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Advanced Certificate in Liberal Studies

The Advanced Certificate in Liberal Studies is designed for graduates of the University of Delaware Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program and, with the approval of the MALS director, graduates of other accredited MALS programs. Individuals with advanced degrees in the arts, humanities, or other academic or professional areas interested in pursuing the certificate should contact the MALS director at 302/831-6075.

• Continue the stimulating and thoughtful discussion of graduate-level seminars
• Renew and build relationships with other intellectually curious adults
• Study with University faculty from several disciplines in a challenging classroom environment
• Explore interdisciplinary topics and themes

• Submit an application along with a $75 application fee
• If accepted, complete--with grade of B or better--six MALS graduate courses. You must be admitted to the certificate program to begin taking courses.

Application/Registration form Click here to print out the certificate application and registration form (2-page PDF). If you have questions about the Advanced Certificate in Liberal Studies, please call Maryanne Brown-MacKay, MALS program administrative assistant, at 302/831-6075. (You will need Adobe Reader to open/print the form. If you don't already have it, click here click here to download it for free.)

Courses available in Fall 2009:

• Interpreting the Past
• Studies in Contemporary Culture: Reading the Contemporary Short Story
• Texts in Time and Context: America in the 1960s

Interpreting the Past

This interdisciplinary course considers different perspectives that can be applied to learning about the past. It begins with what neuroscientists have learned about how our memories work, enabling us to remember our own pasts. Then, the linkage between family history and world events will be considered in a book by the child of Holocaust survivors. The different approaches and interests of historians are addressed in case studies of the United States and Haiti. The remainder of the semester is devoted to how archaeologists study the past. Themes that run through these various readings include how political agendas and cultural affiliation can affect interpretations of history and prehistory, and how these interpretations have consequences for people living today. (4.2 CEUs)

Instructors: Jill Neitzel teaches the Newark section and Kimberly Grimes teaches the Georgetown section.

NEWARK CAMPUS
Mon., 9/14/2009 - 12/7/2009
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
14 sessions
Reg. No. 2204117-001-09F-JB
Cost: $100

GEORGETOWN, William A. Carter Center
Wed., 9/2/2009 - 12/9/2009
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
14 sessions
Reg. No. 2204117-002-09F-JB
Cost: $100

Studies in Contemporary Culture: Reading the Contemporary Short Story

This course will provide a context in which students will become comfortable responding to the latest story in whatever magazine they may be stuck with in the airport—not necessarily to like it, but to understand what the story is trying to do. Students will read, discuss, and write about the very latest stories published by the country’s best writers. Our primary text, in fact, will be one of the anthologies containing the “best” stories published during the previous year. The class itself will create much of the syllabus, choosing which of those stories it wants to write about and discuss. No previous experience interpreting literature is required, but students should be prepared for independent thinking and writing. (4.2 CEUs)

Instructor: Cruce Stark

WILMINGTON CAMPUS
Wed., 9/2/2009 - 12/9/2009
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
14 sessions
Reg. No. 2204154-001-09F-JB
Cost: $100

Texts in Time and Context: America in the 1960s

This multidisciplinary course immerses students in a variety of print and non-print texts reflecting American culture in the 1960s. Students will read poetry and novels, essays and legal decisions. They will listen to music and political speeches and view films and documentaries.

Among the literature read in the course will be:

• Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar
• William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner
• Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

The speeches will include:

• John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address
• Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”
• Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet"

We will listen to, among others:

• Simon and Garfunkel
• The Beatles
• Joan Baez
• Crosby Stills and Nash
• Jimi Hendrix
• Country Joe

We’ll watch The Graduate and documentaries on school desegregation, the Vietnam War, and Kent State, among other things—including Mike Wallace and Dan Rather looking about twelve years old. Considering these texts in the context of the period that produced them, students will explore the ways in which these materials both arose from and contributed to the highly distinctive culture of the 1960s. (4.2 CEUs)

Instructor: Joan DelFattore

WILMINGTON CAMPUS
Thurs., 9/3/2009 - 12/3/2009
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
14 sessions
Reg. No. 2204155-001-09F-JB
Cost: $100

If you have questions about the Advanced Certificate in Liberal Studies, please call Maryanne Brown-MacKay, MALS program administrative assistant, at 302/831-6075.