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Academic Catalog

Great TEXTS, Certificate

Website: https://www.washburn.edu/academics/interdisciplinary-studies/great-texts.html

Washburn University’s Great TEXTS certificate program is an interdisciplinary program that engages students in reading transformative texts to explore big, timely, and timeless problems and questions of humankind. The program is open to students in all majors and degree programs, especially those who want to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, and critical-thinking skills. Each Great TEXTS course is team-taught by a pair of faculty members through an approach inspired by humanist traditions. Each course also includes unique opportunities to pursue knowledge outside of the traditional classroom, including travel to historic and cultural sites and engagement with the community. Additional benefits of the TEXTS program include smaller classes that are discussion based. The unique Great TEXTS plan of study helps students to see connections between the topics they study and contemporary debates that they will confront as business, science, political, and industry leaders and as citizens in a multicultural democracy. Great TEXTS courses are Transformative, EXperiential, and Team-Taught Studies.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students who complete the certificate program will be able to:

  • Engage critically with transformative texts, drawing on multiple perspectives, to reflect on one’s position in the world
  • Analyze major intellectual ideas, human institutions, and human behavior as expressed in transformative texts from the Western and non-Western traditions
  • Apply interdisciplinary methods and theories from the liberal arts to current challenges facing individuals, communities, and societies.

Plan of Study

The certificate program requires a total of 15 credit hours of Great TEXTS courses.

Required Introductory Course
TX 100Critical Thinking, Communication, and Transformative Texts: Antiquity to Modernity3
Required Seminars 1
TX 200Enduring Questions and Transformative Texts3
TX 300Complex Problems and Transformative Texts 3
TX 301Inspiring Visions and Transformative Texts 3
Capstone 2
TX 400TEXTS Capstone 3
Total Hours15
1

These seminars will approach an important and timely problem or question from the perspective of the humanities. Topics will vary by semester.

2

With faculty consultation, students will complete a project based in transformational texts that applies to their lives, major, and interests. The project may be based in research, creative work, or community engagement.

Course Offerings

TX 100  Critical Thinking, Communication, and Transformative Texts: Antiquity to Modernity  (3)  

This first-year gateway course introduces students to the great questions and problems of humankind through discussion-based exploration of transformative texts from a variety of disciplines and genres. These texts will be examined in the context in which they were written and explored for what they mean today. The course helps students practice the critical thinking and communication skills they will need for success in college and in life. Throughout the course, students’ understanding and enjoyment of the selected texts will be supplemented by extracurricular activities and presentations, such as visits to historic and cultural sites, plays, musical performances, films, galleries, poetry readings, public lectures, and community engagement. Prerequisites: Acceptance into Great TEXTS certificate program

TX 200  Enduring Questions and Transformative Texts  (3)  

This course examines a series of transformative texts written in a variety of different genres, cultural traditions, and historical periods that engage with life’s big questions, both contemporary and enduring. Throughout the course, students’ understanding and enjoyment of the selected texts will be supplemented by extracurricular activities and presentations, such as visits to historic and cultural sites, plays, musical performances, films, galleries, poetry readings, public lectures, and community engagement. Specific topics and texts will change each semester. Prerequisites: TX 100

TX 300  Complex Problems and Transformative Texts  (3)  

This course examines a series of transformative texts written in a variety of different genres, cultural traditions, and historical periods that engage with the essential problems of the human condition, both contemporary and enduring. Throughout the course, students’ understanding and enjoyment of the selected texts will be supplemented by extracurricular activities and presentations, such as visits to historic and cultural sites, plays, musical performances, films, galleries, poetry readings, public lectures, and community engagement. Specific topics and texts will change each semester. Prerequisites: TX 100 and TX 200

TX 301  Inspiring Visions and Transformative Texts  (3)  

This course examines a series of transformative texts written in a variety of different genres, cultural traditions, and historical periods that inspire, foresee, or call to action. Throughout the course, students’ understanding and enjoyment of the selected texts will be supplemented by extracurricular activities and presentations, such as visits to historic and cultural sites, plays, musical performances, films, galleries, poetry readings, public lectures, and community engagement. Specific topics and texts will change each semester. Prerequisites: TX 100, TX 200, and TX 300

TX 400  TEXTS Capstone  (3)  

With faculty consultation, students will complete a project based in transformational texts that applies to their lives, major, and interests. The project may be based in research, creative work, or community engagement. Prerequisites: TX 100, TX 200, TX 300, and TX 301