https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/09/06/columbias-core-curriculum-gets-update
The article mentions adding a specific play as a "rotating contemporary core element" to the literature humanities course.
Is this an indication that novels aren't changing society as perhaps they might once have done?
Maybe. Although its not like people are going out to see plays in droves either.
I think it maybe has more to do with the core in general being dynamic, as opposed to the very static nature of Columbia's core for decades (until mid 90's?).
Quote from: polly_mer on September 06, 2019, 05:53:06 AM
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/09/06/columbias-core-curriculum-gets-update
The article mentions adding a specific play as a "rotating contemporary core element" to the literature humanities course.
Is this an indication that novels aren't changing society as perhaps they might once have done?
I believe they have had plays (old and very old) already. The novelty is
contemporary. The core curriculum has been light on living authors, or even those who were alive when the professors got their degrees.
But . . . but . . . this will mean the end of Western civilization!
Quote from: spork on September 13, 2019, 02:44:50 AM
But . . . but . . . this will mean the end of Western civilization!
Western Civ had already ended at my alma mater by the late 1980s. It was already World Civ there. And we weren't even a cutting-edge school!
I think Columbia had the accidental forethought to name this class "Contemporary Civilization" decades ago (although if its a play, it might be going into what at least used to be called...maybe still called, Literature Humanities---still part of core though).
Who cares? It's not like Columbia's going to start firing tenured English professors. And--I promise you--none of them care what the curriculum looks like as long as (1) they keep their jobs and (2) their teaching loads remain the same or get lighter.
Well, in my experience with English departments, a lot of them care a great deal about what the curriculum looks like, but are helpless to do much about it. It's not as if English professors have some magical vote that means they get their way when university administrations or even university Senates decide on a thing. In fact I imagine that every professor in the department has a different (but firm) idea of what the curriculum should look like, so it's not even as if they can vote as a bloc.