The Undergraduate Core Curriculum
Living Responsibly in an Interdependent World
- HIST-101 Global History of the Twentieth Century
- HIST-105 Ethnicity and Diversity in the Modern World
- HIST-120 Perspectives on the Pursuit of Peace
- HIST- 220 Hunger in the Twenty-first Century
- HIST-230 Women in the Developing World
- HIST-240 Introduction to African History
- HIST-241 Introduction to Latin American History
- HIST-250 Gender in Asia
- HIST-242 Introduction to Modern Asian History
- HIST-250 Gender in Asia
- HIST-320A American Foreign Policy Since 1945
- HIST-320J Crime and Punishment: A Historical and Comparative Study
- HIST-325 Women, Gender and Feminism in the World (crosslisted with SOC 325)
- HIST-420C From Empire to Commonwealth
- HIST-447 Women and Gender in African History
- HIST-448 Historical Roots of African Challenges
- HIST- 450 The Global History of Popular Culture
- HIST- 454 Contemporary History of the Middle East
- HIST-455 Youth Revolt and Student Power in World History
- SOC 218 Anthropology
- FA-100 Music, Art, and the Contemporary World
- FA-102 Sound and Symbol in the Arts
- ART-113 History of Art I
- ART-114 History of Art II
- ART-117 Nineteenth Century Art
- ART-120 World Monuments and Methods of Art History
- ART-218 Art in the Modern Era
- ART-406 Studies in Roman Art
- ART-433 Medieval Art
- ART-434 History of Postmodern Women: Literature and Art
- ART-436 Ancient Greek Art and Architecture
- ART-490B Green Piece: Art and Nature in America
- COMM-449 Film and Society
- PSYCH-341 Psychology in Film
- PSYCH-342 Psychology of Hitchcock
- MUSC-101 Understanding/Appreciating Music
- MUSC-219 Jazz History and Discography
- MUSC-399A The History of Hip Hop
- THEA-113 Introduction to Theatre
- THEA-241 Fundamentals of Acting
The undergraduate core curriculum at Marywood University contributes to the University’s mission and goals. Its central focus is to provide a foundation for “living responsibly in a diverse and interdependent world,” a central goal of the University’s Mission Statement. In offering our Core Curriculum, the University fulfills its historic mission as a Catholic university and affirms its commitment to the liberal arts tradition.
The Core Curriculum thus helps students think critically, examine values carefully, and act responsibly; it challenges students to engage in civic responsibility in terms of social justice, unmet human needs, and empowerment of others; and it provides a context within which students can realize meaningful personal and professional lives.
To create an environment in which students can develop into fully human persons, Marywood University integrates professional programs with a general education curriculum composed of a strong liberal arts core, general electives and competencies. Each component contributes an essential perspective to the central focus of the curriculum.
The liberal arts core is organized into six categories:
Category I, The First Year Experience, includes UNIV 100 the New Student Seminar, “Living Responsibly in an Interdependent World” and English 160, Writing Skills. The New Student Seminar is intended to promote a positive adjustment and assimilation into the University, and to introduce students to the University’s life, culture, mission, history, and traditions. Writing Skills (English 160) helps prepare students for college-level, process-based academic writing. While teaching students to write well in various contexts is an ongoing process, ENGL 160 lays strong foundations for argumentative and inquiry-based writing by increasing rhetorical awareness and analytical skills. Through guided practice, students gain experience in using research to join ongoing academic conversations.
In Category II, The Human Condition in Its Ultimate Relationships, students examine the nature, purpose, and meaning of life through philosophical and religious lenses that help them to evaluate their own life position and choices. They develop their critical thinking skills, explore the religious dimension of life, and experience the free and responsible pursuit of truth, as they examine the ultimate questions that have always engaged human beings. Studies in this category supply students with a theoretical basis and a cognitive process for making ethical decisions in promoting justice, peace, and compassion in the contemporary world.
Category III, The Human Condition in the Context of the Physical Universe, is vital for fulfilling the central focus of the core. Many urgent concerns of the interdependent world are scientifically and technologically based and require knowledge and analytical skills for effective response. This Category promotes not only an appreciation of the natural sciences, but also an awareness of our dependence upon nature and a sense of stewardship in fostering the earth’s resources.
Category IV, The Human Condition in Relation to Self and Social Structure, also provide essential preparation for living responsibly in an interdependent world. The Social Sciences – including Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, and Criminology, among others – provide students with opportunities to understand more fully the complex relations between individuals and the social order in which they find themselves.
Category V, The Human Condition in its Cultural Context, offers courses that heighten students’ sensitivity to human concerns and to the challenges and delights shared by persons of diverse cultures and historical periods. They foster aesthetic appreciation and the ability to communicate effectively within and outside one’s own cultural group. They provide access to understanding of our partners in interdependence.
Category VI, The Human Condition in its Historical Context, provides historical contexts that enable students to think more critically and creatively about the diverse and interdependent world in which they live. Knowledge of past and contemporary societies promotes recognition of the radical interdependence of human beings and helps students respond to contemporary challenges with well-informed effectiveness.
Finally, The Human Condition in a Global Context, provides explicit opportunities for students to undertake cross-cultural comparative studies, either historical or contemporary, in order best to foster an awareness and appreciation of the pluralistic nature of contemporary society. This category has the potential to overlap and connect to all of the other categories, and it is the one category in which courses that fulfill requirements in one of the other categories may also be applied.
The total undergraduate curriculum promotes lifelong independent learning and fosters the development of creative and responsive leadership in personal and professional life. It is hoped that, as a result of their studies, students will be able to fulfill the mission of the University, learning to live responsibly in this interdependent world.
As a result of their courses in the core curriculum, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an awareness of and respect for the religious, spiritual, and moral dimensions of life;
2. Develop a critical awareness of the whole self, as well as an understanding of the complexities of human persons in diverse historical and social contexts;
3. Develop and evaluate thinking through quantitative, qualitative, and scientific reasoning; problem solving; and research;
4. Respond justly and with empathy to social inequity – local, regional and global;
5. Demonstrate effective communication skills, including skills in a second language at an appropriate level;
6. Develop an aesthetic appreciation and critical understanding of the visual and performing arts and their cultural importance.