Each semester, Notre Dame’s undergraduate colleges and schools offer a number of one-credit courses which introduce students to in-depth topics without the workload and time commitment of a typical course.
The Appalachia one-credit course has been offered by the Institute for Social Concerns for over 40 years, introducing students to the cultural and social issues of the Appalachian region. The course, taught by Edward Jurkovic and Greg White, invites students to explore justice and community service opportunities. After discussing Catholic Social Teaching and social issues in Appalachia in the classroom, students travel to the region during fall break to connect with and work alongside local community partners.
“Our hope is that students leave this course recognizing that justice needs to be integrated mindfully into all they do, and have a solid framework from which to do this integrative work into the future,”Jurkovic wrote in a statement to The Observer.
Noting that the one-credit nature of the course has its trade-offs, he wrote,”there are natural limitations, you just don’t have the same amount of time as you would in a standard 3 credit course.”
Performance / Art / Politics gives students a chance to work with visiting artist Brendan Fernandes, who combines dance and visual art to explore politics and identity. Taught by professor Michael Schreffler and managing director of the Arts Initiative Rebecca Struch, this course includes workshops, performances and a trip to Chicago to see Fernandes’ work in a museum.
“The format of the one-credit course provides the flexibility needed for the kind of experiential learning that is central to the class,” Schreffler wrote in a statement to The Observer. “Students in the course benefit from direct engagement with an internationally recognized multidisciplinary artist whose work addresses timely issues about art, politics, and forming community.”
Chinese Calligraphy offers students the opportunity to explore the history of Chinese characters, understand the principles of formation and appreciate calligraphy as a distinct art form. In the course, students dedicate 50 minutes per week to practicing the art of writing Chinese characters with traditional brushes and ink. Associate teaching professor Jincheng Liu provides his students with a fundamental understanding of Chinese Calligraphy while also emphasizing the historical context and significance associated with the art form.
“Lecture topics include the four treasures of the writing studio, basic strokes, character structures and their development, different styles of calligraphy, and aesthetic principles of the art,” Liu wrote. The course is taught in English and no prior knowledge of the Chinese language is required.
Wisdom in Art: How Art and Artifacts Educate, taught by Aoife-Marie Buckley, encourages students to explore history through objects and artwork. Using Notre Dame’s museums, students study various art objects and artifacts. They consider what these items reveal in terms of history and past human experiences.
“The purpose of this class is to understand public pedagogies: that we can be taught by a wide variety of media,” Buckley wrote. “We seek to expand both our collective literacy, and our ‘teachability’. One requires additional information to be sought and new practices of seeing and interpreting to be implemented. The other requires an active recognition that we can be taught by what we encounter-and thus to begin a ‘practice’ of attentiveness.”