ATLANTA - To a casual observer, it might look like an intellectual crossfire, a battle of wits or a MENSA meeting, but to the “students” and the “teacher,” it is just another day of Core Seminar.

This role reversal, in which teachers become students, is an annual summer tradition supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. From May 22 through June 15, Oglethorpe professors gather on campus to teach each other a condensed version of their designated core course, acquainting their colleagues with material to be taught in the coming year.

The core curriculum is a sequenced, interdisciplinary program aimed at creating a community of learners at Oglethorpe University. The core is unique to Oglethorpe and makes it one of The Princeton Review’s The Best 361 Colleges 2006. Core Seminar helps prepare professors for unexpected questions and conversations about concepts that lie outside their field.

“Our goal is to help teachers talk sensibly and reflectively,” said Director of the Core Curriculum and Professor of Sociology Alan Woolfolk. Thus, an economics professor will be able to carry on an intelligent conversation on Milgram’s “Behavioral Study of Obedience” as printed in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.

With classes titled “Islam and Modernity” and “China at the Crossroads: Past, Present and Future” and taught by Oglethorpe and Georgia State faculty, the professors are expected to be attentive, answer questions and do their reading. Core Seminar’s principle, which reflects the Oglethorpe community’s philosophy, is the value of the “common learning experience,” hence the university’s exceptional core curriculum, seldom found in other colleges.

“When I first came to Oglethorpe, I understood the value of a common intellectual core for our students. What has surprised me is to learn how important the core program is in inspiring faculty development and genuine conversations across disciplines. Intense seminars with faculty of all different disciplines working together on a common topic are surprisingly rare in academia, but they are a regular part of life at Oglethorpe,” said Oglethorpe Provost Chris Ames.