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Hi Blog Readers! In today's blog post we will be looking at the faculties that are here at St. Jerome’s campus! Overall there are around 10 faculties located on St. Jerome’s campus, and that includes classes, professors, and chair of departments specific to St. Jerome’s faculties.St. Jerome’s is academically connected with the Faculty of Arts on the University of Waterloo Campus, and there are two academic functioning buildings on the St. Jerome’s campus. Now to fully begin this post I would like to quote our President and Academic Dean about the academics here at St. Jerome’s University.
“Now more than 150 years old, St. Jerome’s University is home to students seeking a liberal education, transformative experiential learning opportunities, and a nurturing but challenging learning environment that allows students to flourish as whole persons. Our academically registered students are co-registered in the Faculty of Arts and obtain their degree from the University of Waterloo (UW). This means that students have all of the advantages of a large campus, but in a close-knit community located ‘across the creek’ from UW. Our faculty are accessible and supportive, and our holistic approach to education means that students leave the University with critical thinking and leadership skills that prepare them for life after university. At St. Jerome's University, we are committed to teaching excellence and the value of a liberal arts education. I encourage you to discover why St. Jerome’s University offers you an educational opportunity uniquely its own.
Scott Kline, PhD
Vice President Academic and Dean”
English
The first faculty here at St. Jerome's to be explored is the English department. The English department at St. Jerome’s values close reading, big ideas and delving into the very particulars of a text. As well as how texts can compare to the world around us and the time and place the text was written in. Classes are highly discussion focused and the professors pride themselves on being approachable to students and host a student-professor social each term. “To study English at St. Jerome's University is to exercise scholarly rigour and creativity; to develop practical skills in writing and critical thinking while cultivating intellectual adventurousness; to encounter beauty; and to glimpse truth.” The St. Jerome’s English department as well houses the New Quarterly an award-winning literary magazine, and over the years the faculty has been recognized with several awards for research and teaching.
History
The St. Jerome’s History department is “committed to preserving, exploring, and enhancing the knowledge of the human past with a focus on modern Canadian history and Medieval history, the Department of History at St. Jerome’s University focuses on people, nations, landscapes, ideas, events, politics, religion, and social constructs such as race, gender, class, and ethnicity.” The history faculty at St. Jerome’s wants to bring out student's curiosity and critical thinking ability so that they are able to live a creative and well-rounded life overall.
Psychology
In the St. Jerome’s Psychology department “St. Jerome's University Psychology students can take advantage of faculty members’ expertise in topics such as educational psychology, adolescence, and emerging adulthood, learning disabilities, human sexuality, the psychology of evil, death and dying, close relationships, psychology, and the law, criminal profiling, and the psychology of good.” Students in the program also get the first-hand experience of being involved in research and get the chance to develop their observational and analytical skills for dealing with various issues that are within the study of psychology
Religious Studies
The department of Religious Studies at St. Jerome’s explores “the world’s religions from a variety of perspectives, including their intersection with politics, economics, and social development. Our professors are particularly interested in how religion participates in modern questions regarding politics and social justice, peace-making and international relations, the ecological crisis, social values, sexual ethics, theology, and popular culture.” The staff in the Religious studies faculty is not only involved in the community but is deeply involved in the service-learning programs at St. Jerome’s such as Beyond Borders, and their classes are open to any student who would like to answer the big questions in life.
Human sciences
“The aim of the Human Sciences program is to deepen one’s awareness of and sensibility for the complexities and richness of the human condition. To this end, the Human Sciences incorporates the views from a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, such as literature, philosophy, history, theology, sociology, psychology, and political science.” Dialogue is said to be the most important aspect of this program, as it allows for constructive and engaging discussions on the issues that impact human beings. By being apart of this program it is hoped that you will be able to have a strong idea of the core issues facing western civilization and be aware and be able to discuss the various viewpoints surrounding them.
Italian and French Studies
BENVENUTO! BIENVENUE! To the Italian and French Studies faculty at St. Jerome's! A small but mighty faculty, that includes one on one mentoring with students and help them to learn one and possibly two additional languages to the one they speak at home. “All those interested in French, Québécois, or Italian cinema are invited to come out to our movie nights, Soirées ciné and Cineclub Italiano! To practice your Italian conversation skills, join us at the weekly "Circolo" taking place on Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. in SJ1 Room 3013.”
Sexuality, Marriage and Family Studies
The Sexuality, Marriage and Family Studies faculty provides students with opportunities to explore the research and theory about human sexuality and relationships from a wide range of disciplines and across the humanities and social sciences. The Sexuality, Marriage and Family Studies program is the only one of its kind and goes beyond a basic anatomy based program. In this program, you get to learn the complexities of relationships, learn about communication and the impact of social media and culture on relationships. “With your degree, you can choose from a slew of high-impact career paths, including teaching, counselling, social services, community engagement, and more.”
Sociology and Legal Studies
The Legal Studies faculty “explores how law shapes us and, in turn, how we shape law. Students in Legal Studies explore everything from lawmaking to sentencing, develop critical thinking skills, and rethink what it means to “practice” law in the everyday.”
The sociology faculty “strives to understand human social life, from the ancient Socratic approach to questioning to contemporary critical theory.”
With a Legal Studies and Sociology degree, you can learn the skills of problem-solving, research, critical thinking, written and oral communication and global awareness.
Medieval Studies
“The study of the Middle Ages is fascinating and increasingly recognized as vital to the understanding of the formation of modern civilization. The roots of our culture stem from the Medieval world which preserved and enlarged upon classical heritage. Medieval Studies at St. Jerome’s University is supported by several academic departments, including History, Classical Studies, English, Fine Arts, French and Italian Studies, Spanish and Latin American Studies, Music, and Philosophy.” Within the medieval studies faculty, there is a lecture series That has been running since 2006. These lecture series have brought together medievalists from across North America.
Philosophy
The Philosophy department at St. Jerome's - “The general goal of a university education is to help us become accomplished human beings through the development of our mind and of its different parts. But the well being of these components and of the whole person requires order and direction, which, in the perspective of philosophy, comes mainly from reason. This is why philosophy, the rational pursuit of true answers to the most fundamental questions — whether they be about human nature, the good, the universe, or the existence of God, to name a few — is at the very heart of any education that aims at liberating the mind from the slavery of ignorance, error, or superficial daily preoccupations.”
Some of the faculties specific areas of study are as follows:
-Ancient Greek philosophy and Thomas Aquinas, more particularly on questions of ethics and philosophy of law and on Aristotle’s philosophy of friendship and natural philosophy (Stéphanie Grégoire)
-Ethics, drawing from Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth, and applied ethics, concerning in particular end-of-life care and business ethics (Andrew Stumpf)
-Medieval philosophy, with special emphasis on logic and metaphysics as found in the works of figures such as Boethius, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas (Bruno Tremblay)
-Modern and contemporary philosophy, particularly in the German tradition, 20th-century personalism, ethics and philosophical anthropology (Nikolaj Zunic)
If you have any suggestions for content that you would love to read about on our blog, please send an email to outreach@sju.ca! We would love to know what our students are interested in reading and knowing more about.
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TWITTER: @StJeromesUni
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Sources:
https://www.sju.ca/philosophy-research
https://www.sju.ca/undergraduate-programs
https://www.sju.ca/human-sciences
https://www.sju.ca/italian-french-studies
https://www.sju.ca/medieval-studies
https://www.sju.ca/religious-studies
https://www.sju.ca/sociology-legal-studies
https://www.sju.ca/philosophy-research
https://www.sju.ca/medieval-studies-lecture-series
https://uwaterloo.ca/sociology-and-legal-studies/undergraduate/legal-studies
https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/programs/sexuality-marriage-and-family-studies