Between 1950 and 1980, the United States witnessed a mobilization of radical social movements led by Black, Latinx, Asian American , and Native American communities. In addition to these racial movements, gender and sexuality were themselves having parallel and intersecting calls for equality. The legacy of this activism lives on in popular memory, as names like Malcolm X and the Black Panthers have become iconic – even controversial – in the American mainstream. [click to learn more]

There is no more powerful force in contemporary American culture than celebrity. Fortunes rest upon it. Hope depends upon it. But we barely understand it. What, we ask in this class, makes a celebrity? Is celebrity a kind of self-marketing? That is, can you will yourself to become one? Can you plan a route to celebrity? Or is it bestowed by an audience, given to the famous and the talented by their fans? What kind of power can a celebrity wield? [click to learn more]

Have you ever wondered: Why is the (weak) woman almost always saved by a man? Why are we presumed to consider disability and disfigurement “scary”? What character traits define the “monstrous”? Why does the (black) sidekick always die first? In this course, we will explore how horror films reflect the values, mores and fears of a collective unconscious, with a special emphasis on the ways in which racial stereotyping and gender violence are often deployed as horror film tropes. [click to learn more]

Death is universal. Whether it is burying an early human in a cave or a king deep down in a chamber surrounded by wonderful things, throughout history human interactions with the dead have been extremely diverse.

In order to understand what this diversity can tell us about life and death in ancient societies, we will survey major archaeological discoveries, burials from the ancient world including Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, China, and Ancient Americas. [click to learn more]

Do you know what gender, sexuality, and queerness mean? These three concepts are increasingly important, not only for analysis in a wide variety of academic disciplines but also for how these constructs impact lived experiences. For example, in your future undergraduate studies, you will find discussions and applications of these concepts in not only the Humanities (literature, philosophy, history, queer theory), social sciences (such as anthropology, sociology, political science), but also life sciences (such as biology and public health). [click to learn more]

The field of data science will continue to impact every industry in the 21st century: health, government, transportation, energy, technology, weather, politics, and many more. A hands-on, gentle introduction to data science is critical for today's students to impact tomorrow's workforce. While data science is an important skill, it's complexity will soon lead to the modification of the phrase "Well, it's not rocket science" to "Well, at least it's not data science".

This course will focus on the nation's capitol, Washington DC, to highlight the importance of data science skills as they relate to every sector in the government: weather and environment, energy, defense, transportation, health, economy, and others. [click to learn more]

No ancient world monument is more iconic than the Egyptian pyramids of Giza. Have you ever wondered why Egyptian pharaohs chose to build their tombs as pyramids? What does the interior of a pyramid look like? Are there any secret chambers still awaiting discovery under the Great Sphinx?

In this course, we will shed light on famous pyramid mysteries and differentiate modern myths from the truth. Explore 3D reconstructions of ancient pyramid towns, join a real archaeological excavation in Giza for a day, and discover what was like to live by the pyramids in 2500 BCE without leaving your home! [click to learn more]

This course is a two-week long introduction to the basics of Computer Aided Design (CAD). CAD software will be used to help you create solutions for engineering design challenges presented in this course.

Engineering has changed tremendously in the past few decades. Some of the most notable changes can be found in how computers are used by engineers to quickly develop and communicate ideas. Recent advances in the technology of computers and software have made using Computer Aided Design (CAD) central to the art of Engineering. [click to learn more]

She speaks in spells and incantations, is occasionally seen riding a broomstick or stirring a cauldron, and curses enemies and unlucky strangers alike. She is typically portrayed as white - though also sometimes green - and lives apart from society, either alone in the woods or among a coven of her own. Many in Western society know her by the name “witch.” This course explores depictions of witches and witchcraft in popular culture, which have been maintained in Anglo-American and European cultural imaginaries for hundreds of years. [click to learn more]

“Abandon the cultural myth that all female friendships must be bitchy, toxic, or competitive. This myth is like heels and purses—pretty but designed to SLOW women down.” This provocative line from Roxane Gay’s “13 Rules for Female Friendship” begs the question: Why do women make the best of friends, but the worst of enemies?

In this course, we will look at how female friendship is represented in film, fiction, and television to challenge the cultural myth that women cannot be friends, instead positing friendship between women as a source of solidarity. [click to learn more]

Is comedy possible in the twenty-first century? Ours is an age of disappointment, plagued by unprecedented violence and crisis, and the familiar tools of satire (insult and shame chief among them) have all but lost their edge in the face of daily life. But does this necessarily mean that ours is a tragic age? This course will give us an opportunity to investigate the conditions that allow a tragic situation to become a comedic one.

We will consider a body of work that finds in comedy a form uniquely capable of responding to the traumas of life in the twenty-first century. [click to learn more]

Every day, we encounter more language that can’t be page-turned away: advertisements spring on us with hidden or disabled “close” buttons, posts on social media allure collaboration, and notifications strut unasked onto our phone screens. As this crowd of digitized texts grows thicker about our heads, we relearn to read in accordance with its idiosyncrasies. Mobile text becomes more legible than static text. And so it is urgent that literature, too, moves.

This course will teach students to code mobile texts in the form of web-based creative works. [click to learn more]

What can the grotesque, monstrous, and even alien creatures found lurking in an extraordinary range of literature across many centuries reveal about the different ways humans have imagined what it means to be human? How have we constructed the conceptual boundary between what we qualify as human and what we categorize as robotic, animal, android, or alien? What, in the end, makes the human “human”?

Join me as we dive into these and related questions in a distinctive way through the gamified structure of this course. [click to learn more]

This course considers how law and literature contribute jointly to our sense of justice and our understanding of injustice. Through novels, poetry, film, legal writings, and legal opinions, we examine how law and literature create interrelated narratives that shed light on issues like identity, sexuality, injury, policing, speech, and silence. Together, we will work to discover connections between interpretation and world-making—that is, between how we read, respond to, understand a story or event, and how this understanding generates our sense of justice and our ideas of responsibility. [click to learn more]

America has been described as a melting pot and a nation of immigrants, but what does it mean to be an “American” and to claim an “American” identity? This course will introduce students to the study of personal and group identity in U.S. literature and culture. Crossing multiple genres, historical periods, and cultural forms (fiction, film, TV), we will examine a diverse range of texts by African American, Asian American, Chicano/Latino, Jewish American, and Native American writers. [click to learn more]

What makes a monster? Is it their strange-looking body or is it the unfamiliar world they represent? In this course, we make sense of the monstrous in literature, film, and graphic novels by seeing how “the monster” reflects society’s anxieties about the unknown, the threatening, and the unimaginable. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,” says horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, and monsters often confirm our worst fears. [click to learn more]

How can art not just look good, but do good? How can science not just help us know, but help us act and feel? This course combines concepts in environmental studies, ecologically-based art, and leadership, with a mission to develop socially responsible and creative leaders.

Throughout history, art has reflected our relationship with nature—from cave etchings, landscape paintings, wildlife photography, and land art, to today’s climate change artwork. [click to learn more]

History often celebrates the victors—especially when they’re also the historians. In this course, we’ll focus on the silences in historical narratives. What is remembered and celebrated, and what is forgotten? What is the role of power in the production of history? We’ll explore these questions by looking at archives, public monuments, and museums. We’ll discuss how activist histories are recorded, who decides where monuments go, and whether or not museums are neutral. [click to learn more]

This course will look at the major art movements from the 1880s to the present. We will focus on the dominant trends in art making as well as some of the critical theory that surrounds it.

From the Impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, the Cubist work of Pablo Picasso, and the Pop art of Andy Warhol, this course will examine what it means for a work of art to be Modern. Our examples will be drawn from a variety of artistic styles and media including, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography, to name just a few. [click to learn more]

Cinema has profoundly influenced American life in the twentieth century and twenty-first century thus far. As an industry that determined the evolution of visual media across the globe, it shapes the way we see, think, and talk about the world.

How do we consider Hollywood film beyond a notion of mere entertainment and through a critical lens? This course introduces the study of American cinema through several perspectives: as a mass medium with a robust economy and mode of production; as an aesthetic form with a distinct filmic language; as a cultural institution that mediates contemporary issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class alongside questions of history and representation; and, yes, as a venue for socialization and entertainment.

We will survey historical changes throughout Hollywood, from the introduction of sound to the deployment of mass production and movie stars, from its rivalry with television to its battle with censorship and independent film. [click to learn more]

Television’s modes of content creation, distribution, and consumption are changing rapidly. Some would argue that television has usurped film as the preeminent visual medium of our age, while others would suggest that television and film are converging to the point that these very labels are becoming meaningless. Regardless, alternative modes of production and distribution allow for a plethora of diverse shows that no longer have to “play in Peoria.” Concurrently, issues of race, gender, and class on television are more prominent and pervasive than ever. [click to learn more]

This course is designed as a general introduction to film analysis. The main objective will be to help students develop the analytic tools necessary for understanding how meaning is constructed in narrative cinema.

Using examples from classical and contemporary Hollywood cinema as well as films from around the globe, we will introduce vocabularies and techniques used in serious writing about, and the analysis of, narrative cinema. [click to learn more]

The rapid influx of digital technology and so-called “new media” around the new millennium has led some to suggest that cinema—conceived as an analog technology experienced in public space as a mid-twentieth century cultural phenomenon—is dead or dying.

This course takes up this suggestive claim to ask what it might mean to live through a moment of media transition from the analog twentieth century cinema to the digital twenty-first new media landscape, especially as it relates to the lives and daily experiences of students themselves living through such a transition. [click to learn more]

In this asynchronous online class an Emmy Award-winning journalist will provide you with the tools to enhance your ability to ask and answer these critical questions. Over our four weeks together, we will work toward developing a formula for how the media can work to regain public trust and faith during this trying phase in American history. At the same time, we will be learning how we can become skillful and accurate fact-checkers, as well as educated and insightful news consumers and sharers. [click to learn more]

One might believe in gender equality and participate in different gender equality movements, and yet still exhibit gender bias in one’s behaviors without being aware of it. Similarly, one might believe in racial equality, and yet still experience anxiety when walking past African American people. It is very likely that the manifested gender bias and anxious reaction are due to implicit bias. How should we understand implicit bias? [click to learn more]

Feminism is one of the leading social justice movements of our day. This course uses the tools of analytic philosophy to investigate a diverse range of feminist issues. Topics include: the metaphysics of sex and gender, sexual orientation, and systems of social oppression such as sexism and misogyny, bodily autonomy, consent, reproductive rights, and the impact of social movements aimed at gender equality and justice.

This is an introductory course that applies the tools and methods of analytic philosophy to feminist issues. [click to learn more]

Where do you spend most of your waking hours nowadays? Online, of course! Glued to smartphone screens for updates from friends, family, or the news, staying safe in zoom classrooms, or relaxing in online gaming communities – almost every aspect of our lives has become digital. Such a revolutionary change in our daily lives is not without consequences, least of all on how we get involved politically. From #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo to the Alt-Right, QAnon, and #Gamergate: Some of the most high profile political moments in recent years first gained traction online. [click to learn more]

Comic books have always reflected the politics of the day. Currently, one of the most popular iterations of comic book stories is the series of movies and television shows known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). By examining the politics of these movies, we can better understand our own politics. The course will use a combination of MCU films and political science readings to explore topics including American exceptionalism, regulation, and representation, and will conclude with an independent research project.

We will cover three main themes of political science that are present in the MCU. [click to learn more]

How does culture influence the way we interact each other? Does Western psychology differ from Eastern psychology? What are implicit and explicit biases, and how do we recognize them? What does it mean to be in an inter-racial relationship? There are so many mundane questions that arise when we think about culture in psychology. This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to general theories and methods related to culture and diversity.

This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to general theories and methods related to culture and diversity. [click to learn more]

What does it mean to know yourself? Why is love so painful? What is the source of man’s belief in God? How does history repeat itself? Why do our dreams haunt us? Is there a difference between men and women? What is an Oedipus complex, and do you have one? Sigmund Freud devoted his life to answering these questions.

In this course, we will dive deep into the theories of psychoanalysis to explore how Freud’s work shapes our modern understanding of dreams, desires, love, sexuality, neurosis, religion, and society. [click to learn more]

Have you ever wondered if you are spending too much time on social media? In "Media and Mental Health," we will explore and evaluate the ways in which media intersect with mental health and wellbeing. We will also explore the ways psychology and psychological treatment is (mis)-represented in the popular media.

Understanding the role of the media on mental health and wellbeing is more important than ever before. [click to learn more]

Systems of power and privilege impact us all. Join us in taking a social scientist’s lens to the ever-woven threads of racism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, and classism to understand their massive impact on global health and individual implicit biases. The foundation of this course will prepare students with skills to become a critical consumer of social science research. Beyond just learning the science behind these topics, we will promote and explore the concept of cultural humility while facilitating self-awareness.

Cultural humility is an attitude and way of being in and responding to the world that encourages individuals to not elevate their own world view over others. [click to learn more]

Communicating effectively is an essential professional and personal skill. This course will help you achieve greater confidence and expertise as a communicator while further developing your unique voice and style.

Over the course of two weeks we will examine all aspects of the communication process: how to compose effective, interesting speeches, establish meaningful connections with audiences of any size (whether that audience consists of a small group or fills an auditorium) and master the critical art of persuasive speaking. [click to learn more]

What does a 2500 year old Greek play have to do with the feminist movement, prison abolition, or police brutality? From its beginnings, theatre has always served as a forum for people to engage in political debate and even protest. In this course we'll be learning about the history Greek Theatre and its relevance in today’s political arena. Our course will begin with the history and influence of Greek theatre on today’s theatre conventions -- including a section on mask making, where we can make our own Greek acting masks! [click to learn more]

Humans not only communicate through stories, we build our lives around them. We inherit stories, invent them through both necessity and imagination; we justify wars based on stories, we create borders based on stories, we make stories out of love and family and fear and longing and joy. The ability to focus on a story, to follow a line of curiosity, or inquiry, has powerful implications for discovery and for how we shape the future of our world. [click to learn more]

Drawing Intensive introduces students of all levels to a totally immersive drawing experience. This course gives students a head start in preparing for college art classes by creating a more advanced, unique portfolio that shows a range of drawing skills. Observational, imaginative, planning, and process drawing will all be covered, while allowing students the space to nurture their own unique vision. Students will receive group critique, one-on-one feedback to hone technique, and the freedom to experiment. [click to learn more]