HSS2418 Introduction to Sociology
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsSociology explains human behavior in terms of group activities. The solidarity of a social group allows group members to work cooperatively towards common goals. But the dark side of group solidarity is that it often leads members to feel hostility towards individuals who are not a part of the group and for non-members to experience feelings of resentment towards the group and its members. How is solidarity achieved? How is the formation of social identity affected by group solidarity? How do groups competing for scarce resources construct a view of their group's needs, hopes, and desires? Where are group members and nonmembers situated in this view of social life? This course examines the relationship between group solidarity, resource scarcity, and the formation of social identity in everyday life.

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

CSP2059 Introduction to Consumer Society
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course addresses both long-standing and emerging debates about consumer society: Who is in control, consumers or advertisers and producers? How has the role of consumers changed in the digital era and with social media? How does consumption help us structure and communicate our identit(y/ies)? In what ways does consumption affect the environment and how does this then changed consumption patterns? How does the consumption of social media shape our lives? Special attention will be paid to the ways in which consumer culture structures division by class, status, gender, and race. Readings will include pieces by Adorno and Horkheimer, Bourdieu, Veblen, Sherman, Khan, Pittman, Duffy, and others.

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

CVA2059 Introduction to Consumer Society
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

This course addresses both long-standing and emerging debates about consumer society: Who is in control, consumers or advertisers and producers? How has the role of consumers changed in the digital era and with social media? How does consumption help us structure and communicate our identit(y/ies)? In what ways does consumption affect the environment and how does this then changed consumption patterns? How does the consumption of social media shape our lives? Special attention will be paid to the ways in which consumer culture structures division by class, status, gender, and race. Readings will include pieces by Adorno and Horkheimer, Bourdieu, Veblen, Sherman, Khan, Pittman, Duffy, and others.

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

HSS2039 Contemporary AfricaA
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course is an interdisciplinary introduction to contemporary Africa. After a brief examination of the precolonial and colonial periods, it focuses on a variety of current topics. These topics include development challenges of education and health, regional security, gender, human rights, and environmental governance. Connecting present state of the continent and its past, the course ends by examining possible futures. Focused broadly on scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, the course will also draw on the arts, literature, and sports in order to provide a fuller picture of the continent.

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

CSP2013 Introduction to Sustainability
4 CreditsThis case-based course introduces students to the basic concepts and tools that the liberal arts (science, social science, and the humanities) bring to a consideration of sustainability. Students develop the cross-disciplinary awareness and collaboration skills needed to approach environmental issues holistically.

Prerequisites: (RHT and AHS) or (FCI and WRT 1001)

HSS2003 Latin American History
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course will be an introduction to the main themes, processes, and ideas in Latin American history since 1810. The central focus will be on Mexico, the Caribbean, and the ABC countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile), without neglecting the main thinkers and major historical events from other countries. It will develop familiarity with critical developments in modern Latin American history such as slavery, modernization, neocolonialism, racism, and migratory flows. At times it will take a global perspective to situate Latin America in its proper international context, paying close attention to US-Latin American relations. In other words, the main goals of the course will be to cultivate an understanding of key concepts, developments, and issues in the region's history, while offering a sense of Latin America's human and cultural diversity.

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

CSP2020 Media Studies
(Formerly CVA2020)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits

If you took and passed CVA2020, you cannot take CSP2020, as these two courses are equivalent

This course explores the structure and functions of the mass media in contemporary society, looking at social, cultural, economic and political issues relevant to television, film, radio, recorded music, books, newspapers, magazines, internet and new communication technologies. Exploration of relationships between media and individual, media structure, media policy, law and ethics, and globalization of communications media is emphasized.

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

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

MDS4620 Mediating the Wild
4 Advanced Liberal Arts CreditsWilderness is disappearing faster than ever due to humans' radical transformation of the earth. Yet, consumer cultures have developed an ever so strong desire for the wild. In the industries that sell "Wildness", media have played a large role in telling it, showing it, measuring it, and manufacturing it. This course focuses on the ideologies, discourses, and technologies that mediate between contemporary consumers and the disappearing Wildness. We will explore a variety of cultural phenomena including the usage of smart phones, selfie sticks, and Go Pros in ecotourism, backpacking cultures, and outdoor adventure sports industries, the appropriation of drones and GPS-tracking devices by environmentalists, wildlife poachers, and virtual/augmented reality game designers, the trending of the "wild food" diet and the NGO campaigns protesting it, as well as the adoption of sound recordings of wild landscapes as new age music therapies. This course incorporates a multicultural and "multinatural" view to look at technology's role in representing, mediating, and recreating nature. We also address difficult ethical questions such as: How to maintain a proper distance with the Wild? Should we tame it, save it and thereby annihilating it? Or should we leave it on its own terms, and thereby letting it live or die?

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

HSS2034 Modern European History: Wars, Nationalities, Identities and Human Rights
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course features The French Revolution, The Russian Revolution, World War I, World War II and contemporary ethnic conflicts to examine the processes and consequences of modernization and nationalism in Europe and Russia. At the end of the 18th Century, the individual and the nation state were constructed as sources of meaning and identity and were legitimated naturally and politically. At the beginning of the 21st Century, these legitimations are still uncertain and under construction. We will focus on the concepts of human, civic, political and natural rights to study this problematic history.

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

ANT4606 Modern Israel: Conflicts in Context
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The goal of this seminar is to provide a broad, anthropological context for Israeli culture, politics, and history on a global scale. Through a combination of scholarly texts, films, artwork, and other works of fiction and non-fiction from both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, we will consider the conception, founding, and current conflicts surrounding the state of Israel, its occupied territories, and the Palestinian people. Our topics will cover the diasporic history of the Jewish people, the international optics of Israeli self-determination, the internal ethnic and cultural conflicts of modern Israeli society, as well as the history of Palestinian resistance and the current state of suspension in Gaza and the West Bank. Students will be expected to emerge with a nuanced understanding of the past and current political realities of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and an appreciation for the complexities, ambiguities, and possible futures of Israeli/Palestinian society.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)