COURSES
The Augustine and Culture Seminar (ACS) is a two-course sequence that all 芭乐视频 students take in their first year.
ACS allows students from every college within 芭乐视频 to experience the distinctively Augustinian ethos that grounds all of us in our relentless pursuit of wisdom. Through this two-semester humanities course sequence, students have access to some of the most significant texts and transformative ideas in human culture and to the perennial debates that have shaped the diverse, global contemporary intellectual and material culture we live in today. Through our small, discussion-based seminars, students are empowered to pursue serious conversations about life鈥檚 fundamental questions and share their best insights in an open and inclusive environment that allows them to learn from each other, respect each other, and define their own values on their journey toward self-discovery.
ABOUT THE COURSES
explores the guiding question of 鈥淲ho Am I鈥� and includes readings from at least each of the following:
- Hebrew Bible
- New Testament
- Classical Greece (For example, Homer, Sophocles, Plato, or Aristotle)
- St. Augustine鈥檚 Confessions (required)
- One text from the Middle Ages
- One cross-cultural text
continues to explore the question of 鈥淲ho Am I?鈥� and incorporates readings from the 1500鈥檚 to the present, including:
- One play by Shakespeare
- One Catholic Intellectual Tradition/Catholic Social Thought text
- Two texts chosen from a (non-canonical) Moderns reading list
Readings for ACS 1001 should also meet the following breadth requirements:
- Texts should include readings from multiple significant eras and movements from the Renaissance to the present.
- Texts should also represent multiple disciplines and a diversity of voices.
Both 1000 and 1001 should include:
- Seminar format: classes are discussion intensive.
- At least 30 pages of writing (20 pages of graded writing; 10 pages of ungraded writing [drafts, journals, in-class writing, etc.]).
- ACSP Culminating portfolio (four artifacts: diagnostic essay; two analytical essays-fall and spring; reflective essay).
- Required attendance at three co-curricular cultural events outside of the classroom.
- Minimum of one teacher/student conference.
COMMUNITAS IN ACS CLASSES
Communitas: A first-year learning community is a University Student Life program. Students live together and take the Augustine and Culture Seminar (ACS) classes together, designed specifically with a specific theme.
- Art and Culture: Engage with dialogue, narrative, poetry, drama, and visual art, including works such as the鈥�Bhagavad Gita, The Trojan Women, and A Room of One鈥檚 Own. Analyze texts for intentionality of the author, audience reception, sensory appeal, character development, and perceived standards of 鈥済ood鈥� art and performance.
- Caritas Service Learning: Engage questions about service: What is service? Are right and wrong ways to go about it? What role does service to others play in living out our values? Engage with the ideas of service in texts such as鈥�The Tempest, Epictetus鈥欌��Art of Living,鈥痶丑别 Bhagavad Gita, and Kant鈥檚 What is Enlightenment?
- Creative Writing: Engage with works such as Antigone and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as contemporary adaptations. Participate in a dynamic creative writing workshop where you will draft, revise and share original poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Analyze texts through both traditional academic essays and creative assignments that blur the boundaries between criticism and artistic expression
- Faith and Reason: Encounter authors and works that wrestle with the deep things of life鈥攖hat in which we live, move, and have our being鈥攁nd the fruits of that life expressed through the twin paths of faith and reason.
- Global Perspectives: Explore conversations across cultures and examine contemporary global issues. Engage with texts from diverse traditions worldwide, including African, Buddhist, Confucian, East Asian, Hindu, and Islamic cultures and discuss their intersection with some of the foundational texts, including The Bible, Augustine鈥檚 Confessions, Shakespeare鈥檚 plays, and Papal encyclicals.
- Healthy Living: Explore questions relevant to our psychological, emotional and spiritual health and well-being. What might the ancient Stoics have to teach us about dealing with the stress and anxiety of college life? How can Saint Augustine help us to think about grief and mourning? How might Shakespeare and Frederick Douglass help us deal with feelings of exclusion and alienation?
- Leadership Experience: Consider the qualities of a leader, with an emphasis on the model of servant-leadership. Read primary texts in political science, philosophy, economics, rhetoric, literature, drama and spirituality, including The Aeneid, Plato, Tao Te Ching, Shakespeare, Frankenstein, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Communist Manifesto, and a Papal encyclical on Catholic social teaching.
- Science, Inquiry, and Self: Engage both sciences and humanities perspectives in a collaborative interdisciplinary inquiry into fundamental questions, such as Does the world have an order, intelligence, or a purpose? Or is it meaningless, and characterized by randomness and chance? Is a human being different from an animal or even a complex machine? Does an understanding of the natural world provide insight into human purpose and ethical conduct?
- Social Justice and Inclusivity: Engage with texts selected from diverse traditions, genres and historical eras with an emphasis on social justice and inclusion themes such as oppression, power, justice, equality, liberation and human rights, and read works of authors from historically marginalized identities and groups. Discuss these issues alongside resources from philosophy, literature, history and Catholic Social Thought.
- Sustainability and Society: Discuss your relationship to the natural world with an environmental focus. Class discussions include scientific and cultural perspectives; human roles in environmental stewardship, caretaking and extracting; and global innovations impacting nature鈥檚 well-being and regeneration.