Fun with the Fordham Core

It's hard to believe that I am already a senior here at Fordham.  With this being my final year, I thought I'd share some of my favorite classes that I have taken so far.  I really enjoyed having the liberal arts core because even though I am a double major in computer science and math, I was able to take classes in a variety of subjects that were interesting to me.  Here's a description of some of the classes I choose to take to fulfill the core requirements:

Latin American History: We studied the history of Latin America starting from about the 16th century with the indigenous, ancient civilizations, and we worked all the way up to the Bolivian Water Wars of the 21st century.  I enjoyed that this class utilized not only text books, but primary sources, documentaries, and films to discuss the material. 

Keating Hall, in addition to being the home of our radio
station (WFUV) and deans' offices, is an academic
building where many of my core classes were held.

New Yorker Tales: I was excited when I saw that the only material required for this class was a subscription to The New Yorker.  Each week we were assigned a short story from the fiction section of an old New Yorker magazine, and then we would discuss, analyze, and critique the selection during class.

Capives, Cannibals, and Rebels: This was another literature class formatted in the seminar style where we would read books related to the topics from the course title and then we would spend the class time discussing the texts.  Some of our readings included: primary sources of Puritans who were taken captive by Indians in the 15th century, Robinson Crusoe, Typee, and Benito Cereno.    

Dealy Hall is another academic building where I had my
literature and sociology courses.

Physics of Light and Color:  I was not looking forward to having to take a physical science class here because the subject had never really interested me, but learning about how our vision works was actually very fascinating for me.  The professor enjoyed teaching and was very good at engaging us in the material.

Religion and Public Life: I am actually enrolled in this course now.  We sit around a large conference table and use readings to drive discussions and debate about the role religion plays in daily life.  I never thought I'd willingly take a religion class in college, but I had a great experience with this professor when I took him before for an "Intro to the New Testament" course that was a part of the core.  In that class we got to go on a field trip to The Cloisters.

  

For one of my religion classes, out class
took a field trip to The Cloisters.

Gender, Class, and Race: This class was the first sociology course I ever took, and I wish I had to take more.  We read academic articles and watched documentaries to explore these social constructs.  My professor also incorporated pop culture into many of our lessons so we could discuss the topics from another perspective.  

Urbanism: My first assignment for this class was to walk three miles in Manhattan, starting from the base of Central Park all the way down to Union Square.  As we walked we had to note how space was being used at particular locations.  In this class it was cool to learn how cities were structured for particular purposes depending on the time periods in which they evolved.

This picture was part of my first assignment
for my Urbanism class.

These are just a few of my favorite classes I have taken as part of the liberal arts core in Fordham College at Rose Hill.  Although I love taking major classes such as Data Mining and Differential Equations, I enjoyed having these other courses that allowed me to explore new and exciting topics.