission of various outside-school learning programs, primarily in the United
States, and observe and volunteer in local outside-school learning programs,
where they will be asked to analyze the program rationale, its social-historical
context, and its methods, effectiveness, and responsiveness to the young people
it is intended to serve.
INTG 412.
Citizenship: Alternatives to War
3 sem hrs
This course first examines the causes and the
outcomes of three specific wars. Against that background, the class will study
non-violent protest movements and pro-active peace and human rights programs,
again searching for causes and studying outcomes. The classroom learning will be
the product of lectures and films, reaction papers, debates and discussions,
quizzes, and exams. Outside the classroom, the students, working in pairs or
groups of three or four, will create and present a project, planned in
consultation with the instructor. Possibilities include: a policy proposal for
an institution, with plans for its implementation; a research project with a
particular, articulated goal and final paper; a semester-long internship or
service learning project with a journal.
INTG 413.
Citizenship: Statistical Thinking
3 sem hrs
This course will focus on using statistical
information to make decisions in a variety of disciplines such as physical and
life sciences, political and social sciences, etc. The course will also address
the issue of the misuse of quantitative information to mislead. During the
course, students will properly obtain and analyze data which will result in a
written report. This work will support either another Citizenship course or an
organization in the community.
INTG 414. Land,
Food and Sustainable Agriculture
3 sem hrs
This course locates citizenship among human
relationships to land, food, and agriculture. According to what agricultural
standards do we appropriately describe our society as failing or flourishing?
What might it mean to imagine ourselves as stewards of the land, for posterity’s
sake? These questions invite comparison of modern industrial and “sustainable”
(organic) agricultural practices, and consideration of the relationship between
cultural values and methods of food production.
INTG 415.
Citizenship: Media and the Self-Directed Citizen
3 sem hrs
An overview of how American media form citizen
views of political and social issues. Information upon which civic action is
based comes through media and civic action itself is becoming more and more a
media activity. This course emphasizes the two faces of mediated civic action.
Students will first analyze the constructed nature of mediated news and
information and later discover the methods by which media can be used to join
with others in accomplishing civic goals. Topics covered include: Print and
electronic news, trends in “infotainment” (e.g. The Daily Show), political
persuasion, and the Internet (Facebook, blogging, YouTube, etc.).
INTG 421.
Citizenship: Liberty and the Citizen
3 sem hrs
In this course students will be asked to address
such questions as: What does it mean to be free? Do people want to be free? What
is the proper role of government in a free society? How free are people in the
U.S. and other countries? Is freedom advancing or retreating around the world?
What obligations, if any, do individuals owe to the greater society? Who are
perceived to be the enemies of freedom and why? Should enemies of freedom be
confronted and if so when and how? What limits, if any, should be placed on
individuals?