{"data":[{"identifier":"843896ca-2469-4108-ab89-ec8fe0ace029","displayNumber":"106-1","instructor":"Josef Brandauer","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81042","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Are You Smart?: Science, Culture, and How We Learn","department":"Health Sciences","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"What is an "expert learner"? What is the reason that the hippocampus of a taxi driver may be larger than what you would expect? What are the neurobiological underpinnings that decide whether you can recall a fact, understand a concept, or apply previously acquired knowledge? How do our identities shape how we learn? In "Are you smart?", we investigate the strategies and characteristics that define successful learning. The topics discussed in this first-year seminar range from central nervous system anatomy and physiology to habits and techniques that can help you find success in the transition to the academic challenges of college.","tags":"cognition,education-1"},{"identifier":"e459919c-d5d6-4d1c-b4bf-4f58e2890f1d","displayNumber":"107-3","instructor":"Lindsay Reid","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81053","satisfiesRequirements":"","title":"Run the World (Girls): Women, Power, and International Politics","department":"Political Science","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Beyoncé empowers women everywhere to believe: "Who run the world? Girls!" When we look at the reality of who runs the world, however, a different picture emerges. In 2018, a record number of women were elected to the United States Congress, yet the United States still ranked a mere 88th worldwide in women’s representation. And, in 2019, while women held the highest positions of power in countries ranging from Bangladesh to New Zealand to Germany — women only led 19 countries. Ultimately, women have to close large representation gaps before they "run the world." At the same time, it is pretty apparent that women bring unique — and strong — experiences and perspectives to their political, economic, and social roles. This seminar delves into understanding questions about women in positions of political power. What do we know about women’s leadership in international politics? Are women leaders different than their male counterparts? What are the implications of increasing women’s participation in political, economic, and social leadership roles? Using a variety of academic and popular sources, we will engage, debate, and question theories and implications of women’s empowerment to better understand the pathways to and implications of a reality in which women run the world.","tags":"culture,politics"},{"identifier":"5137067b-bcfe-4df1-88e0-46dee6e1c417","displayNumber":"108-1","instructor":"Anne Douds","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80463","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Change Agency and Activism","department":"Public Policy","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Throughout your life, you have sought opportunities to be a difference maker, to be an agent for change in your school, your family, your community, and the world. The Eisenhower Scholars program recognizes your desire and ability to help solve social problems, and this course if your first step in the next phase of your policy education. In this course, you will learn how to become policy change agents and how to advocate for social reform. The course incorporates traditional forms of academic scholarship on agency, advocacy, and reform with up-to-the-minute literature in students’ specific areas of policy interest. Throughout the semester, we will take field trips to observe policymakers in action in Washington D.C. and Harrisburg; meet with local policy makers; craft individual policy reform proposals; write policy briefs and proposals; and learn from peers in a highly engaged, interactive, collegial environment. We will study policy arenas that matter to you, and you should leave this course feeling empowered and equipped to seek and effect social change. ","tags":"activism,community-based-learning"},{"identifier":"cc495fff-68a0-4192-afbf-eb23c1061a08","displayNumber":"120-3","instructor":"Randall Wilson","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80611","satisfiesRequirements":"IDS, STS","title":"What Would Smokey say?","department":"Environmental Studies","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Smokey Bear is one of the most highly recognized icons in American culture today. But while many know of his efforts to prevent wildfires, fewer are aware of the contentious issues surrounding the issue of fire policy on national forests. What would Smokey say if he knew that many foresters currently promote forest fires as part of efforts to maintain a healthy forest? Likewise, could he make sense of the fact that bison can be defined as a protected "threatened" species, a threat to livestock, or as "burger on the hoof" simply as a function of where they graze? Or how the strongest advocates for the wildlife refuge system are those who most enjoy shooting it? Or the way environmentalists have worked to eliminate grazing on public rangelands....by becoming ranchers themselves? Such conundrums can be a bit much for any level-headed bear to take in. This course investigates the surprising and often contradictory environmental policy and management challenges facing national parks, forests and wildlife refuges in the United States. To make sense of them, students visit a number of such places, interact with real managers, conduct a project, and consider the "big ideas" of nature that quietly underpin America’s system of public lands.","tags":"culture,politics,environment"},{"identifier":"c241e2dc-9733-44f1-8b6b-bf3370abc0f5","displayNumber":"123-4","instructor":"Sushmita Sircar","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80694","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Alienation, Revolution, and In-Between: The Hidden Costs of Endless Labor","department":"English","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Why do we need to work? What counts as work? How does the work we do shape our identities and our relation to the world around us? We will read novels, poetry, artwork, and philosophical and critical texts drawn from a wide range of literary traditions how individuals and their social relations are formed by various kinds of work, including agricultural, industrial, reproductive, artisanal, and creative, labor.\n\nThe course aims to get students to think critically about their relationship to work. We will read a number of texts that portray the different attachments that people develop for the work they do—whether in the form of a job or not. The course will consider how alienated labor under capitalism produces certain kinds of workplaces and workers, allowing students to read Marxist conceptions of the evolution of labor under capitalism. We will also linger on forms of work--reproductive and emotional labor, creative work, idleness, the desire for a different relation to the material world—which appear to exceed the commodification of the capitalist workplace, while also inevitably coming under its sway. Finally, we will think about how we might theorize other categories to understand our relationship to the work we perform.","tags":"philosophy-1,literature"},{"identifier":"85de5119-6890-4bd2-8bff-edb355232ec0","displayNumber":"124","instructor":"Istvan Urcuyo","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81036","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-NS, STS","title":"A Dying Ocean: The Increasing Environmental Challenge to the Marine Ecosystem","department":"Biology","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Did you know the U.S. has nearly 23,000 miles of ocean shoreline and that half of the population lives within 250 miles of the coast? Were you aware that in the year 2000, beach pollution was to blame for at least 11,270 beach closings and swimming advisories in the U.S.? Does it surprise you to learn that almost 30 million pounds of pesticides are applied annually in areas that drain into the nation’s coasts? Did you ever think of air pollution as the beginning of ocean pollution? Why is it that every year the practices of many fishing industries strip bare a section of the sea floor twice the size of the continental U.S.? Did you know that over the past 25 years a large ?Dead Zone? (the size of Massachusetts) has formed in the Gulf of Mexico? Were you aware that for every pound of commercial fish caught, up to 20 pounds of other marine life is discarded? Why are 58% of the world’s reefs at risk from human impacts? Did you know that the largest oil spill on a marine environment occurred during the Gulf War? Would you know what seafood to choose at your local markets that’s good for you and also good for the oceans? This seminar course will focus on the diverse environmental problems that have and currently are affecting our oceans and all of its organisms. It will examine and discuss the important role of the ocean in our planet, the interdisciplinary aspects of human use of marine resources (economical, political and biological) and how the current marine environmental problems affect all of us regardless of our location. We will investigate what steps have been taken (or need to be taken) to minimize and remove the multiple negative impacts that our growing human population has on our world’s ocean. Critically reading, evaluating, discussing, and writing about the primary scientific literature as well as websites and books for the general public will accomplish this. A strong student participation and commitment is expected.","tags":"climate,science"},{"identifier":"7a61f100-d9a0-4625-81a1-f2c103e91838","displayNumber":"126-5","instructor":"Matthew Harrington","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81193","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Out of Context","department":"English","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

Taking something out of context can damage everything from cultures to reputations and the ability to assess the truth. But what about when we do so to be playful, to seek new understandings, or to challenge existing "truths?" There is a long literary and cultural history of pulling materials from their sources to recontextualize them, and it now extends to retweets, TikTok trends, and memes. In this seminar, we will examine what happens when writers and artists take things out of context to change our perspective on both where they came from and what they mean now.<\/p>","tags":"literature,culture"},{"identifier":"e01464ad-c52a-4114-8da6-285d3a24f271","displayNumber":"130-1","instructor":"Stephanie Sellers","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80247","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Women’s Health and Sexuality","department":"Women,+Gender,+and+Sexuality+Studies","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"This seminar looks at the changing practices in women’s healthcare from the holistic, ancient, earth-based traditions that centralized women to the rise of the mechanomorphic American medical system, specifically gynecology. The course examines key historic events that shaped women’s healthcare, issues of gender biology, the gardener/mechanic metaphor, the modern medicalization of women’s natural cycles, the Wise Woman healing tradition, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, Ayurveda, and issues around women’s personal empowerment. Social issues concerning the control of women’s reproduction and the impact of the environment on women’s health are addressed. Particular attention will be on centralizing women in their own healthcare.","tags":"gender,health"},{"identifier":"2eca9a0d-21b3-483b-8b92-3414df0982c3","displayNumber":"131-2","instructor":"Alan Perry","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81002","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-H","title":"Dante’s Divine Comedy: The Poet, The Pilgrim, The Prophet","department":"Italian","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"This seminar, taught in English, explores the three cantos of the Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Students examine the life of Dante Alighieri and his times. Discussion focuses on the characters and events of this classic poem. Questions students will ponder include: what happens to us after death? What does it really mean to be a good person? Why do bad things happen to good people? How far would a person go for love? Why is having too many sexual relationships an ultimately less serious matter for the soul than drinking or eating too much? Here is the masterpiece of world literature that inspired and changed the lives of Michelangelo, Galileo, and James Joyce who once said, "Dante is my spiritual food!" No knowledge of the Italian language is expected or needed.","tags":"literature,religion"},{"identifier":"8e905940-c4cc-4c2e-b598-7e633ddd1718","displayNumber":"131-3","instructor":"Kerry Wallach","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81085","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"What’s in a Name? Cultural Naming Trends","department":"German","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

Exploration of what names and naming traditions suggest about many aspects of identity, from gender and age to national, ethnic, or religious background. Topics include names in songs, celebrity names, name changing, pseudonyms, code names, character names in literature and film, social/career advancement, and name-based prejudice and discrimination. Much of the course focuses on cultural texts from the U.S. and Europe (literature, film, TV, podcasts, popular music, historical examples).<\/p>","tags":"society,culture"},{"identifier":"b3323968-364d-4cac-871b-6eae69330973","displayNumber":"133-2","instructor":"Radi Rangelova","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80616","satisfiesRequirements":"CD, FYW","title":"Latin American Women’s Narratives","department":"Spanish","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"The macho man and the seductive woman might be among the most common Latin American gender stereotypes, but the personal accounts created by activists, feminists, and homosexual men and women, paint a much more complex picture of gender and sexuality in Latin American societies. The voices of the diaries, autobiographies, memoirs and testimonial accounts that we will examine are those of social, national and political subjects, whose stories pose a series of questions for readers in the U.S.: How can we understand the self-reflexive text as an individual, as well as a Latin American political account? In what ways can the act of writing the gendered self become an act of liberation from oppression and domination? How do the authors of the texts subvert common models of gender and sexuality? And how do the personal accounts written by "popular" subjects change our perception of the "official" histories of Latin American nations?","tags":"memory,literature,gender,politics"},{"identifier":"4a441ca2-0360-4757-8784-7d9fd890bf1f","displayNumber":"134-4","instructor":"Henning Wrage","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81000","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Psst! Secret Clubs, Clandestine Societies, and Conspiracy Theories","department":"German","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"This seminar is an investigation of the myth and reality of secret societies from the "Underground Railroad" to the Freemasons, the "Black Hand," "Skull and Bones" and Q-Anon. Have secret social networks really tried to influence the world? What role do they play in history and politics? What is a conspiracy theory? Who claims that the moon landings were a hoax and why? And what do "alternative facts" and "fake news" have to do with all this?","tags":"history-1,culture,politics"},{"identifier":"3fe22ec1-382b-4fee-bc4c-7647c1ee2625","displayNumber":"138-2","instructor":"Vern Cisney","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80557","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-H","title":"Plato, Personhood, and Popcorn: Big Ideas on the Big Screen","department":"Interdisciplinary Studies","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"What did you think of that movie? This seminar is a philosophical exploration, through both text and film, of the nature of the self and its relationship to the world. Along the way it addresses questions concerning the experience of time and its relation to memory, the meaning of suffering in and out of the context of religious faith, the nature and value of thinking as a practice of everyday life, and the roles and limitations of human knowledge and technology. In addition to textual analysis, the course examines these questions with some of the more provocative films in the history of the cinema (such as Blade Runner, Fight Club, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and others), mining and developing strategies for watching movies at various intellectual levels, thereby enriching the overall experience of the capabilities of film, and illuminating the significance of philosophy as a living activity of thought that finds and transforms us in even the most seemingly mundane moments.","tags":"philosophy-1,film-1,culture"},{"identifier":"9181ab00-fc61-4f2c-8f4f-199d528b0d25","displayNumber":"138-3","instructor":"Nathifa Greene","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81046","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-H","title":"Sorry, Not Sorry: Apologies in Private and Public Life","department":"Philosophy","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Why do we apologize? Does an apology require sincere feelings of remorse in order to be valid? Can apologies sometimes cause more harm than good? Is it still right to apologize, even if the person delivering the apology does not believe that they were wrong? Apologies are powerful expressions, which can escalate or help resolve conflicts in personal and political life. This course examines moral and political questions that emerge in the aftermath of conflict, including various conceptions of harm, responsibility, forgiveness, and reparations. These concepts are considered through the analysis of various kinds of apologies, all of which attest to the power and ritual significance of this speech act. Some apologies ask for forgiveness, and some apologies are gendered or culturally expected utterances that function as social lubricant, for good or bad reasons. Nonapologies avoid responsibility and shift blame, and formal public apologies issued by prominent individuals and governments acknowledge harm done to social groups. Some examples of public apologies studied in this course include public apologies issued by governments of the United States, Germany, and Australia, as well as truth and reconciliation commissions in Canada and South Africa.","tags":"philosophy-1,culture"},{"identifier":"96a004bd-fb56-439c-baaa-92b0791c8a9e","displayNumber":"138-4","instructor":"Mercedes Valmisa","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80540","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-H","title":"Philosophy of Monsters","department":"Philosophy","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Students will explore monsters in literature, myths, movies, art, pop culture, and philosophy as manifestations of cultural symptoms and counter-values. What do we mean when we call something a "monster"? What does the monster tell us about us versus the other? What are the limits of the monstrous, and how do these limits overlap with, challenge, and extend notions of normality? Which cultural and social roles do monster play, and what can we learn from them? A parade of zombies, crippled, witches, cannibals, cyclopes, gigantic cockroaches, dragons, robots, and many other extravagant figures will guide us in answering questions about normativity and power (gender and ethnic norms), fear and fascination (the confrontation of the dissimilar and the other), perception (phenomenological approaches to what appears), self-representation (the monster as external repository of human dubious features), and critique (the power of the monstrous for challenging accepted views). Choose your own monster and let the abominable journey begin!","tags":"philosophy-1,culture"},{"identifier":"9c4c272d-0d55-4ef2-94e2-662ce6905a58","displayNumber":"144-3","instructor":"James Day","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81003","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-A","title":"Cultures of Possibility: Building Community through the Arts","department":"Sunderman Conservatory","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"What role can the arts play in building a vibrant, healthy community? In this FYS you will explore the importance of the arts in our society, experience how the arts strengthen communities by engaging with a variety of community-based arts programs, and discover the many ways in which you can play an active role in the cultural development of your community, and in the process find your path to becoming a more ethical leader and socially responsible citizen. In addition to utilizing class time to debate and discuss theories of placemaking and public policy, we will complete action research through several local site visits and a regional field trip to meet a diverse array of amazing people building exciting, vibrant communities through the arts.","tags":"art-1,society,culture,community-based-learning"},{"identifier":"786a93c2-ffec-42e3-beaa-7b7239fb0c18","displayNumber":"145-3","instructor":"Christopher Oechler","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81082","satisfiesRequirements":"","title":"Finding Your Groove: Vinyl Culture in Music and Life","department":"Spanish","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

Like the crackle and hiss of lead-in grooves that give way to spectacular sound, in this class we will explore the vinyl lp and its relationship to recorded music and life. We’ll learn how records are made, we’ll investigate why they are an enduring part of music and collector’s culture, and we’ll analyze how this format has affected music, life, society, and politics. Along the way, we’ll challenge ourselves to become better thinkers, speakers, writers, and especially listeners.<\/p>","tags":"music,culture"},{"identifier":"85da20c8-161c-453c-9d42-f4f059838573","displayNumber":"149-2","instructor":"Eleanor Hogan","additionalCourseInfo":"Our main text is Matt Alt’s Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World published in 2020. It is supplemented by articles and other materials available on our course site. A class trip to the DC area for Anime USA in October, pending Covid restrictions and funding, is possible. Our course is scheduled 3 x per week for 75 minutes, which allows time for about eight required Friday sessions. One is a wall-climb at the Jaeger Center, two are visits to the Innovation and Creativity Lab, and several more are workshops. Optional Friday sessions for cultural events are based on student interest.","psCourseNumber":"80622","satisfiesRequirements":"GU, FYW","title":"An Atomic Lizard, A Robot Boy, Pocket Monsters and Some Very Cute Kitties: Japanese Popular Culture Goes Global ","department":"Asian Studies","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Beginning in the immediate post-war period with Godzilla, students examine assorted items of Japanese popular culture that have reached a world-wide audience, which includes Astro Boy, Pikachu, and Hello Kitty. More recent manga, anime, and video games are also incorporated as we determine how and why certain items are more portable/localizable than others. Course requirements include reading/viewing primary and secondary sources, taking notes, participating in discussion, presenting work both formally and informally, and researching and writing a scholarly paper, including editing and revising.","tags":"globalization,art-1,culture"},{"identifier":"426063f9-3ead-4d89-af8b-91b406829356","displayNumber":"149-3","instructor":"McKinley Melton","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81038","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Black Superheroes in American Popular Culture: From Nat Turner to Netflix","department":"English","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"This course examines the presence and impact of Black Superheroes in American culture and society, focusing on fictional characters as well as historical figures that have been celebrated through literature, film, television, and music. Discussions are organized largely around the relationship between Black Superheroes and movements for social justice, including the fight to abolish slavery, the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century, and the contemporary Movement for Black Lives.","tags":"literature,race,culture"},{"identifier":"debcfbbe-f2cc-451a-8133-0f6309da9bb5","displayNumber":"150","instructor":"Stephen Stern","additionalCourseInfo":"FYS 150: "Death and the Meaning of Life" treats the topic of death from a variety of perspectives and relies heavily on guest presentations (from a psychologist, a pediatrician, a cancer survivor, a hospice chaplain, a funeral director, and a spirit medium) along with field trips to Washington, DC (to visit the Arlington National Cemetery, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), the Gettysburg Battlefield (for a guided tour), the pediatric ward at the Gettysburg Hospital, and the Monahan Funeral Home in Gettysburg. Readings for the course include works of fiction (such as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher), philosophy/theology (When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner), and personal experience (Night by Elie Wiesel and Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander) as well as selected films. The course reveals that the meaning of life can only be understood when we confront the reality of death.","psCourseNumber":"80078","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Death and the Meaning of Life","department":"Interdisciplinary Studies","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"The topic of death raises more questions than answers. What happens when a person dies? Is there an afterlife? How does one deal with the loss of a loved one? How do our funeral practices compare with those of other religions and cultures? But the topic of death also raises personal questions of life: What is the meaning and purpose of our existence? What can I accomplish in my time here? How should I treat my elders, my peers, and my juniors who will predecease or survive me? While we will all experience death, too few of us talk about death. This course intends to begin that life-long discussion by considering death from a variety of angles. We will look at death and popular music and culture, death and the medical profession, the business of death, and the psychological impact of death. We will look at how other religions and cultures view death and deal with the dead. We will also explore various types of death, from illness and disease to suicide, murder, and genocide.","tags":"memory,conflict,death,religion,health"},{"identifier":"6caec630-af20-4a9a-bd30-7a0e77fa2898","displayNumber":"152-5","instructor":"Joseph Radzevick","additionalCourseInfo":"Readings may include: The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era by Schatz and Working in Hollywood: How the Studio System Turned Creativity into Labor by Regev. Films may include: Trouble in Paradise, Grand Hotel, Casablanca, Sunset Boulevard, and a rotating set of other classics of the era. Class field trips may include: a visit to the Majestic Theater. ","psCourseNumber":"80613","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Building Tinseltown: Inside the Studio System and the Golden Age of Hollywood","department":"Management","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Many have observed that while movies have been made all over the world, "there is only one Hollywood" (Powdermaker, 1951 p. 16). It was there in southern California that motion pictures turned from artistic expressions to mass-produced industrial commodities. It was there that the film industry rose to the forefront of popular culture, operating as both a record and influencer of society. This course will examine the operation of the studio system that gave rise to Hollywood’s "Golden Age." Along the way, students will learn about the business and creative elements that combined to create these films while exploring a number of specific films from the studio era, concentrating on the 1930s and 1940s. We also will look closely at the economic, political, and social forces intertwined with filmmaking at this time. The course places emphasis on reading, writing, discussion, and film screenings.","tags":"america,art-1,history-1,film-1,culture"},{"identifier":"1760ca69-acee-40af-baa5-5af58aeea10c","displayNumber":"156-3","instructor":"Dina Lowy","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81001","satisfiesRequirements":"GU","title":"Tea: An Experiential History","department":"History","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"This course examines the significant impact tea had on world history as the love of tea spread from East to West. It moves both chronologically and episodically from early developments in China to Japan and India and Great Britain and the United States, with brief side trips to Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa as well. Topics and themes include religion and rituals, health benefits and environmental issues, trade, diplomacy and empire, sabotage and espionage, and social interactions. Throughout the course, historical inquiry and methodology are paired with a hands-on exploration of the Japanese tea ceremony and related cultural practices.","tags":"history-1,food,culture"},{"identifier":"facd1ea1-7aee-444e-b0f3-b7d1467a8e01","displayNumber":"158-5","instructor":"Josh Wagner","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81102","satisfiesRequirements":"IDS","title":"Fail this Course: Creativity, Making, and Failure","department":"Creativity Lab","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

Most of our lives we are taught to avoid failure. However, many of the world’s most successful people have failed repeatedly on their paths towards success. Using the equipment, tools, and materials in the Innovation and Creativity Lab we will experiment with failure as a strategy for learning and a catalyst for creative problem solving. Through engaging discussions, hands on design thinking projects, and perplexing activities this course will challenge your preconceived notions of what it means to fail and how to successfully embrace failure in your future endeavors.<\/p>","tags":"creativity,art-1,education-1"},{"identifier":"d78b737c-cd36-4e61-b97c-f061a8391b75","displayNumber":"159-4","instructor":"Christopher D’Addario","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80995","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"A Day in the Life: 24 Hours in Literature and Film","department":"English","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"From coming of age comedies such as Superbad<\/em> to the popular YA-novel They Both Die at the End<\/em>, we remain fascinated with how much or how little can happen to us in one day. This course studies exclusively literature and film that cover events that take place over 24 hours. We examine how art can represent the close passage of moments as well as the profound transformations and stasis that might occur in one day. How do authors and filmmakers choose to represent the details of everyday existence? What gets close attention? Perhaps more importantly, what gets left out? What are the psychological and ethical implications of such inclusions and omissions? Can one’s life really change unalterably in one day?","tags":"literature,film-1"},{"identifier":"a3ac7aa4-588b-4eef-8c6a-94b4b6a78423","displayNumber":"162-4","instructor":"Beth Campbell-Hetrick","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81044","satisfiesRequirements":"STS, QIDR","title":"The Mathematics of Voting: Counting the Vote and Making Your Vote Count","department":"Mathematics","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Elections. In the United States, we vote on many different decisions: we vote for the president of the United States, for our representatives in state and national government, for our local representatives and leaders. We might vote for our sports team captains or the leader of our community group, for our favorite singer in a competition, or among friends to decide what kind of pizza to order. But what issues affect the outcome of the vote? What criteria do we hope our voting system satisfies? Different voting systems can lead to different outcomes. Are we using the system we think is optimal for our situation? How can outside influences affect the impact of our vote? Are some voters disenfranchised under a given system? In this course, we explore some of the topics and issues related to voting and elections. We analyze these issues through a mathematical lens, using mathematics to predict, to analyze, to quantify.","tags":"politics"},{"identifier":"085b4718-2eff-4cfd-a3e3-d148f321fc70","displayNumber":"163-4","instructor":"Alvaro Kaempfer","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81086","satisfiesRequirements":"","title":"Journalistic Writing and Media Coverage of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election","department":"Spanish","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

How is the 2024 US American Election process covered and presented across US American newspapers and other global media outlets? What are the linguistic and narrative formulations of the events, issues, programs and leadership across these media outlets? Is there a consistent network of words, a semantic political field organized around a specific (and limited) number of verbs, sentences, and even formulaic constructions of the daily dynamic? How much do they inform or consolidate common places over the global mediascape? How do these outlets build up their audience? Is there a global perspective or universalizing narrative in place? How is this electoral process translated or appropriated throughout local concerns? Is there a share common data and data-building sources feeding these editorial and media narratives? How does the information/data build up process function as a narrative device?<\/p>","tags":"culture,politics"},{"identifier":"cbe5fe44-64b3-4e95-830f-8c5ed02f5a9c","displayNumber":"165-1","instructor":"Ben Kennedy","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81084","satisfiesRequirements":"QIDR","title":"Data and Citizenship","department":"Mathematics","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

This course introduces students to the fundamental skills of descriptive data analysis, examines some important contemporary social questions from a data-analytic perspective, and helps students build the quantitative sophistication critical to informed citizenship.<\/p>","tags":"society,culture"},{"identifier":"9b912b56-fa0c-41e8-8b85-a1538b9c7ab0","displayNumber":"166-4","instructor":"Kathy Cain","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81049","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-SS, FYW","title":"Crossing Borders: Immigration, Identity, and Development","department":"Psychology","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"The United States is often called "a nation of immigrants," and yet Americans have always debated immigration policies and treated certain immigrants as less desirable than others. These contradictions are echoed worldwide in an era of unprecedented migration. Some individuals arrive in new countries by choice; others flee war, persecution, and poverty. How are people affected by the experience of immigration? How can we understand the development of children of immigrants? What are the needs of refugees? Of undocumented immigrants? How do individuals with family histories of immigration come to understand themselves and the diverse communities to which they are connected? What kinds of experiences help immigrant youth feel at home in their new countries, and which experiences lead to a sense of alienation? In this course, we ask how the social sciences, psychology in particular, approach immigration, identity, and development. We address topics such as impact of immigration, models of identity and acculturation, and the diverse paths by which families, communities, and colonial legacy shape identity. The course addresses immigration in general in the context of western countries, and also offers an in-depth exploration of the two immigrant-origin groups in the United States, namely Latinos/Latinas and immigrant Muslims. In class projects, students utilize qualitative research methods and personal stories of immigration — from memoirs, our own experiences and those of our family members, and interviews with immigrants — to examine identity among immigrants and those from immigrant families. The course includes a community-based learning project with local Latino/a youth.","tags":"activism,community-based-learning"},{"identifier":"50730837-1deb-43cb-b221-71b81c3f1430","displayNumber":"177-2","instructor":"Kirby Farah","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81083","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: Darwin’s Life & Legacy","department":"Anthropology","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

This course explores the social and scientific contexts that shaped Darwin’s understanding of the world and that shaped a world ready to accept his theories. Students will engage with poetry, literature, art, scientific writing, and pop culture to situate Darwin in his time and examine the long- and short-term implications of his works, good and bad. Crosscutting the sciences and humanities, this course emphasizes the full body of knowledge and experiences that contributes to how we understand ourselves and our origins.<\/p>","tags":"history-1,literature,science"},{"identifier":"ad3e8c70-ae96-49bd-adcb-32bae50bfa1b","displayNumber":"179","instructor":"Jennifer Bloomquist","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80992","satisfiesRequirements":"CD","title":"Language in Multicultural America","department":"Africana Studies","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"What kind of linguistic choices do people make, and why do they make the choices they do? This course entails the study of regional and social varieties of American English from sociolinguistic perspectives, focusing on the forces that influence different types of language variation in the United States. We will investigate the social basis of language, and the linguistic basis of social life; what happens when languages come into contact, how dialects form, how and why language changes and how and why different social groups (age, gender, ethnicity, and class) speak differently. Through the use of film, literature, music and poetry, we will examine issues of linguistic identity, language status, and communicative pride and prejudice, and in doing so will develop a multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary perspective on the role of language in daily life.","tags":"literature,race,culture"},{"identifier":"bb36228a-5a14-4e45-8967-f7641e6a2eec","displayNumber":"181-3","instructor":"Timothy Shannon","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80624","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Whales Tales: Reckoning with the World’s Largest Creatures in History, Literature, and Science","department":"History","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"The lives of humans and whales have been intertwined for millennia. Whaling became the world’s first global industry and the focus of the first international conservation movement. The peculiar biology of whales has fascinated marine biologists and contributed to our understanding of evolution. Writers, filmmakers, and other artists have used whales to reflect on humankind’s place in the cosmos and natural world. In this seminar, we will examine whales and their relationship with humans from a variety of perspectives. Our primary focus will be on the rise and fall of the American whaling industry, c. 1780-1920, but we will also study modern efforts to "save the whales" and representations of whales in popular culture.","tags":"america,literature,environment"},{"identifier":"81744498-6d5d-48f0-9851-f7505065304c","displayNumber":"184-4","instructor":"Jill Titus","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"81078","satisfiesRequirements":"MI-H, FYW","title":"Remembering Slavery and the Civil War Since 1865","department":"Civil War Institute","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"

The American Civil War itself may have ended in 1865, but its fault lines, reverberations, and unfinished business continue to shape American society today. Americans of every generation since Appomattox have approached the war with one eye on the past and the other on the present. This course will provide an introduction to the diverse ways that memories of slavery and the Civil War have shaped American culture and politics from the immediate postwar years through the present day, and look ahead to the discuss possible futures for these narratives of memory. Topics to be discussed include preservation of sites related to slavery & the Civil War; monuments & memorials; the emergence of Juneteenth as a federal holiday; slavery & the Civil War in popular culture; the reparations movement; and the place of Confederate symbols in the 21st century US. Expressing ideas in writing and experimenting with different forms of written expression will be central to this course, and we will devote considerable attention to the process of writing and revising.<\/p>","tags":"memory,conflict,history-1"},{"identifier":"c2984efd-599b-459f-8093-03dac51e29f7","displayNumber":"186","instructor":"Florence Ramond Jurney","additionalCourseInfo":"In addition to the constraints placed on female sexuality, we will examine the ways in which young women are compelled to adhere to a particular notion of beauty, the disparities that exist for women in the workplace, the pressure to marry and to have children, and the mythical notion of "having it all." We will also examine the many ways in which social media has an impact on young women, an impact that complicates their lives to a degree never seen before. ","psCourseNumber":"80416","satisfiesRequirements":"CD","title":"Growing Up Female","department":"French","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"How does a woman create a relationship with men in the #Me Too Era? What does beauty mean in a world of beauty-enhancing apps? How do you navigate the social media scene when it can make or break you? This course will focus on these issues and other pivotal concerns in a young woman’s development from adolescence to the years of early adulthood.","tags":"globalization,literature,gender"},{"identifier":"8511c70b-76f9-4e60-9a93-9c59f41f3054","displayNumber":"186-2","instructor":"Jack Murphy","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80541","satisfiesRequirements":"CD","title":"Foot Fights! Food, Identity, and Conflict in Contemporary Society ","department":"French","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"Food is always about more than just what’s on our plates. It’s a medium of communication used as much to drive wedges among us as it is to foster feelings of community. It’s thus no wonder that food often incites conflict and debate. This seminar examines some of the controversies surrounding food by critically considering the following questions: How did French cuisine come to dominate the global elite food scene in the first half of the 20th century and why is its importance receding today? What explains the rise of foodie culture and what role does it play in maintaining or producing new forms of social distinction? How have industrial methods of food production and processing changed what and how we eat and what are the consequences for our health and for the future of our planet? In what ways has home cooking evolved in recent decades and what does this evolution tell us about gender roles? How does the American food safety net work and in what ways has its implementation shaped definitions of human value and worth? What is culinary tourism? How might this phenomenon reflect or express an entrenchment of local, regional or national identities? Inversely, how might it promote new forms of cosmopolitanism?","tags":"social-justice,globalization,food,culture"},{"identifier":"51c07d5a-ef5c-44b8-b0fa-1ae993a7d62a","displayNumber":"193-3","instructor":"Aristides Dimitriou","additionalCourseInfo":"","psCourseNumber":"80998","satisfiesRequirements":"STS FYW","title":"Science Fiction Beyond Genre: Exploring What it Means to be Human","department":"English","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":"What does it mean to be human? This question inspires some of the most popular science fiction novels and films of our time. And yet, science fiction evokes this question by imagining what it’s like to be non-human, sub-human, or post-human. Sometimes, it leaves the body behind altogether to explore the workings of consciousness in "disembodied" forms. These philosophical speculations of mind and body are often explored in technologically advanced, near-future settings, marked by ecological crises, dystopian regimes, or post-apocalyptic landscapes bereft of sustainable human life. In asking what it means to be human, while pondering the advent of new, potentially disastrous scientific revolutions, science fiction often revisits the historical tensions between Romantic and Enlightenment thought, famously portrayed, for example, in the nineteenth-century works of E.T.A. Hoffman, Mary Shelley, and H.G. Wells. In this course, we will engage with literature and film to push beyond the confines of "genre fiction" and examine the social, technological, and philosophical inquiries behind representations of genetic engineering and cloning; of cyborgs and hybrid life-forms; of orphaned monstrosities and disposable androids. That is, we will focus on what it means to be human, precisely as the human body becomes subject to redefinition. In doing so, we will gauge how science fiction interrogates the social legibility and legitimacy of bodies, thereby exploring how human identity—together with some of its categories, such as class, gender, race, and sexuality—interrogates itself in speculative form","tags":"philosophy-1,technology,literature,film-1,culture"},{"identifier":"666bc6d5-ecbe-4ad2-afc5-14052176a158","displayNumber":"198-2","instructor":"Christopher Fee","additionalCourseInfo":" Designed in collaboration with the Center for Public Service, this course combines the traditional academic component with experiential education through a number of Service-Learning opportunities. Each student will participate in regular service commitments in the local community throughout the semester, and the keystone of the course will be a group Service-Learning trip in October. We will meet and work with many people who are or who have been homeless, as well as quite a few who have dedicated their lives to serving those less fortunate than themselves. If experience is any guide, we will like a great many of the people with whom we will come into contact; we most certainly will learn from all of them.\n\nIn the classroom portion of this course, we will study portrayals of homelessness in popular works of fiction and film in order to refine our understanding of how the American understanding of homelessness has evolved since the Great Depression. Some of these works will reflect common assumptions about the homeless while others may challenge such views, but all will contribute to our understanding of how we as a people face the realities of poverty, homelessness, and social inequities.","psCourseNumber":"80077","satisfiesRequirements":"FYW","title":"Tryin’ to find a way back Home: An Introduction to the Literature and Legacy of Homelessness in America","department":"English","meetingTimes":"","courseDescription":""Homelessness" is a term that conjures up unsavory images in the popular imagination, flat, generic, clichés that owe as much to fear as to fact. The truth is that children account for a shocking proportion of the homeless in America today, as do women fleeing abuse, as do the working poor, many of whom find it impossible to secure affordable housing in many of our cities. If working men and women and school-attending children number among the homeless, why do the stereotypes of the pushy panhandler and the drunken skid-row bum continue to dominate our collective vision of homelessness? Why does this population continue to grow? What can be done to alleviate the circumstances surrounding homelessness in America? Should we act? Should we care?","tags":"social-justice,america,literature,community-based-learning"}]}