Description of Degree Curriculum:
You are able to choose any number of concentrations, such as creative writing, writing for theater or film, comparative literature, religious studies, environmental studies, Pacific Rim studies, women’s studies, multicultural studies, history, social sciences, and the arts. This major uses professors in and out of the liberal arts department.
Upon graduating with a degree in Liberal Studies, a student should demonstrate:
1. Understanding of the distinctive ways in which the Social Sciences and Humanities approach knowledge.
2. Appreciation of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as liberators of the mind and spirit for narrow thinking and ignorance.
3. Self-Understanding and Self-Direction that encourages postgraduate pursuits in one's interests and values.
4. Activism/Community Service that recognizes the interrelations of education and citizenship.
There are several study abroad opportunities such as traveling to Southern Spain, Italy, Rome, and Florence. January 2006 students traveled to Southern Spain following the adventures of Don Quixote in a quest for the "Literature of Moorish Spain." Philosophy professor Mark Faller and writing/lit instructor Gina Miller led students on an itinerary that included visits to Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Costa del Sol. In 2005 students along with a group of war veterans explored the history and culture of Vietnam with history professor Tim Rawson and communications professor Lynn Paulson. The goal of this course was to examine Vietnam as a country rather than as a war. Themes included Vietnamese religion, philosophy, literature, arts, architecture, cuisine, political evolution and struggles. With the return of the Summer Olympic Games to Athens in 2004, philosophy, religion and history professors Mark Faller, Regina Boisclair and Tim Rawson thought it appropriate to lead a course there as well. This course focused on the history and culture of Greece, from our modern roots in pre-Christian Greece through the Byzantine era, conquest by the Ottoman Turks, WWII and so forth. The main theme was Greece as a modern nation state shaped by the cross-currents of history. The team's itinerary included the Mycenaen ruins and the theater of Epidaurus in Corinth, the site of the original games in Olympia, the Oracle at Delphi, Thessalonika and the Acropolis in Athens.
