Core Courses

Overview

The leadership major curriculum is built on a foundation of four required core courses that engage students in leadership through their respective liberal arts-based disciplinary lenses.

Courses

There is much to learn about how the principles of leadership have been applied in the past. 

Majors will employ the lessons, models, and narratives of history to consider different characteristics of leadership and analyze how those qualities might shape students’ own vision of what it means to be an informed citizen and how to apply those principles effectively as they encounter challenges over the course of their careers.
 

Course:

HISTORY 3676: Leadership in History

Ethical leadership requires a coherent understanding of moral principles, an ability to navigate difficult ethical tradeoffs, and an appreciation of the virtues that sustain good decision-making. 

In working to face the challenges of tomorrow, leaders must also appreciate how inequities and injustices can bring people, perspectives, and values into conflict, and they must be able to learn from the past as they lead their organizations and constituencies forward.
 

Course:

PHILOS 2390: Ethics and Leadership in a Diverse World

Leaders must recognize that we do not live in a uniform society with one unique psychology or viewpoint that yields one particular way of leading. 

We are citizens of a pluralistic and diverse, democratic society. This changes not only how one must lead, but also the responsibilities a leader has.


Course:

WGSS 4403: Gender, Race, and Leadership

Effective leaders must understand how to generate organizational change and growth. They must combine a depth of knowledge in their area of expertise with vision, self-awareness, and empathy. 

Leaders must make difficult, informed decisions, and they must balance the interests of their organization and the people it serves with the broader interests of society, both as it exists in the present and as they help to shape it for the future.


Course:

Students must choose one of the following courses in the Practice of Leadership:

  • POLITSC 3912: Political Leadership
  • PSYCH 3522: Organizational Psychology
  • AAEP 5671: Organizational Leadership in the Nonprofit Arts