Course Descriptions

Special Topics courses include ad hoc courses on various selected topics that are not part of the regular curriculum, however they may still fulfill certain curricular requirements. Special topics courses are offered at the discretion of each department and will be published as part of the semester course schedule - view available sections for more information. Questions about special topics classes can be directed to the instructor or department chair.

Placement determined by score on national exams or passing grade in ENWR 101.

Fulfills Global Diversity requirement.

Offered at the discretion of the department.

This course will examine social justice and human rights issues in global and local contexts through critical engagement with world cinema. We will interrogate the relationship between the aesthetics and the politics of world cinema within multiple cinematic traditions (e.g. Neo-Realism, Third Cinema, Indigenous Media, etc.) and genres (narrative cinema, documentary, etc.). We will focus on the intersections between the global and the local, between history and memory, and between the self and the "other." Students will apply their knowledge of the critical frameworks and themes learned through the course to their examination of similar issues in their community.

Roles, Politics and Persuasion: How to Act in the Business World.

In this course, students will work in teams and on individual projects to simulate the business environment and create learning opportunities on how to act in a business setting. Success in the business environment, whether a corporation, start-up, or non-profit, depends on soft skills and communication to a large degree. The Harvard Business School, in fact, defines intelligence as knowing how to act in different situations. The course applies to those in business, the social sciences and the arts and will help them learn the fundamentals of behavior, roles, communication and how to act under different challenging business settings.

This course is designed to provide data literacy skills through practical application of data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings as it relates to research in the arts. Students will perform internet research, analyze their findings in relation to other published studies and prior year's data, and create a presentation suitable for an academic conference. Students will gain valuable knowledge and awareness which they can take into their professional lives and apply as advocates for the underrepresented.

A Shared Space - Animal and Human Geography and History.

This course focuses on an examination of how spatially situated human-animal relations have changed through time. Looking critically at the relationships that exist among people, animals, and the landscape this course engages students in the study of the ways in which interrelationshipss between humans and animals have been constructed over time and space. It also illustrates how the study of animals - past, present, even mythical - demands critical analyses of the three main fields it brings together, anthrozoology, history, and geography, enriching all three.

This course will seek to weave together the problem and question of God with historical case studies illuminating humanity's capacity for cruelty, atrocity, and genocide. By exploring some of the leading philosophical and theological arguments regarding the problem of evil, for example, alongside real historical examples, we will force the class to confront the reality that neither discipline has all the answers to the difficult questions posed by the human potential for evil.

Course will be offered every two years, in the fall semester.

In a seminar setting, a discussion of preselected philosophical issues or important texts (seminar topics change from year to year). Required of all philosophy majors and minors, but open to any student who had a previous philosophy course and who has obtained the permission of the Philosophy Department.