Program Academics
Semester Schedule
All students will take Development of Western Civilization (DWC 202) as part of their spring semester in London. Students will have the opportunity to then select from a variety of other courses to complete their schedule. Options include:
- courses offered by the PC faculty leaders that fulfill PC core requirements or proficiencies.
- courses offered by IES at their London Center.
- a course (1 maximum) at either Queen Mary University of London or City, University of London.
Please note that City, University of London has a 3.0 GPA requirement for course registration. Prior to departure, students will work with study abroad and academic advisors to identify courses that fulfill their major requirements, core requirements, and/or free electives. All core courses outside of the PC faculty taught ones are subject to final approval.
The following is a sample student schedule for the CIV in London program:
- Development of Western Civilization (DWC 202) (1)
- PC core course taken with a PC faculty leader (2)
- PC core course taken with a PC faculty leader (3)
- Major electives taken at the IES Study Center, Queen Mary, or City (4 and 5)
In total, students will earn 15 credits over the course of the semester. Many of the courses offered make location-specific connections to London and include both day-trips and site visits so that students can make the most of their experience in this major European capital.
PC Faculty Taught Courses
The PC faculty leaders will team teach the DWC 202 course all students are required to take. In addition to this course, each faculty leader will teach their own core course. All students will need to take at least 1 of the individually taught PC faculty leader courses, so we recommend that students do their best to reserve core requirements still needed for the cores fulfilled by the faculty courses.
Please see below for the PC faculty leader taught courses featured within the Spring 2025 colloquium of CIV in London.
DWC 202 | Cosmopolitanism and the Global City
Faculty: Dr. Christopher Arroyo and Dr. Eric Bennett
With over 40% of its nearly nine million residents having been born outside of the United Kingdom, London is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. And yet, the capital city of England still evokes visions of Englishness associated with tea and crumpets, bowler hats, and the “New World” conquests of the British crown. Thinkers and artists have reflected on the tension between the diversity of London and the legacy of London and England more generally as the center of Western Empire. This colloquium attempts to draw on and add to such reflections. We shall trace an interdisciplinary history of London as a “global city,” reading philosophical, literary, and historical accounts of London, cosmopolitanism, and “Englishness.”
In tracing some of the contours of this view of London, we shall raise and at least start to address the following questions:
- In what ways has London embodied the principles and values of modern liberal democracy, and in which ways has it rejected or even betrayed them?
- What is a nation, and how does the growing trend of transnationalism inform our understanding of the nation of England?
- How has the history of English imperialism left its mark on London: culturally, architecturally, artistically, politically?
- What is cosmopolitanism, and in what ways is modern London a cosmopolitan city?
PHL 202 | General Ethics, The Women Are Up to Something
Faculty: Dr. Christopher Arroyo
This course serves as an introduction to normative ethical theories through a study of the work of four significant moral philosophers of the 20th century: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch. Our guide in studying their respective works will be Benjamin Lipscomb’s intellectual biography, The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics. Lipscomb’s book will help set the context for our four philosophers, each of whom studied at Somerville College, Oxford during World War II and who each subsequently went on to write important works of moral philosophy. By studying their work, which is a response ethical subjectivism, you will gain an understanding of some of the most important issues and debates in contemporary normative ethics and metaethical theory.
This course fulfills the Ethics core curriculum requirement of Providence College.
Course # | Course Title Coming Soon
Faculty: Dr. Eric Bennett
Course description coming soon!
