About Us
The College of Humanities & Sciences focuses on human social interactions and relationships, from the individual to regional, national and international institutions. This is where the philosopher meets the political scientist, the sociologist meets the community activist, the historian meets the mathematician, the writer meets the physicist—in a place where transdisciplinary collaboration defines our teaching and our research. The faculty of the College of Humanities and Sciences teach both in its major programs and in the Hallmarks Core, supporting the education of professionals with awareness of all the national and global issues that impact their professional and personal lives
Academic Programs
Undergraduate
Accelerated/Dual Degree
- Biopsychology (BS) & Public Health (MS)
- Psychology (BS) & Community & Trauma Counseling (MS)
- Psychology (BS) & Occupational Therapy (OTD)
- Psychology (BS) & Public Health (MPH)
- 1
See Program Director for Plan of Study.
The Hallmarks Core
Jefferson achieves its mission by combining world-class pre-professional majors with a customized and comprehensive approach to general education: The Hallmarks Core curriculum.
The Hallmarks Core curriculum prepares Jefferson students to imagine and realize better futures, empowering them to:
- Question--based on rigorous inquiry and critical analysis
- Adapt--based on contextual communication and global perspectives
- Contribute--based on intercultural insight and collaborative creation
- Act--based on intellectual risk-taking and ethical reflection
This statement identifies eight Hallmarks Core learning goals that we consider vital to our students' personal and professional success.
Hallmarks Learning Goals: Your "Power Skills"
- Rigorous Inquiry-Create strategies for expanding knowledge through reflection and research
- Critical Analysis-Challenge concepts, practices and experts with reasoning and evidence
- Contextual Communication-Develop and share insights using appropriate means of expression
- Global Perspectives -Navigate diverse environments and complex issues by managing multiple systems of knowledge and behavior
- Intercultural Insight-Consider multiple perspectives in order to relate to others and strengthen communities
- Collaborative Creation-Achieve goals by integrating skills and knowledge in a team setting
- Intellectual Risk-Taking-Take creative and intellectual risks when exploring ideas and real world problems
- Ethical Reflection-Affirm an ethical compass to guide personal, civic and professional life
The Hallmarks Core curriculum prepares students for professional success and civic engagement through a coherent and general education core curriculum that develops these eight outcomes progressively across four years of study.
| Year One | Year Two | Year Three | Year Four |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Visions | Writing Seminar II | Contemporary Global Issues | Philosophies of the Good Life |
| Writing Seminar I | American Diversity | Integrative Seminar | |
| First Year Seminar | Ethics | ||
| Scientific Understanding | Global CItizenship | ||
| Mathematics | Global Diversity | ||
| Mathematics or Scientific Understanding |
The curriculum chart below identifies the prerequisites and course options for the different requirement categories in the Hallmarks Core. The Hallmarks Core sequences its requirements over four years in order to build skills, knowledge and learning outcomes progressively. In most cases, majors have scheduled these requirements in specific years or semesters within their curricula. Students should consult with their academic advisors before registering each semester and use the chart provided here to ensure that they are on track in terms of sequencing and prerequisites.
| First Year | Sophomore Year | Junior Year | Senior Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Year Seminar: FYS 100 | Writing Seminar II: Multimedia Communication: WRIT 201 | Contemporary Global Issues: CGIS 300 | Philosophies of the Good Life: PHIL 499 |
| Writing Seminar I: Written Communication: WRIT 101 | Global Diversity/World Languages: GDIV 221, GDIV 229, GDIV 231, GDIV 234, GDIV 235, GDIV 236, GDIV 333 | Integrative Seminars: ISEM 300/DECM 300. ISEM 302, ISEM 303, ISEM 305, ISEM 307, ISEM 308, ISEM 313, ISEM 314, ISEM 315, ISEM 340, ISEM 360 | |
| American Visions: AVIS 101 | World Languages: FREN 101, FREN 102, FREN 103, GER 101, GERN 102, ITAL 101, ITAL 102, ITAL 201, JAPN 101, JAPN 102, SPAN 101, SPAN 102, SPAN 110, SPAN 201, SPAN 202, SPAN 210 | ||
| Mathematics: MATH 100/101, MATH 102, MATH 103, MATH 104, MATH 110, MATH 111 | Ethics: ETHC 200, ETHC 201, ETHC 202, ETHC 204 ETHC 20, ETHC 215 | ||
| Scientific Understanding: SCI 109/DESC 109, SCI 110, BIOL 101, BIOL 102,BIOL 103 BIOL 112, CHEM 101,CHEM 103, PHYC 101, PHYC 111, OHYC 201 | American Diversity: ADIV 200, ADIV 201, ADIV 202, ADIV 203, ADIV 204, ADIV 206, ADIV 211, ADIV 212, ADIV 213, ADIV 214, ADIV 215, ADIV 216, ADIV 217, ADIV 218, ADIV 219, ADIV 220, ADIV 221 | ||
| Any third course from the above two categories (or STAT 201 in some majors – please consult the check sheet for your program) | Global Citizenship/World Languages: GCIT 200, GCIT 210, GCIT 211, GCIT 214, GCIT 215, GCIT 216, GCIT 217, GCIT 218, GCIT 225 | ||
| World Languages: FREN 101, FREN 102, FREN 201, FREN 202, GER 101, GER 102, ITAL 101, ITAL 102, ITAL 201, ITAL 202, JAPN 101, JAPN 102, SPAN 101, SPAN 102, SPAN 110, SPAN 201, SPAN 202, SPAN 210 |
First-Year Seminar
This one-credit course introduces first-time freshmen to university life and academic strategies that will enable their success at Thomas Jefferson University and beyond. Students will create personal, professional, and academic goals, as they plan for effective learning and career development in their majors.
Writing Seminar I: Written Communication
In Writing Seminar I: Written Communication, students develop skills and practices vital to the writing process: reading, synthesizing, outlining, drafting, and revising. Written Communication asks students to anticipate the needs of an audience and create academic arguments to address those needs. To achieve these goals, students write in a variety of academic genres. Through the theme of “Finding Philadelphia,” students analyze both published and student texts. This course is the first in two writing-specific courses at the University, and it helps students develop their Contextual Understanding competency.
American Visions
In American Visions, students read and discuss key texts to trace ideas and perspectives that have shaped the cultural evolution of the United States. From indigenous Americans to recent immigrants, the voices in this course reflect past traditions and set a course for future generations. Our chosen readings explore enduring questions about what it means to be American, what America represents to itself and to the world, who has been allowed to define American culture and values, and who has been excluded. This gateway course in the Hallmarks Core empowers first-year students with university-level skills in close reading, critical thinking, information literacy, and written communication.
Mathematics
In the Mathematics requirement, students learn the language of mathematics so that they can manipulate mathematical symbols correctly, translate words into mathematical forms and translate mathematical forms into words. The Mathematics requirement helps students to develop their Confidence competency as they apply mathematical reasoning to answer real-world questions. Depending on the requirements of the majors, students take a minimum of one course with a MATH prefix and a maximum of two courses in this category to fulfill the Hallmarks Core requirements.
Scientific Understanding
In the Scientific Understanding category, students apply scientific methods to problem solving, investigate the functioning of the natural world, and assess the validity of scientific information presented in written and graphic formats. This requirement helps students develop their Curiosity competency as they learn how to generate data and test ideas in a systematic way. Depending on the requirements of the majors, students take a minimum of one and a maximum of two courses in this category to fulfill the Hallmarks Core requirements.
Writing Seminar II: Multimedia Communication
In this course, students produce collaborative and individual projects to develop critical reading, writing, thinking and researching skills. Through analyses of professional communication, students consider the rhetorical framework and strategies for effective, ethical communication. Student projects include written, oral and visual presentations, with particular emphasis on project management and process as well as the final products of their work.
Ethics
Courses in the Ethics category provide frameworks for moral decision making in students’ professional, civic, and personal lives. By debating contemporary ethical issues in everyday life and in their professions, critically analyzing their own ethical commitments, and studying different approaches to ethical decision making, these courses help students develop their Ethical Reflection competency.
Global Diversity
In the Global Diversity category, students explore the cultural and social dynamics of various world societies. Students enhance their ability to understand others by experiencing the perspectives of societies and value systems from around the world through the analysis of a variety of cultural artifacts.
American Diversity
In the American Diversity category, students examine cultural and social issues, past and present, in the United States. Using close reading, critical thinking, and the analysis of primary texts and cultural artifacts, students strengthen their information literacy skills as they find, consider and evaluate multiple perspectives on course topics.
Global Citizenship
In the Global Citizenship category, students analyze political, economic and sociological issues at the international level to consider the meanings and obligations of global citizenship. These courses address various dimensions of the modern globalization trend and their impacts on cross-cultural understanding.
Integrative Seminars
These junior-year, writing-intensive courses provide an in-depth examination of specific topics or themes related to one or more of the University’s professional majors. Geared for a general audience, these courses evaluate their topics from a variety of perspectives, including those from the disciplines of history, the social sciences and/or the humanities.
Contemporary Global Issues
Contemporary Global Issues is a writing-intensive course that examines current global social, political and economic trends from multiple competing perspectives, and evaluates their impacts on world societies. Students will complete individual and collaborative projects that explore the intercultural and ethical dimensions of today's most pressing international issues.
Philosophies of the Good Life
What are the ingredients for a life well-lived? Across the centuries, a multitude of thinkers, civilizations, and faith traditions have offered answers to this question. “Philosophies of the Good Life” explores these answers to consider their wisdom and to cultivate insights of our own. In this shared senior-level course, Jefferson students take a moment before graduating to read key texts from a variety of world cultures, discuss them with their classmates and instructor, and define values that will guide them in their professional and personal lives after graduation. All students take this course in their senior year. It is a writing-intensive residency requirement and cannot be taken for credit/no credit.
Hallmarks Humanities Concentrations
As you move through the Hallmarks Core curriculum, you can customize your education by choosing to follow one of three special sequences of courses relevant to your personal interests or future profession. When you complete 3 courses in your chosen sequence, your transcript will reflect your Concentration in Health Humanities, Design Humanities, or Environmental Humanities. Completing a concentration is completely optional and requires no additional course work beyond the standard Hallmarks Core requirements.
You can declare your chosen Humanities Concentration by submitting this form to the Registrar's Office.
Concentration in Health Humanities
To earn this concentration, complete any 3 of the following options from the Hallmarks Core requirements:
- ADIV 220 Health & U.S. Diversity
- GDIV 234 Global Cultures of Health
- GCIT 217 Global Health
- ETHC 200 Bioethics
- ISEM 305 Healthcare Economics & Policy
- ISEM 308 Health in the Humanities
Concentration in Design Humanities
To earn this concentration, complete any 3 of the following options from the Hallmarks Core requirements:
- ADIV 219 Cities & Diversity in the U.S.
- GDIV 236 Global Cultures of Beauty
- GCIT 216
- ETHC 207 Philosophy & Ethics of Design
- ISEM 360 Environments for Well-Being
Concentration in Environmental Humanities
To earn this concentration, complete any 3 of the following options from the Hallmarks Core requirements:
- ADIV 221 Environmntl Justice in America
- GDIV 221 Environment & World Culture
- GCIT 214 Global Environmental Citiznshp
- ETHC 202 Environmental Ethics
- ISEM 340 Sustainable Devel&Glob South
Introductory and Fundamental Courses
Some students begin the Hallmarks Core sequence with appropriate preparatory courses in reading, writing and mathematics (determined by placement testing). Courses at the 100-level (WRTG 100 Introduction to Academic Writing, WRTG 100G Introduction to Academic Writing: Global, and TXIS 100 Textual Analysis for International Students) carry academic credits that apply towards graduation. Courses at the 099-level (MATH 099 Fundamentals of College Mathematics) carry credits that do not apply towards graduation.
Arlen Specter Center
The (Senator) Arlen Specter Center at Jefferson facilitates and promotes public service and civic education in a cross-disciplinary, nonpartisan setting. The Center is also home to Senator Specter's historic archive of papers, photographs and political documents for the benefit of researchers, scholars and the public.
The Specter Center Includes:
- Arlen Specter Collection
- Roxboro Roundtables
- Knowledge Exchange
- Special Events
- Research Fellowship
- Historic Roxboro House