Experiential Learning

The second or intermediate learning community may be taken anytime between the first year and senior learning communities. The intermediate learning community may also be used to fulfill CORE requirements of the undergraduate curriculum. This learning community addresses interdisciplinary topics allowing students to see the social and intellectual linkages between diverse perspectives. The intellectual and cultural environment created by learning together for a semester encourages active participation in the learning process.

Samples of Current Intermediate Learning Communities (Spring 2006)

ILC – ECONOMICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

This intermediate learning community will examine current environmental issues from both an economic and ecological perspective. Topics that will be addressed include sustainable development, pollution, climate change, conservation biology, and resource management. The courses included will satisfy requirements of students minoring in environmental studies, biology or economics, and of students majoring in economics or business administration.

BI   326-ILC                Environmental Issues                            

EC 306-ILC                Economics of the Environment 

ILC – PERFORMING FEMININITY: THEATRE, PHILOSOPHY AND THE FEMALE EXPERIENCE

In this learning community, students will analyze women’s identity and issues, broadly defined, from the perspective of both theatre and philosophy. In the theatre course, students will analyze scripts which focus on femininity, visible female characters, and women’s issues in a performative context. In the philosophy course, students will look at the philosophical underpinnings of different theories of female identity, and select contemporary social and political issues that pertain to gender identity.

TH 103-ILC                Script Analysis                         

PH 204-ILC                Philosophy of Feminism                       

ILC – THE VIETNAM WAR

“Is there any aspect of the conflict that is not in itself the subject of a conflict?” – (H. Bruce Franklin). Henry David Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience” argues that true democracy is not possible without a public conscience that drives national policy. How do the outstanding fictional and nonfiction narratives on “bringing democracy” measure against a history of war? Critically-acclaimed writing (novels, essays, histories) and award-winning movies about Vietnam before, during and after US military intervention, will validate or disprove our images of soldiers and nurses, the enemy, and demonstrators, as well as the views of politicians. We will also look at preconceptions about America, Asians, the media, and the military. We will discuss how Vietnam War stories challenge or support those prejudices. Writing Intensive; International Perspectives.

EN 358(W)-ILC          The Vietnam War in Literature & Film

PO/HI 234-ILC           The Vietnam War                                     

ILC – ASIAN HISTORY, POLITICS AND FILM

The purpose of this ILC is to introduce students to politics in China, Japan, and Koreas, as well as to the cinema of these countries and of India, Taiwan, and Vietnam.  We will trace the political developments of the East Asian countries, analyze their political structures and processes, discuss cultures and foreign relations.  Students will explore these countries’ masterpieces and those of India and Vietnam, including Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy; films by Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu; Zhang Yimou; Hou Hsiao-hsien; Chan Wook Park; war-era and post-socialist Vietnamese films; the influential Hong Kong film genre; and Japanese anime.  Readings will address national and regional aesthetics and form, as well as issues of race, class, gender, and politics.  Students will practice narrative and textual analysis as they consider moral and psychological values from a global perspective.  Writing Intensive; International Perspectives

PO/HI 234-ILC           History and Politics of East Asia

EN 359(W)-ILC           Asian Film (I)