CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

The Institute has established a five-year project at Trinity College to create syllabi, curricula, and bibliographies on secularism and secularization at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Each year, a selected group of Trinity faculty fellows will develop new courses based on a common theme across a range of academic disciplines. The themes are:

2005-06: The Roots of the Secular Tradition in the West

2006-07: The Secular Tradition and Foundations of the Natural Sciences

2007-08: Secularism and the Enlightenment

2008-09: The Global Impact of Secular Values

2009-10: The Secular Tradition in General Education

An annual conference for educators will be held at the end of each academic year.

ISSSC SPONSORED COURSES

Courses Taught in Spring 2008 at Trinity College:

Course Title: PBPL 342 - Secularism and the Problem of Authority
Faculty Members: Dr. Barry A. Kosmin, Research Professor of Public Policy and Law & Dr. Ariela Keysar, Associate Research Professor of Public Policy and Law

Course Title: BIOL 300 - Evolutionary Thought
Faculty Member: Dr. Daniel Blackburn, Professor and Chair of Biology

Course Title: CHEM 111  - Origins: Science, Life and the Universe
Faculty Member: Dr. David Henderson, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Environmental Science Program

Course Title: HIST 221 - Science, Nature and Religion
Faculty Member: Dr. Sean Cocco, Assistant Professor of History 

Courses Developed
Academic Year 2005-06

In July 2005, the newly-formed Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) issued a call for full time, continuing faculty members at Trinity College to apply for the position of Program Fellows for the Academic Year 2005-06. If accepted, they would receive course development grants under the ISSSC’s new program, Secular Traditions and the Liberal Arts. The grant would allow them each to develop a new course (or thoroughly revise an appropriate existing course) under the theme of Year One.

Part I:
The Roots of the Secular Tradition in the West

Course Title: Skepticism and Toleration in Early Modern Philosophy
Faculty Member: Dr. Todd Ryan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy 

Course Title: From Theocracy to Democracy: the Foundations of Modern Liberal Politics
Faculty Member: Dr. Christopher Nadon, Associate Professor of Political Science

Course Title: Science and Religion in Early Modern Europe
Faculty Member: Dr. Sean Cocco, Assistant Professor of History  

Part II:
The Secular Tradition and Islam

Course Title: Worldly Islam: The Sacred, the Secular
Faculty Member: Dr. Raymond Baker, Professor of International Politics

Course Title: Religious and Secular Thought in Iran
Faculty Member: Nastaran Moosavi, McGill Teaching Fellow in International Studies

Courses Developed
Academic Year 2006-07

Part I, at Trinity College:
The Secular Tradition and Foundations of the Natural Sciences

Course Title: The History of Evolutionary Ideas
Faculty Member: Dr. Daniel Blackburn, Professor and Chair of Biology

Course Title: European Exploration and Science, 1320-1700
Faculty Member: Dr. Sean Cocco, Assistant Professor of History 

Course Title: Science and Religion (First Year Seminar)
Faculty Member: Dr. Kent Dunlap, Associate Professor of Biology

Course Title: Acid Precipitation and Europe: Ethics, Science, and Philosophy in Debate (First Year Seminar)
Faculty Member: Dr. David Henderson, Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Environmental Science Program

Part II, at Trinity College:

Core Course Title: Secularism and the Problem of Authority
Spring Term 2008, PBPL 342
Trinity College

 

This course sets secularism beyond its traditional association with the non- or anti-religious, and explores it as a family of ideas concerning the scope and limits of authority. Using resources and tools from the humanities and social sciences, and drawing from different historical periods and cultures, we will examine a variety of secular models of authority. These models pertain to political authority; the authority of science and other forms of expertise in education, medicine, law, and industry; and the exercise of authority in moral and aesthetic judgments.

 

Professor Barry Kosmin

Professor Ariela Keysar

Part III, at Claremont University Consortium, California:

The Roots of the Secular Tradition in the West

 

Course Title: The Sacred and the Profane in the Middle Ages

Faculty Fellow: Dr. John Eldevik

History Department, Pomona College

 

Course Title: Medieval Thought

Faculty Fellows: Dr. Carina Lee Johnson

History Department, Pitzer College and

Dr. Brian Keeley

Philosophy, Pitzer College

 

Course Title: Classical Ethical Theory: Plato

Faculty Fellow: Dr. Suzanne Obdrzalek

Philosophy Department, Claremont McKenna College

 

Course Title: Secularism, Skepticism, and Critiques of Religion

Faculty Fellow: Dr. Phil Zuckerman

Sociology Department, Pitzer College