LBST 201 - Introduction to Liberal Studies

5 credit hours

Introduces students to liberal studies, both as an academic discipline and as an increasingly significant development in scholarship. Students will explore the historical, social, and philosophical foundations of liberal and interdisciplinary studies. Topics include leadership, freedom, education, personal identity and responsibility, diversity, and the classic sense of liberal studies as crucial to intellectual development and good citizenship. Since a portion of the liberal studies major is self-directed, with requirements drawn from the broad curriculum of the university as a whole, this course will help students construct a cohesive plan for their interdisciplinary liberal studies degree. It also introduces the portfolio, a project that will define the student through the major and into professional development. The portfolio project is a tool for articulating a developing perspective within the interdisciplinary scholarship of the liberal studies major. Students majoring in liberal studies must take this course within the first two quarters after declaring the major. Prerequisites: Students should be declared liberal studies majors and have met with their advisor.