The College Curriculum

Mark Van Doren, the noted literary scholar, once remarked, «The college is meaningless without a curriculum, but it is more so when it has one that is meaningless.» Many current critics of undergraduate curricula in America assent to the crucial need for programmatic renewal in our colleges and universities. They bemoan the cookie-cutter sameness in far too many of them. The oddity is that U.S. colleges have long touted their «diversity» while largely holding fast to rather traditional pathways. This illuminating volume goes beyond formulaic nuts-and-bolts recipes for constructing curriculum: it seeks to interpret and analyze the contemporary landscape of college curriculum. Yet it also hopes to heighten pedagogic horizons in more imaginative, innovative ways by presenting actual curricula from more distinctive academic offerings. This book will stimulate vitally needed «out-of-the-box» thinking about curricula among faculty, administrators, and students, and ultimately invite the emergence of more radically diverse visions and realities for today’s college curriculum.