Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Proposal
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
I. Course Information
Course Title:
Credits:
Introduction to Political Thought
3
Prerequisites:
None
105
X Existing course, course number:
New course
Department:
Department Contact:
Political Science
Joe Rollins
Area of Knowledge and Inquiry
(select one)
Context of Experience
(select only if the course
emphasizes one of the
following)
Reading Literature (RL)
Appreciating and Participating
in the Arts (AP)
Extended Requirements
(select only if the course meets
one of the following)
Pre-Industrial Society (PI)
X United States (US)
X European Traditions (ET)
X Culture and Values (CV)
Analyzing Social Structures (SS)
Abstract or Quantitative
Reasoning (QR)
X World Cultures (WC)
Natural Science (NS)
The following information is useful to the subcommittee to estimate the college's progress toward the goal of
offering enough sections and seats in each Perspectives category. How often does the department anticipate the
course will be offered? Please also estimate the anticipated number of sections and number of seats per section.
X Every semester
Every Fall or
Other:
January 2008
number of sections:
Every Spring number of sections:
number of sections:
number of seats per section:
1
number of seats per section:
55
number of seats per section:
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Course Description
Please include a course description. If the course will include variable topics or be taught in various forms, please
provide as many descriptions of specific sections as possible.
Introduction to Political Thought is designed to provide students with a broad introduction to the
theoretical literature that grounds not only the discipline of Political Science but which also
informs social structures, institutions, and processes found throughout Western culture. Because
the course is philosophical, it begins with a contemplation of some of the most fundamental
questions posed throughout human history: What does it mean to be human? What are justice,
equality, fairness, freedom? What form of government is best? These questions are approached
through close readings of original texts and the format for class sessions involves “active
learning,” i.e., engaging the texts as a group and discussing the concepts contained therein.
Because the course selectively surveys the philosophical canon of Western culture, it introduces
students to not only the ancients (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Socrates), it also connects their ideas to the
works of later European thinkers (Rousseau, Marx), feminists (deBeauvoir), civil rights advocates
(Martin Luther King, Jr.), and postmodern critical theorists. Social contract theorists whose ideas
inform our understanding of the state, such as those articulated by Locke and Hobbes, are
analyzed alongside the work of theorists who now shape our conception of the political subject,
such as Foucault, Brown and Butler. The course also expands beyond the Western cannon by
introducing students to the political philosophies of thinkers such as Gandhi, Said, and Fanon.
January 2008
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II. Criteria for Perspectives Courses
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a connection
between these and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
Introduction to Political Thought gives students a fundamental background in theories of the self,
the citizen, society and the state. Because it surveys the philosophical canon that grounds Political
Science, it offers students a very specific set of skills that are essential to research within the
discipline. Specifically, the course teaches students to engage texts, to become more insightful,
careful, critical readers and writers, and to engage the products of their learning in a civil dialogue
with colleagues. Although the method and approach in the course is philosophical, the emphasis
is, as with all Political Science courses, on the ideas that structure governments. The course spans
the entirety of history by locating the American experience within a global timeline. Studies of
diversity and change are integral components of the course and are revealed through a
comparative analysis. Original documents studied throughout the semester include the works of
such important thinkers as Plato, Marx, and Ghandi. The trajectory of the course can be
summarized by a simple question: How did the traditional canon of ancient and continental
philosophy influence and make way for the pomo, feminist, and queer critiques offered by many
in the academy of today? Perhaps the most important aspect of Political Science 105 is its
emphasis on “active learning.” In contrast to most lecture-style courses, students of Political
Theory are expected to read carefully in advance of class meetings and to engage with one another
in a civil dialogue. In this way, the course provides them with important lessons in collegiality,
cooperation, and interpretive collectivity.
Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please check all that
apply and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students to how a
particular discipline creates knowledge and
understanding.
2. Position the discipline(s) within the liberal
arts and the larger society.
3. Address the goals defined for the particular
Area(s) of Knowledge the course is designed to
fulfill.
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where
appropriate to its discipline(s) and subject matter:
X 4. Be global or comparative in approach.
X 5. Consider diversity and the nature and
construction of forms of difference.
X 6. Engage students in active inquiry.
X 7. Reveal the existence and importance of change
over time.
X 8. Use primary documents and materials.
January 2008
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III. Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Please provide an annotated list of course readings and descriptions of major assignments or exams for the course,
as well as distinctive student activities that will engage students in working toward the course goals discussed in
the course description and/or justification.
Please include the author and title for each reading or text, along with a short description providing information
about how the reading will contribute to course goals.
See attached example syllabus.
IV. Assessment
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry out this
assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course would be
appropriate to collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer assessment to be
conducted? How might evidence of effective teaching and student learning be collected and evaluated?
Assessment is part of the Political Science Department’s overall strategy for measuring our
success. As part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining high teaching standards, we
regularly collect samples of written work from our students so that we may track their
development across not only the span of a student’s undergraduate education, but across student
cohorts by using a time-series sampling design. Findings from this project allow the department’s
Curriculum Committee to monitor the progress and development of our undergraduate majors, as
well as stay to stay abreast of our success as teachers. Papers assigned for this class will be part of
that overall program.
January 2008
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V. Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and conduct
assessment? Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be primarily taught by
full-time or adjunct faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
For a description of the processes already in place, please see above at IV.
Administration of the assessment project is overseen by the Department’s Curriculum Committee.
Syllabi for all courses taught in the Department are collected and made available for review by
new, incoming instructors. All new instructors will be required to meet with members of the
Curriculum Committee whose research and teaching are within their subfield in advance of the
semester when a PLAS course will be taught. At these meetings, the interdisciplinary, pedagogic,
and cultural goals of PLAS will be spelled out in detail so that new teachers may incorporate
those requirements into their syllabi. Before syllabi are sent to Reprogrpahics for mass
production several weeks in advance of the semester, new instructors will be asked to submit
them to the Department Curriculum Committee for vetting and approval.
The course is taught by a combination of full-time and adjunct faculty.
VI. Syllabus
Please attach a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi, for courses on variable topics or courses that will be taught in
variable formats).
Some resources to guide syllabus construction:

The Provost's page outlining guidelines for syllabi:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/provost/Cur_stud/Syllabus expectations.htm

Sample syllabi for W courses, from Writing Across the Curriculum:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/wsyllabi.htm

Goals for Student Writing at Queens College:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/Goals.htm

Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, suggestions for syllabus planning:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k1985&pageid=icb.page29695

Lehman College’s Gen Ed Syllabi Project:
http://www.lehman.edu/lehman/programs/generaledu/gened_syllabi_project.html
Submit this completed form and a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi) by email to Eva Fernández
(eva.fernandez@qc.cuny.edu), Director, Center for Teaching and Learning.
January 2008
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