Elective Courses
In addition to mandatory core courses, ECLA students follow individually chosen seminars – 'electives' – every term. These are often designed as complements to one of the core courses, in this manner facilitating integrated studies. An elective on Dante’s Divine Comedy, for example, may be offered as a complement to a core course on Values of the Florentine Renaissance. A core course on Property may be supplemented with an elective on Jealousy. Other electives are independent explorations of more specialized topics. Every elective, however, uses the same format: one to three weekly discussion seminars with 5-12 students, and one-to-one tutorials twice a term for the discussion of student essays.
BA students choose elective courses according to concentration requirements. In each of their first two years students choose an area of concentration in which they take a prescribed course each term. These 'concentration seminars' function as year-long electives and constitute foundational studies in the chosen area of concentration. Also, by the end of the programme, BA students must have completed three further courses relevant for each area of concentration. Students choose these individually from the list of electives offered each term.
BA students in their second and fourth years, and Project Year students, take one hybrid course each term that can be said to sit on the fence between core courses and electives. These courses - referred to as 'core electives' and 'reading groups' – introduce an element of choice into the core course structure. Each of these hybrid courses are devoted to the theme of the course, but represent different approaches to that theme.