Fall 2024 Humanities BC1111 section 003

A BARNARD EDUCATION AT WORK

A BARNARD EDUCATION AT WO

Call Number 00882
Day & Time
Location
R 5:40pm-6:55pm
202 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
Points 1
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Laurie Postlewate
Type SEMINAR
Course Description

Per its mission statement, “Barnard College aims to provide the highest-quality liberal arts
education to promising and high-achieving young women… They graduate prepared to lead
lives that are professionally satisfying and successful, personally fulfilling, and enriched by a love
of learning.” This course finds its roots in the connection posited here, between undergraduate
study and professional life. Students will be asked to revisit a foundational text they have
encountered in their major, and use it as a mode of exploration and reflection on an internship.
They will consider how the text’s themes and ideas can be reinterpreted and recontextualized in
the working world, and think about what practical, moral, political, aesthetic and personal
insights it affords. More broadly, students will be prompted to consider the relationship of the
liberal arts degree (which purports to prepare students for no particular career) to their chosen
career path. This course will further hone the critical thinking and writing skills that are
translatable to any profession, and enables a Barnard student to put into practice the
complexities they have learned in the classroom, by encouraging them to analyze the
professional world from different perspectives, and in the context of other ideas and traditions.
The text will be selected from a list provided by the student’s major department, and will be
subject to approval from the course instructor.
On a weekly basis, in this discussion-based class, the student shares their ideas about their text
and how it relates to their internship. They respond to and engage with their classmates. They
are required to spend about two hours with their text per week. They are also required to
create a three to five minute presentation, to be shared with the full group. The group is also
responsible for providing feedback on the presentation. The presentation ultimately evolves
into a final paper of 8-10 pages that explores the line of inquiry from their text as it is
instantiated in their work experience. Students are graded on their discussion (40%),
presentation (25%), and final paper (35%).

Web Site Vergil
Department Barnard College
Enrollment 20 students (23 max) as of 9:05PM Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Subject Humanities
Number BC1111
Section 003
Division Barnard College
Section key 20243HUMA1111X003