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A new revamped humanities core curriculum is set to debut in September. These classes are not just for students who wish to major in the humanities. The core curriculum is the set of classes all Lawrence Technological University undergraduates take, no matter their major. Designed to help unleash students’ curiosity, the core curriculum provides a comprehensive, interactive engagement with literature, history, philosophy, the arts, and technology. Students have the chance to explore some of the fundamental questions and enduring ideas of intellectual life through shared readings, lively discussions with faculty and fellow students, collaborative presentations, and problem-solving teamwork – preparing them for the technological world in which they will live and work after graduation.
Following months of research and adjustments that included input from all five LTU colleges and dedicated work from a team of Humanities, Social Science, and Communications (HSSC) Department faculty, led by Associate Professor and HSSC Chair Paul Jaussen, the new humanities courses are ready to launch. Why the change?
“While the current humanities core curriculum has served LTU students well, it is 30 years old,” Jaussen said. “As the department’s faculty has grown and diversified, our instructors have brought different orientations, different knowledge, and different skills to benefit our students, and we wanted that knowledge to be reflected in the core. We also had consistent feedback from students that the existing model limits options for students—they simply wanted more choices in course selection.”
Universities around the country have been gradually changing their core humanities curriculum to engage students more deeply with the work, build critical thinking skills, and help students see the interaction between humanistic knowledge and contemporary society.
In keeping with LTU’s new tagline, “Be curious. Make magic,” Jaussen said. “While these courses have the common goal of exposing students to important works from the past and present, each section will allow faculty and students to pursue their curiosity. Faculty will have the ability to pick a course theme and create a distinct reading list for their section. By giving faculty more flexibility, we can tap into unique experiences for students, and we’re really able to showcase the faculty’s diversity of thought and of research.”
The unique technological focus and international outreach of LTU have also informed how Jaussen and his colleagues have structured the new courses, which continue the old curriculum’s emphasis on the great works of the past but expand into important topics for the present. The courses being developed include a first-year sequence, Engaging Ancient Texts and Engaging Modern Texts, and a range of new electives, like Introduction to the Study of Humanity and Technology, Historical Foundations of Psychology, Ways of Seeing, and Ethics of Computing. Jaussen said, “The new curriculum gives us the opportunity to address the technological nature of LTU as well as provide our students with a more global view.
“This evolution marks a sea change in the undergrad experience at LTU,” Jaussen explained. “We want our curriculum to be as ‘curious’ as our students!”
by Renée Ahee
Use Your Cell Phone as a Document Camera in Zoom
From Computer
Log in and start your Zoom session with participants
From Phone
To use your cell phone as a makeshift document camera
