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.