Antiquity for Modernity: Evaluation and Renewal of CNERS Program Outcomes

The proposed three-year evaluation and renewal of CNERS’ curriculum aims to transform our program to create a more coherent, innovative, and progressive curriculum that is directly relevant and engaging for UBC’s diverse student body. We hope to realize the interdisciplinary potential of our blended department. This is essential in light of intellectual changes in the fields we cover, new methods our faculty is developing to interrogate data from those fields, and the development of UBC’s interdisciplinary Program in Religion. To maximize the benefits and experiences for our students in the face of these internal and external shifts, we want to rethink our program outcomes and the structure we use to achieve them in consultation with a variety of stakeholders.

Year 1 will focus on program visioning, redefining and publishing our program outcomes; Year 2 will analyze and map our current curriculum (ideal and as experienced by students); and Year 3 will use this data to redefine our streams, remodel our curriculum to serve those streams, and consider long-term assessment measures to ensure that our program continues to enable future students to flourish. This curricular renewal builds directly on UBC’s Strategic Plan, for it will focus on developing innovative learning models aimed at including a more diverse student body (Strategy 4), building a coherent and collaborative interdisciplinary experience for our students that spans the fields covered by our department and beyond (Strategy 14), and developing individualized student paths through our program that foster creativity while assuring the key competencies we will define (Strategy 12).

Matthew McCarty, Assistant Professor / Chair, Curriculum Committee, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Leanne Bablitz, Head / Professor, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Tara Mulder, Instructor, Classical Studies, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Odessa Cadieux-Rey, Undergraduate Advisor, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts

Matthew McCarty, Assistant Professor / Chair, Curriculum Committee, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Leanne Bablitz, Head / Professor, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Tara Mulder, Assistant Professor, Classical Studies, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Allyson Rayner, Curriculum Consultant, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology

Matthew McCarty, Assistant Professor, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts
Leanne Bablitz, Head / Professor, Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts