Course Offerings: Global Service and Scholarship

This course will address the contemporary global resurgence of terror in the name of God. In classroom talks and discussions we will seek to identify, describe, and explore the potential for extremism within the different religious traditions. We will also examine the ways in which we might grapple with this phenomenon in order to see how religion is not only part of the problem of terrorism but is a key ingredient to its solution. Finally, we will seek to find answers to the following complex questions: Which destructive patterns of religious training, thinking, and rhetoric contribute to this global problem? How can spirituality in different religious traditions create new venues for dialogue in today’s terrorized world?

This course is a study of the city of Paris, France, from its origins to the modern day, from simple village on the Seine to an international center of the arts and the most loved of the world’s urban landscapes. It will entail readings of the historical perspective of its urban development, of the construction of its monuments, and particularly of the lives of the individuals that led to its construction. Novels about the city, its people, the art found there, and past and present cultural activities will be further aspects of the course. Besides readings and films, internet research assignments will lead the student to both brief and substantial writing assignments and class presentations.

"First with the head, then with the heart." This Service Learning course combines rigorous academic classes with challenging community service on the basis that it is not until we are informed that we can be really useful. Classroom work will focus on issues such as poverty, public health, immigration, environment and education. Students will spend at least one session per week in the local community working with local partners, for example Children's Community School and the St John's Soup Kitchen. All students will complete regular written assignments as well as one major individual research paper.

As wars, inequality, disease, and extreme poverty continue, this course examines these issues and the international laws and strategies that intend to bring about their end. It focuses on international human rights law as a new solution to persistent injustice, and uses the work of journalists, scholars, and those affected to analyze and debate the success of this and other possible approaches to making universal respect for human rights a reality. A mock war crimes tribunal and/or mock truth commission will likely be a component of the course. Open to upper middlers and seniors.

"First with the head, then with the heart." This Service Learning course combines rigorous academic classes with challenging community service on the basis that it is not until we are informed that we can be really useful. Classroom work will focus on issues such as poverty, public health, immigration, environment and education. Students will spend at least one session per week in the local community working with local partners, for example Children's Community School and the St John's Soup Kitchen. All students will complete regular written assignments as well as one major individual research paper.

This course introduces students to the components of philosophy through readings from the history of philosophy (ancient, modern, and contemporary) combined with the examination of topics such as metaphysics, logic, ethics, existence of God, immortality, knowledge, the mind-body question, personal identity, free will and determinism, political philosophy, the meaning of life,  abortion, capital punishment, animal rights, and affirmative action.  The course exposes students to a range of ideas and readings representing a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

In this course students will explore why Buddhism has become so popular in the contemporary West. We will study Buddhism through the lives and teachings of the two most popular Buddhist teachers in the world today: the Dalai Lama (Tibet) and Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnam). Together we will seek to understand what Buddhists mean when they speak about enlightenment, nirvana, meditation, human suffering, compassion and wisdom. We will examine the practical value of Buddhism and how it has enriched the lives of Jews, Christians, agnostics and others in the modern West.

From dramatically increased rainfall in the Northeastern U.S. to record-breaking periods of drought in historically productive agricultural areas, the direct and indirect effects of anthropomorphic (human-caused) climate change are felt everywhere. Insurance organizations are re-drawing flood zone maps, generals in the pentagon are concerned with security threats due to the de-stabilization effects of ‘environmental refugee populations,’ and previously equatorial diseases like Denge fever are migrating northward. How did this all come to pass? What can we as world citizens, organizations, and countries do to mitigate and/or adapt to these changes? How have our own systems of government, the world’s most developed countries, and the most profitable businesses in history contributed to our current and future environmental conditions? The scale of the challenge, and the resources and commitments required to address these conditions have never been previously encountered or undertaken. Are we, as a global society, capable of finding and implementing the changes necessary to deal with this enormous, looming, and human-induced disaster of the natural world? If so, the solutions lie in re-shaping the fabric of our society towards a more sustainable future. Remedial efforts are already underway, but what measures must surely be taken to solve the global climate change dilemna? This course will explore the science behind our current understanding of climate change, the full range of effects on impacted natural systems, and how this all relates to our own personal lives and greater society. The class will also analyze the social changes that communities have made to adapt to our changing planet, diplomatic efforts made by nations of the world since the first United Nations Earth Summit in 1992, and possible solutions to this unprecedented global challenge.

Students will examine the social issues affecting contemporary society, such as poverty, hunger, equality, stewardship, and violence, and discuss how to create a more just society.  The lens of economics, history, and literature will be used to further their understanding of the causes of injustice, and work on finding solutions.  What is the obligation of an individual or a community to promote justice, and how can one affect change? Open to upper middlers and seniors.

The application of the Buddha's teachings in the social realm is spawning a social revolution throughout the world, particularly in the West. Buddhism represents not only an alternative to oppression, injustice, and materialism, but is also providing practical ways for individuals and communities to undergo genuine inner transformation so that they can become empowered socially as well as spiritually. The Buddhist texts we will read in this course will challenge us to exam the global “religion of consumerism” and encourage us to find positive solutions for renewing society and ways to create a more humane and livable world.

This is an opportunity for a student to work with a member of the Department on a project in which they share a common interest. Open to Seniors by permission of the Department Head and the Dean of Academic Affairs.

This is an opportunity for a student to work with a member of the Department on a project in which they share a common interest. Open to Seniors by permission of the Department Head and the Dean of Academic Affairs.