The Wofford College general education curriculum is rooted in the College’s commitment to the liberal arts approach to education. General education courses give students an intellectual grounding in multiple disciplines of knowledge and thought - arts, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Beyond breadth of knowledge, the curriculum seeks to develop practical and transferable skills in effective communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and collaborative and independent learning. General education courses instill the habits and curiosity needed for lifelong learning and are an integral part of an undergraduate education that aims to develop civic minded, articulate, reflective individuals who can lead in a diverse, globally-interconnected world.
 

Introduction to the Liberal Arts

The following courses, as an introduction to the liberal arts, provide foundational experiences that will help students develop a better understanding of self, a disposition of openness to new ideas and people, and skills for critical reasoning, academic reading and research, and effective communication. They should be taken by students in their first year.

• Liberal Arts Seminar
  The Liberal Arts Seminar, LIBA 101, emphasizes the development of four key capacities that are essential for students transitioning to college: growth mindset; identity and perspective; critical reasoning; and academic reading and writing. Topics of each course section vary by instructor, but each includes exploration in the development of intelligence; the ways that values and place shape perspective; the discernment of evidence and the arrival at logical conclusions; and college-level reading and writing within disciplinary-specific genres.
• First-Year Interaction
  The First-Year Interaction course, FYI 101, assists in the transition to Wofford College and in the development of the whole person.  Students explore their strengths, experience cultural events, and engage with the Wofford community.
• Language Other than English
  In these courses, students will build foundational linguistic and intercultural skills for engaging with cultures other than their own in a language other than English. Students will gain and develop tools for daily-life communication in diverse communities, with increased awareness of how culture and identity shape perspectives and experiences.
• Seminar in Literature and Composition
  The English 102 course provides a writing-intensive seminar in which to explore a specific theme in English studies, while learning to read critically, think analytically, and communicate effectively.  Like the Liberal Arts Seminar, topics of each course section vary by instructor.
• Physical Education
  Regular physical activity participation is good for health.  It also has cognitive benefits and stimulates creativity.  A variety of activities are offered including everything from pickleball to yoga.

Inquiry Across Disciplines

 These courses give students the opportunity to develop an understanding of multiple disciplinary ways of thinking and knowing.

• Fine Arts (FA)
  The fine arts requirement provides the opportunity to engage experientially and intentionally with the visual and performing arts. Students discover the aesthetic experiences, practices, traditions, and innovations among the deepest of humanity's yearnings to create, exploring the unseen forces shaping artistic expression from its beginnings to the contemporary era. Areas and themes include:
             Music: history, performance, theory
            Theatre: acting, design, production, dramatic literature and theory
            Visual Arts: history, studio practices, curation and presentation, theory and criticism
• History (HI)
  The general education requirement in history enables students to understand, analyze, and explain change and continuity over a significant length of time, critically analyze primary sources, and understand how historians construct sophisticated arguments about the past by integrating political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and military themes. 
• Literary Studies (LI)
  The literature in English courses provide a study of literary genre, including drama, fiction, film, and/or poetry, designed to develop students’ ability to read with sensitivity and understanding and with an awareness of relevant contexts and perspectives. 
• Mathematics (MA)
  The mathematics general education requirement allows students to develop their skills in deductive reasoning and to analyze mathematical content in a real-world context. Courses fulfilling this requirement ask students to think quantitatively, abstractly, and logically. 
• Philosophy (PH)
  Courses that apply to the philosophy requirement pursue questions concerning the foundations of morality, science, religion, art and all areas of human inquiry. Philosophy students hone skills in communication, conceptual analysis, and the construction and evaluation of arguments to consider not just what is, but what is possible -- what the world might be and what it ought to be. 
• Religious Studies (RS)
  Courses satisfying the religion requirement engage students with both detailed knowledge and broad theoretical frameworks for understanding the diversity and power of religion in societies, cultures and individual lives. Students will learn to analyze texts, evaluate histories, cultivate empathetic understanding of religious difference, and/or practice critical appreciation for the social and political factors that shape religions.
• Natural Science with Lab (SL)
  The natural science requirement examines how science is empirically tested in a specific discipline and provides hands-on experience with the relationship between experiments and scientific knowledge.  Students learn how uncertainty in experimental observation is expressed in scientific understanding.
• Social Science (SS)
  The social sciences span several academic departments that explore the human world and societies at the community, national, or global level. Students will be introduced to different theoretical and empirical approaches for understanding cultural, social, political, or economic contexts. They will learn to analyze social issues in an increasingly complex and interrelated world.

Civic Consciousness

These courses build citizenship skills, by cultivating an understanding of diverse experiences and perspectives and developing ways of engaging across disciplines.

• Diverse US Experiences and Perspectives (DP)
  The DP requirement aims for students to recognize that being a responsible member of a community begins with understanding diverse experiences and perspectives, seeing how certain experiences, perspectives, and stories in the United States have historically been privileged, thus diminishing or excluding various other perspectives and ways of knowing. These perspectives may include intersecting experiences such as race, class, ethnicity, geographic origin, gender and gender identities, sexual identity, political and religious orientation, age, and ability.
• Global Experiences and Perspectives (GP)
  The GP requirement aims for students to recognize that being a responsible global citizen requires an understanding of societies beyond our geographic borders. That understanding includes a recognition that all human societies, regardless of place or historical era, consist of interactions and negotiations among a diverse range of different identities and social roles.
• Science in Context (SC)
  The SC requirement aims for students to recognize that science plays a critical role in framing how we understand the world and provides an approach for addressing complex problems. These courses help students to understand what science is, how it is properly interpreted, and why society can have confidence in scientific knowledge.