Interdisciplinary Course Proposal Form – First Draft

New York City College of Technology, CUNY

NEW COURSE PROPOSAL FORM

This form is used for all new course proposals. Attach this to the Curriculum Modification Proposal Form and submit as one package as per instructions.  Use one New Course Proposal Form for each new course.

 

Course Title	Life and Death/East and West – The Humanities Contemplate Health
Proposal Date	Spring 2014
Proposer’s Name	NEH Fellows
Course Number	HUM ???
Course Credits, Hours	3 course hours, 3 credit hours
Course Pre / Co-Requisites	ENG 1101
Catalog Course Description	In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine Western and Non-Western concepts of health, illness and death through the perspectives of the Humanities. Students will engage with literature, theatre, poetry, history, anthropology, jurisprudence, journaling, and the fine arts as they explore cultural, ethical and philosophical beliefs and practices that may be encountered in our diverse society. Students are required to attend off-campus field trips to museums and other cultural venues.
Brief RationaleProvide a concise summary of why this course is important to the department, school or college.	Students majoring in Allied Health professions, Human Services and Paralegal Studies have relatively few opportunities to immerse themselves in the Humanities.  These majors (and others at our technical college) are subject to rigid accreditation requirements that do not allow significant engagement with the Humanities. This course will expose students to the perspectives and tools of the Humanities with the aim of enabling them to become more culturally competent and ethically aware professionals. The course is designed to specifically address several  City Tech Interdisciplinary Course Learning Outcomes Including  the ability to: • Synthesize and transfer knowledge across disciplinary boundaries • Comprehend factors inherent in complex problems • Apply integrative thinking to problem-solving in ethically and socially responsible ways • Recognize varied perspectives • Gain comfort with complexity and uncertainty • Think critically, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively • Become flexible thinkers
Intent to Submit as Common CoreIf this course is intended to fulfill one of the requirements in the common core, then indicate which area.	YES – Interdisciplinary Course under category of“World Cultures and Global Issues”
Intent to Submit as An Interdisciplinary Course	YES
Intent to Submit as a Writing Intensive Course	YES

 

Please include all appropriate documentation as indicated in the NEW COURSE PROPOSAL Combine all information into a single document that is included in the Curriculum Modification Form.

 

HUM (How do we number a new course?)

­­

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine Western and Non-Western concepts of health, illness and death through the perspectives and tools of the Humanities. Students will engage with literature, poetry,  theatre, history, anthropology, jurisprudence, journaling, and the fine arts as they explore various cultural, ethical and philosophical beliefs and practices that may be encountered in our diverse society. Students are required to attend off-campus field trips to museums and other cultural venues.

 

3 class hours, 3 credits

Prerequisite: ENG 1101

 

 

SAMPLE COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADES:

• • Oral presentations (15%)
• • Research /Blog Contributions (45%)
• • In class quizzes (15%)

*  e-Journal (25%)

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES: (There are verbatim from the Interdisciplinary Course Application Form)

Learning Outcomes of Interdisciplinary Courses

Students will be able to:

• Purposefully connect and integrate across-discipline knowledge and skills to solve problems

• Synthesize and transfer knowledge across disciplinary boundaries

• Comprehend factors inherent in complex problems

• Apply integrative thinking to problem-solving in ethically and socially responsible ways

• Recognize varied perspectives

• Gain comfort with complexity and uncertainty

• Think critically, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively

• Become flexible thinkers

 

 

MUST WE ADDRESS ALL OF THE ABOVE?

 

 

 

 

CONTENT LEARNING OUTCOMES/ASSESSMENT METHODS:

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: For the successful completion of this course, students should be able to	ASSESSMENT METHOD
1 Understand the history and current laws on the right to die in the U.S.     Compare U.S. Laws to Other Jurisdictions 2. Understand  how various cultures mourn, inter, and commemorate their dead in art and architecture	Journal entry rubric       _________________________   Field Trip Blog post Journal entry rubric
3. Brief a judicial opinion by identifying the facts, issue, holding and rationale of the case. 4. Use the methods of Narrative Medicine to analyze a text.	Briefing In re O’Connor    _________________________   Close Reading of a fictional text assignment
5.  Compare the thematic function of illness and suffering in Western and non-Western fictional works

 

GENERAL EDUCATION LEARNING OUTCOMES/ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Where is the most recent list of these???

LEARNING OUTCOME	ASSESSMENT METHOD

 

 

 

 

 

SAMPLE REQUIRED COURSE TEXTS AND MATERIALS:

 

Callahan, D. (Ed.). (2004). The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine:

Accommodating Pluralism (1st ed.). Georgetown University Press.

 

Cassell, E. J. (2004). The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine (2nd ed.). Oxford

University Press, USA.

 

Charon, R., & Montello, M. (Eds.). (2002). Stories Matter: The Role of Narrative in Medical

Ethics (1st ed.). Routledge.

 

Chen, W. P. (2012, June 21). Can doctors learn empathy?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/can-doctors-learn-empathy/

 

Clarke, B. (1981). Whose Life Is It Anyway? Heinemann Publishing.

Dellasega, C., Milone-Nuzzo, P., Curci, K. M., Ballard, J.O., & Kirch, D. G. (2007).The

humanities interface of nursing and medicine. Journal of professional nursing : official journal

of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 23(3),174-9

 

Clifton, Lucille, The Collected Poems 1965-2010, BOA Editions, Ltd. (2012)

 

Eaton, G. V. (1888). How the Opuim Habit is Acquired. The Popular Science Montly 33, 663-67

 

Fadiman, A. (1997). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American

Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (1st ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

 

Fissell, M. (1991). The Disappearance of the Patient’s Narrative and the Invention of Hospital

Medicine In French, R., & Wear, A. (Ed.), British Medicine in an Age of Reform (pp. 92-109).

London, Routledge.

 

Foucault, M. (1994). The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. Vintage.

 

Greenhalgh, T. (2006). What Seems to Be the Trouble?: Stories in Illness and Healthcare (1st

ed.). Radcliffe Publishing.

 

Hansen, B. (2009). Picturing Medical Progress from Pasteur to Polio: A History of Mass Media

Images and Popular Attitudes in America. Rutgers University Press.

 

In re O’Connor, 72N.Y. 2d 517, 531 N.E. 2d 607, 534 N.Y.S.2d 886 (1988)

 

Lancaster, T. Hart, R., & Gardner S. (2002), Literature and medicine evaluating a special study

module using the nominal group technique. Medical Education (11), pp. 1071-1076

 

Love in the Time of Cholera, (2007). Film

 

Matter of Quinlan, 70 N.J.10, 355 A.2d 657 (N.J., 1976)

 

Ph.D, T. B., & Bien, B. (2002). Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction

(1st ed.). Wiley.

20

 

Tolstoy, L. (2004). Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy. (L.

 

Tolstoy, L. (1889). The ethics of wine-drinking and tobacco-smoking. The Contemporary

Review.

 

Thorne, S. Best, A. Balon, J. Merrijoy, K. & Rickhi, B. (2002) Ethical Dimensions in the

Borderline between Conventional and Complementary/Alternative Medicine. The Journal of

Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 8 (6), 907-915.

 

Verghese, A. (2011). The Tennis Partner (Reissue.). Harper Perennial

 

 

 

 

 

Copied from a sample online

 

COURSE POLICIES:

Academic Integrity: The City Tech statement on academic integrity: “Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music, inventions, and other intellectual property owe their audience and sources accuracy and honesty in using, crediting, and citing sources. As a community of intellectual and professional workers, the College recognizes its responsibility for providing  instruction in information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity. Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and at New York City College of Technology and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion.” 

 

For the full policy manual on academic integrity, please visit:

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/aboutus/docs/policies/CT_PolicyManual11_12.pdf

 

 

 

 

SAMPLE COURSE SCHEDULE:

Week 1

Tools of the Humanities:

What can fiction and poetry teach us about health and illness?

How can healthcare professionals enhance their appreciation of differing cultural views

of health and illness by using the analytical tools of the humanities?

 

 

Week 2

 

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6 Western and Non-Western Medicine

What are the major differences between Eastern (traditional Chinese

medicine (TCM), Ayurveda) other indigenous medical practices, and

Western systems of medicine?

What are the various historical and/or theoretical roots of these traditions and how do they fit in with the cultural ethos of the early 21st century of the West?

What are challenges — intellectual, ethical, and political–raised by eastern and traditional systems in comparison to Western systems of medicine?

What is the role of individual responsibility in addiction, as seen from

diverse cultural perspectives? What are the ethical implications of a “harm

reduction” approach to addiction? How can Eastern and Western

perspectives on treating addiction influence contemporary healthcare

practice?

 

 

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

 

Week 10

 

Week 11  End of Life Matters  

• Patient Autonomy and  the Right to Die: History and Current Laws
• Briefing Cases – Facts, Issue(s), Holding and Rationale

In re Quinlan

   In re O’Connor

 

 

Week 12 Death in Eastern and Western Fiction

 

Close Reading of:

*The Death of Ivan Ilyich  (excerpt?)

*The Death of Vishnu (excerpt?) or another non-Western work of fiction

 

 

Week 13:  Fiction Continued :

• The portrayal of medical and legal professionals in the Death Of Ivan Ilych
• Metaphors and symbols that capture the experience of dying

 

 Week 14 Commemorating Decedents

• How do various cultures mourn, inter and honor their decedents in art and architecture
•  Place-Based Research
• Field Trip (choice of)

African Burial Ground

Ulysses S. Grant Tomb

9/11 Memorial

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brooklyn Museum

Rubin Museum of Art

 

Week 15 Oral Presentations of Research Projects/Homelands Feast (?)

 

 

Student Survey:  New Course:  HUM ?????

 

1.  What is your major and your degree program (A.A., A.S., B.S., etc.)?

 

 

 

 

2.  Please circle your class year at City Tech:

 

First-Year                    Sophomore                              Junior                          Senior

 

 

 

 

2.  Do you think students at City Tech should be given the opportunity to take a 3-credit interdisciplinary course concerning Western and non-Western world views on health, illness and dying?  The course, featuring several field trips to cultural venues will expose students to the perspectives and tools of the Humanities with the aim of enabling them to become more culturally competent and ethically aware professionals.

 

 

 

YES _________      NO _________

Please explain:

 

 

3.  Would you consider taking the 3-credit course described above?

 

 

YES _________      NO _________

Please explain: