iF&M Academics
Academics at a Glance
Wondering where you'll take classes? What you'll study? We have you covered!
Learning Location: The ASE Study Center — Nelson House — is located in the heart of Bath, within 20 minutes’ walking distance of all of our student residences. And many of our residences are just a block or so away from the center.
- Class size: All classes will have 14 or fewer students
- Study and prep work: Approximately 6 hours per week per course
- Hours spent in direct learning: 48 per course (192 hours total)
- Assessment: You will be graded based on written papers, quizzes, and in-class participation, and a final exam for some classes.
- Credits: 1 per course (4 total)
- All credits are fully approved by Franklin & Marshall College and count toward your 4-year F&M degree.
Course Selection
Like all first-year students at F&M, you will participate in a core course that introduces you to the critical thinking and writing skills you will need to be successful throughout your F&M education. That Connections Course will be taught by your onsite faculty mentor, Associate Professor of Government & Public Health Jennifer Meyer. Here are the courses planned for the Fall 2024 term at iF&M.
Each of the iF&M courses has an “Exploration” designation, indicated by a letter following the course title (A, H or S). Exploration requirements constitute F&M’s general education program, and every student is required to fulfill these courses as part of the degree program. Exploration courses are designed to expose you to a broad range of disciplines and forms of intellectual inquiry, regardless of the major you ultimately choose. The iF&M program allows you to complete several Exploration requirements, keeping you on track for graduation and in step with your peers on the Lancaster campus.
The letter designations following each of the course titles indicate the course types:
A: Arts
H: Humanities
S: Social Sciences
Connections Course: Foreign Aid: Does it Help or Hurt
(Required for all students)
Professor Meyer
This course delves into foreign aid's complexities, analyzing its objectives, outcomes, and implications for donors and recipients. It employs a multidisciplinary approach, examining moral, economic, political, and social considerations. Students explore theories, donor perspectives (with a focus on the UK) and visit relevant organizations. As part of the required Connections curriculum at F&M this course is designed to hone critical reading, writing, and speaking skills.
Enrolled students will choose three of the following five courses:
Introduction to Public Health (S)
Professor Meyer
This course will introduce students to the field of public health and the various ways it is practiced. The course aims to highlight the personal relevance of public health. Topics include defining health, measuring it, discussing diseases, social influences, and health systems. Throughout the course, we will engage the local community, by comparing U.S. and U.K. health systems, and by exploring case studies of local public health initiatives.
UK-US Comparative Politics and Government (S)
ASE Faculty
The United States and the United Kingdom share assumptions about freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Yet political and historic evolution, institutions, and constitutional choices have led to very different regimes in the two countries. This course will examine these contrasting systems of democratic government and, through a comparison of the two constitutions and sets of institutions, explore their contemporary politics.
Landscape and Literature (H)
ASE Faculty
This course will introduce you to the wide variety of English literature across the centuries. From the Medieval period to Modernism, from the Romantics to the contemporary, you'll explore written forms that include poetry, prose, plays, and essays in relation to their wider social, historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts. The course will teach you how to perform a detailed close textual analysis and it will also provide an introduction to critical theory.
Art and Architectural History (A)
This course will provide an introduction to art and architectural history, using Bath as a backdrop.
ASE Faculty
The Life and Literature of Jane Austen (H)
ASE Faculty
Jane Austen’s works, although relatively few, are crammed with details about her world, her experience and her ideas. Far from being simply ‘marriage plots’, they speak volumes about Georgian England. Here you will find war, economics, class struggles, consumerism, country houses, urban landscapes, enlightenment ideals, gender rights and myriad unforgettable characters. Through the close study of Austen’s work, this course will examine these themes and much more - all against the backdrop of the historic city of Bath itself.