On This Page
1) Proposal Guidelines
2) Certification Criteria
3) Proposal Documents
4) Timeline
New course proposals are welcome any time. If approved by the Governance Board by April 1st the new course will be part of the IHUM curriculum in the following academic year.
Russell Berman, Director, and Ellen Woods, Associate Director, encourage inquiries year round and offer advice and consultation about new course ideas.
1) New Course Proposal Guidelines
IHUM courses are organized around enduring questions and essential themes that engage freshmen in exploring what it means to be human. They foster rigorous inquiry and critical thinking about these questions and themes, and guide students to development of original and creative interpretation of primary texts. Texts may include written works of literature, history, and philosophy as well as visual and multi-media materials. Secondary and supplemental readings are strongly discouraged: faculty lectures provide the context and background necessary for freshmen to approach discussion of the primary material in sections.
Autumn course syllabi are limited by Senate Legislation to three to five texts. The principal pedagogical objective is for students to build skills of close analysis and interpretation. Two or three faculty members (typically from different departments) collaborate in designing and teaching autumn courses. Winter/spring courses are designed as a coherent twenty-week sequence and include texts from a broad historical span of at least several centuries arranged chronologically. The two-quarter course sequence reflects a disciplinary perspective.
NOTE: Beginning in 2008, IHUM is authorized to experiment with the course format described above while meeting the legislated program goals and objectives.
Members of the IHUM Governance Board evaluate the proposed new course’s suitability for first-year students and assess the equity of the workload in relation to other courses in the program. They also oversee the alignment of the course goals with program objectives and the focus on student learning described in the Faculty Senate legislation. Normally the board authorizes courses for the three-year term. See the Senate legislation for the IHUM/Area One General Education Requirement.
Common questions about proposed new autumn courses:
- Does the course have an articulated line of inquiry that carries clearly through the three to five texts?
- Does each of the selected texts provide sufficient richness for sustained interpretative discussion without the need for explanatory secondary materials?
- In what ways do the teaching team members offer multiple interpretative perspectives on the texts?
Common questions about proposed new winter/spring sequences:
- How is the methodological approach to the topic appropriate for freshman liberal arts students rather than students seeking an introductory course in the major?
- In what ways does the course sequence use the full twenty weeks to achieve its goals?
- Does the syllabus give sufficient time to each text? Are texts read in their entirety?
- How do the faculty teaching the sequence work together?
The Governance Board examines two kinds of written materials submitted a week in advance of the meeting attended by the faculty proposing the new course: first, a general description of the course as it will appear in advising materials directed at freshmen; and second, a full explanation of the course themes and the way that the selected texts will be approached. The documents should respond to the guidelines address the criteria and questions noted above in the following format:
Part I. Draft of course description and list of texts suitable for entry into the student IHUM Course Catalogue.
Part II.
- Discussion of overarching questions and themes in relation to the IHUM program goals
- Annotated list of texts explaining why they were selected
- A draft syllabus by week, including examples of questions to guide students in preparing for lectures and discussions and defined course goals and student learning objectives with examples of possible assignments
The IHUM Governance Board reviews new course proposals at its bi-monthly meetings throughout the year, but especially during autumn and winter quarters to meet the April 1st deadline. Prospective IHUM faculty are invited to discuss their plans with Board members, and the result is a lively exchange of ideas, which, most faculty say, is a unique experience in curriculum planning at Stanford.
To facilitate selection of new post-doctoral fellows specifically for new IHUM courses, the Course Approval process should be completed no later than January of each year when the national search for post-doctoral fellows opens.