Some Intersession courses offered this winter will undergo subtle changes related to the recent terror attacks that took place in New York and Washington, D.C. While organizers caution that no drastic curriculum overhauls will take place and no classes have been added to specifically address concerns raised by the attacks, they also stress that a major component of Intersession is how the curricula are always open to change.
"The selection of courses already lend themselves well to dealing with the impact and the implications of the terrorist attacks," says School of Arts and Sciences Assistant Dean Deborah Cebula. "There will not be any actual additions of courses specifically dealing with the attacks."
One such course that had already been added prior to the attacks is Citizenship and Rights in the 21st Century. The course will be taught by Political Science Professor Benjamin Ginsberg, PhD and Assistant Chair/Lecturer Kathy Wagner. The class will be particularly well adapted to dealing with the issues raised by not only the terror attacks but also the retaliation of the United States. Although concrete course descriptions will not be available for several weeks, the class will address the general question of what citizenship in the United States means to its inhabitants. On a more specific level, it will raise issues pertaining to the implications of safeguards as well as the balance between rights and civil liberties.
"This course will be flexible and will enhance the learning
experience by bringing in current topics as they develop," says Dr.
Ginsberg.
Those topics include the recent terror attacks, which Dr. Ginsberg hopes to address in part by bringing in terrorism experts to speak to the class.
Students say that the idea of connecting intersession classes with current events affecting the county today would provide a welcome means of relating classroom learning with the real world.
"I really think learning about current events would make the classes extremely interesting because we would be gaining knowledge about something that affects our lives right now," says freshman Joseph Chung.
Offered during January and into February, intersession classes deviate from those offered during the year because they rely more heavily on alumni involvement. During intersession, Johns Hopkins instructors frequently split instruction time with alumni who travel to the Homewood campus to share their insight with students.
These classes provide an opportunity for students to learn from experts already active in their fields of interest. Students enrolled in these courses are also frequently offered the opportunity to take class trips to cities such as New York City to further enhance the learning experience.
Last year, students taking a financial literacy course traveled to New York City where they learned first-hand about the workings of Wall Street.
"A key component of intersession is that it's meant to marry the real world with the classroom," says Cebula.
Along those lines, Cebula notes that many instructors will likely choose to incorporate the terror attacks and their impact on the world into a variety of intersession courses, but that discretion will be left to those instructors.
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