PROGRAM-SPECIFIC COURSES

The courses listed below are designed specifically for BXA students as part of the BHA General Education, BSA Core, and BCSA Core requirements.

62-190B BXA Freshman Research Seminar, Fall: 9 units
Section B of the BXA Freshman Research Seminar introduces first-year students to the field of interdisciplinary work and arts-based research. Students engage with theoretical and practical readings from across the various concentrations, with particular emphasis on aesthetic theory. Guest lectures complement the weekly readings by giving insight into practical implementations of these ideas. Students will conceive, research, and create a final project to be presented at the end of the semester.

62-190A BXA Freshman Research Seminar, Fall or Spring: 9 units
Section A of the BXA Research Freshman Seminar has been designed for internal transfer students only and it is offered in the fall and spring semesters. Using the arts as primary modes of inquiry, this course’s content probes the idiosyncratic field of arts-based research by following the principle that there is no aspect of human life that cannot be studied objectively, quantified and analyzed. Aside from discussing a digest of the latest writings on arts-based research, students will try their own approach to arts-based research by building prismatic artistic and literary constructs inspired by the reading of Calvino’s prose-poems Invisible Cities.

62-410 BXA Junior Seminar, Spring: 9 units
This course, offered only in the spring, is taught by a team of interdisciplinary scholars led by a Carnegie Mellon University professor who will focus on a particular global, cultural, and political situation preeminent at the time. The theme chosen for spring 2012 will be “Music From An Ancient Land, Traditional, Folk, and Contemporary Music of Iran.” Prof. Mahmood-Reza Vali and guests will teach the course.

The Iranian civilization is one of the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. Music has played an important role in the continuation and preservation of this ancient culture. In this course, the traditional, folk, and contemporary music of Iran will be studied and discussed. The focal point of the course will be the Persian modal system, the Dástgâh. Starting with a historical survey of the ancient and medieval Persian music. different aspects of the Dástgâh system will be demonstrated and discussed. In addition, religious music and folk music of Iran as well as Iranian contemporary music will be discussed during the course.

62-391 BXA Junior Portfolio Review, Spring: Pass/No Pass, 0 units
To better assess the progress and accomplishments of BXA students as they enter their final year, students submit a portfolio for review during the spring semester junior year. Students should work with their BXA advisor and their concentration faculty advisors to assemble a portfolio that represents their academic and creative accomplishments over the course of their college career. This portfolio should also include a reflective essay in which students evaluate how they integrated their two areas of interest, and how they will extend that integration into the BXA Capstone Project in the senior year.

Students should identify their own specific goals for their academic career and how they are fulfilling them in this reflective essay, as well as how they evaluate their performance in light of the programs' broader pedagogical goals. Students in the BXA program should be working toward being able to:

describe the connections between their chosen concentration disciplines and to integrate them into their work
communicate ideas in writing, visual expression, and oral expression
discuss the intersection of history, society, and culture from local and global perspectives
synthesize mathematical theories and experimental work to produce real-world knowledge
use cognitive, behavioral, and ethical dimensions to make decisions on individual and social levels

62-401 & 402 BXA Capstone Project, Fall and Spring: 18 units
The BXA Capstone Project gives BXA students the opportunity to demonstrate the extent of their interdisciplinary work over the course of their academic career. The Capstone Project should include elements that span the student’s CFA and H&SS concentrations (for BHA students), CFA and MCS concentrations (for BSA students), or CFA and SCS concentrations (for BCSA students). The project can be either a scholarly or creative endeavor, and may take one of many possible forms (e.g., a written thesis, a compilation of creative work or works, an experiment and report, a computer program or animation, etc.).

The BXA Capstone sequence covers both semesters of a student’s senior year. In the fall, students are enrolled in 62-401 BXA Capstone Project I (9 units), which meets weekly to discuss strategies for managing research, planning the project, and larger theoretical issues related to interdisciplinary work. At the end of the fall course, students will have produced a Capstone Project proposal, an annotated bibliography, and multiple versions of their project pitch. In the spring, students enroll in 62-402 BXA Capstone Project II (9 units), which has no required classroom time. Instead, students spend the semester doing the research and foundational work necessary for the project, as well as meeting with their faculty and BXA advisors as they create their Capstone Project and prepare to present it at the annual Meeting of the Minds Undergraduate Research Symposium held each May.