Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

anorton's picture

Cross-listed classes

I haven't had too much experience with cross-listed classes, but I am in one right now that is cross-listed as Philosophy and Comparative Literature.  I was interested in it for its purported Comp Lit characteristics, but I've come to believe that the course would have been better listed as only Philosophy.  I am glad that I ended up taking a Philosophy course, but I do not find this course's cross-listed status useful.  I think that cross-listed courses too easily fall more in one category than another/others: it takes an instructor skilled in all of the cross-listed departments to fairly represent them instead of falling back on his or her usual discipline.

Even though I now distrust cross-listed classes—they inevitably fit more into one department than the other(s)—I appreciate the attempt at barrier breaking.  I never would have registered for an advanced Philosophy course had I not been confident that I, with significant English experience, could probably handle an advanced Comp Lit course.   It seems like although cross-listing may not accurately represent a course's focus, it broadens its potential appeal to students in a variety of disciplines.

The whole process of explicitly separating courses into departments—prefacing every course title with ENGL, PHIL, MATH, PHYS, &c.—limits the scope of our liberal arts education: it allows students to stick within the comfort zones of their majors instead of encouraging them to find and choose whatever classes interest them.  

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
3 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.