Core Curriculum Newsletter

Spring 2025

I recently learned from my linguistics colleague Clay Butler that many languages in the world are going extinct, and at a very fast rate.  We have around 7,000 languages spoken right now, but that number is expected to drop by 50-90% in the next 100 years.  I asked Clay how he and other linguists felt about this—if the decline was simply something discipline-specific to study, or if it made them sad.  He said it made them sad, that it was like having a world full of beautiful flowers and then watching most of them disappear.  Linguistic diversity is God’s imagination at hand for us to see, he said, and having less of it makes the world not quite as full as it was before. 

Clay used the idea of flowers as an analogy to talk about disappearing languages, but we could just as easily have talked about flowers themselves going away and the everyday signs that our planet is in peril.  One of America’s best loved poems, “The Art of Losing” by Elizabeth Bishop, names all kinds of things that are universally lost—keys, an hour badly spent, houses once loved, a beloved person.  It’s a thought-provoking poem that lets us consider what control we have over loss, particularly when loss feels inevitable.    

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” the poem goes, and neither is it very difficult to name other threats to life as we know it that in turn affect the work we do in the university.

March 8th’s New Yorker article “The New Literalism Plaguing Today’s Biggest Movies” considers huge cultural shifts related to politics, media, and AI technologies that call into question our very notion of art.  Movies that state the obvious—that say what is happening on screen as it is happening—are products of a society whose people no longer have skills “to read, interpret, or discern irony, subtlety, and nuance.”  Namwali Serpall argues that the interesting takeaway from all this is that the concept of art itself is being redefined: “What feels new is the expectation, on the part of both makers and audiences, that there is such a thing as knowing definitively what a work of art means or stands for, aesthetically and politically.” 

So much seems to be collapsing into simple packets of knowledge, with whole ways of thinking, like ecosystems, reduced. 

It is our responsibility and privilege as scholars and teachers to respond to these new challenges.  One advantage of contemplating loss is seeing with clarity what we want to preserve and celebrate.  What do we value in our individual disciplines that we want to cultivate and pass on?  From an even higher vantage point, how does the entirety of our Core curriculum transform students into adept critical thinkers and virtuous citizens and stewards of the world?  How does our very diverse work help students see and celebrate God’s imagination at hand? 

We hope you’ll keep thinking about these questions with us. We have two new initiatives that will be a beginning for us to talk more about these topics together. The first is the launch of a new A&S Core Curriculum Fellows program, in which 10 faculty members from across the Core will work together to develop interdisciplinary teaching strategies and to articulate a “story of the Core.” If you are interested in applying for this prestigious program or if you would like to nominate someone you know for consideration, please see more below or follow this link. The second is the launch of a collection of resources for all Core faculty that will help us protect critical thinking in our AI-era. To contribute or to learn more, see more below, or follow this link.      

Thank you for the many ways you bring your unique gifts to our students through our Core curriculum.  If you have other thoughts you would like to share, please email me at Ginger_Hanchey@baylor.edu.

New Program

Arts & Sciences Core Curriculum Fellows

Who: Ten faculty members representing Common Core classes and various Distribution Lists across sciences, humanities, social sciences, and fine arts.

When: May 19-23, with visits to other classes in fall or spring semesters

Task:  Develop a “story of the Core.”  Cohort work will result in:

• Materials for sharing with prospective students and families
• Materials for sharing with other faculty members and current Baylor students (ex: handouts, web resources, SET)
• New interdisciplinary lesson plans for Common Core and Distribution List classes
• Greater sense of purpose and responsibility for Core curriculum among faculty
• Reports at end of May and next academic year
• Honor for faculty members selected

Award: $1,000 per faculty member

Selection process: UPDs, Chairs, or any other faculty members or administrators may nominate colleagues by April 17.  Nomination letters can be sent to the Director of the Core (Ginger_Hanchey@baylor.edu) and should highlight nominee’s excellence in teaching Core classes and capacity for collaborative work.  Selections will be made by Associate Deans in Dean’s Office for Undergraduate Studies and by the Director of the Core.

To learn more, click here.  

Core Curriculum Virtues Award

What:  Recognition for Core faculty members teaching virtues in their Core classes, selected by Associate Deans for Undergraduate Studies and the Director of the Core. A department may only nominate one person per year.  

Core Virtues: Humility, Courage, Rigor, Integrity, Respect, Justice, Empathy, Compassion,  Responsibility, Patience, Wisdom, Faith, Hope, Love

How to Nominate:  Let your UPD know if you would like to be nominated, or if you think a colleague should be nominated.  UPDs and/or department chairs making the nomination should send a letter to the Director of the Core (Ginger_Hanchey@baylor.edu) that includes the following: (1) name of the nominee, (2) core course(s) taught during the year, and (3) syllabus and/or other course materials that demonstrate how the particular virtue is examined, expressed, demonstrated, and/or measured for the course(s).  Nominations are due Thursday, April 17. 

How Are You Nurturing Critical Thinking in Your Core Classroom?

Please let us know how you are responding to AI technology in your Core classroom!  We are particularly interested in learning how Baylor Core faculty are preserving critical thinking, both within in-person and online classrooms.  If you are interested in sharing what you do, please consider sending us a brief essay (~300-500 words) describing your teaching approach, whether for a single small assignment, a macro-level course design, or anything in-between.  We will select a few submissions to include on our Core website.  We hope this will be a resource for all Baylor Core instructors who are curious about what others are doing in response to AI and about how other disciplines are affected by AI advancements.

Spotlight on…
Contemporary Social Issues Distribution List

Insights gained through the study of contemporary social issues take on a critical significance at a time when the world’s population is increasing rapidly and diverse societies and cultures are coming into closer contact, and in some cases, with intensifying conflict. Questions of class, civil society, gender, public health, justice, and identity continue to be pervasive in societies around the world today. Various methods of inquiry test for connections between the familiar and the exotic, the traditional and the contemporary, and the individual and the group. The general intent of this requirement is to provide an introduction to the social world, meant to serve as a foundation or starting point for further exploration of these topics through electives, major fields of study, and/or minors. We do regard the understanding of human relationships and their consequences to be the center of the Civic Engagement curricula. These courses provide a foundation for both the how and the why of civic engagement.

Available classes:

• ANT 1306, Cultural Anthropology in the Global Context
• ANT 1325, Introduction to Global Health
• ANT 3320/ENV 3320, Environment and Social Behavior
• ECO 1305, Issues in Economics for Non-Business Majors
• ENV 2376, Environment and Society
• ENV 4307/PSC 4307, Environmental Law
• ENV 4310/ANT 4311, World Food Problems
• LING 1305, Language in Society
• PHI 1308, Contemporary Moral Problems
• PHI 3320, Philosophical Issues in Feminism
• PSC 3300/ENV 3300, The Environment and Political Processes
• REL 3390, Christian Ethics
• REL 3394, War and Peace in the Christian Tradition
• REL 3397, Gender, Feminism and Theology
• REL 4349, The World's Religions and Violence
• REL 4393/ENV 4393, Environmental Ethics
• SOC 1305, Introduction to Sociology
• SOC 3311, The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
• SWO 2320, Human Diversity and Leadership
• WGS 2300, Women's and Gender Studies: An Introduction

Spotlight on…
Scientific Method I Distribution List

The common name for this butterfly is Question Mark which comes from the small white "question mark" seen in the center of the right wing.  Photo and note by John Ucci. 

Introductory courses in science that focuses on the core concepts of scientific literacy. The course will integrate methods of discovery and examples of data-driven decision making into lectures. The laboratory portion will emphasize problem-based or inquiry-based learning.

Available classes:

• ANT 1404, Introduction to Human Evolution
• ANT 1407, Introduction to Archaeology
• BIO 1305 & BIO 1105, Modern Concepts of Bioscience & Lab
• BIO 1306 & BIO 1106, Modern Concepts of Bioscience, continued, & Lab
• BIO 1401, Current Issues in Human Biology
• BIO 1405, Investigations of Modern Biology Concepts I
• BIO 1406, Investigations of Modern Biology Concepts II
• CHE 1301 & 1101, Basics Principles of Modern Chemistry I
• CHE 1302 & 1102, Basic Principles of Modern Chemistry II
• ENV1301 & ENV 1101, Exploring Environmental Issues & Lab
• ENV 1303 & ENV 1103, Wildlife Ecology & Lab
• GEO 1401, Earthquakes and Other Natural Disasters
• GEO 1402, World Oceans
• GEO 1405, The Dynamic Earth
• GEO 1410, Gems and Minerals
• NSC 1306 & NSC 1106, Introduction to Neuroscience & Lab
• PHY 1404, Light, Vision and Optics
• PHY 1405, Everyday Physics
• PHY 1407, Sound and Acoustics
• PHY 1408, General Physics for Natural and Behavioral Sciences I
• PHY 1409, General Physics for Natural and Behavioral Sciences II
• PHY 1420, General Physics I
• PHY 1430, General Physics II
• PHY 1455, Descriptive Astronomy
• PHY 2455, Foundations of Astronomy

The Question Mark butterfly (same individual) with wings open.  Very different!

Spotlight on…
Fine Arts and Performing Arts Distribution List

Baylor student Claire Cochran

These courses will focus on the creative process by enabling students to generate original artistic work (“doing” art) and/or by exploring the artistic work of others (examining “how art is done”).

Available classes:

• ARTH 1300, Introduction to Art (for non-art majors only)
• ARTH 2302, Survey of Western Art I
• ARTH 2303, Survey of Western Art II
• CLA 3315, Ancient Drama in Performance
• CW 3300, Creative Writing: Poetry
• CW 3340, Creative Writing: Prose
• FDM 1309, Introduction to Film
• MUS 1321, Engaging with Music
• MUS 3321, Music in World Cultures
• MUS 3322, Popular Musics
• MUS 3323, History of Jazz
• MUS 4364/LAS 4364, Traditional Music and Culture in Latin America
• THEA 1301, Acting 1: Realism

Carry On, Little Songbird by Claire Cochran.  Instagram - @clairecochranstudio 
2024 • Oil on panel • 5” x 7”

Photo credits:

• Image 1 – Baylor Proud
• Image 2 – Baylor Proud
• Image 3 – Christian Clark
• Image 4 – Dan Hanchey
• Image 5 – Baylor Proud 
• Image 6 – John Ucci
• Image 7 – John Ucci
• Image 8 - Ava Crossan
• Image 9 – Claire Cochran