It’s How We Learn

Listen to the people in a community, and you will learn who they are.

Mosaic: Learning by Living

The Community Studies Center encourages joint student and faculty fieldwork and community-oriented research through the American and Global Mosaic programs.

During a semester of fieldwork immersion, Mosaic students interview a community’s residents, listen to their histories and learn from their experiences. Through this cross-cultural program, students make connections between theory and practice, among people and ideas, across academic disciplines and around the world. They also set off on a journey of personal discovery—learning much about their own lives as they listen to the lives of others.

Crossing Borders

The Crossing Borders program allows students to study in several locations in one year.

In recent years, the program has been conducted as a joint venture with Dillard and Xavier universities, two historically black institutions in New Orleans. In the summer, students from Dickinson, Dillard and Xavier would travel to Dickinson’s study center in Cameroon, West Africa, where they would be immersed in local culture, learning first-hand about the traditions, beliefs and culture of West Africa.

The next planned Crossing Borders is a Comparative Black Liberation Mosaic. Students will go to South Africa in the summer, spend the fall at Dickinson with a trip to the Mississippi Delta, and then either go to Dillard or Morehouse university in the spring.

Global Education

More than half of all Dickinson students study abroad at least once during their time here. With more than 40 programs on six continents in 24 countries, there are many options for students in every discipline. Visit the global-education Web site for more information.

The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues

The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues connects the students and faculty of Dickinson College and members of the broader community with scholars, practicing professionals and activists through the use of lectures, seminars, and conferences. Each academic year, The Clarke Forum focuses on a central theme. For the 2007-08 academic year, that theme is A Gendered World.

Among other activities, The Clarke Forum sponsors Common Hours—weekly gatherings of the college community to engage in discussions of local and national interest. Common hour topics for the fall 2007 semester included Dodging a Bullet, Serve the World, For the Prevention of Cruelty: Women and Animal Advocacy in the United States, Transgender Issues and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Central Pennsylvania Consortium

Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg colleges make up the Central Pennsylvania Consortium (CPC), which strives to improve and advance the intellectual vitality of each campus.

Requirements for Degree

Dickinson College requires three different types of coursework to familiarize students with the ways in which the diversity of human cultures has shaped our world. These courses seek to prepare students to be effective citizens in an interdependent world and to be aware of the breadth of voices, perspectives, experiences, values, and cultures that constitute the rich tapestry of U.S. life and history.

Languages - All students are required to demonstrate that they have completed work in a foreign language through the intermediate level. The languages offered for the 2007-08 academic year are Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian and Spanish.

U.S. Diversity - To prepare students to function effectively in civic life and to help them gain a broader understanding of the commonalities and differences among cultures and values in the context of the making of American society, the college requires one course with a focus on U.S. diversity. Some courses available during the 2007-08 academic year include Mexican-American Literature, Cultures of the U.S., Sex, Violence and Race, Multicultural American Modernism, Social Movements, Protest and Conflict and Racial Politics of American Popular Music.

Comparative Civilizations - To deepen students’ understanding of the diversity in cultures by introducing them to traditions other than those that have shaped the modern West, the college requires one course with a focus on the comparative study of civilizations. Some courses available during the 2007-08 academic year Anthropology for the 21st Century, Ethnography of Postcolonial Africa, Gender and Sexuality in Asia, Medicine, Science and Society, Contemporary Cinema of India, U.S./China Relations, Post-Colonial Women and Modern Iran.