NEW FOR SPRING 2025 - Chicago Studies CIV and CIV+ARTS Core Sequences!
Chicago Studies' new domestic CIV and CIV+ARTS Core Sequences mirror the University's Study Abroad programs, especially those based in cities. Structured as three inter-related courses that constitute either a 3-class CIV sequence or a 2-CIV + Arts Core sequence that is completed within the frame of a single academic term, these immersive quarters promote critical reflection on a specific place while also encouraging civic literacy and cultural humility through contact, acculturation, and the integration of high-impact teaching and learning strategies. Each quarter's classes will be organized around a common theme and utilize field trips, guest speakers, engagement with stakeholder groups and leaders, and directed undergraduate research to enrich course readings and assignments, thus serving as an introduction not only to Chicago-specific content but also to approaches to and methodologies for urban studies in the social sciences and humanities.
The approach of CIV classes generally “stresses the grounding of events and ideas in historical context and the interplay of events, institutions, ideas, and cultural expressions in social change” (College Catalog). CIV courses typically rely upon on primary sources (broadly defined) as a way of learning about “ideas, cultural patterns, and social pressures that frame the understanding of events and institutions.” The Arts Core “offers students many ways to explore a wide variety of art forms” with classes that “challenge students to think in creative and original ways, forming meaningful and inventive interpretations in dialogue with others” (ibid). As a global city with an outsized influence on the history, material economy, and cultural/intellectual movements not only of the United States but of the world, Chicago and its diverse communities are able to ground a wide variety of academic experiences that fulfill the goals of both CIV and Arts Core requirements, while also encouraging deeper understanding of and connections to the city we call home.
Our inaugural CIV + ARTS Core Sequence will focus on Latin(e/x) Chicago.
- “Latin America in/at Chicago” – Diana Schwartz Francisco (History, LASC) - CIV #1
- “Immigrant Chicago” – René Flores (Sociology) - CIV #2
- “Latinx Arts in Chicago” – Sergio Delgado Moya (Romance Languages/Literatures) - ARTS
The three courses that comprise this sequence will provide students with deep knowledge of how Latin(e/x) Americans have transformed and experienced Chicago. The two civilization courses in the sequence marshal distinct social scientific approaches to examine Latin(e/x) American Chicago. “Latin America in/at Chicago” examines hemispheric social, political, and intellectual connections in the city over the long twentieth century. “Immigrant Chicago” homes in on the specific experiences of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans to convey the diversity of Latine/x Chicago and historicize the contemporary reality of immigration from the region. The final course in the bundle, “Latinx Arts in Chicago,” is an arts core that examines artistic production as creative responses to the lived realities of Latinx populations in the city.
Applications for "early decision" admission to Chicago Studies CIV will open on Monday, April 1 and close Monday, April 15, 2024. "Early decision" admits will be notified by Friday, April 19, 2024. Students not admitted via early decision will be deferred for re-consideration in the "regular admission" cycle, which will open on Monday of week 3 in the Fall 2024 term.