Call for Proposals—Cross Currents: April 19 |
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March 19, 2013,
Volume 59, No. 25 |
Provost Vincent Price, Vice Provost for Education Andrew Binns and the Council of Undergraduate Deans are pleased to announce Cross Currents, a new series of classes for all undergraduates at Penn. These courses will spotlight the diverse intellectual perspectives across the University and their applications to vital issues, as part of the campus-wide emphasis of the Penn Compact on integrating knowledge.
Each Cross Currents course will be designed and taught by faculty members from at least two of the four Schools at Penn that have undergraduate students: the School of Arts & Sciences, the School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Nursing and the Wharton School.
Faculty from Schools that do not have an undergraduate division can participate under the sponsorship of one of the undergraduate Schools. For example, a course might be co-taught by a faculty member from an undergraduate School and a faculty member from a professional School (sponsored by a second undergraduate School).
We invite faculty to submit proposals for courses to be taught beginning in the fall term of 2013, spring term of 2014 or fall term of 2014. The course should be a traditional 14-week course co-taught by at least two faculty members from (or sponsored by) at least two different undergraduate Schools. Proposals must include the proposed topic, faculty names (with school affiliation, CV and an indication of approval by their department chairs and/or deans) and rationale and goals for the class. For courses involving faculty from outside the undergraduate Schools, documentation of a sponsoring agreement between the faculty member’s School and the sponsoring undergraduate School needs to be presented. In these cases, proposing faculty would approach one of the undergraduate deans for ‘sponsorship’ of the professional school faculty member’s participation.
The Provost’s Office will contribute funding of up to $5,000 for preparation time, technology costs, innovation costs, class expenses (e.g. field trips) or other course-related expenses as proposed. This funding can be supplemented by outside grants at the discretion of the faculty members.
Proposals should be no longer than three pages (not including CVs). If possible, a preliminary syllabus should be included, listing proposed readings. Successful proposals should include the following:
- Topic with broad appeal (ideally to students from all four undergraduate Schools) that lends itself to multidisciplinary approaches
- Intellectual rationale for bringing together these perspectives in a single course
- Cohesive pedagogical approach (one course versus several mini-courses strung together)
- Intellectual rigor of topic (ensuring depth)
- Timely impact (ensuring that the topic is both timely and sustainable for at least several offerings of the course)
- Innovative teaching methods
- Budget and budget justification related to course support
Proposals must have the signature of each faculty member’s department chair and be submitted by email to the Office of the Vice Provost for Education, at provost-ed@upenn.edu no later than April 19, 2013.
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