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A series of courses taken over four years that serves as the core component of
Monmouth College’s general education program. Integrated Studies
& General
Education Coordinators:
INTG 101G. Introduction to Liberal Arts
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. (Four credits.)
INTG 2xxG. Global Perspectives
An investigation of communities, societies,
political systems, and civilizations. 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. (Three credits; taken sophomore
year.)
INTG 201. Global Perspectives: World Impact of East Asian Science
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, Malaysia, 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
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
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
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
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 207. Global Perspectives: Terrorism
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
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
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
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.
INTG211 Global Perspectives: Music and Cultures
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.
INTG212 Global Perspectives: Love, Marriage,
and the State
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 301. Reflections: Spirit
and Story
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 302. Reflections: The Pursuit
of Well-Being
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 303. Reflections: Bodies,
Nature, Power
This course will examine the "death of nature" in early modernity
(roughly the 16th and 17th 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.
(Three credits.)
INTG 304. Reflections: Beyond Belief
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 305. Reflections: Ancient
Religious Reflections
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 306. Reflections: The
Psychological Aspects of Civil Rights Issues
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 307. Reflections: Friends,
Neighbors, Lovers, Enemies
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. (Three
credits.)
INTG 308. Reflections: The Just War
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. (Three credits).
INTG 309. Reflections: Personal
Identity
This course provides an examination of the biological, behavioral, and
social foundations of the sense of personal identity. The course
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 310. Reflections: Questions of
Life: Creating a Rhetoric of Personal Values and Identity
This course asks students to contemplate 15 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. (Three credits.)
INTG 311. Reflections: Warrior Ethos
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. (Three
credits.)
INTG 312. Reflections: Music and
Literature
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 313. Reflections: Suffering,
Evil, and Hope
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. (Three credits.)
INTG 333. Reflections: Machiavelli
and Gandhi – Meaningful Ethics in an Amoral World
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. (Three credits).
INTG 4xxG. Citizenship
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. The
specific courses are under development but will be offered beginning Fall 2008.
(Three credits; taken senior year.) INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
INTR 105. Current Events
The class builds upon the presentations at the Great
Decisions program which meets Wednesday evenings each spring. Each introductory
talk is followed by a
discussion period involving townspeople, faculty and students. (One credit.)
INTR 210. Introduction to Liberal Arts Associates
Students will assist
Introduction to Liberal Arts instructors in the conduct of the seminar. Such
assistance may involve: attending convocations and leading student discussions
on convocation presentations; leading discussion of a text in the seminar;
reading student papers; offering writing tutorial help to students enrolled in
Introduction to Liberal Arts participating in special projects such as panels,
symposia, workshops, etc. Each student will be asked to prepare a short,
evaluative paper on the experience at the end of the semester. Open to
Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. Prerequisites: Academic good standing and a B
grade or better in Introduction to Liberal Arts at Monmouth College and
permission of instructor. Limited enrollment: one associate per section of
Introduction to Liberal Arts. (Two credits.)
ACCT 364. Service Learning Through the Volunteer Return Preparation Program
A
service-learning activity. In partnership with the Internal Revenue Service’s
Volunteer Return Preparation Program, the student will study to become certified
and will serve the individual tax preparation, e-filing, and tax education needs
of the campus and surrounding communities. The course is inclusive of workshops
and participatory tax sessions. Offered only in the spring semester.
Prerequisite: Junior standing. (60 credits.) (Cross-listed as ACCT 364.) May be
repeated once for credit. (Two credits.) |
