Article "Experiment underway: freshman course could replace Western Civilization with focus on multicultural studies"

Article "Experiment underway: freshman course could replace Western Civilization with focus on multicultural studies"

In 1991, the University of Richmond began an “experiment” to observe whether replacing “the required Western Civilization course with a more multicultural course” (titled “Interdisciplinary Core Course: Exploring Human Experience”) would create a better learning experience. This “more multicultural course” was taught by professors from the History, English, Anthropology, and Music departments including history professor David Evans, English professors Louis Tremaine and Terryl Givens, and classics professor Dean Simpson. “About a third of the readings” were from Japan and China, and African and Middle Eastern texts would be incorporated in the following years. The course received a $120,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a trip for the professors to visit China was funded by a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant. The introduction of the course met some backlash for being “politically correct and trying to destroy Western Civilization,” but Evans defended it by claiming “We have dead white men on the syllabus.”

Holmes, Parker. "Experiment Underway: Freshman Course Could Replace Western Civilization with Focus on Multicultural Studies.” The University of Richmond Collegian 78, no. 1, (September 5, 1991): 3, 6. https://collegian.richmond.edu/?a=d&d=COL19910905.2.19&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-

The Collegian, University of Richmond

1991-09-05

English

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Richmond (Va.)