Concentration in Interdisciplinary Critical Theory
Students must earn a "C" or better in each course taken to fulfill a concentration requirement.
OVERVIEW: The concentration in Interdisciplinary Critical Theory (ICT) is designed to enhance the WHC s curriculum in the humanities and the sciences by creating strategic connections among different disciplines. Critical Theory includes perspectives in aesthetics, visual studies, media studies, cultural studies, studies in multicultural literatures, and studies in science, technology, medicine, and the humanities.
HISTORY: Critical theory stems from philosophical aesthetics or the theory of the arts which, from the time of Plato and Aristotle, has included studies in a range of visual media as well as music and literature. Because it includes broad questions of design, however, aesthetics has also been a significant preoccupation of the sciences. Kant, for example, dedicated the second half of his treatise in the field, The Critique of Judgment, to the study of teleology (by which he meant apparent design ) in living systems. Critical theory took on socially critical dimensions after World War II in the work of the Frankfurt School, which connected the theory of the arts to the social sciences. Building on that legacy, contemporary critical theory provides valuable perspectives to shape interdisciplinary enquiry across the arts and sciences, including: visual formations from the plastic arts to biotechnology; communications from scriptographic to typographic, electronic, analog, and digital media; cultural studies from the perspectives of ethnography, feminist theory, gender theory, and postcolonial theory; multicultural and multiethnic studies in literatures read in terms of various critical frameworks; and emerging perspectives arising at the intersection of the arts and sciences in the fields of technology, medicine, philosophy and the arts. Overall, although critical theory draws on various academic disciplines and interdisciplinary areas, it is ideally transdisciplinary.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Students completing the Interdisciplinary Critical Theory major should have developed their talents in critical observation and thinking regarding a range of contemporary and historical phenomena. Thus they should become versatile thinkers able to approach problems in a variety of traditional disciplines in terms of multiple critical and creative perspectives. Graduates might expect to become informed citizens, public intellectuals, and promising candidates for admission to graduate schools in disciplines across the arts and sciences. Students might consider, for example, taking the content track in Science, Technology, Medicine and the Humanities below in combination with Premedical requirements to complete the Critical Theory concentration in preparation for medical school.
Advisory Board:
Dr. Wairimu Njambi
Dr. Jacqueline Fewkes
Dr. Daniel White (emeritus)
Dr. Michael Harrawood
Dr. Dorotha Lemeh
Dr. William O'Brien
Courses
Available Options: Concentration in ICT; Studies in Natural Science Program in ICT; Premedical Program in ICT.
CONCENTRATION IN INTERDISCIPLINARY CRITICAL THINKING
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Core Courses in Critical Theory | 6 | |
| Content Area Courses (taken from two content areas, in any combination) | 24-30 | |
| IDS 4970 | Honors Thesis in Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking | 6 |
| Total Credits | 36-42 |
No more than 4 credits counted for the ICT concentration may be counted for core or graduation requirements.
CORE COURSES IN CRITICAL THEORY
(STUDENTS TAKE 2 COURSES FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST)
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| LIT 3213/PHI 3882 | Honors Literary Theory | 3 |
| PHP 3552 | Honors Seminar in Nietzsche | 3 |
| PHI 4804 | Honors Critical Theory | 3 |
| ANT 4417 | Honors Theory in Cultural Anthropology | 3 |
| HIS 3252 | Honors Historiography: Methods and Theory | 3 |
| SYG 1933 | Honors Introduction to Critical Social Theory | 3 |
| WST 3015 | Honors Introduction to Women's Studies | 3 |
Content Areas (8 courses, 24-30 credits)
Students take 8 courses from any two content areas, in any combination (e.g. 4 in each, 6 in one and 2 in another, etc.) that provides a coherent body of coursework. At least 18 credits must be upper level (3000 or 4000).
In addition to the content areas listed below, other courses from any area of the WHC curriculum may be taken in a coherent sequence that fits a student s program with the approval of 2 faculty who presumptively will be readers of the thesis. Guidelines for selecting other content areas, or for substituting courses to satisfy the content areas listed below, are:
(1) Courses to be counted for one of the existing content areas or for a new content area should be appropriate to that content area. Substitute courses for one of the content areas below must be approved by one of the advisory board faculty listed for that content area;
(2) Content areas other than those listed below must be approved by 2 HC faculty, one of whom must be on the ICT advisory board. Students are to submit a proposal that describes the content areas and lists appropriate courses for that area. Courses and content areas should fit into a coherent disciplinary or interdisciplinary area of enquiry and provide ample opportunity for analysis in terms of critical theory;
(3) Combinations of content areas should be coherent and thematically focused, e.g. premedical studies may be conjoined with medical humanities, the former organized to study medicine and the latter organized to study the relationship between medical sciences and arts to the humanities (for example, through coursework addressing issues in bioethics and environmental philosophy, technology and culture, representations of bodies in medical science, or narratives of illness and recovery);
(4) Content area courses may be selected from more than 2 content areas with approval of a member of the ICT advisory board.
CONTENT AREAS: SELECT 8 COURSES FROM 2 AREAS IN ANY COMBINATION
VISUAL STUDIES
Critical, analytical and historical perspectives in the visual arts and media. Advisors: Dorotha Lemeh Jacqueline Fewkes.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ART 1014C | Honors Elements of Visual Thinking | 3 |
| ART 4837C | Honors Contemporary Art, Gender and Technology |
4 |
| ART 4840C | Honors Art, People of the Earth and Environment | 4 |
| ART 4841C | Honors The Body in Art: Figure in Context |
4 |
| ARH 2000 | Honors Art Appreciation | 3 |
| ARH 2050 | Honors History of the Arts I | 3 |
| ARH 2051 | Honors History of the Arts II | 3 |
| ARH 2701 | Honors Still and Moving Images | 3 |
| ARH 4930C | Honors Understanding Art of the 21st Century |
4 |
| ANT 4930 | Honors Visual Ethnography | 3 |
MEDIA STUDIES
Historical and critical perspectives on communications media, including their roles in cultural, artistic, and epistemic formations. Advisor: Daniel White.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PHI 3224 | Honors Media Philosophy | 3 |
| HUM 3320 orIDS 4932 | Honors Contemporary Multicultural Studies | 3 |
| HUM 2210 | Honors Multicultural Perspectives from Antiquity to Modernity |
3 |
| HUM 2230 | Honors Multicultural Perspectives from Modernity to Post-Modernity |
3 |
| ART 3618C | Honors Digital E-magination | 3 |
| ENG 4114 orLIT 1933 | Honors Literature and Film | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Critical Social Theory and Media | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Africans in Film | 3 |
| MUS 1933 | Honors Rock and American Society | 3 |
| CLA 4436 | Honors Ancient Greece | 3 |
CULTURAL STUDIES
Critical, frames of reference for studies of culture, nature, urbanity, gender, class, race, sexuality, and the culture industry. Advisors: Wairimu Njambi Jacqueline Fewkes.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ASN 3006 | Honors Introduction to Asian Studies | 3 |
| HUM 3320 orIDS 4932 | Honors Contemporary Multicultural Studies | 3 |
| SYG 3401 | Honors Introduction to Cultural Studies | 3 |
| WST 4563 | Honors Representation of Female Bodies: Science, Medicine, Culture |
3 |
| SYD 4792 | Honors Race, Gender, Class, Sexuality, Science |
3 |
| SYP 4303 | Honors Sex Panics in History and Society | 3 |
| WST 3015 | Honors Introduction to Women's Studies | 3 |
| WST 4504 | Honors Feminist Theory | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Meanings of Nature | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Race, Gender, Environmentalism | 3 |
| IDS 3933 | Honors Seminar in Disney | 3 |
| IDS 4930 | Honors The City and its Underground | 3 |
STUDIES IN LITERATURE
Critical and historical perspectives on national and transnational literatures in their cultural contexts.
Advisor:
Michael Harrawood.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PHI 3224 | Honors Media Philosophy | 3 |
| HUM 3320 orIDS 4932 | Honors Contemporary Multicultural Studies | 3 |
| HUM 2210 | Honors Multicultural Perspectives from Antiquity to Modernity |
3 |
| HUM 2230 | Honors Multicultural Perspectives from Modernity to Post-Modernity |
3 |
| ART 3618C | Honors Digital E-magination | 3 |
| ENG 4114 orLIT 1933 | Honors Literature and Film | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Critical Social Theory and Media | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Africans in Film | 3 |
| MUS 1933 | Honors Rock and American Society | 3 |
| CLA 4436 | Honors Ancient Greece | 3 |
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, MEDICINE AND THE HUMANITIES
Humanistic perspectives on the interactions among the applications of science and technology in medicine.
Advisors:
Dorotha Lemeh Wairimu Njambi Daniel White.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| IDS 4933 | Honors Technology and Culture | 3 |
| SYP 1445 | Honors Gender and Technology | 3 |
| WST 4563 | Honors Representation of Female Bodies: Science, Medicine, Culture | 3 |
| SYD 4792 | Honors Race, Gender, Class, Sexuality and Science | 3 |
| EVR 2017 | Honors Environment and Society | 3 |
| IDS 4933 | Honors Meanings of Nature | 3 |
| PHI 1933 | Honors Bioethics | 3 |
| PHI 1933 | Honors Perspectives on Science | 3 |
| PHI 3682 | Honors Environmental Philosophy | 3 |
| PHI 4930 | Honors Philosophy of Science | 3 |
Studies in Natural Science Track
Courses in biology, chemistry, and/or physics are taken in coherent sequences to provide a rigorous foundation for interdisciplinary studies in the sciences and the humanities.
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Core Courses in Critical Theory | 6 | |
| 4 Courses from one or two ICT Content Areas (above) | 12-16 | |
| 4 Courses from 'Studies in Natural Sciences' (below) | 14-18* | |
| IDS 4970 | Honors Thesis in Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking | 6 |
| Total Credits | 38-46* |
* Not including prerequisites
No more than 4 credits counted for the ICT concentration may be counted for core or graduation requirements.
STUDIES IN NATURAL SCIENCES COURSES
(PLEASE NOTE PREREQUISITES) Advisors: Chitra Chandrasekhar Paul Kirchman Jon Moore
BIOLOGY
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BSC 1010, 1010L | Honors Biological Principles, and Lab | 4 |
| BSC 1011, 1011L | Honors Biodiversity with Lab | 4 |
| PCB 3063 | Honors Genetics (prereq: BSC 1010/1011) |
3 |
| PCB 4102 | Honors Cell Biology (prereq: PCB 3063) | 3 |
| BSC 2084, 2084L | Honors Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology, and Lab (prereq: 8 credits of biology) |
4 |
| OCB 3012, 3012L | Honors Marine Biology and Oceanography, and Lab (prereq: BSC 1010/1011, or permission) |
4 |
| PCB 3411 | Honors Animal Behavior (prereq: 8 credits of biology, 3 credits of ecology) |
3 |
| ZOO 2303, 2303L | Honors Vertebrate Zoology with Lab (prereq: BSC 1010/1011) | 4 |
CHEMISTRY
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHM 2045, 2045L | Honors General Chemistry I with Lab | 4 |
| CHM 2046, 2046L | Honors General Chemistry II, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2045/L) | 4 |
| CHM 2210, 2210L | Honors Organic Chemistry I, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2046/L) | 4 |
| CHM 2211, 2211L | Honors Organic Chemistry II, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2210/L) | 4 |
| BCH 3033, 3033L | Honors Biochemistry with Lab (prereq: CHM 2211/L) |
4 |
| CHM 3085 | Honors Environmental Chemistry(prereq: CHM 2046/L) | 3 |
| CHM 3609, 3609L | Honors Inorganic Chemistry, and Lab | 4 |
| CHM 4135, 4135L | Honors Instrumental Methods of Analysis, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2046/L) | 4 |
| CHM 3121, 3121L | Honors Quantitative Analysis with |
PHYSICS
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| PHY 2048, 2048L | Honors General Physics I, and Lab (prereq: MAC 2311) | 5 |
| PHY 2049, 2049L | Honors General Physics II, and Lab (prereq: PHY 2048/L, MAC 2312) | 5 |
Upper-level physics courses as offered.
Pre-Medical Track
| Course # | Course Name | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Core Courses in Critical Theory | 6 | |
| Pre-Medical studies requirements | 42 | |
| 8 credits of Biology* | 8 | |
| CHM 2045, 2045L | Honors General Chemistry I, and Lab | 4 |
| CHM 2046, 2046L | Honors General Chemistry II, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2045/L) | 4 |
| CHM 2210, 2210L | Honors Organic Chemistry I, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2046/L) | 4 |
| CHM 2211, 2211L | Honors Organic Chemistry II, and Lab (prereq: CHM 2210/L) | 4 |
| PHY 2048, 2048L | Honors General Physics I, and Lab (prereq: MAC 2311) | 5 |
| PHY 2049, 2049L | Honors General Physics II, and Lab (prereq: PHY 2048/L, MAC 2312) | 5 |
| MAC 2311 | Honors Calculus and Analytic Geometry I | 4 |
| MAC 2312 | Honors Calculus and Analytic Geometry II | 4 |
| 4 Courses from one or two ICT Content Areas (above) | 12-16 | |
| IDS 4970 | Honors Thesis in Interdisciplinary Critical Thinking | 6 |
| Total Credits | 66-70 |
* In preparing for the MCAT, students may wish to take Biological Principles, Genetics, Anatomy & Physiology, and Cell Biology. In addition, some medical schools may require Biochemistry.