GLSP Request for Course Proposals
Fall 2008 - Summer 2009

Wesleyan University’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program invites proposals to teach a course during the fall 2008, spring 2009, and summer 2009 terms in the following curricular divisions of the liberal arts:  arts, humanities, mathematics, sciences, and social sciences.  Interdisciplinary courses are welcome, and all proposals should be appropriate to the liberal arts curriculum at Wesleyan University.

The deadline to submit a proposal for the 2008-2009 academic year is March 3, 2008.

Course Proposal Form

How to Propose a Course
A complete course proposal includes the following components:

1.	A full course description formatted according to the instructions below
2.	The syllabus for your proposed course (send by email to Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services; this component is is optional for Wesleyan faculty but required for non-Wesleyan faculty)
3.	Your current curriculum vitae (send by email to Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services)
4.	Your schedule and classroom preferences

You may submit a proposal through the online web form, or you may download the form as a Word document and send it to the GLSP office.  Following are the instructions for each method of submission.

Online:
1.  Submit your personal information and completed course proposal online, and
2.  Submit your current curriculum vitae and course syllabus by email to:
      Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services.

Email:	send as attachments to:  Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services
Fax:	(860) 685-2901 attn: Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services
U.S. Post:	Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services Wesleyan University GLSP 284 High Street Middletown, CT  06459

The GLSP Course Description
Because the GLSP is an open-enrollment program and because a course may be cancelled if fewer than nine students register, a compelling course description is very important to successful enrollment of each course. A strong course description is one that offers a tangible sense of the course’s area of study, the specific themes by which that area will be explored, and the academic context which will inform the questions of the course. The course description must have these components:

Instructor name:  What is your legal name and (if different) how should your name appear in the printed catalog?
Course Title:  The title should succinctly identify the course subject and themes; you may provide a longer title for the catalog but because the transcript will show only 30 characters of a title we ask for a short and long title.
Text of description:  Defines and describes the course subject, locates subject’s context, identifies sub-topics, explains methods of study, states course’s thesis or goals.
Sources to be studied:  This may be a plain list or an enhanced discussion of the major readings, films, music, images, and objects that students will study; it should provide students with a solid sense of the course, but does not need to be exhaustive.
Required course work:  Identify the work on which students will be evaluated (e.g., written work, artwork, presentations, exams, class participation). 
Additional information:  You are encouraged to use this to give an assignment that students must complete for the first meeting of class.  This section may also discuss required or helpful previous study, special schedule information, or additional materials needed for course such as a camera, computer program, scientific instruments, etc.
Instructor biography:  This tells the student about your academic training (degrees), your current academic appointments, and your professional activities of publications, presentation, and exhibitions.

Sample Course Description
 

Instructor Name		Peter Rutland
Full Course Title		War and Society:  Social Existence in Cooperation and Conflict
Short (Transcript) Title		War and Society
Text of Description		Social existence involves both cooperation and conflict, and social conflict often spills over into physical violence. While most societies condemn physical violence between individuals, they condone and encourage collectively organized violence in the form of warfare. There is no modern society that has not taken part in warfare, so an understanding of war is clearly essential to any understanding of human existence.  We examine war as a social, political, and historical phenomenon, looking at the way wars have led to consolidation of political power, the acceleration of social change, and gender relations. Our focus is on the role played by technology in the interaction between war and society, studying examples including medieval Europe, the rise of the modern state, colonial wars, the American Civil War through to World War Two, and Vietnam.
Sources to Be Studied		Readings and sources for the course include John Keegan, The Face of Battle; Robert O’Connell, Of Arms and Men; Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War; William McNeill, The Pursuit of Power; M. Knox & W. Murray, eds., The Dynamics of Military Revolution; John Ellis, The Social History of the Machine Gun, and clips from documentaries and other media.
Required Course Work		Students will be responsible for three short reports and a research paper.
Additional Information		In advance of the first meeting of class, students should read all of John Keegan, The Face of Battle, and should bring the book to class.
Instructor Biography		Peter Rutland (B.A. Oxford University; D. Phil. York University) is professor government at Wesleyan University.  He is author and editor of numerous books, including Business and State in Contemporary Russia (Westview, 2001); The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union:  The Role of Local Party Organs in Economic Management (Cambridge University Press, 1993); and The Myth of the Plan:  Lessons from Soviet Planning Experience (Open Court, 1985).

Contact information
Your proposal must include your mailing address, a daytime telephone number, and your email address.

Schedule Preferences
Your proposal must indicate the days and times when you are available to teach. GLSP courses meet in the following patterns:

Fall & Spring:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday evening; time block:  6-10 p.m.
Saturday morning, time block: 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Summer: 
Monday & Wednesday (six weeks), Tuesday & Thursday (six weeks)
Monday - Thursday (two three-week sessions, early and late halves of the six week term)
Time blocks:  9 a.m.-noon; 1:30-4:30 p.m.; 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Classroom Preferences
All classrooms are equipped with a blackboard.  If your course requires any audio/visual or computer equipment, your request must be placed significantly in advance and you will be required to meet with the technical staff before you will be given access to the equipment.  Please identify the a/v and/or computing equipment that you require.  If your course requires a seminar table, please indicate this.  Rooms with both seminar tables and computer with multimedia are in great demand on campus and their availability cannot be promised, so if the seminar table is most important but multimedia would be nice, please say so.  If you know which classrooms you prefer, please identify two or three options in order of preference.

Teaching with the GLSP
The GLSP offers part-time graduate study in the liberal arts toward a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree or a Certificate of Advanced Study. Summer courses meet on an intensive schedule for three or six weeks with day and evening classes. During the fall and spring terms, courses are offered once per week for 12 weeks in the evening or on Saturday mornings; a 13th meeting is scheduled for student presentations or final exams. GLSP students are adults who study to pursue intellectual and creative ambitions, bringing enthusiasm, motivation, and rich life-experience to the classroom.

Taught at the graduate level, GLSP courses should expect complex conceptual ability from students, as well as intense and rigorous work for the course. Unlike departmental master’s programs, GLSP courses generally do not require students to bring a specialized background in the field of study. Assignments should include primary sources and important secondary literature in the field:  textbooks—except where normal to graduate study in the field, such as law, are inappropriate.  Students should produce substantial work for the course, and are expected to spend at minimum ten hours preparing for each class meeting.  Each GLSP course confers three units (30 credit hours) of graduate credit and must meet for a minimum of 30 contact hours. 

Approximately 25 to 30 courses are offered each term to an average of 300 students.  Class size is small, with an average of 11; no more than 18 students will be admitted to a class, and the program reserves the right to cancel a course for which fewer than nine students register. Because most students take only one or two courses each term, GLSP courses are not repeated frequently.

Most GLSP courses are offered by Wesleyan University faculty. A small number of opportunities to teach one course in an academic year will be offered to distinguished artists, filmmakers, writers, scientists, and faculty of other universities. 

If you have questions about the GLSP curriculum or the range of courses offered, please review the recent course descriptions.  If you have questions or seek clarification about the proposal process, please contact Sheryl Culotta, Associate Director for Academic Services.  

Academic Calendar
Click here to view the GLSP academic calendar