2024-2025 Complex Problems and Enduring Questions Call for Proposals

Due October 15, 2023

The University Core Renewal Committee invites proposals Complex Problems and Enduring Questions Courses to be taught in the 2024-2025 academic year. Contributing to the rigorous intellectual development and personal formation of our students in the tradition of a Jesuit, Catholic university, these interdisciplinary courses bring together faculty from different departments and/or schools and fulfill two different Core requirements (Arts, History, Literature, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Philosophy, Social Sciences, Theology, and Writing). 

  • Complex Problems are team-taught, six-credit classes that address a contemporary problem. Each week they meet for three lectures, a lab taught by Core Fellows, and an evening Reflection session. Enrollment is capped at 76 students.
  • Enduring Questions  courses are linked pairs of three-credit classes that meet separately. Each class meets on a normal weekly schedule plus four Reflection sessions each semester. Enrollments are set at 19.

Both Complex Problems and Enduring Questions courses integrate co-curricular programming—Reflection Sessions—that deepens academic study with opportunities for exploration and personal growth.

Full time faculty receive a stipend of $12,500 for Complex Problems courses, and $7,500 for Enduring Questions courses in exchange for preparing their syllabi and attending pedagogical workshops. For each faculty member, a Complex Problem class counts as two courses of his or her normal teaching load. Part-time faculty are not eligible to apply.

Play
Faculty discuss course

Boston College faculty discuss the challenges and rewards of teaching interdisciplinary Complex Problems and Enduring Questions courses.

Application Process

  • Full time faculty may apply for either a Complex Problems or an Enduring Questions class. Typically, one applies as part of a previously arranged pair, but it is also possible to apply as an individual in hopes of finding a partner. In either case, each faculty member submits an application.
  • Application is via an on-line form (link below).
  • Complex Problems applications require:

(1) one joint course title and one-paragraph description;
(2) an explanation (500 word max.) of how the proposed course fulfills the characteristics of a Complex Problems course;
(3) the Core requirements your course fulfills;
(4) Department chair’s information;
(5) teaching preferences and constraints.

  • Enduring Questions applications require:

(1) an individual course title and one-paragraph description;
(2) a joint, one-paragraph course description;
(3) an explanation (500 word max.) of how the proposed course fulfills the characteristics of an Enduring Questions course;
(3) the Core requirements your course fulfills;
(4) Department chair’s information;
(5) teaching preferences and constraints.

  • Applicants will be informed of decisions by the University Core Renewal Committee.

APPLICATION


If you have any questions, please contact the Core Office at: core@bc.edu.

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