Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface: Curriculum Revision and the Foundations of American Higher Education xi
4. PART I: INNOVATION AND THE LIBERAL ARTS CORE
5. Introduction 1
6. Choreographing the Conversation: How Designers Helped Clear an Academic Logjam 3
7. What Do We Know? Or, The Perils of Expertise 13
8. Innovation 21
9. Ambitious Plans Meet Reality: How We Made the Renewed Core Work 31
10. Slowing Down and Opening Up: Preparing Faculty to Co-design a General Education Course 41
11. Core Renewal as Creative Fidelity 50
12. Reflection and Core Renewal 62
13. Surprised by Conversation: A Reflection on Core Renewal at Boston College 69
14. PART II: TEACHING THE RENEWED CORE
15. Complex Problem Courses 75
16. Teaching about a Planet in Peril 77
17. Experimenting with Science and Technology in American Society 82
18. Global Implications of Climate Change: Importance of Mentorship in a Core Education 104
19. Enduring Question Courses: Bringing Together Divergent Disciplines 115
20. How to Live in the Material World: Two Perspectives 117
21. Aesthetic and Spiritual Exercises, in and beyond the Classroom 123
22. Enduring Question Courses: Differentiating Similar Disciplines 133
23. Death in Ancient Greece and Modern Russia: Reflecting on Our Reflection Sessions 135
24. Spending a Semester with “A Possession for All Time”: Justice and War in Thucydides 144
25. Inquiring about Humans and Nature: Creativity, Planning, and Serendipity 150
26. The Liberal Arts Core: Engaging with Current Events, 2016–2020 157
27. Crossings: Teaching “Roots and Routes: Reading/Writing Identity, Migration, and Culture” 159
28. The Architecture of a Black Feminist Classroom: Pedagogical Praxis in “Where #BlackLivesMatter Meets #MeToo” 167
29. Truth-Telling in History and Literature: Constructive Uncertainty 178
30. Covid Core Lessons 190
31. Acknowledgments 199
32. Appendix A: The Vision Animating the Boston College Core Curriculum 203
33. Appendix B: Boston College Core Curriculum Required Courses 209
34. Appendix C: Complex Problem and Enduring Question Courses, 2015–2021 211
35. List of Contributors 235
36. Index 243