Overview

The Liberal Arts Curriculum (LAC) is part and parcel of every student’s curriculum at LAU. Students are broadly educated in the social sciences, the natural sciences and the humanities, as well as trained in a particular academic field of specialization. Courses offered by LAC program are designed to broaden each student’s intellectual perspective, while selecting a field of concentration from academic departments. Students will usually take about half of their courses in their concentration, a quarter in LAC, and a quarter in electives. Programs are, therefore, quite balanced for students. Every undergraduate learns to read, write, and think critically, skills important to any educational endeavor.

Mission

The mission of the Liberal Arts Curriculum is to foster the education of the cultured and civically engaged person, and to nurture students as future leaders.

Program Objectives

The Liberal Arts Curriculum seeks to graduate students who

1. gain cultural breadth,
2. value ethical responsibility,
3. develop analytical/critical thinking and quantitative competence, and
4. communicate effectively.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of LAC requirements, students should be able to

1. recognize and value social and cultural diversity,
2. exhibit an appreciation for the arts,
3. demonstrate an appreciation of wellness and health,
4. demonstrate the ability to discern and make ethically based choices,
5. demonstrate the ability for critical thinking,
6. demonstrate the ability to apply analytical reasoning,
7. demonstrate aptitude in written communication,
8. demonstrate aptitude in oral communication, and
9. demonstrate information literacy.

Curriculum

A total of 34 credits, as per the following, are compulsory to fulfill requirements of Liberal Arts Curriculum

• Required Core Courses (13 cr)
• Elective Courses (21 cr)

Required Core Courses (13 cr)

Language Courses (6 cr)

• ENG202 Advanced Academic English (3 cr)¹
• ENG203 Fundamentals of Oral Communication (3 cr)
• ARA303 Arabic Grammar and Syntax (3 cr)
• ARA310 Classical Arabic Rhetoric and Literary Criticism (3 cr)
• ARA313 Creative Writing (3 cr)
• ARA320 Pre-Islamic and Umayyad Poetry (3 cr)
• ARA323 Abbasid Poetry (3 cr)
• ARA324 Andalusian Literature (3 cr)
• ARA325 Classical Prose (3 cr)
• ARA330 Lebanese Literary Heritage (3 cr)
• ARA341 Modern Arabic Novel and Short Story (3 cr)
• ARA342 Arabic Drama (3 cr)
• ARA343 Modern Arabic Poetry (3 cr)
• ARA344 Trends in Modern Arabic Literature (3 cr)

¹ For entering Freshman students, before taking the ENG202 Advance Academic Writing, EEE or TOEFL equivalent is required to be placed as per the following:

EEE 500 to 549 or TOEFL equivalent
ENG009 Remedial English (3 cr), ENG101 Academic English I (3 cr), and ENG102 Academic English II (3 cr)

EEE 550 to 649 or TOEFL equivalent
ENG101 Academic English I (3 cr) and ENG102 Academic English II (3 cr)

EEE 600 to 649 or TOEFL equivalent
For B.A./B.S. Program
ENG102 Academic English II (3 cr) and Elective course (3 cr)

For AA/AAS Program
ENG102 Academic English II (3 cr) and ENG202 Advanced Academic English (3 cr) or ENG203 Fundamentals of Oral Communication (3 cr)

EEE 650 and above or TOEFL equivalent
For B.A./B.S. Program
Sophomore level English courses

For AA/AAS Program
ENG202 Advanced Academic English (3 cr) and ENG203 Fundamentals of Oral Communication (3 cr)
ARA2xx Arabic Language or ARA3xx Arabic Literature (3 cr). Sophomore students who are exempted from Arabic by the Admissions Council, must substitute the Arabic course by one of the following courses:

• SAR221 Developmental Arabic (3 cr)
• SOC321 Sociology of the Arab World (3 cr)
• WOS313 Women in the Arab World (3 cr)
• HST230 History of Lebanon, from Antelias Man to the Ottoman Conquest (3 cr)
• HST231 History of Lebanon, from the Imarah to the 1975-1990 War (3 cr)
• HST240 History of the Arab Peoples (3 cr)

Computer Applications (1 cr)

• CSC201 Computer Applications (1 cr)

Ethics (1 cr)

• ETH201 Moral Reasoning (1 cr)

Basic Health (1 cr)

• HLT201 Basic Health (1 cr)

Physical Education (1 cr)

• PED211 Beginning Swimming (1 cr)
• PED218 Table Tennis (1 cr)
• PED220 Beginning Tennis (1 cr)
• PED231 Modern Dance (1 cr)
• PED232 Folk Dance (1 cr)
• PED251 BasketBall (1 cr)
• PED261 VolleyBall (1 cr)
• PED271 Tae-Kwan-Do (1 cr)
• PED291 Physical Fitness (1 cr)

Elective Courses (21 cr)

Cultural Studies, History, Philosophy, Religion (3 - 9 cr)

Cultural Studies

• CST201 Cultural Studies I (3 cr)
• CST202 Cultural Studies II (3 cr)
• CST203 Cultural Studies III (3 cr)

History

• HST221 The Ancient World, Greece and Rome (3 cr)
• HST231 History of Lebanon, from the Imarah to the 1975-1990 War (3 cr)
• HST240 History of the Arab Peoples (3 cr)
• HST242 Europe and the Middle East (1798 – 1956) (3 cr)
• HST302 Medieval Europe 1066-1453 (3 cr)
• HST303 Early Modern Europe 1450-1750 (3 cr)

Philosophy

• PHL204 Modern Philosophy (3 cr)
• PHL301 Ethics (3 cr)
• PHL302 Theory of Knowledge (3 cr)
• PHL303 Metaphysics (3 cr)
• PHL311 Philosophy of Religion (3 cr)
• PHL324 Philosophy of Science (3 cr)

Religion

• REL312 Interpretation of Religious Literature (3 cr)
• REL411 Myth and Ritual (3 cr)
• REL412 History of Religious Thought in the Middle East (3 cr)
• REL413 Representatives of Christian Thought in the Modern Period (3 cr)
• REL414 Representatives of Islamic Thought in the Modern Period (3 cr)

Literature (3 - 6 cr)

• ENG211 Literature I (3 cr)
• ENG212 Literature II (3 cr)
• ENG216 Introduction to Literature (3 cr)
• ENG323 Renaissance Drama (3 cr)
• ENG324 Medieval Literature (3 cr)
• ENG325 Renaissance Poetry (3 cr)
• ENG326 Restoration and Neoclassical Literature (3 cr)
• ENG328 Early Novel (3 cr)
• ENG336 Romantic and Victorian Poetry (3 cr)
• ENG339 19^th Century British Novel (3 cr)
• ENG342 Modernism and Beyond (3 cr)
• ENG345 The 20^th Century British Novel (3 cr)
• ENG346 Contemporary Culture (3 cr)
• ENG348 Postcolonial Anglophone Literatures (3 cr)
• ENG351 Early American Literature (3 cr)
• ENG352 20^th Century American Novel (3 cr)
• ENG354 Theories of Literature and Culture (3 cr)
• ENG372 Comparative and World Literatures (3 cr)
• ENG479 Topics in Literature and Culture (3 cr)

Sciences (3 - 9 cr)

• AST200 Introduction to Astronomy (3 cr)
• BIO201 General Biology I (3 cr)
• BIO202 General Biology II (3 cr)
• CHM201 Chemical Principles (3 cr)
• CHM202 Analytical Chemistry (3 cr)
• CSC241 Introduction to Computing (3 cr)
• ENV200 Introduction to Environmental Science (3 cr)
• MTH201 Calculus III (3 cr)
• MTH206 Calculus IV (3 cr)
• MTH207 Discrete Structures I (3 cr)
• NUT201 Fundamentals of Human Nutrition (3 cr)

Arts (3 - 6 cr)

• ARC371 History of Architecture I (3 cr)¹
• ARC371 History of Architecture II (3 cr)²
• ARC375 Introduction to Islamic Art (3 cr)³
• ARC376 Introduction to Islamic Architecture (3 cr)⁴
• ART331 History of Art I (3 cr)
• ART332 History of Art II (3 cr)
• ART335 Islamic Art of the Middle East (3 cr)
• ART431 Modern Art (3 cr)
• JSC312 Media and Society (3 cr)
• TVF221 Art of Film (3 cr)
• PFA211 Survey of Western Music (3 cr)
• PFA212 Survey of Middle Eastern Music (3 cr)
• PFA242 Introduction to the Art of Theatre (3 cr)
• PFA249 Theater in Lebanon and the Arab World (3 cr)
• PFA252 Lebanese Musical Theater and Song (3 cr)

¹ or DES371 History of Architecture I (3 cr)
² or DES372 History of Architecture II (3 cr)
³ or DES375 Introduction to Islamic Art (3 cr)
⁴ or DES376 Introduction to Islamic Architecture (3 cr)

Social Sciences (3-9 cr)

• ECO201 Microeconomics (3 cr)
• ECO202 Macroeconomics (3 cr)
• PJE201 Cross-cultural Communication for Peace (3 cr)
• POL201 Introduction to Political Science (3 cr)
• POL231 Introduction to Human Rights (3 cr)
• PSY201 Introduction to Psychology (3 cr)
• PSY202 Child Psychology (3 cr)
• PSY335 Industrial Organizational Psychology (3 cr)
• SOC201 Introduction to Sociology (3 cr)
• SOC215 Introduction to Gender Studies (3 cr)
• SOC311 Social Problems (3 cr)
• SOC321 Sociology of the Arab World (3 cr)
• WOS311 Issues and Debates in Feminist Theory (3 cr)
• WOS313 Women in the Arab World: Sociological Perspectives (3 cr)
• WOS412 Representations of Women in the Arts and the Media (3 cr)