Messina Themes
The purpose of Messina themes
- Connections between courses: Messina course pairings are organized by interdisciplinary themes that will allow students to make connections across the two courses and through our course enrichment sessions.
- Connections outside the classroom: The themes can be used as a lens to explore the ways that learning within an academic setting can connect to other interests and experiences.
- Connections to the residence halls: Students who live on campus will generally be placed in a residence hall that corresponds with their Messina theme, which allows opportunities for students to engage with the theme outside of their academic experience. (More information about the Housing Process for first-year students can be found on the Residence Life & Housing website.)
We invite you to explore the different themes below, along with their current related course pairings. Note that the majority of Messina courses are core classes, and will count towards graduation regardless of your intended major. View our FAQ for more information regarding our course pairing placement process.
The Visionary
To have vision is to be able not just to see, but to see anew. What drives the visionary impulse? Necessity, ego, faith? A desire for justice, the hunger for knowledge? How does the world come to recognize the visionary and share in that vision? This theme explores how the creativity and imagination of the visionary can transform the world.
See "The Visionary" course pairings
Self and Other
How do our relationships with others shape us? What circles of belonging do we draw around ourselves (self, family, school, parish, race or ethnicity, nation), and how do these influence who we are? Where do the circles end and why, and what is our connection and obligation to those outside of them? How do our encounters with others, both near and far, historical and fictional, help us better to understand not just what is different from us, but who we are and might become? Students enrolled in Self and Other course pairings will explore how we imagine the other, and how those imaginings shape our willingness to learn from, sympathize with, and open ourselves to the other.
See "Self and Other" course pairings
Stories We Tell
It has been said that the destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in. Why do we tell stories? For entertainment, certainly. To move, to persuade; to shape belief, to inspire action. We use stories to explain ourselves to others, to make sense of our history and our experience. Ultimately, we use them to organize our world. This theme explores the power of the stories we tell.
See "Stories We Tell" course pairings
The Good Life
What does it mean to live the good life? What influences our understanding of what it means to live well? This theme challenges us to examine individual, local, and global frameworks for defining "the good life." An understanding of the good life requires discriminating between wants and needs; it also requires the consideration of more than material goods and possessions. The good life, above all, is defined by values—most notions of the good life include a sense of belonging, spiritual fulfillment, and the attainment of knowledge. How do we aspire to specific ways of being, and how do those aspirations shape the way we live?
