CU:

Core Curriculum: United States Context

(Revised 10/2009)

7. United States Context (3 semester hours). Courses fulfilling the United States Context requirement explore important aspects of culture and society in the United States. They stimulate critical thinking and an awareness of the place of the United States in the world by promoting an understanding of the world views that the environment, culture, history and values of the United States have fostered. They are required to include some discussion of the realities and issues related to matters of ethnic and racial diversity that characterize the nation's ongoing experience. These courses familiarize students with the United States and enable them to evaluate it critically.

These courses teach an appreciation of United States culture while inviting students to ask probing questions about values and ideals that are understood to be an integral part of the United States. Some of the questions that might be addressed in these courses are: How have citizens and other residents of the United States derived a sense of identity from geography, language, politics, and the arts? How do people in the United States view and influence the world beyond the nation's borders? How have the rights and responsibilities of citizenship changed over time? How have U.S. citizens and residents in the United States dealt with opposing values? Completing this requirement, students will develop both a better understanding of the United States, present and past, and a considerable interest in the nation's future.

This 3-hour requirement may be fulfilled by passing any course listed below. Students who take approved CU-Boulder course work to fulfill this requirement must take the course for a letter grade and receive a passing grade of D- or higher.