Curriculum

SCiLL’s minor offers engaging courses that explore the foundational questions, texts, and traditions that have shaped American democracy and Western thought. Through this interdisciplinary program, students will gain the knowledge and skills to lead with wisdom, have reasoned conversations across differences, and live with purpose in our pluralistic democracy.  

The curriculum targets four core competencies:  

• developing a civic perspective that connects philosophy, history, religion, economics, and politics; 
• mastering the American civic tradition and its global influences; 
• critically examining how this tradition serves broader human flourishing;  
• and building skills for public discourse and leadership.  

Students will learn civil discourse as they tackle life’s perennial questions: What constitutes the good life? What are the best political and economic systems? How should scientific knowledge guide policy? What founding principles should America preserve or revise? Students will also gain the practical skills and background experiences to succeed in many professional careers.  

Requirements

In addition to the program requirements listed below, students must earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 in the minor core requirements.  

Course Categories 

Civic Discourse and Leadership  

The Civic Discourse (CD) category is an opportunity for students to learn how to disagree fruitfully across differences. Courses in this category will expose students to controversial questions and debates. These courses will encourage productive approaches to disagreement that a pluralistic society depends on. CD courses will do more than simply teach skills in disagreeing well; they will also deeply engage with the facts, context, and nuance surrounding the topics they cover, requiring students to achieve a rigorous understanding of the topic or theme in question. 

Code	Title	Gen Eds
SCLL 170	Left, Right, Center	FC-PAST, FC-VALUES
SCLL 185	How to be a Citizen	FC-VALUES, COMMBEYOND
SCLL 201	Practice of Civic Life and Leadership	COMMBEYOND
SCLL 240	Free Speech, Fanaticism, and Censorship	FC-VALUES, FC-KNOWING
SCLL 270	Winning with Words: Democratic Rhetoric	FC-VALUES

American Civic Life  

The American Civic Life (ACL) category is an opportunity for students to critically examine the nature, structure, and foundations of the American regime. Courses satisfying the ACL category may focus on American political development, the American intellectual tradition, the sources of American civic thought, or comparisons of American civic life with some of its alternatives, historical or contemporary. These courses will offer students the opportunity to understand the American civic regime and offer tools for critically analyzing it. 

Code	Title	Gen Eds
SCLL 150	Foundations of American Civic Life H	FC-VALUES, FAD
SCLL 155	Declaration of Independence: Contexts & Controversies	FAD
SCLL 160	The Moral Economy	FC-PAST, FC-VALUES
SCLL 165	What is the American Character?	FAD
SCLL 180	Democracy in America: Promises and Perils	FAD
SCLL 207	The Global Cold War	FC-GLOBAL
SCLL 250	Democracy-Ancient and Modern	FC-VALUES, FAD
SCLL 352	Lab Coats and Legislators: Science, Technology, Policy, and Politics	FC-KNOWING
SCLL 500	Grand Strategy	FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

^H Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

Fundamental Questions and Ideas  

The Fundamental Questions and Ideas (FQ) category invites students to examine the fundamental questions of human life and political society through the reading of classic philosophical, political, literary, and religious texts that speak to these questions. Courses satisfying the FQ category will encourage deep reading to address foundational human desires and experiences like justice, happiness, love, marriage, education, family, crime, punishment, faith, and death, as well as questions about how to structure political life to facilitate human flourishing. FQ courses are designed to allow students to live reflective and flourishing lives.

Code	Title	Gen Eds
SCLL 104	Deep Reading Boot Camp	FC-AESTH
SCLL 125	Utopias and Dystopias	FC-PAST
SCLL 132	Philosophy of Education	FC-PAST, FC-VALUES
SCLL 136	Love and Death
SCLL 140	Islam and its Others	FC-PAST
SCLL 145	The Family in Political Thought	FC-PAST, FC-VALUES
SCLL 215	The Politics of Comedy and Tragedy	FC-VALUES
SCLL 255	Thought and Action in the Ancient Polis
SCLL 350	Science and Society	FC-KNOWING
SCLL 425	Natural Law and Human Rights
SCLL 429	Political Theology	FC-POWER, FC-VALUES
SCLL 510	Human Rights in the Modern World

Opportunities for Civic Life minors 

Students minoring in civic life and leadership also have access to the following co-curricular opportunities: 

• Personal mentorship from a faculty member, including check-ins every semester, advice on course selection, and internship and post-graduate advising; 
• Eligibility for a Libertas Scholarship, which offers $1500/semester toward tuition, for up to eight semesters; 
• Eligibility for summer research and internship funding; 
• The opportunity to attend and participate in reading groups, debate societies, and events put on by the department and the Program for Public Discourse. 

Questions? Contact SCiLL’s director of undergraduate studies, Professor Rita Koganzon.