All students must pass three Core Courses. These courses are team taught.

The Search for Meaning
This course seeks human meaning through a variety of disciplines: the arts, literature, philosophy and psychology.

The Conquest of Caliban: Exploration and Domination
In its classic expression, it examines the modern American relationship with other cultures through the first encounters between Europeans and aboriginal Americans. In other formats, the course disengages from American and European encounters and considers diverse global configurations of exploration and dominance.

The United States in a Changing World: Issues in Globalization
The United States is evaluated through political science, environmental studies, sociology, economics and women’s studies. The course may, on other occasions, maintain its present American focus or apply an analysis from disparate disciplines to other global arenas.