Thinking about being an entrepreneur or working at a startup? Good news is that every Davidson class will deepen your abilities as an entrepreneur. We’ve curated a few of those classes in this list.
Tell Your Story
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[su_spoiler title=”COM 101- Principles of Oral Communication – Leslie A” style=”fancy”] Examination and implementation of both classical and contemporary principles of effective oral communication. Individual presentations informed by readings, discussions, lectures, and examinations of key speeches. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DIG 270 – Digital Maps, Space & Place – Kabala J” style=”fancy”]Space and place – visualized by maps – condition nearly every aspect of our lived experience. Our lives would be very difficult without geospatial markers, (and is very difficult when they’re a challenge to decipher – think the numbering system in Chambers!). It’s almost impossible to imagine everyday experiences, like driving to the store, going for a run on the river run trail, or even locating the best local coffee shop without access to maps. These activities are made all the more easy by the dynamic, interactive digital maps that track our positions relative to the sites that matter to us.This is a methodology class designed to introduce students to the theories and practices of digital mapping. We will explore space, place and geography through the physical space of Davidson College, using maps of the campus produced throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, contemporary images of campus, and cartographic imaginaries of what the campus could be. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with the reasons for studying maps, the tools needed for geospatial analysis, how to embed and analyze geographical information, and how to link historical maps to modern day geographies. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”MUS 265 – Intro Digital Music Comp – Stasack” style=”fancy”]An approach to music composition using the platform of digital technology. Students will learn to implement contemporary compositional processes through the use of digital tools. Of particular emphasis is exploring the world of sound and its organization into meaningful and aesthetically coherent forms without the technical limitations of acoustic execution. Each student will create a final piece that will be realized in a group concert at the end of the semester. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 201 – Professional Writing – Campbell S” style=”fancy”]This course explores techniques and types of professional writing, including developing a professional web presence and writing resumes, informational publications, and proposals common to for-profit, non-profit, and technical communities. This course will emphasize the skills and concepts necessary to engage in professional writing contexts, including how to construct and manifest ethos (the writer’s character) through careful document design, research strategies, and professional representation of self in print and digital environments and how to collaborate with others in subdividing and sequencing tasks with considerable research and writing components. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 301 – Writing Nonfiction Prose – Miller P” style=”fancy”]This workshop-driven course pursues the advanced study of nonfiction in a variety of genres in the arts and sciences (e.g. science/nature writing, the review, food writing, travel writing). In each genre studied, students read professional model essays, write an essay in the genre, and respond to one another’s work. For the final independent project, students submit an article for publication. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 301B – Creative Nonfiction – Lewis C” style=”fancy”]The core of this class is the writing workshop, in which students review of one another’s work develops objectivity on their own writing and essential editorial skills. In preparation for drafting each writing assignment, students read and discuss model essays representing such approaches as description, scene-setting, interviewing, analysis, argumentation, story-telling, personal narrative, and art reviewing. At the end of the semester, students craft longer essays on topics of their choice. The course also features attention to style, voice, and key choices that constantly face a working writer. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 301B – Creative Nonfiction – Campbell” style=”fancy”]In “Why I Write,” Joan Didion argues that “In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind” (n.p.). Writing creative nonfiction, to expand on Didion’s description, means discovering, creating, and “saying I” through writing and revising. Thus, English 301is substantially individualized: you will set and work toward specific goals. To complement these individual efforts, the class will explore connections between critical reading, careful observation, and effective writing. Overall, English 302 emphasizes the entire composing process and relies heavily on your contributions and collaborations. My course goal is to demonstrate that understanding and addressing expectations and responses–both as writers and as readers–to writing helps us create nonfiction that entertains, informs, moves, and provokes. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 306 – Digital Scholarship – Churchill S” style=”fancy”]For spring 2018, students must take ENG 393A and ART 331. Register for 2-credit ENG 393/ART 331: Word Art/Printmaking in Japan. We live in a highly visual culture. To be literate, we need to read and interpret words, images & the interplay between them, both in print and online. This course examines print & digital texts that combine words & images. We will study some of the most complex and subtle word/image texts, focusing on Japanese masters and genres such as haiku, political woodblock prints, manga, and anime. Word-Art is a hybrid course: a study of words & images, a combination of critical & creative writing, and an investigation into print & digital forms. The Spring 2018 course will be interlinked with Professor Tyler Starr’s ART 331: Printmaking – Japan. Students must sign up for both courses and will receive 2 courses credits. Students will create their own books using paper from Japan, create digital facsimiles, and take a field trip to Washington, DC, during cherry blossom season. While ostensibly, ENG 393 will emphasize writing and digital publication, and ART 331 will focus on images and printmaking, the pairing of the two courses will deconstruct word/image, print/digital, and East/West binaries through multimedia investigations that require interdisciplinary approaches and encourage cross-fertilization. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 393 – Film Theory – Miller P” style=”fancy”]This course explores theoretical approaches to fiction and nonfiction film, television, video and other media. Though no production experience is required, we will make short storyboards and videos, and students have the option to make a video as a final project. We then consider “ists” and “isms,” including realism and reality TV; modernism; postmodernism; materialism; evolutionary criticism, and Freudianism and gender theory. Movies we may consider: Modern Times, Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, Bicycle Thieves, Star Wars, Shane, Out of the Past, Waking Life, No Country for Old Men, Man with the Movie Camera, Un Chien Andalou, and a variety of shorter videos. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”FMS 321 – Interactive Digital Narratives – Sample M” style=”fancy”]A close study of selected video games using an interdisciplinary blend of methodologies culled from cultural studies, film and media studies theory, literary criticism, and history. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 292 – Documentary Film – Miller P” style=”fancy”]The course will first examine the modes of the documentary genre, often described as expository, observational, interactive, and reflexive. For each mode we will read relevant history and theory, and watch representative documentaries. Students will then make a series of short documentaries as a means of understanding how these modes affect both the production and reception of a documentary. We also consider more specific sub-genres of documentary such as science/nature, politics/protest, biography, and mockumentary. [/su_spoiler]
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Run The Numbers
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[su_spoiler title=”BIO 240 – Biostats for Life Scientists – Pittman S” style=”fancy”]Probability, descriptive statistics, and proper application, interpretation, and reporting of inferential statistics for biological research. Instruction in experimental design and use of statistical and graphics software. Recommended for pre-med and pre-veterinary students as well as those who plan to enroll in Biology group investigation or independent study courses. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ECO 101 – Introductory Economics – Fitz D” style=”fancy”]Theories and institutions that organize and direct economic activities in contemporary society. Covering both microeconomics and macroeconomics, prepares students for understanding domestic and international economic issues, and serves as a foundation for further work in economics. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ECO 105 – Stats & Basic Econometrics – Martin D” style=”fancy”]Application of probability and statistics to economic analysis. Topics include: probability rules, discrete and continuous random variables, confidence intervals, hypothesis tests, correlation, and regression. Spreadsheet software is utilized. An economics research paper is a major component of the course. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”HIS 207 – Computational Methods in History – Kabala J” style=”fancy”] Computational Methods in History [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”MAT – Calculus I and Modeling – Neidinger R” style=”fancy”]An introduction to the differential and integral calculus of algebraic, trigonometric, exponential, and inverse trigonometric functions with applications including graphical analysis, optimization, and numerical methods. An emphasis on investigating mathematical approaches to describing and understanding change in the context of problems in the life sciences. Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought distribution requirement.Prerequisites:Assumes previous exposure to (not proficiency in) some calculus concepts. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”MAT 381 – Game Theory & Math Finance – Yerger C” style=”fancy”]Study of topics of interest in Mathematics. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 201 – Social Statistics – Delia Deckard” style=”fancy”]KaufmanSociologists and other social scientists must describe and interpret social facts in order to make sense of the world around them. To do this, they often rely on the analysis of quantitative data using statistical methods. This course acts as a primer to sociological statistical analysis and students will learn to find and access social data, summarize patterns in that data, represent these patterns graphically, and explore relationships between different variables. Topics include descriptive measures, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, chi-square, correlation, and regression. This course is designed as a gateway to quantitative sociological research, and emphasis is on practice and implementation, with students also learning to use SPSS software.Satisfies the Mathematical and Quantitative Thought distribution requirement. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”BIO 240 – Biostats for Life Scientists – Peroni P” style=”fancy”]Probability, descriptive statistics, and proper application, interpretation, and reporting of inferential statistics for biological research. Instruction in experimental design and use of statistical and graphics software. Recommended for pre-med and pre-veterinary students as well as those who plan to enroll in Biology group investigation or independent study courses. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”POL 201 – Methods/Statistics Pol Sci – O’Geen” style=”fancy”]The framework of social science analysis, and the use of statistics for studying political problems. Topics range from research design and hypothesis testing to correlation and multiple regression. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ECO 320 – Psychology & Economics – Foley M” style=”fancy”]Incorporation of psychological insights into economic models, with emphasis on empirical evidence. Also known as behavioral economics. Analysis of how individuals depart from a standard economic model in three ways: 1) nonstandard preferences, such as procrastination, 2) nonstandard beliefs, such as overconfidence about one’s ability, and 3) nonstandard decision making, such as framing effects and the roles of social pressure and peer influences. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DIG 210 – Data Culture – Mundy O” style=”fancy”]”Data” is often considered to be the domain of scientists and statisticians. But with the proliferation of databases across nearly all aspects of modern life, data has become an everyday concern. Bank accounts, FaceTime records, Snapchat posts, Xbox leaderboards, CatCard purchases, your DNA-at the heart of all them is data. To live today is to breathe and exhale data, wherever you go, online and off. And at the same time data has become a function of daily life, it has also become the subject of-and vehicle for-literary and artistic critiques. This course explores the role of data and databases in contemporary culture, with an eye toward understanding how data shapes the way we perceive-and misperceive-the world. After historicizing the origins of modern databases in 19th century industrialization and census efforts, we will survey our present-day data landscape, considering data mining, data visualization, and database art. We will encounter nearly evangelical enthusiasm for “Big Data” but also rigorous criticisms of what we might call naïve empiricism. The ethical considerations of data collection and analysis will be at the forefront of our conversation, as will be issues surrounding privacy and surveillance.Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Communication Studies. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”PHI 200 – Symbolic Logic – Studtmann P” style=”fancy”]Systematic study of formal reasoning. Focus on the representation and evaluation of arguments in propositional and predicate logic. Additional topics vary, and may include meta-logic, modal logic, and non-classical logics. [/su_spoiler]
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Find The Market
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[su_spoiler title=”ANT 291 – Social Networks & Social Media – Lozada E” style=”fancy”]This course introduces students to the theories and methods necessary for doing research in digital anthropology. Digital anthropology is the study of the impact of information technology on social relationships and human culture. Because of advancements in information and communication technology (as well as globalization), the everyday life of the people and communities that we study are increasingly being shaped by cyberspace, digital media and communication, and online social groups. Throughout the semester, students will conduct fieldwork, communicate, and write commentary on the internet, including social media, websites, and digital media production. Emphasis is placed on developing the critical and methodological skills needed for doing fieldwork virtually, but no previous computer programming is expected or required. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”AFR 292 – Fake News Journalism & Ethics – Bailey I” style=”fancy”]Students will be taught how to use journalistic skills and ethics to better harness the power empathy adds to storytelling on extremely sensitive subjects such as race, politics, gender, etc. as well as learn how to navigate the world of political punditry and the growing fake news phenomenon. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”COM 275 – Mass Media and Society – Martinez A” style=”fancy”]This course takes a critical approach to the study of the production and consumption of mass media, focusing on both the media industry in the United States and emerging forms of global media. Drawing upon various media-including television, radio, video games, and the Internet-the course will examine the economic and social organization of mass media, the content of media messages, the relationship between media and the public, the growth of new media technologies, and current dilemmas facing media policy makers. The course assumes that mass media and the industries that produce media products play significant cultural and political roles in contemporary societies. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”POL 330 – Campaign Strategy – Roberts S” style=”fancy”]Analysis of the strategic and ethical dilemmas that political candidates face in election campaigns. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”POL 336 – Politics & The Media – Crowder-Meyer M” style=”fancy”]An assessment of the role mass media plays in American politics with emphasis on systematic as well as individual effects. [/su_spoiler]
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Make The Product
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[su_spoiler title=”CSC 108 – Exploring Computer Science – Ramanujan R” style=”fancy”]An introduction to the study of computational and algorithmic processes and the insight such study provides into age-old questions about human creativity and intelligence, the nature of social networks, evolution and self-replicating systems, mind-body duality, language, and economic systems. Students will learn to read and understand short computer programs in a beginner-friendly language. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”CSC 121 – Programming & Problem Solving – Ramanujan R” style=”fancy”]An introduction to computer science and structured programming, including algorithmic thinking, using control structures, essential data structures, creating functions, recursion, and object-oriented programming. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DIG 240 – Art and Electronic Media – Dietrick J” style=”fancy”]This course explores the relationships between art and electronic media in the 20th and 21st centuries. Focusing on the shift from industrial to information-driven economies, the curriculum outlines digital art’s historical trajectory, from important precursors like photography and early analog examples like video art. Special attention is given to film, gaming, 3D printing, architecture and interdisciplinary art practices. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DIG 245 – Web Art, Design, Code – Mundy O” style=”fancy”]In this course, students will learn to conceptualize, design, and program responsive websites as both an applied and creative practice. Through a combination of technical topics in interface design and development such as usability, coding in HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery, as well as readings and discussions around net-based artworks and historical and cultural concerns surrounding the internet as a communication platform, students will execute interactive projects that are both culturally-relevant and technically sophisticated. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”CSC 110 – Data Science & Society – Heyer L” style=”fancy”]An introduction to methods of data science, including computer programming, data visualization, and statistical analysis. Students will collect, process, analyze, and present data in order to expose and help each other understand issues of social and economic justice. All work will be done in R, a freely available data analysis software package. Not open to students with credit for, or current enrollment in, any course in computer programming or statistics. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”CSC 121 – Programming & Problem Solving – Peck T” style=”fancy”]An introduction to computer science and structured programming, including algorithmic thinking, using control structures, essential data structures, creating functions, recursion, and object-oriented programming. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”CSC 371 – Machine Learning – Ramanujan R” style=”fancy”]A survey of the field of machine learning, with an introduction to the fundamental algorithms in the field and the theory underpinning them. Topics include techniques for regression, classification, ensemble methods, and dimensionality reduction. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ENG 394 – The Avant-Garde – Churchill S” style=”fancy”]A course concerned with avant-garde schools, movements, and strategies, “The Avant-Garde” will include exploration of different genres, media, and cultures, and investigate the relationships between avant-garde practice and theory, artistic innovation and social change, and forms, platforms, and politics. Because of its focus on challenging the white, male domination of the avant-garde with attention to women, queer, and minority poets from modernism to the present day, this course meets the diversity requirement for the English major and qualifies for GSS credit. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”PHY 310 – Electronics & Instrumentation – Yukich J” style=”fancy”]Theoretical and laboratory investigations of analog and digital circuits including diodes, transistors, operational amplifiers, and logic gates. Incorporation of these components in power supplies, oscillators, amplifiers, microcomputer systems, computers and other instruments. Introduction to assembly language and LabVIEW programming provided. Two laboratory periods each week. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”CSC 362 – Data Visualization – Peck T” style=”fancy”]An introduction to the theory and application of graphical representations of data. Topics include: the human visual system, low-level vision processing, attentive vs. preattentive processes, color vision and color map design, interaction, space perception, and visualization design. [/su_spoiler]
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Lead
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[su_spoiler title=”HIS 255 – American Popular Culture – Aldridge D” style=”fancy”]American popular culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include sports, popular music, theatre, motion pictures and television. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”MIL 101 – Leadership & Personal Develop – Ruopp M” style=”fancy”]Introduces students to the personal challenges and competencies that are critical for effective leadership. Students learn how the personal development of life skills such as cultural understanding, goal setting, time management, mental/physical resiliency, and stress management relate to leadership, officership, and the Army profession. Includes instruction in map reading, land navigation, and customs and courtesies of the Army. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”MIL 201 – Innovative Team Leadership – Ruopp M” style=”fancy”]Explores the dimensions of creative and innovative tactical leadership strategies and styles by examining team dynamics and historical leadership theories that form the basis of the Army leadership framework. Students practice aspects of personal motivation and team building in the context of planning, executing, and assessing team exercises and participating in leadership labs. Includes instruction in troop leading procedures, tactical movement, battle drills, and offensive and defensive operations. Prerequisites:MIL 101, which can be taken concurrently. MIL 201 is currently only offered at UNC Charlotte. Participation in leadership lab is required. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”POL 222 – Parties and Interest Groups – Roberts S” style=”fancy”]Analysis of the internal operation of parties and interest groups and their role in the American electoral and legislative process. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”POL 334 – Public Opinion – Crowder-Meyer M” style=”fancy”]Formation, change and measurement of political attitudes. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”POL 336 – Politics & The Media – Crowder-Meyer M” style=”fancy”]An assessment of the role mass media plays in American politics with emphasis on systematic as well as individual effects. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”PSY 101 – General Psychology – Munger M” style=”fancy”]Survey of the current psychology of learning, perception, motivation, intelligence, thinking, and social and abnormal behaviors, with emphasis on the application of scientific methods to psychological investigation and on the biological bases of behavior and experience. Students may be required to participate in experiments or in alternative research experiences. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 210 – Power and Politics – Delia Deckard” style=”fancy”]Power and Politics introduces students to political sociology, and to the study of the production, conservation and distribution of power. We are members of a democratic society: the political system is a reflection of the social system and our collective construction of both legitimate authority and the just exercise of power. For these reasons, the study of power and politics is important both as a way of gaining useful knowledge and as a vehicle for deepening one’s understanding of political sociological theory. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 382 – Men and Masculinities – Kaufman G” style=”fancy”]In this course we will pay close attention to the construction of masculinities and how men both affect and are affected by the current gendered social order. Throughout the course, we will consider how men are enabled or constrained by key social characteristics such as age, race/ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation. In particular, we will address the following issues: the concept of hegemonic masculinity; the gender gap in education; the challenges men face as they move from adolescence to adulthood; masculinities in the workplace; body image among men; male infertility; Black masculinity in popular culture; the criminalization of minority males; and the deterioration of white men’s sense of entitlement. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ANT 310 – Politics, Society, and Culture – Lozada E” style=”fancy”]Examines authority, organization, power, and legitimization of authority using a comparative perspective. Community-based learning model facilitates exploration of environmental justice and grassroots change with an emphasis on the symbolic aspects of power, structural inequity, and social movements. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”COM 280 – Intercultural Communication – Leslie A” style=”fancy”]This course explores issues related to the intercultural communication process. We will consider the important role of context (social, cultural, and historical) in intercultural interactions. We will examine the complex relationship between culture and communication from three conceptual perspectives: the social psychological perspective, the interpretive perspective, and the critical perspective. It is through these three conceptual perspectives that we will strive towards a comprehensive picture of intercultural communication. From applying these approaches to the study of intercultural communication, we will also come to appreciate the complexity and dialectical tensions involved in intercultural interactions. This learning process should enhance self-reflection, flexibility, and sensitivity in intercultural communication which students will likely find useful whether interested in studying or working abroad or simply wanting to become better informed intercultural communicators in our increasingly diverse nation and world. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”COM 218 – Gendered Com in Society – Martinez A” style=”fancy”]Examination of the social construction of gender in both personal relationships and professional contexts. Areas to be explored may include culture, verbal and nonverbal communication, family dynamics and close relationships, education, organizational communication, and roles in media. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”PSY 318 – Psy Research: Social Psy – Good J” style=”fancy”]Research methods and statistical techniques used in social psychology are examined through lecture, laboratory, and field research. Students will gain knowledge in designing multiple types of research studies, as well as implementing a variety of data collection strategies. Scientific writing and ability to understand and critique empirical articles will be emphasized. Course requirements include participation in research as investigators. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”PHI 210 – Games and Decisions – McKeever S” style=”fancy”]Introduction to the formal analysis of games and rational decision-making. Decision under risk, ignorance, and certainty as applied in morals, politics, and religion. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”HIS 142 – The United States since 1877 – Wertheimer J” style=”fancy”]American history since the end of Reconstruction up to the modern day. [/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]
Make Impact For Good
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[su_spoiler title=”EDU 260 – Oppression & Education – Kelly H” style=”fancy”]This course examines various manifestations of oppression in the United States and the questions they raise about inequality and social justice within educational institutions. We will apply methods of critical analysis drawn from anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and psychology to an examination of social issues in the United States educational system. We will examine education as a central site of conflict over the gap between the United States’ egalitarian mission and its unequal structure, processes, and outcomes. Students will rethink contemporary solutions to social diversity in education, develop a social justice framework which emphasizes inequality, and design an institutional ethnographic project as a critical intervention in schools and society. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”PHI 120 – Applied Ethics – Layman D” style=”fancy”]Introduction to the philosophical analysis of contemporary moral controversies. Topics vary, and have included abortion, euthanasia, feminism, world hunger, business ethics, nuclear war, and human rights. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”REL 440 – Religion and Racism – Foley W” style=”fancy”]This seminar will examine the ways religion and racist dogma have helped to shape each other. In particular, it hopes to explore what religion, specifically post-medieval Christianity, has contributed to origin and development of the dogma of white supremacy and, in turn, how the dogma of white supremacy has in turn shaped myth, ritual and practice in both white and non-white religious communities. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 105 – Race, Religion, & Donald Trump – Marti G” style=”fancy”]The purpose of this course is to gain appreciation for sociological analysis at the intersection of race-ethnicity and religion through the life experience of Barack Obama. We will consider a number of topics including the broader and complex effects of race and identity, politics and globalization, faith and community, economics and financial pressures, citizenship and public life, prejudice and discrimination, media and technology, as well as celebrity and symbolic leadership. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 227 – Hip Hop & Urban Sociology – Ewoodzie J” style=”fancy”]Our goal in this course is to interrogate some of the most pressing social problems that face urban Americans, paying particular attention to racial minorities who live in the most impoverished sections. We do so by comparing representations of these locales in hip hop music with social scientific research. We will cover four topics: economic inequality; housing and residential segregation; violence, crime, and punishment; and intimate life. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 260 – Oppression & Education – Kelly H” style=”fancy”]This course examines various manifestations of oppression in the United States and the questions they raise about inequality and social justice within educational institutions. We will apply methods of critical analysis drawn from anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and psychology to an examination of social issues in the United States educational system. We will examine education as a central site of conflict over the gap between the United States’ egalitarian mission and its unequal structure, processes, and outcomes. Students will rethink contemporary solutions to social diversity in education, develop a social justice framework which emphasizes inequality, and design an institutional ethnographic project as a critical intervention in schools and society. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”SOC 275 – Mass Media and Society – Martinez A” style=”fancy”]This course takes a critical approach to the study of the production and consumption of mass media, focusing on both the media industry in the United States and emerging forms of global media. Drawing upon various media – including television, radio, video games, and the Internet – the course will examine the economic and social organization of mass media, the content of media messages, the relationship between media and the public, the growth of new media technologies, and current dilemmas facing media policy makers. The course assumes that mass media and the industries that produce media products play significant cultural and political roles in contemporary societies. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”REL 320 – The Genesis Narrative – Plank K” style=”fancy”]A literary study of the book of Genesis, appropriating midrashic, intertextual, and post-modern strategies of interpretation. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”ANT 373 – Decolonizing Anthro Theory – Bowles L” style=”fancy”]This course examines the theoretical and interpretive perspectives of contemporary anthropologists outside of the US and Europe. Disciplinary issues such as the “crises of representation” alongside the decolonization of the Global South will be explored. Writings that explore the tensions between the universal and particular, theory and practice, power and knowledge and the limits of objectivity and subjectivity will also be discussed. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DAN 282 – Dance, Gender & Sexuality – Bory A” style=”fancy”]Through a transhistorical study of a various styles and forms, this lecture/discussion class examines a variety of issues around gender and sexuality illuminated in the staging, performance, and practice of dance. Understanding dance as a focused site for conceptualizing how bodies make meaning, this course explores the social and historical configuration of dancing bodies and dance’s capacity to form and transform social identities. Course work includes readings, performance viewings, presentations, and written assignments.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DIG 211 – Surveillance Culture – Mundy O” style=”fancy”]This course examines the history of technologies used in surveillance and the implications for human culture and individual expectations of privacy. We will explore themes in quantitative and qualitative tracking methods beginning with Bentham’s Panopticon and the invention of photography, and tracing developments and uses of counting machines, cryptology, and computing, paying particular attention to how these methods preempt contemporary networked and so-called “Big Data” methods such as deep packet searching, social media data science, or the NSA’s Prism program. We will analyze these methods and their intended outcomes and assess their impact in their search to gain knowledge on or control individuals or populations, thwart enemies, or understand demographics in the pursuit of capital. This course will be of interest to students studying media and communications culture, information science, among others. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”DIG 340 – Gender and Technology – Sample M” style=”fancy”]This class explores the relationship between gender and technology in the digital age. We will consider the countless ways modern technology shapes our attitudes toward and experiences of sex, power, play, and work, and even the way digital technology shapes our bodies. Other topics will include the representation of gender in digital media, feminism and protest in digital spaces, queer gaming, and gender performance through social media. [/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”FMS 321 – Interactive Digital Narratives – Sample M” style=”fancy”]A close study of selected video games using an interdisciplinary blend of methodologies culled from cultural studies, film and media studies theory, literary criticism, and history. [/su_spoiler]
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