Document 6527413

FORDHAM UNIVERSITY
CAPSTONE INTERDISCIPLINARY CORE COURSE
SYLLABUS SUBMISSION COVER SHEET
Due Dates:
October 15th (for the following fall or spring semester)
February 15th (for the following spring semester)
Capstone Interdisciplinary course proposals should be prepared with the “Interdisciplinary
Guidelines,” which follow this page, in mind. Please complete and attach this sheet to the
front of your proposed syllabus, making reference to pertinent items on your syllabus, where
appropriate. Feel free to use additional space.
Instructor(s): ____________________________________________
Date of Submission: ____________________________________________
Department(s)/Program(s): ____________________________________________
Course Name* ____________________________________________
*If this is a new course, please also submit a course inventory form.
Please list the two or more different disciplinary approaches your course will take to its
central topics or problems:
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Please point us to readings and other assignments on your syllabus in which these
approaches are introduced and related to one another:
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Please list some examples, from your syllabus, of sources characteristic of each of these
disciplinary approaches:
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Please indicate how the seminar expectation for discussion and interaction will be met (esp.
for courses with two or more instructors):
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Please send your proposal and syllabus, along with this cover sheet, to the following parties:
1. Chair, Core Curriculum Committee: David Myers
2. Chair, Interdisciplinary Capstone Subcommittee: TBA
3. Department Chair(s) or Program Director(s)
4. Maura Gallagher, Dean of Arts and Sciences Faculty's Office
5. Appropriate Associate Dean: FCRH-Rosemary Cooney, Keating 201
FCLC-Mark Mattson, Lowenstein 821
PCS- John Houston, Keating 118
INTERDISCIPLINARY GUIDELINES
Toward 2016 Fordham’s Liberal Arts Core Curriculum, the core proposal, describes the
capstone interdisciplinary requirement with the following, basic, requirements (see below for
the description of the requirement from the core document):
• provides two or more disciplinary approaches to a common topic or problem, and is
expected to use sources characteristic of the disciplines featured
• taught by an individual, or by two or more instructors, and capped at 19 students per
instructor, with the format open to the instructor(s) but expected to include discussion and
presentations typical of a seminar
• includes at least one disciplinary approach that is literary, historical or based on a social
science; i.e., follows the methods and emphasizes the goals defined for these fields in the core
proposal Toward 2016 (see pp. 15-18, 20-22 of the core proposal for the descriptions of the
introductory and advanced disciplinary courses in these disciplines).
From TOWARD 2016: Fordham’s Liberal Arts Core Curriculum, A Proposal
CAPSTONE COURSES
The final or capstone stage of has two requirements in which themes of earlier stages of the
core culminate. One has been developed by the literary, historical and social scientific
disciplines in order to enable students to recognize the potential for learning beyond
individual disciplinary ways of knowing through interdisciplinary study; this course completes
the learning sequence in these disciplines by relating them to each other or to other
disciplines. ...
Interdisciplinary Seminar in Literature, History, and/or Social Science (1 course)
Goals: Courses offered to fulfill this final requirement in the Literature/History/Social Science
sequence use interdisciplinary study to bring students to a higher level of understanding
through learning the limits of disciplinarity. By focusing on and comparing multiple
methodologies, students will develop a more reflective appreciation of the interrelationships
among various disciplinary ways of knowing, and of the ways in which Literature, History,
and/or Social Science give rise to knowledge and may lead to higher level syntheses and
comparisons.
Description: Each course will feature at least two disciplines, at least one involving Literature,
History, or Social Science, that conceive and study a common topic or problem. These courses
will likely be topical and will involve the detailed study of complex subject matter from the
point of view of more than one discipline. The courses are expected to use original sources —
texts, documents, objects, materials and data — characteristic of the disciplines featured.
Depending on instructors or topics, the disciplines may be related in various ways; for
instance, the examination of how different disciplines can be integrated in order to solve a
complex problem that neither discipline alone could solve; a dialog between or across
disciplines that engenders an
expanded and enriched perspective; or the confrontation of two conflicting methodologies
that engender tension and opposing conclusions. Introductory disciplinary courses in English,
History and Social Science are prerequisites. Advanced courses in these disciplines should be
taken before or at least simultaneously with the Interdisciplinary seminar. These courses will
be capped at 19 students per professor (i.e., 38 students for two professors, 57 for three, etc.)
in order to allow for discussion and detailed attention to students' writing and oral
presentation.
Courses: The Interdisciplinary seminar will be team taught by professors representing
different disciplines or taught by a single individual who has expertise in both disciplines. One
discipline featured in each interdisciplinary course must use methods that are literary,
historical, or based on a social science, and may include participants from areas such as
English, History, Social Sciences, Classics, African and African American Studies, Modern
Languages and Literatures, and interdisciplinary programs. The second or other disciplines in
each course must be different from the first, but may be literary, historical or social scientific,
or from any other discipline, such as the sciences, fine and performing arts, philosophy or
theology. Courses may feature two different social sciences if their disciplinary approaches
are different. A subcommittee of the Core Curriculum Committee of the Arts and Sciences
Council will administer the requirement (see below at p. 30 for the composition of the
committee).
From Toward 2016: Fordham’s Liberal Arts Core Curriculum, A Proposal, EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
Interdisciplinary Seminar in Literature, History, and/or Social Science (1 course)
For this capstone in the literary, historical and social scientific sequence, students will select
an Interdisciplinary seminar from among courses identified with an "I" as the fourth letter of
the course designation. Courses will use interdisciplinary study to examine the role of
disciplines in knowledge formation. Each course will feature at least two disciplines that
conceive and study a common topic or problem. The Interdisciplinary seminars will be team
taught by professors representing contrasting disciplines, or taught by a single individual who
has expertise in both disciplines. One discipline featured in each interdisciplinary course must
use methods that are literary, historical, or based on a social science, which may include
participants from English, History, the Social Sciences, Classics, African and African American
Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, and interdisciplinary programs. The second or
other disciplines in each course must be different from the first, but may be literary, historical,
social scientific, or drawn from any other discipline, such as the sciences, fine arts, philosophy
or theology. These courses will be capped at 19 students per instructor.