Experiential Learning

LAH Experiential Learning courses for LAH Scholars and Distinguished Scholars Tracks

To fulfill the certification requirements for the Liberal Arts Honors Scholar or Distinguished Scholar programs, LAH students must take at least one upper-division Liberal Arts honors course with an experiential learning designation. Courses with an experiential learning component must include at least one of the following: original research (e.g., data collection) or with primary sources, faculty-led study abroad courses, an internship, or community service. 

Below are descriptions for a selection of our experiential learning options.

LAH 350 Contemporary Issues in Leadership — Schumann, Brenda

Leadership is all around us -- in our work, communities, classrooms, homes, and society. We see examples of leadership that has made a positive impact and examples where the leader has been detrimental to an organization. This class will focus on contemporary leadership problems by investigating examples from present-day including formal and informal leadership, for-profit and not-for-profit leaders, government leaders, the impact of organizational culture on leadership, and effective and ineffective leaders' traits, behaviors, and styles.

LAH 350 18-The Johnson Years — Lawrence, Mark (HMN 351C 18)

Nearly 50 years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy.  What sort of person was Johnson?  What motives underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and foreign-policy arenas?  How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights with the setbacks of the Vietnam War?  What is LBJ’s legacy, and what place does he deserve in the long flow of American history?  These will be among the major questions at the heart of this seminar.  In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship on the Johnson administration and the 1960s.  We will also meet with various participants in – or close observers of – the Johnson administration who live in and around Austin. 

Course requirements will include two short essays as well as a 10-12 page research paper based on materials in the LBJ Library archive.  We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library’s reading room.  Over the remainder of the term, students will be expected to conduct research and, in consultation with the instructors, produce a polished paper. 

LAH 350 28-Treasure Hunt HRC Arch Research — Lang, Elon

In this course, students will discover, explore, and promote some islands of order that emerge from the vast cultural and historical collections at archives on the UT-Austin campus, including the Ransom Center, the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, and the LLILAS Benson Latin American Collection.

Students will develop essential skills for pursuing original research projects in humanities disciplines and learn how to apply those skills to bring public attention to hidden histories and marginalized voices in our culture.

See the website with exhibits from previous classes.

LAH 351F Philanthropy/Non-Profit Orgs — Paxton, Pam

This course will cover theories of giving, the nonprofit sector, and criticisms of both. A significant portion of the course will focus on providing students with the tools and skills to evaluate charitable programs for effectiveness using social scientific techniques. We will also address the relationship between philanthropic and state-sponsored programs and discuss issues of social responsibility that arise when billionaires, foundations, and corporate actors engage in philanthropic work.

The experiential learning portion of the class will introduce students first-hand to the dilemmas donors face as they evaluate nonprofits. Based on their own evaluations, students will have the opportunity to distribute significant funds (provided through The Philanthropy Lab and individual donors), to charitable organizations. Students will be placed into groups that will do extensive research on a category of nonprofits, ultimately deciding which charities will receive funds through discussion and debate.

LAH 351N Archival Advocacy: Experiential Learning — Lang, Elon

Students will use digital archives and exhibits to amplify voices that actively promote social justice, cultural awareness, and service, and to test the ethical positions about impartiality and advocacy in archival and exhibit practices. Through a client-based semester-length service project, students would work with a service organization or cultural institution in the community that has materials or records that could provide a good subject for archival inquiry and an exhibit. The students would develop a series of scaffolded projects throughout the semester in which they would collaborate with members of the organization to access records, to digitize and describe a collection of their items, and to produce a public Omeka exhibit on selections from this collection. The first major project for the students would be a “pitch” that they would deliver to the organization in which they describe their research interests and also to make a case for what the organization itself might gain by opening itself up to the students’ digital archiving and historical inquiry. Their goal would be build toward a capstone project that situates the collection in the context of both the organization’s own institutional history and a broader history of the community in which the organization is situated, and then to promote the Omeka site on behalf of the organization.

This experiential learning class will cultivate professional skills in information science, cultural outreach, media literacy, and web design--as well as teamwork, independent research, critical thinking, work ethic discipline, accountability, and creativity. 

LAH 351W Hitler Nazism/World War II (Normandy Scholars Program) — Crew, David (HIS 376G)

“Hitler” and “Nazis” – two words that seem to connote the epitome of evil, and for good reason: the death of roughly 55 million people in World War II, the systematic murder of the Jews of Europe as well as of the Sinti and Roma, the murder of gays, the euthanasia of the “unfit.” It is morally easy to condemn Hitler and the Nazis. But do we really understand the phenomenon of National Socialism if we think of it as the radical “other” of modernity and of enlightened civilization? Can we understand Nazism if we think of it as clearly distinct from the rest of German, European, or even global history? And can we understand the ordinary individuals who went along with – even supported – the Nazi movement if we see that movement only as the face of evil so foreign to us and to the lives we live and choices we make?

This and the other courses in the Normandy Scholars Program will culminate in a three and a half week tour of WW II-related sites in Europe: London, Normandy, Paris, Berlin, and Warsaw.

 

Requires professor approval:

LAH 340L Legal Internships — Levy, Mark

America’s laws, lawyers, and courts have charted and changed the course of American history. In our classroom discussions and readings, we will explore the role of lawyers and how the practice of law has shaped American society. As a component of Liberal Arts Frontiers, students in the Legal Internships clinic will also intern in law offices or legal settings and meet weekly in class to discuss and learn from each student-intern’s experience. The hands-on experience students gain in their public service internships will help shape our classroom discussions, from topics including legal ethics and professional development to legislative oversight and settlement negotiations. Students will learn about the practice of law and how lawyers serve the public interest while gaining practical experience and first-hand knowledge of different legal fields.

The cornerstone of the Legal Internships clinic will be your participation as a student-intern in a legal, public policy, judicial, or legislative office. While help will be provided to select your internship before the semester begins, the final choice of where you work will be yours. The role you choose should be discussed and decided upon with your host supervisor and the course instructor. For permission to register for this course, please fill out the application application linked here.

Other Experiential Learning Opportunities Include:

MAN 347P Entrepreneurship Practicum

ANT 662 Field Archaeology - Belize

SUS 379L Directed Internships in Sustainability

L A 225 Career Field Experience: Project Management II (Project Advance Austin)

 

Substitutions: If you wish to substitute another upper-division course with significant experiential learning, the experiential learning portion needs to be at least one third of the final grade and involve community service, original research or research with primary sources, internship, or real-world experience. This requires professor and LAH Program approval.