Core Courses

Curious about what classes are core classes? See a sample list below, by category.

• HIST 199: American Roots 1400-1700
• HIST 199: Britain: Sherlock to Britpop
• HIST 199: Europe at War, 1914-1945
• HIST 199: Francis: The Making of a Saint
• HIST 199: History of Native American Health
• HIST 199: Immigration to America
• HIST 199: Latin America: Cortes to Castro
• HIST 199: Law & Order in 19th-century US West
• HIST 199: Papyrus, Parchment, and Paper
• HIST 199: Women in the American West

Courses still being added.

Mathematical Perspectives

Much of the public equates "arithmetic" or "algebra" with "math," but the discipline is much more than that. Mathematical Perspectives courses study math as a liberal art, a way of understanding the universe around us. In-depth calculation tools may or may not be required.

• MATH116: Elements of Statistics
• MATH120: Elementary Functions
• MATH125: Mathematical Perspectives (various topics)
• MATH140: Concepts of Calculus
• MATH156: General Statistics
• MATH201, 202, 211, 212, 213, 214: Mathematics courses for Elementary and Middle School Education
• MATH170, 171, 220: Calculus I/II/III
• MATH225: Foundations of Mathematics
• CSCI170: Computer Science I

More courses being added.

Philosophical Perspectives

This core requirement is satisfied by one course: PHIL200. However, there are multiple subtopics that students can choose from. Upcoming options include:

• Human Progress
• Knowledge from Plato to Early Modernity
• Knowledge from Plato to Post Modernity
• Mind, Body and Person
• Models of Knowledge as Action
• Reason, Nature and Morals
• Science, Technology and Society

Scientific Perspectives

All Scientific Perspectives classes require both a lab and lecture; in some courses, the two are integrated into one course number. Students may choose one of the following in order to satisfy their Scientific Perspectives requirement:

• ATTR 420: Research Methods in AT
• BIOL 102/132: Human Biology
• BIOL 105/124: Life: The Nature of Disease
• BIOL 110/133: Human Reproduction Today
• BIOL 118/134: The World of Plants
• BIOL 130/131: Introduction to Life Science
• CJUS 381: Methods of Research in Criminal Justice
• PHYS 110/111: Forensic Studies
• PHYS 114/115: Our Universe: Physical Science
• PHYS 124/125 Our Universe: In the Beginning
• PHYS 126/127: Our Universe: Science in Art and Architecture
• PHYS 140/142: Technical Physics
• PHYS 172 University Physics II (with PHYS 163, 173, or ENGR 173)
• PHYS 330/331: Modern Physics I
• PSYC 130/131: Perspectives in Psychological Science
• PSYC 221/223: Research Methods in Psychology

This is a new core requirement; more options are still being added.

Theological Perspectives

All Theology courses 200 and above count as Theological Perspectives. All Theology courses 300 and above also count for Humanities Electives.

Literature and the Moral Imagination

Literature and the Moral Imagination--part of the Ethics/Religion and Society (E/RS) "core of the core"--encourages students to think about ethical or religious issues from a creative, literary perspective. The course may be satisfied through CLAS205, ENGL205, FREN205 GERM205 or SPAN205. Available titles vary from year to year, but have recently included:

• Addiction
• Adult Life Cycles
• American Gods
• American Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Challenging Presumptions
• Classical Literature
• Coming of Age Stories
• Crime in a "Just" Society
• Dystopias
• Erotic Love, the Individual and Society
• Family
• French Literature
• Gender and Violence
• Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Nationality
• Guilt, Forgiveness and Atonement
• Hispanic Literature
• Leadership and Community
• Literature of Diversity
• Love and Betrayal
• Margins of Society
• Memory
• Mental Illness
• Outsiders: Hostility and Hospitality
• Passing and Performing Identity
• Portrayals of the Marginalized
• Prophets, Shamans, Wizards and Magicians
• Reading/Writing Creative Autobiographies and Memoirs
• Resisting, Reshaping and Retelling
• Responding to Evil
• The American West
• The Power of Storytelling
• War, Peace and Conflict Resolution
• Wealth and Poverty in America

Ethics/Religion and Society

The capstone of the four-course Ethics/Religion and Society (E/RS) "core of the core" may be taken in numerous disciplines. Available titles vary from year to year, but have recently included:

• BIOL110: Life: Human Reproduction Today
• BIOL120: Life: Ecology and People
• BIOL330: Medical Genetics: Implications
• BLAW300: Legal Environment
• CHEM104: Life and Health
• COMM324: Sex and Violence in the Media
• COMM477: Strategic Communications Ethics and Society
• ECON320: Natural Resources Economics
• HIST324: African-American Struggle for Equality
• HOCS: Occupational Justice: Foundations
• MUSC108: Music, Love and Death
• PHIL319: Reason and Desire
• PHIL321: Business Ethics
• PHIL329: Bioethics
• PHIL364: Modern Political Philosophy
• PHYS 116/117: Our Universe: The Earth (lecture and lab)
• POLI275: The Politics of War and Peace
• POLI344/THEO345: The Challenge of Peace
• POLI350: Political Theory and American Regime
• PSYC367: Psychology of Aging
• SOCI216: Sociology of Religion
• SOCW206: Introduction to Gender and Diversity
• SOCW315: Values, Poverty and Society
• SOCW318: Race Relations
• SPAN358: Central America Society and Culture
• THEO283: Jewish/Christian Dialogue
• THEO311: Faith and Justice
• THEO322: Black Theology
• THEO326: Women and Religion
• THEO340: US Catholic Church and Public Issues
• THEO343: Dialogue Among World Religions
• THEO364: Religion in an Age of Science

Humanities Elective

Humanities electives are from the departments of Classics, English, History, Philosophy or Theology. The Humanities elective may not double-count with any other core requirement (except Diversity flag, Writing flag, Oral Communication flag, and Quantitative Reasoning flag). The Humanities Elective may not double count as an E/RS flag (though may be an E/RS flagged course). The Humanities elective is very broad, and the list below is not exhaustive, but includes relevant courses offered in recent years:

• CLAS120: From Homer to Plato
• CLAS121: From Alexandra to Cleopatra
• CLAS160: From Romulus to Octavian
• CLAS161: From Augustus to Attila
• CLAS170: Near Eastern Civilization I: Ancient Egypt and Nubia
• CLAS171: Near Eastern Civilization II: Bible Lands
• CLAS211: The Dead Sea Scrolls
• CLAS217: Introduction to the Church Fathers
• CLAS261: Greek Archeology
• CLAS262: Roman Archaeology
• CLAS241: Classical Mythology: Art
• CLAS242: Classical Mythology: Literature
• EDCH324: Children's Literature for Early Childhood
• EDCH326: Children's Literature for Middle Childhood
• ENGL124: Studies in Fiction
• ENGL128: Studies in Black Literature
• ENGL132: Studies in Women's Literature
• ENGL221: Poetry
• ENGL302: Modern Literary Theory
• ENGL303: History of Literary Criticism
• ENGL305: Professional Writing
• ENGL309: Creative Writing: Poetry
• ENGL310: Creative Writing: Fiction
• ENGL318: Creative Writing: Nonfiction
• ENGL320: Topics in Linguistics
• ENGL321: History of the English Language
• ENGL344: Major Black Writers of the World
• ENGL352: African Literature
• ENGL360: Women Writers
• ENGL370: Writings by Sexual Minorities
• ENGL375: Literature and the Arts in Ireland
• ENGL414: Tolkein
• ENGL425: Shakespeare
• ENGL430: 17th Century Literature
• ENGL441: 18th Century British Literature
• ENGL460: Love, Sex, Gender: Victorian Poetry
• ENGL470: Modern British Literature
• ENGL472: Modern Drama
• ENGL480: American Renaissance: 1830-1865
• ENGL483: Modern American Poetry
• ENGL486: Contemporary American Fiction
• ENGL489: American Minority Literature
• FREN302: French Conversation
• FREN438: The Nineteenth Century
• FREN451: Twentieth Century French Theatre
• FREN462: Paris and Parisians in Literature
• GERM420: Introduction to German Literature
• GERM461: German Culture Through Film
• GREK202: Attic Tragedy
• GREK311: History of Ancient Greece
• HIST231: Transatlantic Slave Trade
• HIST233: Women in American History
• HIST243: Outdoor America
• HIST300: Writing in Public
• HIST308: Urban History, Geography and GIS
• HIST309: Age of Big Business: 1885-1920
• HIST333: Histories of American Childhood
• HIST340: History of Mexico
• HIST349: Korea: Past and Present
• HIST382: Anti-Semitism: The Great Hatred
• HIST387: Lenin to Putin: 20th Century Russia
• HIST393: History of the Jesuits
• HIST398: History of Agriculture
• HIST408: Constructing the Public
• HIST412: The American Dream
• HIST482: Global History of Letter Writing
• LATN211: Cicero: Orations
• LATN212: Virgil: Aenid
• LATN231: Horace: Odes and Epodes
• LATN341: Tacitus
• LATN341: Latin Prose
• PHIL300: Origins of Philosophy
• PHIL305: Contemporary Philosophy
• PHIL307: 20th Century Analytic Philosophy
• PHIL309: Medieval Islamic Philosophy
• PHIL311: Symbolic Logic
• PHIL315: Philosophy of Religion
• PHIL317: Philosophy of Human Nature
• PHIL321: Business Ethics
• PHIL323: Markets and Morals
• PHIL329: Bioethics
• PHIL338: Enlightenment and Revolution
• PHIL339: Revolution and its Aftermath
• PHIL340: Metaphysics
• PHIL342: German Idealism
• PHIL344: Chinese Philosophy
• PHIL346: The Scottish Enlightenment
• PHIL364: Modern Political Philosophy
• PHIL372: John Locke
• PHIL379: Nietzsche
• PHIL388: Freud and Philosophy
• PHIL391: Heidegger
• SPAN300: Advanced Spanish
• SPAN305: Readings in Spanish
• SPAN309: Contemporary Issues in the Spanish Speaking World
• SPAN310 Critical Approaches to Text and Cultural Analysis
• SPAN328: Phonetics and Dialectology
• SPAN350: Spanish Civilization
• SPAN352: Latin American Traditions and Popular Culture
• SPAN353: Introduction to Latin American Studies
• SPAN358: Central America Society and Culture
• SPAN370: Introduction to Literary Analysis and Criticism
• SPAN439: 20th Century Spanish Literature
• SPAN445: 20th Century Spanish-American Literature
• THEO203: The Eastern Orthodox Church
• THEO207: Jesus and Power
• THEO209: The Christian Tradition I
• THEO210: The Christian Tradition II
• THEO211: The Dead Sea Scrolls
• THEO214: Religion and Psychology
• THEO217: Introduction to the Church Fathers
• THEO218: Women in Early Christianity
• THEO223: Sacraments Today
• THEO228: Teresa Avila: Life and Works
• THEO230: Church After Vatican II
• THEO245: God, Creation and Ecology
• THEO251: Introduction to Hebrew Scriptures
• THEO252: Introduction to Christian Scriptures
• THEO255: Old Testament Prophets
• THEO256: Theologies of Food and Farm
• THEO264: Synoptic Gospels
• THEO265: Gospel of Mark
• THEO285: The Historical Jesus
• THEO290: Christian Doctrine Today
• THEO303: Christian Ethics: Methods and Questions
• THEO305: Sociology of Religion
• THEO306: Liberation Issues and Theology
• THEO311: Faith and Justice
• THEO313: Christian Sexual Ethics
• THEO322: Black Theology
• THEO324: Religion and Hip Hop
• THEO329: Judaism and Ritual
• THEO333: The Bible on Film
• THEO342: World Religions
• THEO343: Dialogue Among World Religions
• THEO345: The Challenge of Peace
• THEO350: Saints: Origins to Internet
• THEO353: The Holocaust
• THEO355: Introduction to Islam
• THEO358: Immigration Theology and Ethics
• THEO359: Confucianism and Taoism
• THEO364: Religion in an Age of Science
• THEO368: Buddhism
• THEO369: Science, Civilization and Sustainability
• THEO386: Religion and Economics
• THEO397: Religion, Culture and Human Rights
• THEO404: Religion, Ethics and Professional Practice

Natural Sciences Elective

All students must take at least one elective in the natural sciences. These courses, which include a lab and lecture, explore scientific knowledge in a specific, focused area of interest. Both lab and lecture must be successfully completed. Some are also listed as Scientific Perspectives courses, but a given course can only count toward one or the other requirement in your completion of the core.

• BIOL102/132: Life: Human Biology
• BIOL105/124: Life: Biology of Disease
• BIOL118/124: Life: The World of Plants
• BIOL120/130: Life: Ecology and People (E/RS flag)
• BIOL140/141: Human Anatomy and Physiology I
• BIOL160/161: General Biology I
• CHEM104/105: Chemistry: Life and Health
• PHYS112/113: Our Universe: Color and Images
• PHYS116/117: Our Universe: The Earth (E/RS flag)
• PHYS118/119: Our Universe: The Sky
• PHYS124/125: Our Universe: In the Beginning
• PHYS160/161: College Physics I
• PHYS170/171: University Physics I

Courses still being added.

Social Sciences Elective

Social sciences electives are from departments all over campus. Your elective may not double-count with any Perspectives course or humanities elective. Below is a list of courses currently approved for the new core.

• CLAS261: Greek Archaeology
• CJUS101: Introduction to Criminal Justice
• ECON201: Macroeconomic Principles
• EDEC210: Early Childhood Development
• PSYC101: General Psychology
• PSYC231: Developmental Psychology
• PSYC261: Social Psychology
• PSYC277: Abnormal Psychology
• SOCW206: Introduction to Gender and Diversity Studies
• SOCW299: Child Welfare and Development

This is a new requirement. More courses are pending.

Diversity Flag

The Diversity Flag (formerly known as Diversity Curriculum Requirement DCR) may be taken in numerous disciplines, and may double-count with other requirements. In some cases, only certain sections of a course count for the Diversity Flag; be sure to check the course attributes when registering. Available titles vary from year to year, but have recently included:

• BIOL120: Life, Ecology and People
• BIOL260: Introduction to Environmental Science
• BIOL227: Parasitology
• BLAW300: Legal Environment
• COMM323: Race, Class and Gender in the Media
• COMM324: Sex and Violence in the Media
• CJUS335: Inside-Out Prison Exchange
• CJUS365: Women in the Criminal Justice System
• EDCH320: Multicultural Literature for Children
• EDEL260: Cultural Diversity in Education
• Some ENGL124: Studies in Fiction Sections
• ENGL128: Studies in Black Literature
• ENGL132: Studies in Women's Literature
• Some ENGL/SPAN205: Literature and the Moral Imag. Sections
• Some HIST123/124: African History I/II sections
• Some HIST133/134: European History I/II sections
• Some HIST143/144: US History I/II sections
• Some HIST151/152: Latin American History I/II sections
• Some HIST161/162: Asian History I/II sections
• HIST233: Women in American History
• HIST333: Histories of American Childhood
• HIST433: Saints: Origins to the Internet
• HOCS323: Occupational Justice: Foundations
• MGMT200: Organizational Management
• MGMT325: International Management
• MUSC116: Women in Music
• MUSC117: History of Rock
• NURS132: Health and Culture
• POLI280: Irish Political Culture
• POLI367: Gender and Politics
• PSYC231: Developmental Psychology
• PSYC353: Violence Against Women and Girls
• PSYC: Psychology of Aging
• PSYC370: Human Sexuality
• SOCW167: Survey of Society in Social Work
• SOCW206: Introduction to Gender and Diversity Studies
• SOCW299: Child Welfare and Development
• SOCW315: Values, Poverty and Society
• SOCW318: Race Relations
• SOCW325: Women/Men: Myth and Reality
• SOCW404: Religion, Ethics and Professional Practice
• SOCI101: Introduction to Sociology
• SOCI262: Gender and Society
• SOCI287: American Music and the Roots of Cool
• SPMG410: Sport Ethics
• SHRM200: Human Resources in a Diverse Society
• THEO210: The Christian Tradition II
• THEO319: Anti-Semitism: The Great Hatred
• THEO358: Immigration, Theology, and Ethics

Oral Communication, Quantitative Reasoning and Writing Intensive

Please click on the links below for updated lists of each course:

• Oral Communication
• Quantitative Reasoning
• Writing