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Major Description

Cultivating the “educated imagination”

The College of Letters [COL] is a three-year interdisciplinary major for the study of predominantly European literature, history, and philosophy from antiquity to present. The program consists of 5 components and leads to 11 course credits:

• Five colloquia designed to acquaint students with works of predominantly European literature, history, and philosophy in (respectively):
  •  The 20th century
  •  The ancient world
  •  The Middle Ages and Renaissance
  • The early modern period (16th-18th centuries)
  • The 19th century
• Four seminars minimum (one in history, one in philosophy, one in literature, one in your target foreign language literature). These specialized seminars allow students to shape their COL major around a particular interest.
• One semester abroad. most often in Europe, Israel, or in a country where your selected foreign language is spoken, in the spring of your sophomore year
• One comprehensive examination in April/May of your junior year
• One senior thesis or essay that, along with the specialized seminars, allows COL students to further shape their major along their own interests

In all these contexts, much emphasis is placed on the development of skills in writing and speaking. For this reason, letter grades are not given in courses taken for COL major credit, and COL seminars do not generally have final examinations. Instead, tutors write detailed evaluations of their students' work at the end of each semester, and these are kept on record (and discussed with each student upon request). Our general goal is cultivation of “the educated imagination." 

Life in COL. The College of Letters attempts to integrate the social and intellectual lives of its members by inviting guest lecturers and by providing opportunities for students and faculty to meet such guests (and one another) informally. There are also regular informal social gatherings in the College of Letters library. The structure of the College of Letters and the smallness of its classes bring about a close rapport between faculty and students and a lively and continuing dialogue among students of different classes.

For a more detailed description of any of the above components, please consult the department website www.wesleyan.edu/col.