Master’s or Certificate in Wisdom Studies
Here are the new and highly engaging courses offered as part of your “Wisdom Studies” path to a Master’s degree or Certificate.
WRS 620 Graduate Research & Writing
Students will learn and apply the methods and practices of academic writing at the graduate level, including evaluating resources, building arguments, using evidence, revising their writing, and adhering to research ethics.
WRS 621 Thesis
Master’s Degree students are required to produce a 50- to 100-page thesis on a subject of their choosing. The thesis is to be written in accordance with MLA standards for citation and format, and it must be well-supported by the student’s research. It is subject to the Institute’s no-plagiarism requirements. Certificate in Wisdom Studies students are expected to write a 30- to 50-page paper on a subject of their choosing. Again, the paper should be carefully written and prepared according to MLA standards. Of course, the no-plagiarism requirements apply to this paper as well.
LDR 620 Leadership and Wisdom
This course in Wisdom and Leadership explores the intersection of ancient wisdom and modern leadership practices. The course is designed to equip students with the theoretical and practical knowledge required to become effective leaders in their respective fields. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the role of wisdom in leadership and will have developed the skills and knowledge necessary to lead with purpose, integrity, and wisdom.
LDR 621 Theories of Leadership
Like many other paradigms, the theory and practice of leadership has changed dramatically in recent decades. Accordingly, critical perspectives on leadership now exist and have been examined and tested. In this course students will engage with these critical theories of leadership to explore their origin, nature, and effectiveness. Students will learn to critically evaluate and compare theoretical perspectives on leadership, developing a greater understanding of how leaders can influence organizational processes and outcomes. This course will cover various theoretical frameworks that provide insight into effective leadership, including situational, transformational, transactional, charismatic, and other leadership styles.
LDR 622 Change and Innovation
The graduate course in Change and Innovation for Leadership is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the principles and practices of change and innovation management within organizations. The course is intended for individuals seeking to enhance their leadership skills and develop expertise in leading change initiatives. The course will cover a range of topics related to change and innovation, including the nature of change, the drivers of change, and the role of leadership in facilitating and managing change. Students will learn about the different types of innovation, including disruptive, sustaining, and incremental innovation, and the strategies and techniques used to foster a culture of innovation within organizations. The course will also explore the various models of change management, including Lewin’s three-stage model, Kotter’s eight-step model, and the ADKAR model. Students will gain an understanding of the key principles and steps involved in each model and learn how to apply them in real-world situations. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to develop and implement effective change management strategies, foster a culture of innovation within their organizations, and lead successful change initiatives. They will have the knowledge and skills necessary to become effective change agents and leaders in their organizations.
LDR 623 Organizational Communication
This graduate-level course in Organizational Communication explores the complexities of communication within organizations. Communication plays a critical role in the success of any organization, and this course examines the theories, concepts, and practices that contribute to effective communication strategies. The course begins by introducing students to the basic theories and models of communication, including how communication functions in organizations, different forms of communication, and how communication can be analyzed and assessed. Students will then explore various types of organizational communication, including communication within and between groups, as well as communication with external stakeholders. The course also covers issues related to communication technologies, including how they impact communication within organizations and how they can be used to improve communication. Students will learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of communication technologies and how to incorporate them into organizational communication strategies. Throughout the course, students will engage in critical thinking and problem-solving exercises, case studies, and discussions of current issues in organizational communication. By the end of the course, students will have a solid understanding of organizational communication and be equipped with the skills and knowledge to develop effective communication strategies within their own organizations.
LDR 624 Seminar, Topic TBD
All “seminar” courses allow for new courses to be tested, innovative courses to be offered, and exciting electives to be presented. Seminar offerings will be announced prior to becoming available for registration.
PHI 620 The History of Wisdom
The New Oxford American Dictionary: wisdom | ˈwizdəm | noun
- The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise: Listen to his words of wisdom.
- The soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment: some questioned the wisdom of building the dam so close to an active volcano.
- The body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period: the traditional farming wisdom of India.
Etymologically, the word wisdom belongs to philosophy, which means “the love of wisdom,” but wisdom is both older, broader, and deeper than the discipline of philosophy. In this course we will trace the history of wisdom through several channels, including gods, myths, history, literature, divination, philosophy, mysticism, language, and contemporary expressions. Each module will include a short video on the form used to express wisdom. For example, wisdom in literature is paired with a brief introduction to literary theory. Wisdom in history is paired with a brief video of theories of history. A research project will allow students to focus on a particular area of interest in the history of wisdom and produce new knowledge in light of their study.
PHI 621 Consciousness
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.” ― Brian Cox
What does it mean to have self-awareness? Does this awareness lie in the brain or elsewhere? Does it exist at all, except as a kind of permanent hallucination? Do animals have consciousness? Does Artificial Intelligence? In this course we will explore the phenomenon of consciousness through an interdisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and medicine.
PHI 622 Philosophies of Death and Dying
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Socrates was put to death for doing philosophy. No wonder, then, he could make a statement such as this one: “[T]he one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is to practice for dying and death” (Phaedo, 64a). Albert Camus, in his 1955 work The Myth of Sisyphus, updates Socrates: “There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide” (3). Death is a vital subject in philosophy, and an understanding of death and dying is perhaps the heart of having wisdom. This course explores a variety of philosophical perspectives on death and dying.
PHI 623 Philosophies of Love
What is left to say of love? Apparently, quite a bit because we continue to celebrate and complain, rhapsodize and rue, marvel and malign this most human of emotions. Or it is less of an emotion and more of a force in the world to which we willingly—or unwillingly— succumb? Just what it is and why does it have the flavor of the sacred? One reason may be that it connects us to something larger than ourselves, as we see in a verse from a sonnet of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams. Friedrich Nietzsche noted that “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” And already we can see the possibilities for a ten-week exploration of the meanings of love. We will take a unique thematic approach to our study and engage many disciplines and ways of knowing, from anthropology to philosophy to literature.
PHI 625 SEMINAR: Mythology, Cosmology, & Worldview
Myth is a creature of shifting forms and meanings. Mythology (the study of myth), therefore, is a creature of many eyes—many ways of seeing myth (including barely seeing it at all!). This course will introduce core theories for understanding myth from those branches of the humanities that have especially adopted myth into their methods, including religious and ritual studies, depth psychology, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and the arts. We will explore the historical and continuing relationship of myth and philosophy, creative and imaginal engagements with myth, and modern interpretations of just what constitutes the mythic. We will look at myth from the perspectives of creation, destruction, perpetuation, and from below (the underworld). And, of course, we will approach myth through its own stories. Myth is, by one definition, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves; they form our very worldviews and the cosmologies that comprise our sense of place and value. Myth illustrates the sacred in the profane. It functions consciously and unconsciously, metaphorically and physically. Myth has the power to do great harm and to provide great healing and guidance. This course aims to help students appreciate the scope of myth, to consciously and conscientiously engage myths from “other” cultures, and—above all—to notice the myths at work in their own lives and times.
PHI 624: SEMINAR: Metaphysics
“‘Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?’ That is the question. Presumably it is no arbitrary question. ‘Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?’— this is obviously the first of all questions.” —Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics
Have you ever asked Heidegger’s question? It is a vexing one, especially when you consider that scientific exploration has shown the vastness of the universe and its operations that appear to be independent of human reality. Metaphysics asks these kinds of questions:
- What is real?
- Is reality external to the world and me or within the world and me?
- What is consciousness, and is my mind separate or a part of the universe?
- What is change?
As you can see, these questions go to the heart of philosophical inquiry, which is what makes metaphysics central to any study of philosophy, not to mention any study of ourselves and our world.
REL 621: World Religions
If we understand religion using theologian Paul Tillich’s definition, as that which is of “ultimate concern,” then there is no more profound study than religion (Wainwright, 2012). When we make the scope of our study the world itself, then we have a course about the deepest meanings made by all the people of the world and throughout history. Welcome to Introduction to World Religions. It is going to be a fascinating, challenging, and rewarding journey. Fascination will turn quickly to challenge as we explore worlds vastly different from our own. To succeed in our quest, we must use our imagination to visit these new worlds and bracket our familiar one. We will accomplish this feat by using five concepts drawn from the discipline of religious studies: the sacred, myth, ritual, community, and the individual. These concepts will be used as lenses to frame and focus our study of beliefs and practices from around the world.
REL 620 Sacred Wisdom of the World
Sacred Wisdom of the World offers broad and deep insights into the world’s sacred wisdom traditions. The sacred texts of the world’s religions include many different genres of writing, such as history, manuals, visions, etc. In this course we distill those sacred texts and traditions into their wisdom teachings. Accordingly, this course might well be seen as a survey of how people all over the world and throughout history have found and expressed profound meaning and practicality in their lives.
REL 622 Religion and Society
“We see the puppets dancing on their miniature stage, moving up and down as the strings pull them around, following the prescribed course of their various little parts. We learn to understand the logic of this theater and we find ourselves in its motions. We locate ourselves in society and thus recognize our own position as we hang from its subtle strings. For a moment we see ourselves as puppets indeed. But then we grasp a decisive difference between the puppet theater and our own drama. Unlike the puppets, we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first step toward freedom. And in this same act we find the conclusive justification of sociology as a humanistic discipline” ― Peter Berger
While St. Augustine argued that Christians belong to the “City of God” and not this “earthly city,” twentieth century theologian Paul Tillich considered religion “the depth dimension” of culture. The relationship between religion and society is both fraught and inescapable, and the tensions and resolutions involved go to the heart of how we make meaning for ourselves and as groups. This course explores the social force of religion and the religious dimensions of society.
REL 623 Mythologies: Gods and Monsters
When we think about the most powerful beings in our symbolic worlds, we come immediately to gods and monsters. While each is charged differently (positively and negatively), a closer look reveals that they actually exist on the same continuum. Gods represent our best hopes, while monsters symbolize our greatest fears, and both are emblems of power conveyed through mythology. In this course, we examine the mythological, psychological, and cultural meanings of this symbolizing process. We will draw from the academic disciplines of anthropology, literature, mythology, philosophy, politics, psychology, and sociology as we examine gods and monsters in literature, film, and television.
REL 624 SEMINAR: African American Diasporic Spirituality
This course will study the sacred text and spiritual practices of the ancient West African Yoruba (Nigeria) and Dahomey (Benin) people. This spirituality is called “Ifa” and its sacred text is “The Holy Odu.” During the centuries of European enslavement of Africans, they spread in various ways and are recognized throughout African Diasporic religions such as Candomble (Brazil), Lukumi (Cuba) and Santeria (Puerto Rico). Some components of them are present in Vodou (Haiti) as well. They were also transmitted into the more Protestant and resistant culture of the United States in a veiled form. In addition to Hoodoo, enslaved Africans embedded them into their emergent forms of African American Christianity, especially within the “Sanctified Church.”
REL 625 SEMINAR: Upanishads & Bhagavad Gita
This course explores the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, which came from the Vedic tradition of ancient India. These timeless works aim to bring enlightenment to humankind.
PSY 620: Wisdom and the Soul
Though the academic discipline of psychology is relatively new on the world stage, psychological insight and healing is as old as humanity. This course explores the relationship between modern psychology and ancient wisdom from around the world by focusing on religious cultures and the relevant psychological insights derived from their beliefs and practices.
PSY 621: Cross-Cultural Psychology
There was a time when the self was seen as autonomous and separate from culture, but recent developments in cultural studies and psychology have shown that the self may well be constituted by culture, or at least inseparable from it. When that insight is expanded to include other cultural influences, cross-cultural psychology emerges. Conditions in which people live vary from place to place. Human norms of behavior and experiences – formed and developed in various environments – may also fluctuate from group to group. These kinds of differences (and, of course, similarities) are studied by cross-cultural psychology (Gudykunst & Bond, 1997). Cross-cultural psychology is the critical and comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology. This course explores the relationship of cultures to each other and their influences upon the psyche and helps students develop intellectual and practical skills for living and leading in a complex, multicultural world.
PSY 622: Meaning
We make meaning in many ways, but it would be difficult to imagine this process without the soul or psyche, which is the realm of psychology. This course explores the meaning of meaning using psychological perspectives and methods, from what the word itself might mean to how meaning emerges in various contexts and how finding it or not finding it affects our wellbeing. We also explore meaninglessness, the loss of meaning, and meaning’s relationship to happiness, social relations, and work.
PSY 623: Creativity
There is, arguably, no greater time in history for creativity. Technology has provided tools that make art and creative productivity available to anyone with a device. Accordingly, there is something very interesting happening at the nexus of creativity, psychology, and art, and this course explores those creative and interdisciplinary tensions and resolutions. Students will learn theories and methods of psychology and apply them to the creative process and artistic products.
PSY 624: Seminar: Speaking Earth: Planetary Psychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality
The key endeavor of this course is to learn about and practice ways of turning up the ongoing conversation, largely nonverbal and unconscious, between ourselves and the world, including natural settings, elements, rivers, seas, and hills, but also objects, roadways, houses, and cars. We will work psychologically, philosophically, and spiritually, surveying paths delineated and making a few of our own.
IMA 620: Wisdom and The Arts
The Arts is a graduate-level course that explores the ways in which the arts can provide avenues for deepening personal understanding and promoting the cultivation of meaning and wisdom. Through the study of literature, music, visual art, and other creative forms, students will investigate how artists have grappled with questions of meaning, value, and the human condition across time and cultures. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to engage with works of art through a variety of lenses, including philosophical, psychological, and spiritual perspectives. They will also examine how the arts can help us to develop the skills and habits of mind necessary for cultivating wisdom, such as reflection, empathy, and mindfulness. Ultimately, The Arts aims to inspire students to deepen their own personal practice of reflection and self-discovery, and to appreciate the power of the arts as a means for fostering growth and insight in ourselves and others.
IMA 621: The Imagination
Imagination is a graduate-level course that explores the multifaceted nature of the human imagination and the theories that have emerged to explain it. The course will begin by examining the historical and cultural roots of the concept of imagination, tracing its development from ancient philosophy to modern psychology. The course will then delve into contemporary theories of the imagination, including cognitive, neurological, and evolutionary perspectives. Topics to be covered include the relationship between imagination and creativity, the role of imagination in problem-solving and decision-making, the nature of mental imagery, and the relationship between imagination and consciousness. By the end of the course, students will have gained a comprehensive understanding of the theories of the imagination and the diverse ways in which it can be studied and understood. Students will also have developed critical thinking and analytical skills that can be applied to a wide range of fields, including psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and the arts.
IMA 622: Wisdom and Literature
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude is a landmark work of Latin American literature, which revolutionized the literary world with its magical realism and intricate portrayal of the Buendía family and the town of Macondo. This graduate course explores the novel’s intricate narrative structure, themes, and its relationship with the cultural context of Latin America. Throughout the course, students will engage in a close reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude, examining its rich symbolism, metaphors, and allusions. Students will also analyze the broader literary and cultural contexts of the novel, including the magical realism genre, the Latin American Boom, and the political and cultural significance of Garcia Marquez’ works in the Latin American literary canon. In addition, students will also explore the critical reception and cultural impact of One Hundred Years of Solitude in the global literary scene. Through this course, students will gain a deep understanding of Garcia Marquez’ literary techniques, cultural and political context, and the ways in which One Hundred Years of Solitude continues to shape our understanding of Latin American literature and its place in the world.
IMA 623: Wisdom and Technology
The course will explore the intersection of wisdom and technology, examining how technology can be designed, developed, and used in ways that promote wisdom, mindfulness, and well-being. Students will engage in interdisciplinary discussions and reflections on the role of technology in shaping our personal and social lives, including the ethical, moral, and spiritual dimensions of technology use. Through readings, case studies, and discussions, students will explore the following topics:
- The history and philosophy of wisdom traditions and their relevance to the modern world.
- The impact of technology on human cognition, emotion, and behavior.
- The design principles of technology that promote mindfulness, well-being, and ethical decision-making.
- The role of technology in enhancing human potential, creativity, and flourishing.
- The ethical and social implications of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and social media.
Students will be encouraged to critically examine their own relationship with technology and develop strategies for cultivating wisdom, mindfulness, and ethical decision-making in the digital age. The course will draw on perspectives from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and computer science, among other disciplines. Overall, the course will provide students with a framework for understanding the complex relationship between wisdom and technology and equip them with the knowledge and skills to create and use technology in ways that promote well-being and ethical decision-making.