SEN1332 The Greatest American Scandals

(Student Instructor: Elizabeth D'Agostino) Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, and O.J. Simpson all have one thing in common: they were the subjects of journalistic scrutiny. In this course, we will focus on groundbreaking U.S. scandals of the past century to examine the role of journalism and its complex relationship with democracy. Students will explore politics, history, business, crime, and ethics, and questions about truth through interactive lectures, guest speakers, and media analysis. We will discuss how journalism informs facets of American culture, including gender roles, race relations, political battles, and institutions of power. After learning about historical events like Watergate, Clinton's impeachment, and the O.J. Simpson trial, students will be able to contextualize current events and ultimately answer the key question of this course: why does journalism matter? Course materials include podcasts, films, and TV shows such as "Slow Burn," "Catch and Kill", and "O.J.: Made in America."

Tuesdays: 6:30-9:00pm

HIS4670 The History and Ethics of Capitalism
(Formerly History of Capitalism)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsThis course deals with the history of capitalism from early modern times to the present. It is concerned not just with the story of capitalist enterprise but with the cultural values and social institutions accompanying capitalism. It addresses the tension as well as the affinity between capitalism on the one hand and, on the other, contextual cultural values and social institutions. It especially focuses on the way that capitalist power subverts as well as supports the free market economy and democratic political processes with which it is often identified.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring

Prerequisites: 3 intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination)

LTA2080 The Literature of Guilt: I'm Sorry for Apologizing so OftenN
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course will examine guilt and how it affects us, both personally and societally. Through both literary and cultural texts, we will study guilt in a number of settings including familial guilt, generational guilt, survival guilt, and societal guilt. Students will be challenged to look at guilt in both its helpful and harmful forms, investigating why we feel the emotion and the effects it can have on us. We will read works by Dante Alighieri, Joseph Conrad, J.M. Coetzee, and Jane Smiley, among others. We will also watch Beloved and We Need To Talk About Kevin as well as the first season of Rectify.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

OIM3610 The Mobile App
(Formerly MIS3610)
2 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

**Students who took this as MIS3610 cannot register for this course**

Have you ever considered building a mobile app as an entrepreneurial venture or for a firm you hope to work for? Do you have an app in process that you would like to make stronger? Are you interested in honing your skills in design thinking, agile methodology and other modern-day approaches to project management and development? Do you want to better understand what it takes to successfully move an application from idea to market? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, this course is for you!*

This project-based course will guide you and your team through the process of producing a strong app idea, assessing the feasibility and viability of that idea, prototyping your app, building a requirements list to hand off to development, entering into a successful development relationship, packaging your app for commercial distribution and marketing your app.

During each session, you will learn about your next project step. You will then apply the learnings both inside and outside of class to advance your project.

You will begin your project with a design thinking exercise. You will then move through your project applying agile principles. We conclude the course with "app pitches" to outside experts who will give you professional feedback on your idea.

*Note: This is not a coding class. Instead, student teams will create app mock-ups in preparation for development and then learn how to form and manage successful development relationships.

Prerequisites: SME2012 or OIM2000

HUM4605 The Nature, Culture and Future of Work
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsThis interdisciplinary course examines work from the standpoints of cultural history and organizational behavior. We will explore work as a marker of identity, work as a cultural construct, and work as an ideological and structural apparatus. The course will be organized around weekly film viewings and readings. The films will frame our exploration of work and serve both as cultural artifacts that represent American ideologies and case studies of particular work situations and perspectives. The readings will offer a range of theoretical and historical views from a variety of disciplines: cultural and film history, organizational behavior, economics, management theory, sociology, and others.

Among the questions the course will address are:
- To what extent does what we do professionally define who we are?
- What, if anything, do we expect of our jobs beyond a paycheck?
- What, if anything, do our jobs expect of us beyond our skill and time?
- What is the difference between work as a job, a career and a calling?
- How do American ideologies conflate professional achievement with success?
- In what ways are some organizational structures more conducive than others to contentment at work?
- What does it mean to opt out of or strive not to work?
- What is the past, present and future of work in America?

Prerequisites: 3 Intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination)

ART4602 The Origins of Modern Art
(Formerly VSA4602 19th Century European Art)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsExamines the social, economic and political changes in 19th century Europe that led to the creation of Impressionism and early modern art. Explores the meaning of modern art by examining the contexts (social, economic, and artistic) in which pioneering artists lived. The class will look briefly at Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism to understand their contributions to Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Art Nouveau and Expressivism with special focus on major artists, sculptors, and architects such as Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Rodin, Claudel, Garnier, and Eiffel who shaped what we now call Modern Art. We will visit local museums with early modern art collections as part of the course in order to see and discuss art "in person".

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Fall, Spring or Summer

Prerequisites: 3 Intermediate liberal arts courses (CVA, LVA, HSS, CSP, LTA in any combination)

SEN1322 The Psychology of Social Media(Senior Instructor: Dylan Goren) The average American now spends 2 hours a day on social media. How has this affected our minds and the way we think? Are we addicted or is this simply the future of how we communicate and interact? Explore these questions and more through the unique lens of modern psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy. This course unveils the behavioral techniques that social media exploits in order to quietly maximize the time and attention you give to it every day. As a class, we will evaluate social media as a persuasive technology and determine whether it is ultimately a useful tool or a toxic habit. Is 2 hours a day too much? Bring your mind to find out.

Course Schedule:
Class 1 - Wednesday, Jan 30
Class 2 - Wednesday, Feb 6
Class 3 - Wednesday, Feb 13
Class 4 - Wednesday, Feb 20
Class 5 - Wednesday, Feb 27
Class 6/Showcase - Wednesday, March 6

Senior-Led Seminars are free, non-credit courses that are taught by seniors at Babson. Upon successful completion of a seminar, students will receive a grade of non-credit pass (NCP) and the course will appear on your transcript at the end of the semester.

MDS4600: The Rhetoric of Social Media

4 advanced liberal arts credits

Drawing upon the reading, writing, speaking, and research skills developed in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Foundation and Intermediate Courses, in this intensive seminar students will turn a rhetorical eye towards the ever-evolving world of social media. While our personal uses of various social media platforms will be up for discussion, this course asks students to take a deeper look at the structures of power involved in everything from memes used to brighten someone's day to large campaigns and avenues for cultural and social change.

Through course readings, in-class discussion, and both primary and secondary research, students will critique the rhetorical functions and effectiveness of various issues in social media. We will review key terms from Babson's foundational writing courses (see especially: discourse communities, audience, conventions, ethics, circulation), deepen our understanding of how such terms developed, and make connections amongst what we're seeing around us today (think: from Aristotle to Ariana Grande).

In order to achieve a deeper understanding of the rhetoric of social media, this course will be split into four units: (1) Social Media Histories; (2) Social Media Discourse Communities; (3) Social Media and [Fake] News; and (4) and Social Media Futures. Each unit will challenge students both analytically and creatively.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 3 intermediate liberal arts (HSS, LTA, CSP)

LTA2082 The Sexual Renaissance: Forms / Concepts / Cultures
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course offers a bifold introduction to the studies of sex and literature in the English Renaissance. Reading a diverse range of literary and cultural texts, we will explore how writers imagined sex and its meanings, as well as how differences of language, genre, and literary form help to shape erotic possibilities, both in that era and our own. Ranging from pastoral poems to prose narratives, allegorical dramas to personal essays, metaphysical conceits to English and Italian pornography, we will encounter not only a variety of representational forms but of erotic arrangements, scenarios, practices, and fantasies. Situating these works in their own historical and cultural contexts, we will examine the "sexual Renaissance" on its own terms; consider how modern conceptual categories may inform-and inhibit-our capacity to understand the sexual past; and, throughout, discuss the relevance of these works to our understanding of sex today. Readings will focus on primary texts. Assignments will include weekly written responses and quizzes, a group presentation, an exam, and a creative final project. Interested students will allowed to compose short essays in lieu of the exams. No prior experience or knowledge is necessary to enroll.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

LTA2090 The Short Story
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsWhat gives a great short story its undeniable power? Some writers strive to make their stories pack a punch, while others create more reflective works, exploring interiors; in either approach, the impacts of a great story are both immediate and lasting.

In this course, you will read a range of forms, from early tales to modern experiments. You will compare the intentions and effects of short stories that create entire worlds and those that are more elliptical and fragmentary, though they hint at more. You will learn the formal elements of the short story, such as characterization and point-of-view, and also trace the development of literary theories, those critical lenses that will increase your understanding and enrich your appreciation. Reading writers from several continents - from the famous, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Alice Munro, to the lesser-known, like Lucia Berlin and Edward P. Jones - you will follow stories of a family murdered senselessly by the side of the road, a bishop languishing in his final illness, and many more; you will even encounter a talking cat who proves to be careless in spilling the family's secrets.

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring