This class has 4 sections: 2 pairs across Main Campus and Doha

Seniors: 3365-01 GU MAIN students (TH 10 – 10:50AM)
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3365-70 (GU-Q students (TH 5-5:50PM)

Sophs and Jrs: 3365-02 GU MAIN Students (TH 11-11:50AM)
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3365-71 GU-Q Students (TH 6-6:50PM)

The class will meet in-person 10 times on the following dates: August 24 and 31; September 7, 14, 21, 28; October 5, 19, 26; November 2, 2023.

This course focuses on how Georgetown students develop a sense of well-being, belonging and purpose within the various communities they live.  This course takes a social and developmental psychology perspective, encouraging students to reflect, explore, and discuss how key aspects of their identity have evolved during their time at Georgetown (and beyond).  The learning environment will be enhanced through a cross-cultural component where students from the main campus and GU-Qatar campus will interact in real time.  The course will create opportunities for exploring and expressing one’s authentic self through in-class interactions with peers and various out of class experiences (online and volunteering).  Students will attend to the relationship between their individual well-being and sense of purpose and that of the multiple communities they live and represent (Georgetown, Qatar/DC, groups that reflect various identities).  In doing so, students will address the following existential question: to what degree should I expect to nurture myself or my communities and vice versa.  Topics that influence the interaction between personal development and community affiliations – power dynamics, identity statuses, core values and belief systems, and social-navigational strategies – will be investigated.  In doing so, students will strive to understand their optimal balance between personal fulfillment and responsibility to the communities within they exist.  

Instructor: John Wright, Director of Student Life, GUQ

UNXD 409

(W 4-6pm)

Georgetown prides itself on its religious ecumenicalism and welcomes students from a variety of religious backgrounds.  But what about those students with no religious affiliation?  Where do they fit within a Jesuit university? 

Georgetown’s Core Curriculum asks all students to wrestle with important existential questions: How did we come into being? Do our lives have purpose? What happens to us when we die?  How do we create an ethical framework for decision-making?  How do we create a life imbued with meaning and purpose? 

Regardless of our personal religious affiliations, how we respond to these questions shapes the contours of our lives – our sense of purpose, our identity, our personal relationships, and our individual ethos. 

This course offers an opportunity to reflect upon these questions in ways that both draws upon and challenges the Jesuit education under which it is taught.  How do students without a religious affiliation navigate through these philosophical waters?  How can these students engage with Jesuit practices in an enriching and meaningful way?

Through critical reading of both ancient and contemporary texts, we’ll explore some ways in which others have attempted to address these existential questions from outside a religious framework.  From there, we’ll turn to Ignatian spiritual practices– the examination of consciousness, discernment, reflective and imaginative exercises – and reflect on ways in which these practices may or may not apply to non-theist students.  Finally, we’ll look ahead and think about how we can create meaning, purpose and community in our lives, regardless of whether we identify with any specific religious tradition.  How can students who doubt or reject a religious tradition benefit from a Jesuit education?  How might Jesuit practices apply outside of Georgetown? How can non-theist and theist students better engage in meaningful dialog with one another? And how do we create lives with meaning and purpose, regardless of our religious beliefs?

Students of all faiths (and no faith) are invited to participate in this conversation about whether it’s possible to create a good life without believing in an afterlife.  

Instructor: Anthony Pirrotti, SFS 

UNXD 410 (W 5:30 – 7:20)

 This seminar will provide students the opportunity to explore the core beliefs that guide their daily lives, and how their backgrounds and life experiences influenced and shaped the beliefs they hold today. Utilizing Jesuit values as our foundation, this course will examine students’ formation process throughout their Georgetown career within the context of their daily lives. Students will be challenged to contemplate “Where They Are From,” connecting this journey to the larger construct of power and privilege. The course will conclude with students (re)developing “This I Believe,” in order to articulate to themselves and other persons the core of who they and who they aspire to be.

Instructors: Christopher Barth, Joan Riley, Fr. Jerry Hayes SJ