Communitas in the ACS Classroom
The Communitas Program entails living together, taking a 1-credit themed workshop, and having the unique opportunity to complete the required ACS 1000 and 1001 first-year seminars in a specially-themed section that will engage you in studying the question "Who am I?" through both classic and modern texts.
Enjoy community and conversation with a cohort of 15 other first-year students who will be taking ACS Ancients and ACS Moderns with you, as well as participating in the themed workshop. Communitas students are assigned rooms in the same residence hall, so conversations from class carry on into the dining halls and student lounges.
In Communitas ACS, you will bridge the gap between the classroom and the campus, as you experience the exciting cultural and intellectual life of the University through activities such as movie and pizza nights, campus (delete cultural) events (like plays, concerts, and panel discussions), 鈥淗op on the Bus鈥� field trips to Philadelphia venues and beyond, and a catered welcome dinner.
Many lasting friendships have their foundation in Communitas time spent together. Live, engage, and learn together in Communitas!
What do we do in our Communitas ACS 1000 Ancients and 1001 Moderns classes?
Explore how art, in all its forms, is used as a medium for communicating abstract thought, symbolism, ideals, and cultural values.
- Ask 鈥淲ho Am I?鈥� in relation to arts, creativity, imagination, and literature such as the鈥�Bhagavad Gita, The Trojan Women, and A Room of One鈥檚 Own, including dialogue, narrative, poetry, drama, and visual art.
- Analyze texts for intentionality of the author, audience reception, sensory appeal, character development, and what is perceived as standards of 鈥済ood鈥� art and performance.
Participate in cultural event opportunities explicitly geared to exploring the arts, including movie nights, plays, musical events, and a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Engage questions about what constitutes service, whether there are right and wrong ways to go about it, and what role service to others plays in exploring our own identities and living out our values.
- How do texts such as鈥�The Tempest, Epictetus鈥欌��Art of Living,鈥赌痶丑别&苍产蝉辫;Bhagavad Gita, and Kant鈥檚 鈥淲hat is Enlightenment鈥� engage with the idea of service to others and the way that attitudes toward service have changed and remained consistent over time.
Participate in cultural event opportunities explicitly geared to exploring attitudes toward service, including visiting sites like Eastern State Penitentiary, participating in MLK Day of Service activities and Freedom School sessions, and movie nights alongside engagement in service work in and around the 棉花糖直播 community.
Explore how creative writing鈥攑oetry, fiction, and nonfiction鈥攕erves as a powerful medium for expressing abstract thought, symbolism, identity, and cultural values.
- Ask 鈥淲ho Am I?鈥� in relation to creativity, imagination, and literature, engaging with works such as Antigone and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as contemporary adaptations.
- Participate in a dynamic creative writing workshop where you will draft, revise, and share original poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
- Analyze texts through both traditional academic essays and creative assignments that blur the boundaries between criticism and artistic expression
Attend cultural events that inspire and inform your writing, including plays, musical performances, and a trip to Philadelphia.
Explore conversations across cultures and examining contemporary global issues, including those related to climate change, poverty, inequality, immigration, modern technology, and mental health.
- How do texts from diverse traditions worldwide, including African, Buddhist, Confucian, East Asian, Hindu, and Islamic cultures, enter into a conversation with some of the foundational texts in Ancients and Moderns: The Bible, 础耻驳耻蝉迟颈苍别鈥檚 Confessions, Shakespeare鈥檚 plays, and Papal encyclicals?
Explore questions relevant to our psychological, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being.
- What might the ancient Stoics have to teach us about dealing with the stress and anxiety of college life? How can Saint Augustine help us to think about grief and mourning? How might Shakespeare and Frederick Douglass help us deal with feelings of exclusion and alienation?
Consider "Who am I?" in terms of the qualities of a leader, with an emphasis on the model of servant-leadership.
- Interdisciplinary, holistic approach to leadership studies through the close reading of primary texts in political science, philosophy, economics, rhetoric, literature, drama, and spirituality.
- Possible texts might include The Aeneid, Plato, Tao Te Ching, Shakespeare, Frankenstein, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Communist Manifesto, and a Papal encyclical on Catholic social teaching.
Enjoy socializing at film screenings, on- and off-campus performances, and trips to museums in the Philadelphia region.
Engage the perspectives of both the sciences and the humanities in a collaborative interdisciplinary inquiry into enduring and fundamental questions:
- What is the nature of the world? Does the world have an order, intelligence, or a purpose? Or is it meaningless, and characterized by randomness and chance? What kind of a thing is a human being? Is a human being different from an animal or even a complex machine? Does an understanding of the natural world provide insight into human purpose and ethical conduct?
- Engage in close reading of texts selected from diverse traditions, genres, and historical eras with an emphasis on Social Justice and Inclusion themes such as oppression, power, justice, equality, liberation, and human rights;
- Highlight works of authors from historically marginalized identities and groups, and their unique contributions to our understanding of the human condition;
- Discuss texts through the lens of Social Justice and Inclusion, prompting students to engage in critical thinking and productive conversation about differences, diversity, and inclusion;
- Encourage students with concerns about contemporary social justice issues to enrich their thinking with resources from philosophy, literature, history, and Catholic Social Thought.
Consider 鈥淲ho Am I?鈥� in relationship to the natural world with an environmental focus.
- Scientific and cultural perspectives on our interactions with nature.
- How we define our roles of stewarding, caretaking, or extracting from Earth?
- Global innovations that impact nature鈥檚 well-being and regeneration.