Departments

Roosevelt Academy has four major departments: Academic Core, Arts & Humanities, Science, and Social Science. These departments are responsible for RA's educational program. The four Heads of Department and the Senior Tutor are also members of RA's Board of Studies.

Academic Core

The Academic Core Department is the largest department at RA. It currently has sixteen members of staff. Dr. Michael Burke (Associate Professor in Rhetoric and English) is the head of the department. Broadly speaking, the department is split into two sections: a skills section and a foreign languages section. The department focuses on developing diverse oral, written and methodological academic skills that will be essential for all RA students irrespective of their major. Students are obliged to do as many of their ACC skills courses in their first year. Two courses in the skills section that are mandatory for all students are the 100-level Statistics course and the 200-level English course. Other skills courses are also mandatory, depending on a student’s major: these are the 100-level Rhetoric and Argumentation course for Arts & Humanities majors and one of the two 200-level statistics courses for Social Sciences majors. The department also offers elective courses in the skills section such as the 300-level English course; the 200 and 300 levels of Rhetoric & Argumentation and a 300-level Statistics course. All students at RA must also take a foreign language either up to, and including, the 200-level of a language or at least two levels, if a student starts at the 200 level. Spanish, French, German and Dutch are languages that are currently offered. (The 000-level Dutch course is also mandatory for all non-Dutch speaking international students). In the near future the department hopes to extend its foreign languages portfolio. The department does not offer majors. However, it currently offers two minors, the first in Methods & Statistics and the second in Rhetoric & Argumentation.

• Courses taught by the Academic Core Department
• Staff members

Arts & Humanities

Language, culture and history are as old as mankind. At the most basic level familiarity with history, culture and language helps us to make sense of the world we live in. The intellectual reflection on these aspects of the human condition, however, is of relatively recent origin. The arts and humanities curriculum offers a set of courses that seeks to establish the nature and variety of modern culture as it grew out of the Renaissance.

• Courses taught by the Arts & Humanities Department
• Staff members

Science

The natural sciences deeply affect our lives and societies. Without the contributions of physics and chemistry, we could never create the products that support our luxurious lifestyles. Young people today cannot really imagine a world without communication technology and the Internet. Science does not only supply technology, but also helps us to find out how the world works. Although many discoveries have been made about the evolution of the universe, the complex processes affecting planet earth, and the nature and interaction of the most elementary particles in our world, many intriguing questions are still waiting to be answered.

Life Sciences

The miracle of life has always been a source of wonder and full of contradictions. There is the apparent complexity and variety of life forms, while at the same time many processes in very different organisms show great similarity. A single life is fragile, but life itself seems almost indestructible.

One of greatest contributions science has made to human happiness is the gift of health. Medical science has made great leaps in recent decades. Many lives have been saved through a better understanding of processes in the living cell at the molecular level. Diagnostic technologies and equipment mean diseases can be spotted earlier. Research in fields like pharmacology and medicinal chemistry allow us to create better medication.

• Courses taught by the Science Department
• Staff members

Social Science

The curriculum in social sciences reflects the multilayered construction of social systems. Geography analyzes locations and their differences; economics examines the way people organize themselves and strive to accumulate wealth; sociology describes the structure of human interaction and alignment; cultural anthropology summarizes the variety of ways in which human meaning is attached to existence; law focuses on achieving consensus on rights and obligations; psychology analyzes individual perception, motivation and behavior; and political science indicates which structures of power bind these different levels into national states.

• Courses taught by the Social Science Department
• Staff members