Defining the Arts & Sciences Literacies
The Literacies for Life and Career (LLC) initiative at Washington University in St. Louis has evolved organically out of the curriculum and academic culture of Arts & Sciences (A&S). Rather than relying on a pre-existing list of career competencies or recommendations from outside consultants, the LLC initiative has taken a unique bottom-up approach through deep faculty involvement and collaboration, extensive benchmarking, and thorough review of a representative sample of undergraduate courses in Arts & Sciences. The initiative’s development process has been comprehensive, inclusive, and iterative.
Literacies Fellows
In Fall 2022, ten faculty Literacies Fellows, selected from the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, and College Writing collaborated with the LLC implementation team to examine their own courses as well as courses taught by faculty across Arts & Sciences. This collaborative process sought to reveal the skills, knowledges, and fluencies embedded in the Arts & Sciences curriculum and led to the creation of a provisional list of literacies for the initiative.