UD students share a formative experience in studying the great deeds and words of
Western civilization together.
The Core Curriculum is an opportunity to inquire into the fundamental aspects of being
and our relationship with God, nature and our fellow human beings. It embodies the
University of Dallas’ dedication to the pursuit of wisdom, truth and virtue as the
proper and primary ends of education. Our 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio allows professors
and students to engage in thoughtful, meaningful dialogue that hones critical thinking
and inspires a love of intellectual inquiry that will serve students throughout their
academic careers and the rest of their lives.
The Core in Rome
Most students spend a semester during their sophomore year at the University of Dallas’
Due Santi campus, located just south of Rome. The courses in Rome are Core courses
taught by UD faculty, which ensures the academic integrity of the program and keeps
students on track for graduation.
The Rome Experience
An Overview of Core Classes
The Core Curriculum is a shared sequence taken by all undergraduates that consists
of 19 courses in English, history, philosophy, theology, economics, politics, science,
mathematics, language and fine arts. During their course of study, students read the
great works that have shaped Western civilization and discuss these works with their
peers in small classes with an average size of 19 students.
English
- Literary Tradition I: Classical epic poetry at the base of the Western tradition.
- Literary Tradition II: The great Christian epic poems and the nature of lyric poetry.
- Literary Tradition III: Tragedy and comedy from the Greeks up through the English tradition.
- Literary Tradition IV: The novel as a distinctly modern contribution to the Western Tradition.
History
- American Civilization I: A study of American history from European settlement and the founding of the nation
to the American Civil War.
- American Civilization II: A study of American development into a global power through two World Wars and the
Cold War.
- Western Civilization I: Typically taken in Rome, a study of the Western foundations of our civilization in
Greece, Rome, early and medieval Christianity, and the Renaissance.
- Western Civilization II: A study of modern European culture through the Reformation, the French Revolution,
and twentieth-century Totalitarianism.
Philosophy
- Philosophy and the Ethical Life: A philosophical inquiry into the nature of the fully human life.
- The Human Person: Typically taken in Rome, the nature of the human person as a unity of body and soul.
- Philosophy of Being: An introduction to metaphysical thought.
Theology
- Understanding the Bible: An introduction to biblical theology through a careful reading of sacred scripture
Readings include selections from both the Old and New Testaments.
- The Western Theological Tradition: The history and theology of the Early Christian Church and its subsequent tradition.
Economics
- Fundamentals of Economics: The fundamental concepts of the exchange economy in contrast to other economics systems.
Politics
- Principles of American Politics: The basic principles of the American political order.
Science
A student must take two laboratory science courses, one in the biological sciences,
the other in the physical sciences. For non-science majors, "Basic Ideas" courses
exist in Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, but a variety of other courses
in the sciences may also be used to satisfy this requirement.
Mathematics & Fine Arts
One course is required in Fine Arts and one course in Mathematics. Again, there are
specific math courses designed for non-science majors, such as "Euclidean and Non-Euclidean
Geometry." The Art, Drama, and Music Departments offer courses in the history of their
disciplines, which students can take to satisfy the fine art requirement. "The Art
& Architecture of Rome," which is taken on the Rome Campus, satisfies the Fine Arts
requirement.
Foreign Language
Knowledge of a foreign language to an intermediate level is also required of all students.
Depending on the background of each student, this requirement may be met by taking
from one to four courses in a classical or modern language. At present the languages
that may be used to meet this requirement are Ancient Greek, French, German, Italian,
Latin, and Spanish.
The Great Books
The foundation of the Core is the Great Books; each student engages primary texts
written by the most influential authors of western tradition.
See Complete List of the Great Books
A Selection of the Great Books
Literature
- Homer: "The Iliad," "The Odyssey"
- Vergil: "Aeneid"
- Aeschylus: "Prometheus Bound," "Agamemnon," "Libation Bearers," "Eumenides"
- William Shakespeare: "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," "Merchant of Venice," "The
Tempest"
- Fyodor Dostoevsky: "Crime and Punishment"
- William Faulkner: "Go Down, Moses"
Economics
- Adam Smith: "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (selections)
- Pope John Paul II: "Centesimus Annus"
- Thomas Jefferson: The United States Constitution
History
- The Book of Job
- Thucydides: "History of the Peloponnesian War"
- Livy: "The Early History of Rome"
- Thomas More: "Utopia"
- Marx and Engels: "The Communist Manifesto"
- Pope Leo XIII: "Rerum Novarum"
- Eli Wiesel: "Night"
- Frederick Douglass: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
- Benjamin Franklin: "Autobiography"
- George F. Kennan: "American Diplomacy"
- Martin Luther King Jr.: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
- Boethius: On the Consolation of Philosophy
- Thomas Jefferson: Summary View of the Rights of British America
- Henry Adams: The Education of Henry Adams
Philosophy
- Plato: "Republic," "Phaedo," "Symposium"
- Aristotle: "Nichomachean Ethics" (selections), "On the Soul" (selections), "Categories"
(selections), "Physics" (selections), "Metaphysics" (selections)
- St. Thomas Aquinas: "Treatise on Happiness" and "On Being and Essence"
- René Descartes: "Meditations on First Philosophy"
- Immanuel Kant: "Critique of Pure Reason"
- Martin Heidegger: "The Question Concerning Technology"
Politics
- Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence
- Alexis de Tocqueville: "Democracy in America"
- Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison: "The Federalist Papers"
- Frederick Nietzsche: "Genealogy of Morals," "The Use and Abuse of History for Life"
Theology
- The Bible: selections from the Old and New Testaments
- Didache
- Augustine: "Confessions"
- Thomas Aquinas: "Summa Theologiae" (selections)
- Martin Luther: "Heidelberg Disputation," "The Freedom of a Christian"
- Council of Trent (selections)
- Vatican I (select documents)
- Vatican II: "Lumen Gentium"
- Clement: Letter to the Corinthians
- St. Irenaeus: "Against Heresies"
