Kilachand Honors College: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Learning and Discovery
Kilachand Honors College at Boston University offers a distinctive educational experience that fosters intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving. By integrating a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum with a vibrant living-learning community, Kilachand prepares students to address complex issues of ethical, scientific, social, and aesthetic significance. The college emphasizes the development of crucial skills such as writing, research, and analysis, enabling students to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
A Foundation in Interdisciplinary Exploration
Kilachand distinguishes itself through its commitment to interdisciplinary learning. Students engage with faculty and peers from diverse academic backgrounds, fostering a collaborative environment where different perspectives converge. This approach encourages students to think critically about major problems and develop innovative solutions by drawing upon a variety of ideas and approaches.
The Kilachand Curriculum: A Journey of Intellectual Growth
The Kilachand curriculum is carefully designed to guide students through a progressive journey of intellectual growth, starting with foundational skills and culminating in independent research and creative expression.
First Year: Building Essential Skills
The first year focuses on developing fundamental skills in writing, critical reading, and analysis. Students take two seminars, Studio I (KHC ST 111) in the fall and Studio II (KHC ST 112) in the spring.
Studio I (KHC ST 111): This seminar introduces students to the core principles of effective writing, critical reading, and analytical thinking. Through the exploration of challenging texts and events, students grapple with fundamental ethical, aesthetic, and social concerns. They learn to compose and revise their own writing, paying close attention to evidence, media, genres, and styles of expression. Individual tutorials with studio faculty provide personalized guidance, helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses and refine their drafting and revision processes.
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Studio II (KHC ST 112): Building upon the foundation established in Studio I, this seminar further hones students' writing, critical reading, thinking, oral communication, and research skills. Students continue to explore complex ethical, aesthetic, and social issues, with a particular emphasis on developing research skills and methodologies. They learn to design and compose a research paper and to share their research effectively, both orally and in writing. The drafting and revision process is supported by individual attention from instructors in tutorials.
Second and Third Years: Addressing Global Challenges
In their second or third year, Kilachand students are required to take either KHC HC 301 or KHC HC 302. These team-taught courses provide a platform for students to engage in discussions and propose solutions to major global challenges, such as global health and forced displacement. The integrated curriculum combines lectures, discussions, and group projects, allowing students to collaborate in teams to develop practical solutions to the fundamental challenges facing human societies.
Fourth Year: The Keystone Project
The culmination of the Kilachand experience is the Keystone Project, a year-long independent project undertaken in the student's chosen field. Kilachand provides the space and resources for students to engage in their own creative and intellectual pursuits and then share their work with a variety of audiences. Students work under the mentorship of a project advisor, conducting empirical or scholarly research, pursuing creative endeavors, or developing inventions. The results of their projects are presented at the annual Keystone Symposium, a celebratory event showcasing the diverse talents and accomplishments of Kilachand students. All Kilachand students complete a substantial work of empirical or scholarly research, creativity, or invention by the close of their senior year. There are various pathways through which Kilachand students can complete the Keystone Project.
Cocurricular Engagement: Expanding Intellectual Horizons
Beyond the formal curriculum, Kilachand offers a rich array of cocurricular events that provide students with opportunities to interact with committed, stimulating, and accomplished intellectuals, artists, and professionals. These events, which include stand-alone lectures, panels, and activities, are distinct from BU Hub cocurriculars and offer a unique dimension to the Kilachand experience.
Integration with the BU Hub
All Boston University undergraduate students, including Kilachand students, participate in the BU Hub, the University's general education program. The BU Hub requirements can be satisfied through coursework both within and beyond the major, as well as through cocurricular activities. Kilachand students typically satisfy a majority of their BU Hub requirements through the Kilachand curriculum.
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Course Spotlights: Exploring Diverse Topics
Kilachand Honors College offers a wide array of courses that explore diverse topics and challenge students to think critically about the world around them. Here are a few examples:
The Art of "Fake News": This seminar examines how historical events have been depicted by artists from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the intentional misrepresentation of events ("fake news") to serve the needs of the artists' patrons, usually ruling elites.
What Is Art?: This seminar investigates how visual and performance artists have wildly expanded our definition of what art is, including an exploration of new techniques, theories, markets, and political implications of art in the 20th and 21st centuries. It considers artists that challenged viewers' and philosophers' ideas about what makes something a work of art and brought new people into the story of art history, expanding our understanding of who can be an artist.
Education for All?: This course explores the challenges of providing equitable access to education, with a particular focus on current policies in Boston. It asks how we can fulfill Thomas Jefferson's promise for public schools "which shall reach every description of our citizens."
The Power of Storytelling: This course delves into the ethical and political dimensions of storytelling, explores various cultural and historical forms of storytelling, and examines the deployment of storytelling in applied contexts such as narrative medicine.
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Animals among Humans: This course complements "Human among Animals" by comparing and contrasting humans and (other) animals and It explores the relations between them, with emphasis on the experiences of the nonhuman animals themselves.
Wildlife Conservation: Through team-based approaches, students learn about threats to wildlife and natural habitats, identifying community-based root causes. They apply their own disciplinary expertise and passions to develop creative solutions to these problems, culminating in the production of a final conservation video.
The Human Condition Through Conflict: This course explores what we can learn about the human condition when we think through conflict. It examines how modern sociopolitical forms sanction specific forms of adversarial interaction as positive, regulative forces while banning forms of conflict as unwanted, corrosive influences on sociopolitical order.
Science, Scientists, and Society: Through an examination of the work of five impactful scientists and their interactions with prevailing institutions and societal norms, we will explore the fundamental nature of science and how individual scientists have navigated unique challenges created by their work.
Cooperation and Conflict: This course addresses the question of what binds human and non-human societies together, and what pulls them apart, over the short (historical) and long (evolutionary) terms. It draws on approaches from the natural and social sciences.
The Science of Sustainability: In this course we explore the dynamic relationship between human society and the natural ecosystems in which they are embedded, and of which they are today an integral part. We cover the theory, the gathering of empirical data from peoples and ecosystems, and types of dynamic modeling and scenario-forecasting, both heuristic and computational, that aid in good decision making. Furthermore, discussion of how matter (gas, liquid, solid) is cycled within the earth's systems in the context of human use of the earth's resources and contemporary concerns about sustainability e.g., ozone layer, rare-earth elements, hydrocarbon combustion, potable water, plastic recycling.
Housing Policy: This course introduces students to economic analysis through the study of housing policy. The course covers both microeconomic issues related to housing affordability and macroeconomic issues related to the stabilization of the housing market and the Great Recession.
The Physics and Psychoacoustics of Music: This course leverages the relationship that students, who are not averse to STEM fields, have with music in order to turn them into GEEKS! It uses the electric guitar as a gateway to musical acoustics, electroacoustics, psychoacoustics and hands-on projects.
The Ancient Quarrel: This course tackles the "ancient quarrel" between literature and philosophy through ancient works by Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle; existentialist writing by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, De Beauvoir, Ellison; contemporaries such as Sontag, Robinson, Coetzee.
Poetry as Political Action: This course explores the work of contemporary poets who directly engage the current moment, who show us that art can function as political action.
The Writer as Character: This course explores the character of the writer as portrayed in multiple genres including fiction, essay, biography, autobiography, obituaries, and docudramas.
The Romance Novel: This course examines the history, artistry, and social significance of the genre, with attention to the ways in which romance novels have variously reinforced and disrupted norms of not only on the worldâs problems but also on the worldâs pleasures.
The Hollywood Blacklist: This course seeks to understand American film history in light of one set of events: the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on communism in the film industry and the resulting industry blacklist.
Screen Adaptation: This course will analyze the responsibilities of adapting socially significant source material for the screen.
Global Public Health: In this course, students will develop an understanding of global public health from interdisciplinary perspectives. Specifically, the course will foster students' ability to critically consider key contemporary issues in global public health with a lens on ethical considerations, and in turn make links to policy and practice implications.
Note: The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a courseâs being offered in a particular term.
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