In addition to their four-year theatre training curriculum, The Theatre School students in BFA majors must complete 13 courses (52 quarterly credit hours) in the Liberal Studies Program. The Liberal Studies Program at DePaul is the portion of the curriculum in which all undergraduate students participate, no matter what their college or major. It is central to all undergraduate degrees at DePaul because it accomplishes two purposes that the University considers essential to a liberal education. These purposes are, first, to bring the student to engage, as a matter of habit, in reflective intellectual activity and, second, to bring the student to an awareness that questions of value underlie all human activities.
The Liberal Studies Program curriculum stresses reflective-ness, value-consciousness, and critical inquiry. It also encourages students to become active participants in the exploration and discovery of knowledge. It does so, in part, through courses that enhance student awareness of diverse communities and the everyday issues, experiences, contributions and concerns of different peoples and cultures, both historical and living. In pursuit of these ends, students learn in many ways: through reading, writing, dialogues, first hand observation and participation, quantitative and qualitative research, and other creative activities. Although disciplinary knowledge is central to the Liberal Studies Program, student awareness of interdisciplinary perspectives and ways of knowing is also encouraged.
Specific Liberal Studies Program requirements for The Theatre School BFA programs are as follows:
Common Core: 20 quarter hours required. 16 quarter hours in the First Year Program (4 quarter hours in Discover Chicago or Explore Chicago, 8 quarter hours in Composition and Rhetoric, 4 quarter hours in Quantitative Reasoning), and a 4 quarter hour sophomore seminar on Multiculturalism in the United States. The Common Core is a series of experiences throughout the Liberal Studies Program that emphasizes communication, quantitative and intellectual skills, as well as an introduction to the urban and Vincentian nature of the university. The First Year Program has two overarching goals: introducing students to the process of intellectual inquiry as it is practiced in a university, and community building. The First Year Program consists of Discover Chicago, Explore Chicago, Focal Point Seminars, Quantitative Reasoning and the Composition and Rhetoric Sequence. Students taking ENG 103 and/or ENG 104 at DePaul must receive grades of C- or better in order to fulfill the Liberal Studies requirement. Students will select a Sophomore Seminar on Multiculturalism in the United States from a list of offerings in one of the following topics: race, ethnicity, class, gender, language, religion, and sexual orientation.
Arts and Literature: 12 quarter hours required. History of Dramatic Literature is accepted to fulfill the requirement in this learning domain for BFA Theatre School students. History of Dramatic Literature is a study of the development of playscripts, the physical theatre, and means of production from ancient Greek and Roman societies through modern theatre.
Philosophical Inquiry: 4 quarter hours required. Courses in the Philosophical Inquiry domain address conceptual issues fundamental to reflection on such philosophical topics as metaphysics (e.g., being and nonbeing, the one and the many, the nature of reality, same and other, self and other); epistemology (e.g., the nature and possibility of knowledge, different ways of knowing, knowledge vs. opinion, truth and falsity); ethics (e.g., right and wrong action, good and bad, objectivism and relativism in ethics, social and political philosophies, the idea of value, the problem of evil); and aesthetics (e.g., the nature of beauty, aesthetic value, the possibility of aesthetic valuation). Courses address questions of how philosophical topics such as those indicated above impinge upon, shape, and challenge student lives. Students will take two courses in this domain.
Religious Dimensions: 4 quarter hours required. Courses in the Religious Dimensions domain offer students the opportunity to explore the explicitly religious dimensions of life and culture. These dimensions are found in the culturally embedded narratives, beliefs and practices of particular religions, as well as in encounters with realities perceived to be ultimate or sacred. Through myth, symbol, ritual and doctrine, these religions not only provide order and meaning, they also carry capacities to challenge and transform individuals and societies. Intellectual and social maturity requires understanding the unique contributions, both positive and negative, of the religious traditions of the world to culture and consciousness. It also requires coming to terms with questions of ultimacy. This Learning Domain offers courses with a comparative, thematic or ethical focus, as well as courses in specific traditions.
Scientific Inquiry: 4 quarter hours required; course must have a lab or quantitative component. Courses in the Scientific Inquiry domain are designed to provide students with an opportunity to learn the methods of modern science and its impact in understanding the world around us. Courses are designed to help students develop a more complete perspective about science and the scientific process, including: an understanding of the major principles guiding modern scientific thought; a comprehension of the varying approaches and aspects of science; an appreciation of the connection among the sciences and the fundamental role of mathematics in practicing science; an awareness of the roles and limitations of theories and models in interpreting, understanding, and predicting natural phenomena; and a realization of how these theories and models change or are supplanted as our knowledge increases. Students will take three courses in this learning domain. The Quantitative Reasoning course (or placement out of the course through the placement tests) is a prerequisite for all courses in this domain. Students must complete at least one course with a laboratory component and at least one course with a strong quantitative component. A course listed as laboratory/ quantitative will fulfill a student’s laboratory or quantitative requirement, not both.
Understanding the Past: 4 quarter hours required. Courses in the Understanding the Past domain study human life in past societies (primarily pre-1945) as a process of continuity and change over time. Many of the documents that mediate the past to us have considerable aesthetic or intellectual value in and of themselves. However, courses in this Learning Domain will examine texts, art works, and other forms of evidence less for their aesthetic or intellectual value than for their usefulness as tools for reconstructing aspects of the past and building sensible, defensible, and well-informed historical interpretations about the past and about causation in the past. Students are required to take two courses in this Learning Domain. Students may choose to take their courses in any of these categories, but they may not take more than one course in any given category. Taking more than one course in a single category will result in one of those courses counting as elective credit, rather than fulfilling the Understanding the Past requirement.. The six categories are: 1) Asia; 2) Latin America; 3) Africa; 4) North America; 5) Europe; and 6) intercontinental or comparative history.
General Liberal Studies Elective: 4 quarter hours chosen from any learning domain.
Self, Society, and the Modern World is not required for Theatre School students. However, student may elect a course from this domain to satisfy the university’s General Liberal Studies requirement. Courses in the Self, Society and the Modern World domain focus on the mutual impact of society and culture on individuals and of individuals on society and culture. Particular attention is given to human relationships and behavior as they are influenced by social, economic and political institutions, spatial and geographical factors, and the events and social and cultural forces of modernity. This Learning Domain is concerned with such issues as the role of power and the bases of inequality in society and in international relations. It examines individual cognition, feelings and behavior as they affect the well-being of members of society, relationships and collective life. The domain examines the processes of human development and learning and the importance of culture in everyday life. It emphasizes the pursuit of knowledge on such matters through the development of theory and the application of methods of inquiry that draw on the empirical investigation of the modern world. Courses in the domain explore such particular issues as poverty and economic opportunity, the environment, nationalism, racism, individual alienation, gender differences, and the bases of conflict and consensus in complex, urban societies and in global relations.
Placement Tests: Satisfactory completion of appropriate assessment tests in English and Math are required of all entering students except those exempt by virtue of grade point average and/or SAT/ACT scores. Placement tests are completed online after students have been admitted as part of incoming students’ orientation to DePaul University.
Advanced Placement (AP), College Level Examination Program (CLEP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) : DePaul University recognizes the achievements of our students as represented by their successful completion of exams through the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) and College Level Examination Program (CLEP), and through the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Depending on the exam and on the score achieved, students may have opportunities to earn advanced credit applicable to the Liberal Studies Program requirements. For more information about the Credit By Examination Program, visit the Academic Resource Center.
