More on WC Requirement

Here is the actual text as adopted by vote of the faculty:

Resolved that the current World Cultures requirement be revised from one course each in European, North American, and Non-Western culture areas to one course in each of three categories to be described in the ORC as follows:

Proposed new text:

a) Western Cultures (W). The cultures of the classical Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman Mediterranean, and of Europe and its settlements. The disciplines of the Arts and Sciences as they are studied at Dartmouth developed in these cultures, as did the institution of the liberal arts college itself. For this reason, Dartmouth students are required to take at least one course with a focus on the cultures of the West.

b) Non-Western Cultures (NW). Non-Western cultures, including those with a history of colonialism. The world in which Dartmouth graduates will function demands an understanding of its non-Western majority. Knowledge of non-Western peoples, cultures, and histories is thus an increasing practical necessity as well as a form of intellectual enrichment. Courses that satisfy this requirement have as their primary focus understanding the diverse cultures of the non-Western world.

c) Culture and Identity (CI). All students are required to take a course studying how cultures shape and express identities. Courses satisfying this requirement examine how identity categories develop in cultures and as a result of interactions between cultures. Forms of identity to be studied may include but are not limited to those defined by race, gender, sexuality, class, religion, and ethnicity. Courses in this category may study the relations of culture and identity with reference to cultural productions from any part of the world.

This revised World Culture Requirement shall be implemented on a schedule to be determined by the Committee on Instruction, but is intended to become effective no later than the class of 2008.

In assigning distributive categories to courses currently listed in the ORC, the COI will make the assignment W to courses currently listed as EU and NA unless it receives a request to the contrary. In the absence of a request for reassignment, courses currently listed as NW will retain that designation.