the Program

The Great Books Program offers eight courses and contributes to the General Education programs on the Macon campus.

The Great Books Program provides a foundation for the specialized disciplines in which students major. Every course in the Program emphasizes the development and practice of close reading, critical thinking, argumentation skills (both written and spoken), civil discourse, and collaborative problem-solving.

The Program serves undergraduate students on the Macon campus. Both the School of Engineering and the Tift College of Education allow their students to use the Great Books Program to meet their general education requirements. Portions of the Great Books Program can be applied to general education requirements in the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics and the Townsend School of Music.

Students in the College of Liberal Arts who choose the Great Books track for general education are required to take seven courses. The first two (GBK 101 and 202) carry four credit hours as Writing Instruction courses; the remaining courses are three credit hours each. The seven-course sequence meets all general education requirements in CLAS except the competencies in a language other than English, Mathematical Reasoning, and the Natural World (30-39 credits in total), making it identical in credits to the Integrative Program (INT), the other General Education track in CLAS.

Both GBK 101 and 202 may be used to satisfy components of the Integrative Program. The Great Books Faculty encourage students to sample the Great Books curriculum before choosing between the two programs in general education. Any Great Books course may be taken for elective credit with permission from the director.

The Great Books Program offers a minor (18 credits), which consists of GBK 101, GBK 202, GBK 203, and GBK 304; one course from either GBK 305 or 306; and one course from either GBK 407 or 495. Students taking Great Books as a minor cannot use those courses to satisfy their general education requirements.