The Basic Year offers students high level, ambitious courses, that enables them to gain knowledge and skills which are necessary for a good performance in their academic life.
Its teaching methodology is designed according to the proposed Objectives, and if possible, students participate actively and critically in the development of the courses. Said courses have professors or monitors capable of leading discussions, giving bibliographical advice and assisting students with their doubts.
Its design seeks for the integration of departments, so that in a balanced way, it serves as a basis for their undergraduate courses. As a result, students from the School have, in the first two semesters, a wide vision of social sciences that enables them to appreciate their own career from different perspectives. The Basic Year allows students to learn about theoretical and methodological problems and core topics within the society studies and open their perspectives to recognize how to best develop their interests and skills. Also, students have better data facts to define their profession and once they have chosen an specific career--or two in the case of double programs-they have a wider and more critical vision of their own discipline. Additionally, this first year becomes an stimuli for students to undergo a double undergraduate program.
A total of twenty seven credits are covered during the first two semesters: four courses during First Semester and five courses during Second Semester, including disciplinary introductions.
The Basic Year consists of five areas that aim to cover basic problems and tools for the study of society. Each area offers several courses which makes it possible not only to broaden the election options but to offer courses to students from other schools. All of the programs comply with the demands of greater pedagogical and academic quality and they are studied, evaluated and approved by the Basic Year Committee and the School´s Council.
Area Presentation
Classical Thinkers in Social Sciences
Courses in the area of Thinkers enable students to have direct contact with the works and thoughts of some of the most influential authors within the study of society and individuals. It is important that since the beginning, students read texts of classical authors and do not limit themselves to read comments and interpretations. From the start, students must lose fear and try to come close to the works of thinkers such as Karl Marx, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim or Max Weber, among others. With the professor´s help, students must critically read and understand some of the most influential proposals of social and human sciences. Each course presents two or at the most, three authors.
A wide range of programs and courses are offered within the classical thinkers area, as long as their authors play a fundamental role in the history of social sciences and who are still essential as to address core problems within the study of society.
Courses 2009 I
Courses 2009 II
Note: Since 2007 II, the course CISO 1200 Thinkers: Weber, Durkheim, Marx, is no longer a CBU course and becomes a mandatory course for all Social Sciences First Semester students.
History and Philosophy of Science
Methodological and epistemological problems in sciences, particularly in human and social sciences, must be part of the basic students education in this School. It is important that the courses in this area enable the students to critically address study methods and objects which are characteristic of social sciences. What type of statements may be called scientific? How are their explanations structured? What factors have and effect on the creation, modification or broadening of a scientific discipline? Are there different types of scientific knowledge? Designed programs enable Basic Year students to get involved in a philosophical and historic reflection about society and the individual´s knowledge, allowing them to reflect upon their foundations and scopes.
Even though the programs in this area must outline core problems of philosophy of science, it is important to bear in mind, that the problem about knowledge and the debates about the nature of scientific knowledge, are no longer a philosophical or epistemological problem solely. That is why it is convenient that these courses include the contributions and perspectives stated by philosophy, history and science sociology
Courses 2009 I
Courses 2009 II
History of Colombia
The courses in the area of History of Colombia must enable the student to learn, from a critical perspective, the historic development of the basic problems of the country, the transformations that have occurred in time and the implications that these changes produce in society. The study of permanences and transformations of the topics that are addressed are at the forefront of a historian´s work, hence in all of social scientists. The main objective of both the area of History of Colombia and Colombian Topics is that since the beginning of their careers, Social Science students have a precise knowledge of their country, its history and main social and cultural characteristics.
Additionally, it enables them to recognize the benefit of academic work and in particular, the relevance that social sciences have to understand the world we live in.
Courses 2009 I
Courses 2009 II
Contemporary Theory
In the past decades of the 20th Century, diverse tensions and limitations in paradigms and sides, until then dominant in social sciences, become evident. It is not casual that since the same period, the extended use of the notion of “crisis” becomes frequent in multiple areas of practice of politics and knowledge. In this context, there is a rise of dynamic and diverse aspects of knowledge that seek to identify and present critical contrasts to visions of a “classic modernity”, whose horizon is considered exhausted. Courses in this area offer some of the visions and aspects of this new and rich panorama, which constitute crucial fields of contemporary debate. Their contents cover topics such as: Critical theory developments, rise of post-structuralism, studies and genre perspectives, linguistic giro, practice theory, social construction of nature and science representations, crisis of subject´s notions, agency´s theories, political economy, subordinate, post-colonial and post-occidental studies, among others.
Courses 2009 I
Courses 2009 II
Contemporary Theory
In the past decades of the 20th Century, diverse tensions and limitations in paradigms and sides, until then dominant in social sciences, become evident. It is not casual that since the same period, the extended use of the notion of “crisis” becomes frequent in multiple areas of practice of politics and knowledge. In this context, there is a rise of dynamic and diverse aspects of knowledge that seek to identify and present critical contrasts to visions of a “classic modernity”, whose horizon is considered exhausted. Courses in this area offer some of the visions and aspects of this new and rich panorama, which constitute crucial fields of contemporary debate. Their contents cover topics such as: Critical theory developments, rise of post-structuralism, studies and genre perspectives, linguistic giro, practice theory, social construction of nature and science representations, crisis of subject´s notions, agency´s theories, political economy, subordinate, post-colonial and post-occidental studies, among others.
Courses 2009 I
Courses 2009 II
Since its establishment in 1964, its academic programs seek to educate students who are socially competent according to the needs of the country and of the Latinamerican region; who are able to understand the past and present of human evolution, the behaviour patterns over the years and to identify social and cultural differences and similarities. Likewise, the Department´s programs produce, transmit and disseminate knowledge and generate critical thought so as to recognize the role of cultural and social matters, as well as the education and re-accomodation of communities. This process is developed through a qualitative analysis which articulates micro and macro spheres of social matters in an attempt to explain and account for human diversity.
The Department has a Faculty, who is specialized in violence anthropology, development anthropology, urban anthropology, historical anthropology, archaeo-botanic, archaeozoology, etnopsychiatry, medical anthropology, social-linguistics, etnology, space and nature. These areas are developed by research and laboratory groups who support teaching and research processes within the Department.
The Department offers the longest-serving undergraduate program in the country and 2 graduate programs: Masters Degree Program and Doctorate. Both programs include the following concentration areas: Social anthropology, archaeology and biological anthropology. Each one in its own level, educates researchers who reply to questions regarding contemporary, social-cultural phenomena within the local and regional scope.