Quest 1 courses should fall naturally within one of the five themes and examine essential questions relevant to that theme.
The Examined Life
What makes life worth living? How do we or should we examine a life? What is valuable in life?
An examination of the ways individuals and cultures have thought about what makes a life worth living, how those thoughts reflect and shape the experiences of those who produce them, and how one might aim to develop a critically informed view of the examined life. Topics may include the study of autobiography, representations of heroes or moral exemplars in artistic works or performances, the ways in which religious and/or cultural traditions seek to foster lives of value, fears of meaningless or futile lives, and the impact of luck on the quality of life.
Identities
How are personal and social identities constructed? How and why do they change? In what ways are such identities personally, socially, or politically significant?
A study of how people shape their identities and are identified as belonging to various groups. Topics may include how identities shift with age, position, time, place, and sociopolitical categories (e.g., gender, class, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation); the formation of identities at intrapersonal, interpersonal, and systematic levels; the history of the concept of identities; how self-fashioning, portraits, and the built environment construct identities; how past societies understood the configuration of identity; identities’ role in politics and activism; how identities may function to sustain or change relations of power influence.
Justice and Power
What is justice? How are just societies created and maintained? How are the uses and abuses of power connected with justice and injustice?
An exploration of the roles justice and power play in shaping communities, emphasizing how power can promote justice or injustice. Topics may include theories of the nature of justice or power; how conflicting views of justice and/or power have played out in society; the dynamics of power and justice in either contemporary or historical events; personal, social, and cultural reactions to injustice; and ways power might be transformed for just ends.
Nature and Culture
Who are we in relation to the natural world? How have humans understood their role in the natural world and their responsibility to it? How do portrayals of nature reflect our values or self-understanding?
A study of the ways in which humans see themselves and their place in the natural world. Topics may include conceptions of nature; how representations of the natural world have been used to express important values; humans in contrast to animals; human interventions in the landscape and the values that guide such designs; development, sustainability, and conservation; what religious traditions and texts have to say about humanity’s place in the natural world; and nature as a site for physically or spiritually healthy or harmful experiences.
War and Peace
What is the nature of human conflict, whether it is physical or confined to words and ideas? How do communities manage, resolve, and remember conflicts?
An examination of political, social, or cultural conflicts at the local, subnational, national, or international level. Topics may include what causes conflicts; how conflicts evolve; how conflicts are represented, conceptualized, and remembered; what ethical questions arise in and from conflicts; how people seek to mitigate conflicts, resolve them, and promote dialogue; and how communities cope with the aftermath of conflicts.