Making Connections In and Outside the Classroom
University Seminars are a showcase of integrative learning at Arcadia, designed to make intellectual connections among academic disciplines and between scholarly ideas and the world beyond the classroom. A wide range of University Seminars are offered each semester, and all University Seminars count toward the additional Integrative Learning requirements.
Many University Seminars are interdisciplinary courses where your Arcadia professors explore a dynamic world of ideas with you. University Seminars also take you out of the classroom and into the culturally and intellectually rich Philadelphia region.
Taking University Seminars also helps you to work toward fulfilling other Arcadia Undergraduate Curriculum requirements. All University Seminars fulfill at least one Area of Inquiry and at least one Intellectual Practice.
Sample University Seminars
Great Trials in History
This University Seminar explores a dozen famous trials chosen to represent conflicts in different areas of intellectual and cultural/social history including philosophy, religion, science, art, and literature. Subjects include Socrates, Galileo, the Salem Witch Trials, John Brown, Oscar Wilde, the Scopes Monkey Trial, Nuremberg, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Texts include books, films, articles, and websites.
Note: This course, US 208, can count toward the Criminal Justice, History and Philosophy majors and minors.
Scientific Ethics
This course examines the different types of ethical systems as the foundation for decision-making. Topics include consideration of contemporary value conflicts associated with the impact that science and technology have on society, such as stem cell technology, gene therapy, and drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Each topic is critically examined from the scientific, ethical and legal viewpoints. Assignments incorporate readings, discussions, position papers and debates.
Education Stories: Films about Schools and What They Teach Us
Films depicting exemplary teachers and principals and their successful students have long provided many Americans their sense of how quality educational environments are created. But how much can one really learn about education from these cinematic treatments? This University Seminar includes screening and discussion of numerous films to probe them for their major themes relating to innovative teaching techniques, genuine concern and respect for students, and students’ responses in the form of high achievement and improved personal behavior. And the University Seminar compares and contrasts these films with the latest scholarly research investigating the factors and influences that correlate with successful schools and students and review and critique key educational and psychological theories of education. Written assignments, participation in classroom discussions, and small groups oral classroom reporting help students to develop written and oral communication skills.
Note: This course, US 220, can count toward the Psychology major and minor.