Associated Course Pairings:

Course Descriptions

CC101: What Is Liberal Arts Education?

Instructor: Timothy Fuller
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Block: 1

By reading and discussing some classic and some contemporary essays, both philosophical and historical, on the idea of liberal arts education, and on the challenges to it, we aim to understand more fully why there have always been places set aside in society for reflection on fundamental questions of the human condition from Plato's Academy to the contemporary liberal arts college. We consider also the significant expansion of the opportunities to have this opportunity in the past two centuries. We also look at some of the unresolved questions about the present and future of higher education.

CC120: Math, Democracy, and Making a Difference

Instructor: Beth Malmskog
Block: 2

How do we make decisions as a group in a way that is most fair? What does fairness even mean? Surprisingly, mathematics can be a great tool in understanding fairness in democracy and beyond. However, mathematics is only as powerful as our ability to communicate our mathematical insights to the community. This course will begin with an introduction to the mathematics of voting and democracy. We will learn how mathematicians approach the concept of fairness in this context, and practice writing as mathematicians write to convince one another. While continuing to expand our mathematical knowledge, we will then practice writing about mathematics in a way that can persuade a non-mathematical audience to understand and care about mathematical ideas. Finally, we will consider how an understanding of mathematics is important in creating and interpreting laws, with a focus on recent and draft voting legislation in Colorado. The emphasis is on writing (and otherwise communicating) to make a difference—in our reader’s understanding, and in the larger world. No mathematical background is assumed.

Tentative afternoon field trip planned.

CC101: Liberal Education: What and Why?

Instructor: Eve Grace
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Analysis & Interpretation of Meaning
Block: 1

CC120: Democracy, Ancient and Modern, in Theory and Practice

Instructor: Owen Cramer
Block: 3

Athenian “First Democracy” as practiced and theorized from the 6th to the 4th century BCE. Modern versions based on voting, majority rule and elected representatives. Threats to and hopes for these systems. The 2024 American and Colorado election in context. Reading from ancient historians and philosophers, American founding documents and theorists and observers such as Tocqueville, Dewey, Robert Kagan and Danielle Allen. Writing will include research, reflection and observation and will employ and critique historical and philosophical methods.

CC104: Renaissance Culture, pt. 1

Instructor: Tip Ragan and Rebecca Tucker
Learning Across the Liberal Arts Designation: Historical Perspectives
Block: 1

What can we learn from the past about our contemporary moment? In what ways can we engage in productive conversations with people, ideas, and events from history? In this class, we’ll explore these questions by examining the European “Renaissance” (1300s-1500s), a time of crisis, upheaval and innovation. Emerging around a pandemic (the infamous Black Death), this period is notable for technological change, internal strife, crises in faith, and international conflict. From Hollywood to Ubisoft to Beyoncé, the Renaissance is a “hot button” topic both in academic discourse and in popular culture. In two linked blocks, we explore the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation in Europe through the disciplinary perspectives of history and art. During our intellectual odyssey together, we analyze philosophical, political, and literary texts as well as selected examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Our goal is to illuminate, and critically evaluate, central themes of this period by utilizing the different disciplinary methods offered by history and art. Topics include: ideas about identity (gender, religion, family, and the self); developments in knowledge and understanding (ancient, religious, political, scientific, cosmic, and magical); and circulation and encounters between diverse (and divergent) groups. Through reading, writing, films, museum visits, independent projects, and other experiences, students develop crucial skills of critical thinking, oral communication, writing, and academic research. Students gain perspective on this moment in history and art, and even more importantly, engage together in a key 21st-century enterprise – that is, disciplinary learning and intellectual engagement with the past.

Occasional afternoon sessions from 1-3.

CC120: Renaissance Culture, pt. 2

Instructor: Tip Ragan and Rebecca Tucker
Block: 2

What can we learn from the past about our contemporary moment? In what ways can we engage in productive conversations with people, ideas, and events from history? In this class, we’ll explore these questions by examining the European “Renaissance” (1300s-1500s), a time of crisis, upheaval and innovation. Emerging around a pandemic (the infamous Black Death), this period is notable for technological change, internal strife, crises in faith, and international conflict. From Hollywood to Ubisoft to Beyoncé, the Renaissance is a “hot button” topic both in academic discourse and in popular culture. In two linked blocks, we explore the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation in Europe through the disciplinary perspectives of history and art. During our intellectual odyssey together, we analyze philosophical, political, and literary texts as well as selected examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Our goal is to illuminate, and critically evaluate, central themes of this period by utilizing the different disciplinary methods offered by history and art. Topics include: ideas about identity (gender, religion, family, and the self); developments in knowledge and understanding (ancient, religious, political, scientific, cosmic, and magical); and circulation and encounters between diverse (and divergent) groups. Through reading, writing, films, museum visits, independent projects, and other experiences, students develop crucial skills of critical thinking, oral communication, writing, and academic research. Students gain perspective on this moment in history and art, and even more importantly, engage together in a key 21st-century enterprise – that is, disciplinary learning and intellectual engagement with the past.

Occasional afternoon sessions from 1-3.