College Bulletin 2015-2016 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Interpretation Theory
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Courses
Coordinator:
Richard Eldridge (Philosophy)
Anna Everetts (Administrative Assistant)
Committee:
Jean-Vincent Blanchard (Modern Languages and Literatures, French)
Timothy Burke (History)
Rachel Buurma (English Literature)
Michael Cothren (Art History)
Sibelan Forrester (Modern Languages and Literatures, Russian)
Cynthia Halpern (Political Science) 2
Tamsin Lorraine (Philosophy)
Braulio Muñoz (Sociology and Anthropology)
Maya Nadkarni (Sociology and Anthropology)3
Patricia Reilly (Art History)
Mark Wallace (Religion)3
Patricia White (English Literature)
2 Absent on leave, spring 2016.
3 Absent on leave, 2015-2016.
Since 1992, the Interpretation Theory Program has been providing students and faculty with an interdisciplinary forum for exploring the nature and politics of representation. Reaching widely across the disciplines, work done in the minor reflects a long-standing drive to understand the world through the constructs of its interpretive propositions. Students use their programs to develop a flexible, deeply historicized grasp of what is thought today as critical and cultural theory. They also sharpen their skills in critical reading and intellectual analysis.
Students who minor take a total of six courses that build on a combination of classic and current hermeneutic methods. Each year, graduating seniors enroll in a capstone seminar that proposes a structured investigation into an inherently interdisciplinary problem. Faculty team-teach the course as a way of drawing out multi-disciplinary concerns in both theory and practice.
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Course Minor
Students complete six credits toward the minor. Three general rules guide the selection:
- All minors must complete a one-credit capstone seminar that is team-taught by two faculty members from different departments. Students complete this capstone in the spring of their senior year.
- The three remaining courses are elective. At least four of the six interpretation theory credits must be outside the major.
- A minimum “B” average is required for all minors by their junior and senior years.
Other courses may be considered upon petition to the Interpretation Studies Committee. These may include relevant courses offered at Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Honors Minor
All students participating in the Honors Program are invited to define a minor in interpretation theory. Students must complete one preparation for external examination. This 2-credit preparation can be the seminar and a reading attachment or a thesis, a combination of two courses in different departments, a 2-credit thesis, or a combination of a thesis and a course. Any thesis must be multidisciplinary. The proposed preparation must be approved by the Interpretation Theory Committee. Honors minors must meet all other requirements of the interdisciplinary minor in course.
Capstone Seminars
All minors are required to successfully complete the one-credit capstone seminar, team-taught by two faculty members from different departments, in the spring of their senior year.
Each year, graduating seniors enroll in a capstone seminar that proposes a structured investigation into an inherently interdisciplinary problematic. The capstone seminar embodies both the theoretical and interdisciplinary qualities that make interpretation theory distinctive and compelling.
Students majoring in a variety of disciplines come together with faculty members from two different areas to explore theories of knowledge and questions of interpretation and representation. For example, the past capstone seminars have brought together professors from French literature and biology, political science and religion, sociology/anthropology and English, philosophy and art, and other interdisciplinary combinations.
Past capstone titles include: Contested Truths: Questions of Modernity in German Philosophy and Literature; the Classical in Art and Literature; Reworking the Cultural Imaginary; Simultaneity and Monumentality; After Babel: Poetry, Language and Translation; Mind, Body, Machine; Interpretation and the Visual Arts; Beyond Reason: Nietzsche, Levinas and the Kabbalah; and Mapping the Modern.
Life After Swarthmore
Respondents to an Interpretation Theory Program alumni survey in 2013 indicated that approximately 54% went on to graduate school and of those, approximately 67% pursued a Ph.D. or other doctorate.
Occupations of interpretation theory graduates are diverse and include: physicians, professors, editors, grant writers, an assistant district attorney, and a civil rights investigator.
Interpretation Theory Courses
Currently offered courses relevant to the program include the following:
Linguistics
- LING 070. Translation Workshop (Forrester)
Spanish
- SPAN 051. Textos híbridos: crónicas periodísticas y novellas de no-ficción (Martinez)
Note:
For the most up-to-date, semester-by-semester list of courses, please consult the program website at www.swarthmore.edu/intp.
Any courses attached to the program, at the time taken, will be counted toward requirements for the minor in interpretation theory.
Other courses may be considered on petition to the Interpretation Theory Committee. These may include relevant courses offered at Bryn Mawr and Haverford colleges and the University of Pennsylvania.
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