The 20th century has long been recognized as the era in which U.S. colleges and universities transformed themselves into the disciplinary-based, departmentalized organisms we see today. This has either been in reaction too, or in contribution toward, the increased specialization in knowledge that is demanded of modern researchers. Perhaps in response to this trend, the 20th century also saw the rise on some campuses of courses explicitly designed to foster broad, interdisciplinary conversations across the campus.
The origins of this project lie within my experience of teaching at Wabash College, an all-male institution of 850 students. Wabash College prides itself on being "fiercely committed to the liberal arts". The central course in its curriculum is a two semester sequence called Cultures and Traditions, or C&T. C&T is taken by all sophomores and is unusual in the sense that all sections discuss the exact same piece of literature, art, or film on any given day, and the course is taught by members of virtually every department on campus. The content of the course might be recognizable as being Great Books-ish and the emphasis is on reading, discussing, and writing. The course is intended to embody the liberal arts ideal of life-long learning and to model the process of how an educated individual seeks knowledge in an area in which he or she is not necessarily an expert. The common curriculum and transdisciplinary nature of this sequence affords both opportunities and challenges in how the course is structured, taught, and revised. Having witnessed the various facets of this course for several years, I began to wonder how prevalent such courses were on other campuses and if those campuses faced the same issues that Wabash does. This project is the first step in addressing this question.
The project began as a survey of 20 schools with courses that I identified as common and transdisciplinary. The directors of the courses at the various institutions filled out a survey consisting of 31 open-ended questions which I have subsequently compiled into tables and response summaries. The directors also made available course materials such as general information and course schedules. The survey responses, tables, and course materials are all available within the Resource Bin.
Now, in a continuation of this project, the survey has been modified to make responding easier.
Find out more about the survey and read results.
See the list of participating schools and their course information.