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. The goals are to expose students to, and involve them in, an interdisciplinary experience of “learning by doing” through the following means: 1. sophisticated writing 2. challenging research; and 3. an integrated final project that facilitates critical thinking, and concludes with a written or an oral presentation.
Samples of Current Intermediate Learning Communities (Fall 2010)
ILC – "WE ARE NEW YORK": THE VOICE OF IMMIGRANTS
Find your own voice as you give voice to the "huddled masses yearning to breath free," from seven continents, who have chosen New York City as their destination and made it into one of the world's most important global cities. Students will study the waves of immigrants who built America, notably those arriving in the era of mass immigration from 1880-1924 and since. We will examine their reception, both the warm welcome symbolized by the Statue of Liberty, and more negative political and cultural responses through the present days. Students will have the opportunity to explore in the public speaking and history courses, positions around the immigration debate, past and present, as well as their own cultural background and to reenact in theatrical fashion the feelings of those first coming to our shores.
HI 291-ILC Immigrant NYC
SPC103-ILC Public Speaking
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 perspectives 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.
MU 243-ILC TH 106-ILC Introduction to Acting
ILC – SCANDAL ON THE STAGE
This ILC will explore the interconnections of music and theatre and how acting and music can impact the listener. This ILC combines a studio course in acting with a more historical approach to music, but both classes will explore issues of performance theory and history. As a bridge to connect the two courses we will attend several productions in NYC, including the Metropolitan Opera.
EN 358(W)-ILC The Vietnam War in Literature & Film
PO/HI 234-ILC The Vietnam War
ILC – HONORS - ENCOUNTER WITH THE IRRATIONAL
Most attempts to understand the human mind include exploring the irrational. This Intermediate Learning Community will examine the traditonal and existential conceptions of consciousness, "the self," freedom, and "the irrational," and will attempt to make sense of them from the perspectives of psychology and philosophy.
PS 248-ILC (H) Existential Psychology
PH 213-ILC (H) Existentialism