Core Curriculum Guide: Knowledge Areas
Societal and Cultural Knowledge
Learning Outcome: Demonstrate cultural, societal and self understanding.
The study of societies, cultures and self involves learning about the social sciences. Graduates should understand: the beliefs, rituals, structures and values that constitute the human condition and collective as a society; the political, economic, and social systems of states and societies; and the forms of expression that make them understandable to themselves and others as a culture. Knowledge of one's own development, self, identify, culture, and state, as well as a global and international perspective, are important to societal and cultural understanding.
Competencies: By way of example, Loyola graduates should be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among cultural, economic, political, and social forces, and their impact on human behavior.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the processes and components of societies, states, and cultures.
- Demonstrate an understanding of differences of class, gender, and race in societies, states, and cultures.
- Demonstrate an awareness that human values and behavior, ideas of justice, and methods of interpretation are influenced by culture and time.
- Differentiate among historical and contemporary perspectives about the world with a view to fashioning a humane and just world.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how our individual self concepts form as a complex interaction of the biological, familial, societal, and cultural contexts in which we develop.
Societal and Cultural Knowledge Courses
| Introduction to Cultural Anthropology | ANTH 102 |
| This course studies how many factors (beliefs, rituals, social structure, economic structure, political structure) integrate to define culture in the broad sense and how they vary in the context of different cultures (or societies) in a more narrow sense. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate the skills necessary for the study of culture, including the completion of an ethnography. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communications (written) critical thinking ethical awareness qualitative analysis |
| Biological Basis for Human Social Behavior | ANTH 103 |
| This course examines the possible biological bases of modern human behavior, from a strongly scientific and multi-disciplinary perspective. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the relationships among cultural, economic, political, and social forces, and their impact on human behavior. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking ethical awareness |
| World Cultures | ANTH 271 |
| This course is a study of cultural diversity on a global scale, and investigates humans as cultural and social beings. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the historic and contemporary relationships between cultures and societies, and to understand how cultures change over time. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking communication (written) (oral) |
| Explorations in Asian Studies | ASIA 101 |
| This variable topics course introduces students both to Asia as a geographical region and to the field of Asian Studies. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate skills for evaluating, describing and critically thinking about the Asian region. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| War and War Experience, Ancient and Modern | CLST 281 |
| This course focuses upon the institution of war and the effects that war has upon individuals, especially in ancient Greece and in modern times. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how war has ongoing impact upon individual and societal identities, forging collective identity, while at the same time destroying individual identity. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Women in the Classical World | CLST/WOST 295 |
| This course will investigate the social roles available to women in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, together with beliefs, behaviors, and cultural expressions supporting ancient Greek and Roman constructions of womanhood. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how biology, gender, class, culture, philosophy, politics, history, and economics articulate social difference and influence human behavior, including self-formation and interaction with others. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Communication Practices | CMUN 160 |
| This course studies public communication as a social practice that takes place within specific historical, cultural, social, economic, and political contexts. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the three main modes of address that have characterized human interaction throughout history (orality, literacy, and post-literacy or videocy), and the distinct practices and cultures that these shifting communication modes have produced. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking communication (written) (oral) |
| Adolescent Development | CPSY 337 |
| This course examines the social and cultural influences on human development and identity formation during the period of life called adolescence as it is experienced in Western and non-Western cultures. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the way in which culture shapes the development of self, identity, worldview, and relationships, particularly during the age of adolescence. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking communication (written) (oral) |
| Principles of Microeconomics | ECON 201 |
| This course studies the economic environment's impact on the individual and on the firm. Outcome: Students will be able to model the different economic orders of the society and how individuals are impacted by them, and be able to demonstrate understanding of global and international perspectives on trade, immigration and capital flows. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking quantitative & qualitative analysis |
| Principles of Macroeconomics | ECON 202 |
| This course studies the economic environment of the nation and measures growth, unemployment, inflation, fiscal and monetary policies of the government to ultimately understand economic stability and the welfare of the individual citizen. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the numerous variables that lead to economic stability and the welfare of the individual citizen. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking quantitative & qualitative analysis |
| Russian Literary Masterpieces | LITR 225 |
| This course focuses on 18th, 19th, and 20th century Russian literature, including poetry, drama, and fiction. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of literary masterpieces and their ability to help us develop a critical consciousness of our experience--personal, social, cultural, historical, as well as esthetic. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communication (written) |
| Masterpieces of German Literature | LITR 230 |
| This course focuses on the major German literary works of the 20th Century. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of literary masterpieces and their ability to help us develop a critical consciousness of our experience--personal, social, cultural, historical, as well as esthetic. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communication (written) |
| Arabic Literature | LITR 238 |
| This course focuses on the detailed study of the primary literary source of our knowledge about the life and times of Muhammad. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the broader social, cultural and geographic backdrop of the rise of Islam during the life of Muhammad. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communication (written) |
| South Asian Literature in Translation | LITR 243 |
| This course examines literary and historical readings to provide an overview of South Asian society and culture, and focuses on issues of caste, communalism and gender in South Asia. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of South Asian culture, society, politics and self-understanding in colonial and post-independence times. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communication (written) |
| Italian Film Genre | LITR 264 |
| This course will focus on major Italian films from the period between 1947 and 2002. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the dramatic economic, social and political changes in Italian society over the last 55 years. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking communication (visual) |
| Masterpieces of European Literature | LITR 280 |
| This course focuses on major literary works of Europe, from medieval romance through the modern novel and short story. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of literary masterpieces and their ability to help us develop a critical consciousness of our experience--personal, social, cultural, historical, as well as esthetic. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communication (written) |
| Social & Political Philosophy | PHIL 182 |
| This course will investigate one of the central questions of philosophy and social theory: How should we, as human beings, live together? Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the complex structures involved in social existence, sensitivity to the way different views of the social good affect judgments of their worth and effectiveness, and an understanding of the way these structures affect the life of the individual. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking ethical awareness |
| Culture and Civilization | PHIL 188 |
| This course examines the nature, causes, and possible future development of human culture and civilization. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the various approaches to the philosophical study of human culture and civilization. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| American Politics | PLSC 101 |
| This course examines the foundations and processes of the American political system. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the American federal system, its political processes, patterns of political and social behavior and participation, institutions of governance, and public policy making processes. |
View syllabus Skill Area: information literacy |
| International Politics | PLSC 102 |
| This course examines the interrelationships among nations, groups and peoples in the contemporary global system. Outcome: Students will be able to to demonstrate understanding of the main ways of studying international politics; to compare and contrast major competing approaches to the field; to examine individual regions and countries from the perspective of these approaches; and to achieve an understanding of such major substantive issues as interstate war, terrorism, arms control, international political economy and sustainable development. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking ethical awareness |
| General Psychology | PSYC 101 |
| This course explores the scientific study of the brain, mental events, and behavior. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the foundation, methodology, theory, and phenomena of the fields of physiological, perceptual, cognitive, social, clinical and developmental psychology. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Gender and Sex Differences and Similarities | PSYC/WOST 238 |
| This course focuses on the development of cultural, societal, and self-understanding (societal and cultural knowledge) by exploring the complexity of culture-specific social constructions of gender and how these constructions influence our ideas about what it means to be a man or woman in contemporary society. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how historical context influences science, and how context-specific political forces shape what is thought of as "scientific knowledge." |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Social Psychology | PSYC 275 |
| This course is an introduction to the field of social psychology, which seeks to understand human behavior by viewing it within its social and cultural context. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of cultural and social group differences, which is critical to the development of inter-cultural understanding and the reduction of inter-group (or inter-cultural) conflict. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| The Sociological Perspective: An Introduction | SOCL 101 |
| This course is an introduction to the distinctively sociological perspective of analyzing people, societies and their structures and cultures. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of themselves as human beings and how different forces and ideas affect their own society and culture. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Social Problems | SOCL 121 |
| This course is an opportunity to examine major issues facing society. Outcome: Students will be able to critically examine the impact of a social problem and its possible solutions, to integrate knowledge gleaned from a variety of disciplines, to find and utilize relevant data and research in defining issues and solutions, and to view social problems from macro and micro perspectives as a means of applying workable solutions for the issues facing society. |
View syllabus Skill Area: quantitative analysis |
| Race and Ethnic Relations | SOCL 122 |
| This course examines the development of cultural, society, and self-understanding by exploring the social construction of race in the United States of America, and how these ideas of race affect interpersonal relations and, most importantly, influence laws, policies, and practices which differently affect racial and ethnic communities. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the conditions which have, historically, worsened racial tensions as well as when and how social movements have been successful at eradicating racially oppressive laws and working towards a just society. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Mass Media and Popular Culture | SOCL/WOST 123 |
| This course examines the connections between the media of mass communication and multiple forms of popular art and culture. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the social relationships between mass media and the general population. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking communication (written) (visual) information literacy |
| Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis | SOCL 125 |
| This course explores the development of Chicago region from the 1830s to the present day. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the geography, history and people of Chicago. |
View syllabus Skill Area: communication |
| Sociology of Sex and Gender | SOCL 271/WOST 371 |
| This course explores the social organization of sex and gender. Outcome: Students will be able to situate their pre-conceived experiences of the naturalness of gender in a particular historical and cultural context. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |
| Social Welfare and Services I | SOWK 201 |
| The first of two courses in the Social Welfare Policy and Services component, this course stresses the societal and institutional forces and structures which influence the practice and profession of social work in contemporary United States and other Western industrialized societies. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how different contexts and historical factors have shaped the emergence of the modern welfare state and the social service professions. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking ethical awareness communication (written) (oral) |
| Issues in Feminism | WOST 201 |
| This course is an introduction to womens studies, exploring the nature, function and scope of the field. Outcome: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the ideas that gender is a social construction, that gender is necessarily a critical factor in personal identity, human relationships, and social power, the historical subordination of women, the intersection of gender, race, and class, and the praxis of this knowledge and a commitment to social justice. |
View syllabus Skill Area: critical thinking |