Collegiate Seminar
The Collegiate Seminar is the heart of Saint Mary's core curriculum, a series of required courses that gives every student a firm foundation in the liberal arts. The Collegiate Seminar comprises four courses that examine major works of Western civilization-works of literature and philosophy, history and government, art and science. Students take two seminars in their first year and two seminars during the rest of their time at Saint Mary's. The program also includes two elective seminars: a survey of contemporary multicultural writing from America, and a consideration of works from world traditions-Asian, African, Middle Eastern.
Format
This is how it works: a small group of students and a seasoned faculty member sit around a table and talk about the works they've read. They argue, they theorize, sometimes they fall silent; they examine passages sentence by sentence and connect them to other passages, other books, other experience. They talk about ideas as living things; they talk about the present as an extension of the past; they see the future in texts that are centuries old. Their goal is understanding-one another, the silent author, someone's truth, some one truth. They delight in the process of inquiry, the pleasure of approaching a problem from every possible angle, the thrill of joining an ancient, essential conversation about what we can know and how we ought to live.
Results
The Seminar is a training ground for advanced work in every professional field. Because Saint Mary's faculty participate in the seminars as equal partners, students become members of a genuine intellectual community, contributing to discussions and listening closely to their peers. Because the texts make grand claims about human experience, students examine their own opinions, assemble arguments, weigh evidence, test assumptions. Substantial writing assignments allow students to develop their voice on the page and produce coherent, carefully reasoned theses supported by evidence from the texts. The aim: flexible, free-wheeling, broadminded thinkers, capable of disciplined analysis and creative problem-solving, profound reflection and meaningful social engagement.
Collegiate Seminar Podcast
Bryan Navarro, Emily Robbins, Shawny Anderson
