CC100 & CC120

overview

Taken during a student's first semester, the first-year foundations course sequence (CC100: Critical Inquiry Seminar & CC120: First-Year Writing Seminar) serve as the foundation to CC's General Education plan.

As a sequence, these courses provide an introduction to disciplinary scholarship, the nature of the liberal arts, and learning on the block. In the first block (CC100), students begin to understand the liberal arts as a specific kind of community comprised of various epistemological and methodological cultures. The goal of this class is to help students understand that different fields of study construct and organize knowledge differently, each with its own paradigms and assumptions. The second block (CC120) builds on the outcomes of CC100 to engage students in understanding the relationship between disciplinary practices and writing. The goal of this class is to help students understand that each discipline operates within specific discourse communities each with their own structures, styles, and forms.

All CC100 & CC120 courses are linked, meaning that students in the same CC100 course will move into the linked CC120 course as a cohort. These links serve to reinforce the social connections developed in the first block and allow students more time to learn together on the block.

Fall CC100 courses are also grouped into "thematic clusters." These clusters are designed to help facilitate students' thinking about disciplinary knowledge production in a comparative framework. Courses are clustered around a shared topic, question, or theme (i.e. "Operations of Power"). Although students are enrolled in a single CC100/CC120 course sequence, all courses in a cluster will offer periodic "convergence experiences" that offer students the opportunity to engage across courses to compare the different approaches to knowledge creation taking place in their respective courses in relationship to the shared topic.

Winter CC100 courses are not grouped into a thematic cluster, will still offer convergence experiences.

thematic clusters (fall start)

Ways of Being, Ways of Knowing

Courses in this cluster will examine the diverse and context-dependent ways of knowing and understanding the world, while exploring how these perspectives shape individual and collective experiences, beliefs, and values. Click here to read more.

Seeing and Being Seen

Courses in this cluster will examine the multifaceted ways in which surveillance impacts privacy and individual freedoms, the art of concealment in personal and public spheres, and the role of spectacle in shaping our understanding of the world around us. Click here to read more.

Ecological Borderlands

Courses in this cluster will examine the ways in which ecological systems intersect with social, political, and cultural factors, while also considering the role of borderlands and power structures in shaping these complex interactions.  Click here to read more.

Power, Culture, and Resistance

Courses in this cluster will examine the complex interplay between power, culture, and resistance in various societies and historical contexts. Students will explore how different forms of power and authority shape cultural norms and expressions, while also investigating the diverse strategies and mechanisms of resistance that challenge dominant power structures. Click here to read more.

Ethics and Fairness

Courses in this cluster will examine the principles of fairness and ethics across diverse fields, including the sciences, economics, and mathematical sciences. Students will delve into the ethical challenges, moral dilemmas, and equitable practices that shape these disciplines, while fostering critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the role of fairness in shaping our world. Click here to read more.

(Un)natural Relationships

Courses in this cluster examine the complex relationship between humans and non-human organisms, including plants and animals with emphasis on the ecological, ethical, social, and cultural dimensions of interspecies relationships. Click here to read more.

Past & Present in Critical Dialogue

Courses in this cluster examine the dynamic interplay between historical and contemporary perspectives on culture and politics, including how cultural and political practices from the past shape and inform current issues, debates, and challenges in the global landscape. Click here to read more.

Culture, Embodiment, and Sensory Experience

Courses in this cluster examine the complex relationships between culture, embodiment, and sensory experience. Students will explore how cultural contexts shape our bodily experiences and sensory perceptions, while also investigating how these factors interact to influence our understanding of the world and our place within it. Click here to read more.

Crossing Cultural Frontiers

Courses in this cluster examine the dynamic intersections of culture, language, and identity. Students will engage with diverse perspectives and experiences to foster a deeper understanding of the complex cultural boundaries that shape our world and learn how to build bridges of understanding and connection. Click here to read more.

Crime and Social Problems

Courses in this cluster examine the complex interplay between crime, justice, and social issues. Click here to read more.

Winter Start Course Descriptions (2024)


CC104: Global Exchange in Art: Antiquity to the 20th Century (I)

Instructor: Gale Murray and Tamara Bentley
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
CRN# TBD
Block: 5

This art history course has a two-fold purpose. We will examine in depth particular case studies of art from diverse traditions from antiquity to the 20th century. In addition, we will consider exchanges between these traditions in still life, landscape, and figurative art. A number of the case studies will pertain to Europe, but we will also cover selected artists and art movements from China, Japan, and the Islamic world. To provide a point of reference for later material, we begin with a week comparing the Greco-Roman tradition in sculpture, religion, and philosophy with early Chinese pictorial art in tombs, considering the very different visual and intellectual emphases. Following weeks turn to Renaissance art in relation to humanism, Jesuit art in the Far East, women artists in the Netherlands, the global circulation of Chinese bird and flower motifs and visions of the East in the Enlightenment, and Dutch trade in blue and white ceramics.

CC120:Global Exchange in Art: Antiquity to the 20th Century (II)

Instructor: Gale Murray and Tamara Bentley
CRN# TBD
Block: 6

This block will center upon a tiered writing project, including tutorial meetings with the professors aimed at finessing each student’s writing and fine-tuning their analysis. Building on scholarly approaches introduced in the first block, additional methodologies will be considered, as well as scholars who combine multiple approaches. Thematically we will consider exchanges in garden design between China and the West in the 18th century, Romanticism and Orientalism, Impressionism and the Japanese print, and artistic responses to war in 20th century China and the West. Approaches will include close visual reading; literary tools as used in art; critical insights based on race, class, and gender; institutional forms of power in relation to normative imagery; colonialism and race; and art used in political contexts—at times supporting, at times critiquing, the nation-state.


 


CC106: The Political Science of Critical Issues

Instructor: Elizabeth Coggins
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Societies & Human Behavior
CRN# TBD
Block: 5

CC100 courses are designed to help students begin to understand the liberal arts as a specific kind of community comprised of various epistemological and methodological cultures. Different fields of study construct and organize knowledge differently—and political science, like other fields, has its own paradigms and assumptions. In this particular course, we will use three “critical issues” of our time as vehicles for developing a deeper understanding of how political scientists observe, question, and theorize about political phenomena. In other words, we will use these issues to uncover some of the paradigms and assumptions of political science. In particular we will focus on polarization, climate change, and race relations. These urgent sociopolitical issues will guide us in our journey to “think like a political scientist.” We will critically engage original research—both seminal and cutting edge—to address these issues. Perhaps most importantly, we will develop the tools to evaluate issues beyond the scope of the course and issues yet to emerge on the agenda of U.S. politics. 

CC120: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Instructor: John Grace
CRN# TBD
Block: 6

Investigates the foundation and aims of politic rule as well as fundamental debates over the meaning of justice, liberty, power, authority, law and rights through an examination of basic but competing perspectives drawn from ancient, medieval, and modern texts. Thinkers include, but are not limited to, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, and Locke.  


 

Report an issue - Last updated: 05/26/2023