Center for Social Concerns

Social Concerns Seminars and Directed Readings

Consider deepening your Social Concerns Seminar experience by registering for a Directed Readings course in a field of your interest. With a faculty or graduate student mentor, you can design a special project that will help you ground and extend your experience with a critical lens relevant to your studies in a three-credit, graded course.

To pursue this option, review the following steps carefully and keep yourself on track for proper registration.

1. Think of an issue related to your seminar that you would like to research in more detail through the lens of your major or minor. Write a paragraph proposing the general sense and scope of your project. List any professors or graduate students you think you might like to work with on this course, or indicate that you need some direction in finding appropriate mentors. Submit this to your Seminar Program Director as indicated on the application page of the website. The deadline for proposal for a fall 2012 course is Friday, April 20.
2. Your program director will then consult with you on necessary revisions and approve your move to approach the appropriate mentor.
3. You should secure an agreement to work with a mentor by May 4, 2012. This deadline can be extended upon request, but the sooner you have an agreement and a clear sense of expectations on both sides, the better.
4. While you must still register for, pay the fees for, and attend all classes of your Social Concerns seminar, you may work out an agreement with your Program Director and mentor in which your coursework is merged into your Directed Readings work at a proportionate level.
5. Send an outline of the course plan to your Program Director outlining the proposed schedule of meetings, research topic and methodology, and final project guidelines as soon as those are determined.
6. Discuss with your mentor how you register for a Directed Readings course in his/her department. All registration details for the Directed Readings must be handled through that department, not the Center for Social Concerns.
7. During the summer, maintain email contact with the mentor to make sure you are set to begin in the Fall, with regular meetings and draft deadlines scheduled in advance.
8. Your mentor will grade your final work and submit that assessment to the registrar.
9. Send a final copy of your project and a brief assessment of the Directed Readings process to your program Director by Monday, December 17, 2012.
10. If you have any questions throughout the process, contact your program director directly.