NORTHRIDGE : CSUN Classes to Mix Sciences, Humanities

A pair of untraditional courses to be introduced at Cal State Northridge this fall will combine subjects once viewed as disparate as oil and water.

Biology and contemporary literature, two general education requirements for upper division students, will be offered as a linked course for the first time next fall, Margaret Fieweger, associate vice president for academic programs, said Tuesday.

The school will also combine religious studies and engineering into a class that would fill a general education requirement.

The combination may seem like a strange mix, but English professor Robert Chianese, who will teach one portion of the biology and literature course, said the new courses represent a novel approach to the nine-unit general education requirement for seniors.

That requirement now consists of “a bunch of scattered courses that don’t make sense,” he said.

By teaching physiology and poetry side by side, he said, students can learn the difference between how scientists and poets use language. Portrayals of nature in literature, ethical issues in biology, and the nature of creativity will also be addressed in the course, he said.

Students who opt for the interdisciplinary class over a traditional biology class “may learn less about genetics probably, but they will learn more about the nature of knowledge,” Chianese said.

The courses were announced after a conference earlier this month attended by Fieweger and four CSUN faculty members. The conference, at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, was sponsored by the Asheville Institute on General Education and the Assn. of American Colleges. Funding also came from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.

CSUN was one of 50 schools selected to send faculty members to the conference. Fieweger said CSUN paid about $3,750 for air tickets and conference fees so the five could attend.