Sustainability-related courses explore social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability challenges and solutions. The courses vary in the degree to which sustainability is a focus of study and are classified into two categories. Sustainability Investigations courses (SINV) engage students in a deep and focused study of problems with sustainability as a major emphasis of the course. Sustainability Connections courses (SCON) engage students in making connections between the main topic of the course and sustainability. Sustainability is related to but is not a major focus of SCON courses. Beginning with the Class of 2019, all students must complete a sustainability course as a graduation requirement.
Sustainability Course Search
Sustainability Courses
in Spring 2025
Africana Studies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
AFST-220 Spring 2025 |
Ecological History of Africa Ball, Jeremy This course provides an introduction to the ecological history of Africa. We will focus in some detail on demography, the domestication of crops and animals, climate, the spread of New World crops (maize, cassava, cocoa), and disease environments from the earliest times to the present. Central to our study will be the idea that Africa's landscapes are the product of human action. Therefore, we will examine case studies of how people have interacted with their environments. African ecology has long been affected indirectly by decisions made at a global scale. Thus we will explore Africa's engagement with imperialism and colonization and the global economy in the twentieth century. The course ends with an examination of contemporary tensions between conservation and economic development. |
SCON |
American Studies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
AMST-200 Spring 2025 |
Indigenous Futurism in Contemporary Culture Lone Fight, Darren In the field of what scholar Grace Dillon calls "Indigenous Futurism," Native artists from the visual to the literary have found a profoundly ripe stage for the exploration of Indigenous representation and artistic exploration. Following historically on other alternative-futurist projects such as Afrofuturism and Queer Futurism, Indigenous Futurism shares certain sensibilities with these related aesthetic forms, perhaps most strikingly as a strategy of decolonial clapback against the white-washing tendencies of the majority of popular speculative art throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. Nevertheless, Indigenous Futurism marshals the field of SF/Futurism in critically different ways unique to the history and relationship of Native America to popular culture. Indeed, this emerging field has a particular strategic advantage due to its temporal and pop-cultural orientation, allowing such art to function as a laboratory of resistance to the colonial project. This course examines Native authors, filmmakers, and visual/multimedia artists in order to evolve an understanding of the character of the field of Indigenous Futurism and why it operates as a critical strategic negotiation site for the representation of Native people in contemporary American culture. |
SCON |
Anthropology
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ANTH-101 Spring 2025 |
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Ellison, James This course is a comprehensive introduction to how cultural anthropologists study culture and society in diverse contexts. We will use ethnographic case studies from across the world to examine the ways people experience and transform social relationships and culture in areas including families, gender, ethnicity, health, religion, exchange, science, and even what it means to be a person. We will examine how culture and society are embedded within, shape, and are shaped by forces of economics, politics, and environment. Offered every semester. |
SCON |
|
ANTH-261 Spring 2025 |
Archaeology of North America Biwer, Matthew This course reviews Pre-Columbian landscapes north of Mesoamerica. We consider topics including the timing and process of the initial peopling of the continent, food production, regional systems of exchange, development of social hierarchies, environmental adaption and the nature of initial colonial encounters between Europeans and Native Americans. These questions are addressed primarily by culture area and region. This course is cross-listed as ARCH 261. Offered every two years. |
SCON |
Archaeology
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ARCH-261 Spring 2025 |
Archaeology of North America Biwer, Matthew This course reviews Pre-Columbian landscapes north of Mesoamerica. We consider topics including the timing and process of the initial peopling of the continent, food production, regional systems of exchange, development of social hierarchies, environmental adaption and the nature of initial colonial encounters between Europeans and Native Americans. These questions are addressed primarily by culture area and region. This course is cross-listed as ANTH 261. Offered every two years. |
SCON |
Art & Art History
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ARTH-224 Spring 2025 |
Wheelwork Ceramics Eng, Rachel A studio course exploring expressive possibilities offered by the potters wheel. Students will examine both utilitarian and sculptural aspects of the medium. A variety of clays, glazes and firing approaches will be examined. |
SCON |
Biology
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
BIOL-131 Spring 2025 |
Introduction to Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems: Topics in Ocean Ecology Potthoff, Michael This introductory course spans levels of biological organization from basic multicellular microanatomy to organismal physiology and ecology, as understood through the lens of evolution. Course content will be focused around a specific theme determined by the instructor, and will include evolutionary principles of variation, selection, competition and cooperation, and how their operation at different levels of organization accounts for form and function of organisms, communities, and ecosystems. We will investigate homeostasis, reproduction and development as physiological processes that take place within organisms, and as ecological processes that interact with the environment and generate diversity of form over evolutionary time. Finally we will take stock of the existing forms and levels of biological organization and ask how their relationships establish the biosphere in which we live. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. This is one of two courses required of all Biology majors before entering the upper level. It is complementary to BIOL 132 – Introduction to Molecules, Genes, and Cells, and the courses may be taken in either order. |
SINV |
|
BIOL-332 Spring 2025 |
Natural History of Vertebrates w/Lab Boback, Scott An exploration into the lifestyles of vertebrates heavily focused on field biology. Natural history is strongly dependent on descriptive anatomy and systematics and therefore this course will cover the evolutionary relationships among vertebrates highlighting unique features that facilitated the success of the major groups. In field labs, students will develop observational skills such as how to identify a bird by its song, a frog by its call, a mammal by the color of its pelage, and a snake by its shed skin. Indoor labs will focus on identifying species from preserved specimens as well as providing students with the skills necessary to preserve vertebrates for future study. Preservation methods could include preparing museum-quality mammal and bird skins, formalin fixation of fish, and skeletal preparations. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisites: one 200-level biology course or GEOS 307. Offered every two years. |
SCON |
Chemistry
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
CHEM-132 Spring 2025 |
General Chemistry II with Lab Barker, Kathryn A continuation of Chemistry 131. Topics covered in the second semester will include: kinetics, equilibrium, acids, bases, and buffers, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry, and transition metal chemistry. Three hours of classroom and three hours of laboratory per week. Prerequisite: 131. |
SCON |
|
CHEM-342 Spring 2025 |
Structure and Function of Biomolecules w/Lab Connor, Rebecca This course is an introductory biochemistry course focused on the chemistry of the major molecules that compose living matter. The structure and function of the major classes of biomolecules (nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) are addressed along with other topics including bioenergetics, enzyme catalysis, and information transfer at the molecular level. The laboratory portion of the course focuses on methods used to study the properties and behavior of biological molecules and their functions in the cell. Three hours lecture and four hours of laboratory per week. Prerequisite 242; an introductory biology course is highly recommended. |
SCON |
Creative Writing
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
CRWR-219 Spring 2025 |
Creative Nonfiction: Writing about Food Su, Adrienne May include memoir, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, biography, novel writing, graphic novel, playwriting, “genre” fiction (e.g., detective, sci-fi), subgenres of poetry (e.g., visual poetry), subgenres of fiction (e.g., Magical Realism), and other forms of non-analytical writing not routinely offered. Prerequisite: CRWR 218 or any film course when topic is Screenwriting; otherwise none. |
SCON |
Economics
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ECON-222 Spring 2025 |
Environmental Economics Tynan, Nicola A study of human production and consumption activities as they affect the natural and human environmental systems and as they are affected by those systems. The economic behavioral patterns associated with the market economy are scrutinized in order to reveal the biases in the decision-making process which may contribute to the deterioration of the resource base and of the quality of life in general. External costs and benefits, technological impacts, limits to economic growth, and issues of income and wealth distribution are examined. A range of potential policy measures, some consistent with our life style and some not, are evaluated. Prerequisite: 111. |
SINV |
|
ECON-332 Spring 2025 |
Economics of Natural Resource Sustainability Tynan, Nicola This course uses microeconomics to analyze the use and conservation of natural resources, including energy, minerals, fisheries, forests, and water resources, among others. Broad themes include the roles of property rights, intergenerational equity, and sustainable development in an economy based on resource exploitation. Prerequisite: 278. For ENST, ENSC and INST majors, prerequisite is ECON 222. |
SCON |
|
ECON-332 Spring 2025 |
Economics of Natural Resource Sustainability Tynan, Nicola This course uses microeconomics to analyze the use and conservation of natural resources, including energy, minerals, fisheries, forests, and water resources, among others. Broad themes include the roles of property rights, intergenerational equity, and sustainable development in an economy based on resource exploitation. Prerequisite: 278. For ENST, ENSC and INST majors, prerequisite is ECON 222. |
SINV |
|
ECON-351 Spring 2025 |
Gender and Development Kongar, Mesude This course examines the gender dimensions of economic development and globalization from the perspective of feminist economics. This perspective implies foregrounding labor, broadly defined to include paid and unpaid work, and examining gender differences in work, access to resources, and wellbeing outcomes, and how these are affected by macroeconomic policies and how gender inequalities are relevant for societal wellbeing. Since the early 1980’s economic globalization has been achieved on the basis of a common set of macroeconomic policies pursued in industrial and developing countries alike. These policies frame both the gender-differentiated impacts of policy and the initiatives that are implemented to reduce inequalities between men and women. The main objective of the course is to examine the impact of these policies on men and women in the global South (a.k.a. developing countries/Third World) on gender inequalities and to evaluate the policies/strategies for reducing gender inequalities and promoting the well-being of all people. The pursuit of these objectives will entail first a brief examination of the central tenets of feminist economics and an historical overview of the policy-oriented field of gender and development. Gender-differentiated statistics will be reviewed as they pertain to the topics under discussion. Prerequisite: For ECON 351: ECON 288; For INST 351: ECON 288 or INST 200 or INBM 200; For WGSS 302: at least one WGSS course or ECON 288. This course is cross-listed as INST 351& WGSS 302. |
SCON |
English
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ENGL-221 Spring 2025 |
Writing, Identity, & Queer Studies: In & Out, Either/Or, and Everything in Between Kersh, Sarah Kate Bornstein writes: "I know I'm not a man...and I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably not a woman either. The trouble is, we're living in a world that insists we be one or the other." In this reading and writing intensive course, students will investigate how we approach the space outside of "one or the other" through literature, film, and narrative more generally. Throughout the semester we will explore and engage critically with established and emerging arguments in queer theory, as well as read and watch texts dealing with issues of identity and identification. Although "queer" is a contested term, it describes-at least potentially-sexualities and genders that fall outside of normative constellations. Students will learn how to summarize and engage with arguments, and to craft and insert their own voice into the ongoing debates about the efficacy of queer theory and queer studies. Moreover, we'll take on questions that relate "word" to "world" in order to ask: How might our theory productively intervene in LGBTQ civil rights discourse outside our classroom? How do we define queer and is it necessarily attached to sexual orientation? How do our own histories and narratives intersect with the works we analyze? Our course texts will pull from a range of genres including graphic novels, film, poetry, memoir, and fiction. Some texts may include Alison Bechdel's _Fun Home_, Audre Lorde's _Zami_, Jackie Kay's _Trumpet_, David Sedaris' _Me Talk Pretty One Day_, and films such as _Paris is Burning_ and _Boys Don't Cry_. |
SCON |
Environmental Studies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ENST-162 Spring 2025 |
Integrative Environmental Science Benka-Coker, Akinwande Douglas, Margaret Sterner, Sarah This course is an introduction to interdisciplinary environmental science. Students will learn to draw upon a variety of natural sciences to identify and address environmental challenges. Students will examine environmental issues analytically, learn to evaluate existing data, and begin to develop skills for acquiring new knowledge via the scientific method. They will be exposed to basic techniques for assessing environmental problems in lectures, laboratory exercises, and fieldwork. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisite: 161 |
SINV |
|
ENST-305 Spring 2025 |
Sustainable Waste Management Steiman, Matthew Waste materials are an inevitable product of modern life that can lead to environmental harm. This science-based course will explore practical technologies for reduction, reuse and responsible recycling of society's discards, including composting, waste to energy bio-digestion, scrapping, and zero waste economies. Through hands-on exercises, field trips and classroom study, students will gain in-depth exposure to current methods of waste management to prepare them for potential future work in this growing field. The course will culminate with a pilot project to address a waste issue in the Carlisle area. |
SINV |
|
ENST-374 Spring 2025 |
Politics of Climate Change Beevers, Michael Climate change is arguably the most significant challenge of the 21st century. Scientists predict it will drastically reshape weather patterns, increase the intensity of storm events, raise sea levels and change agricultural output -- among many, many other things. Indeed, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to a changing climate are absolutely essential to reduce these impacts. However, climate change is not simply a matter of science. It will be the defining political issue of our times because climate change will require transforming how we live, what we care about, how resources are allocated and how power is manifest (and by whom). This class will analyze the political dimensions of climate change (mitigation and adaptation) at the domestic and international levels. Prerequisites: ENST 161 and 162. |
SINV |
|
ENST-406 Spring 2025 |
Pollinators and People Douglas, Margaret Over three quarters of flowering plant species rely on animal pollinators to create seeds and fruit. Pollinators therefore play an essential role in the regeneration of ecosystems and the production of human food. Unfortunately, evidence is building that many pollinator populations and species are in decline due to habitat degradation, invasive species, pesticide exposure, climate change, and other anthropogenic stressors. This senior seminar will critically examine relationships between pollinators and people by engaging with a range of interdisciplinary scholarship as well as the work of practitioners in the environmental field. Together we will explore evidence for pollinator decline and diverse approaches to harness human creativity for pollinator protection and recovery. Students will help to lead class discussion and develop a capstone project focused on a particular dimension of pollinator protection that speaks to their interests. Throughout, students will be encouraged to reflect on their education and experiences to articulate their place in the interdependent web of life. |
SCON |
|
ENST-406 Spring 2025 |
Urban Sustainability Senior Seminar Decker, Allyssa The United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Some critics argue that urban sustainability is a contradiction within itself. With the current climate crisis, it is becoming increasingly critical for cities to rethink urban planning, development, and management to ensure sustainable use of natural resources. In this senior seminar we will explore the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable urbanism. We will discuss a range of student led topics throughout the semester, which may include components of urban form, transportation, green space, buildings and energy, or flows of water, food, and waste. Recent journal articles and student led topics will be the focus of class discussions. As a class we will analyze these topics collaboratively and we will use this class as a space to learn from one another and to engage in civil discourse. |
SCON |
Food Studies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
FDST-250 Spring 2025 |
Green Eggs and Jambon: Eating Sustainably in France Soldin, Adeline Permission of Instructor Required.Part of the Green Cuisine Mosaic. This course examines France's eating culture, from shopping habits and food choices to cooking and eating practices, through the lens of sustainability. Using a diverse array of food texts, media, and scholarship, students will learn about long-standing food traditions that have shaped French culture and the extent to which they are sustainable today. Moreover, we will consider how contemporary trends related to globalization, industrialization, immigration, and climate change have affected both individual behavior as well as public policy with regards to culinary customs and the food industry. Students will investigate efforts to eat more sustainably in France, including the response by French consumers to government measures such as those related to food waste and school lunches, among other examples. Ultimately, students will be asked to reflect on the role culture plays when a society is faced with an existential crisis like global warming that may require significant changes to traditional customs. As part of this exploration, students will have the opportunity to engage with consumers and actors in the food industry in the U.S. and France to compare different cultural perspectives vis-à-vis sustainable food practices. |
SINV |
French
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
FREN-225 Spring 2025 |
Green Eggs and Jambon: Eating Sustainably in France Soldin, Adeline Permission of Instructor Required. Part of the Green Cuisine Mosaic. This course examines France's eating culture, from shopping habits and food choices to cooking and eating practices, through the lens of sustainability. Using a diverse array of food texts, media, and scholarship, students will learn about long-standing food traditions that have shaped French culture and the extent to which they are sustainable today. Moreover, we will consider how contemporary trends related to globalization, industrialization, immigration, and climate change have affected both individual behavior as well as public policy with regards to culinary customs and the food industry. Students will investigate efforts to eat more sustainably in France, including the response by French consumers to government measures such as those related to food waste and school lunches, among other examples. Ultimately, students will be asked to reflect on the role culture plays when a society is faced with an existential crisis like global warming that may require significant changes to traditional customs. As part of this exploration, students will have the opportunity to engage with consumers and actors in the food industry in the U.S. and France to compare different cultural perspectives vis-à-vis sustainable food practices. |
SINV |
Geosciences
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
GEOS-142 Spring 2025 |
Earth's Changing Climate Key, Marcus An overview of our understanding of climate processes and their interaction with the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere based on studies of ancient climates, which inform our understanding of climate change now and into the future. Topics include drivers of climate change at different time scales, evidence for climate change, and major climate events such as ice ages. Emphasis will be placed on the last 1 million years of earth history as a prelude to discussing potential anthropogenic impacts on the climate. Case studies of major climate “players” such as the US and China will be contrasted with those most vulnerable, Africa and SE Asia to determine mitigation and adaptation strategies. The lab component will use historic climate data, field experiences, and climate modeling to interpret climate change processes. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. |
SINV |
|
GEOS-151 Spring 2025 |
Foundations of Earth Sciences Hayes, Jorden How do mountains and oceans form? Why do the positions of continents shift? Can rocks bend or flow? What is the history of life on our planet? This course explores the materials that make up the Earth and the processes that shape it, both at and below the surface. Students will take field trips around the Carlisle area as well as complete analytical and computer laboratory activities in order to acquire basic field, laboratory, and computer modelling skills. This course serves as a gateway to the Earth Sciences major, but is also appropriate for non-majors. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lab per week. |
SCON |
|
GEOS-203 Spring 2025 |
Treetop to Bedrock: An Introduction to the Critical Zone Hayes, Jorden The critical zone (CZ) is the thin life-sustaining veneer of planet Earth that extends from treetop to bedrock. The CZ is continually evolving as rock, water, atmosphere, soil, and biota interact to support terrestrial life. CZ processes and functions are crucial to a sustainable future as the CZ provides essential services such as food production and water storage. Thus, CZ science is becoming increasingly relevant as climate and land use stress terrestrial life at the surface. In this course students will examine the CZ as a complex system and describe the system services it provides. The transdisciplinary and global nature of CZ science is emphasized alongside the varying temporal and spatial scales required for understanding the CZ. Material in this course will be organized topically and include the following: water transfer through the CZ; landscape evolution and CZ architecture; biogeochemical cycling; land-atmosphere exchange; and humans in the CZ. This course relies heavily on scientific literature to explore the state of the science and outstanding questions in the CZ. Hands-on activities include field trips and data activities from critical zone programs. |
SCON |
History
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
HIST-131 Spring 2025 |
Modern Latin American History since 1800 Borges, Marcelo Introduction to Latin American history since independence and the consolidation of national states to the recent past. Students explore social, economic, and political developments from a regional perspective as well as specific national examples. This course is cross-listed as LALC 231. |
SCON |
|
HIST-211 Spring 2025 |
Food and American Environment Pawley, Emily This class examines the ways that the culture and politics of food have reshaped North American landscapes and social relations from colonial to modern times. We will explore, for example, how the new taste for sweetness fueled the creation of plantations worked by enslaved, the ways that the distribution of frozen meat helped build cities and clear rangeland, and the ways that the eating of fresh fruit came to depend on both a new population of migrant laborers and a new regime of toxic chemicals. Other topics will include catastrophes such as the Dustbowl, the controversial transformations of the Green Revolution, and the modern debates about the obesity epidemic. |
SINV |
|
HIST-284 Spring 2025 |
Ecological History of Africa Ball, Jeremy This course provides an introduction to the ecological history of Africa. We will focus in some detail on demography, the domestication of crops and animals, climate, the spread of New World crops (maize, cassava, cocoa), and disease environments from the earliest times to the present. Central to our study will be the idea that Africa's landscapes are the product of human action. Therefore, we will examine case studies of how people have interacted with their environments. African ecology has long been affected indirectly by decisions made at a global scale. Thus we will explore Africa's engagement with imperialism and colonization and the global economy in the twentieth century. The course ends with an examination of contemporary tensions between conservation and economic development. Offered every two years. |
SCON |
Intl Business & Management
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
INBM-100 Spring 2025 |
Fundamentals of Business Mansell, Wade Watson, Forrest This course features an introductory focus on a wide range of business subjects including the following: business in a global environment; forms of business ownership including small businesses, partnerships, multinational and domestic corporations, joint ventures, and franchises; management decision making; ethics; marketing; accounting; management information systems; human resources; finance; business law; taxation; uses of the internet in business; and how all of the above are integrated into running a successful business. You will learn how a company gets ideas, develops products, raises money, makes its products, sells them and accounts for the money earned and spent. This course will not fulfill a distribution requirement. |
SCON |
|
INBM-240 Spring 2025 |
Marketing in a Global Context Ritchey, Sherry The primary objective of this course is to identify how companies identify and satisfy their customers' needs. Not only are the "4p's of marketing" covered (product, price, promotional programs like advertising and public relations, and place or distribution), but working with a specific semester-long case, you will learn how to manage an integrated marketing program. We will also examine other important aspects of marketing: market research, new product development, consumer behavior, ethics, competitive analysis and strategic planning, and marketing internationally and on the Internet. Field trips and videos are used to reinforce the ideas presented in the classroom. Prerequisite: 100 or permission of the instructor. 110 is recommended but not required. |
SCON |
|
INBM-290 Spring 2025 |
Global Business: Theory and Context Watson, Forrest This course explores the “macro-contextual” factors that confront managers of a business organization, the possible implications of those factors for organizational performance, and the choices managers make within that context. The macro-context for any firm consists of a combination of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. In the current era, awareness of context is increasingly important for students and practitioners alike. Topics in the course include climate change; the revolution in information technology; global population dynamics; regional and global economic integration; international trade and investment; exchange rate dynamics; and collaboration among businesses and other organizations. In keeping with Dickinson’s evolving educational priorities, the course also includes conversation about the ethical, social, and ecological responsibilities of a global enterprise. The course builds on the knowledge gained in other 200-level INBM courses and provides a bridge between those courses and the INBM Senior Seminar. Prerequisites: ECON 111, 112; INBM 100; and three of the following courses: INBM 220, 230, 240 and 250. |
SCON |
|
INBM-300 Spring 2025 |
Consumer Behavior Mansell, Wade Marketing requires an understanding of the needs, wants, and values of consumers. This course is designed to introduce students to the psychology of consumption and provide tools for understanding how individuals make decisions in marketplace contexts. In this course, we will draw upon a research-based curriculum to explore how motivation, attitude, attention, memory, cultural background, emotion, and other factors shape consumer behavior. We will learn how consumers process information and use products to solve problems. Additionally, we will explore the insights that marketing reveals about the workings of the consumer mind. |
SCON |
International Studies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
INST-290 Spring 2025 |
U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World Siekert, Magda This course introduces the students to the theory and practice of U.S. public diplomacy in the Arab world from a historical and a comparative perspective, looking at past challenges, successes and failures. The course examines the role of public diplomacy in the context of U.S. strategic interests in the region, U.S. efforts to promote democratic governance in the Arab world through the use of public diplomacy tools including traditional and new media, cultural exchanges, and educational programs. Students will debate whether public diplomacy should be integrated into the policy-making process, and how it could complement traditional diplomacy and advance political, military, and economic policies. |
SCON |
|
INST-351 Spring 2025 |
Gender and Development Kongar, Mesude This course examines the gender dimensions of economic development and globalization from the perspective of feminist economics. This perspective implies foregrounding labor, broadly defined to include paid and unpaid work, and examining gender differences in work, access to resources, and wellbeing outcomes, and how these are affected by macroeconomic policies and how gender inequalities are relevant for societal wellbeing. Since the early 1980’s economic globalization has been achieved on the basis of a common set of macroeconomic policies pursued in industrial and developing countries alike. These policies frame both the gender-differentiated impacts of policy and the initiatives that are implemented to reduce inequalities between men and women. The main objective of the course is to examine the impact of these policies on men and women in the global South (a.k.a. developing countries/Third World) on gender inequalities and to evaluate the policies/strategies for reducing gender inequalities and promoting the well-being of all people. The pursuit of these objectives will entail first a brief examination of the central tenets of feminist economics and an historical overview of the policy-oriented field of gender and development. Gender-differentiated statistics will be reviewed as they pertain to the topics under discussion.Prerequisite: For ECON 351: ECON 288; For INST 351: ECON 288 or INST 200 or INBM 200; For WGSS 302: at least one WGSS course or ECON 288. This course is cross-listed as ECON 351 & WGSS 302. |
SCON |
Italian
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
ITAL-201 Spring 2025 |
Intermediate Italian Lanzilotta, Luca Intensive introduction to conversation and composition, with special attention to grammar review and refinement. Essays, fiction and theater, as well as Italian television and films, provide opportunities to improve familiarity with contemporary Italian language and civilization. Prerequisite: 102 or the equivalent. This course fulfills the language graduation requirement. |
SCON |
Lat Am/Latinx/Caribbean Stdies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
LALC-231 Spring 2025 |
Modern Latin American History since 1800 Borges, Marcelo Introduction to Latin American history since independence and the consolidation of national states to the recent past. Students explore social, economic, and political developments from a regional perspective as well as specific national examples. This course is cross-listed as HIST 131. |
SCON |
Middle East Studies
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
MEST-233 Spring 2025 |
U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World Siekert, Magda This course introduces the students to the theory and practice of U.S. public diplomacy in the Arab world from a historical and a comparative perspective, looking at past challenges, successes and failures. The course examines the role of public diplomacy in the context of U.S. strategic interests in the region, U.S. efforts to promote democratic governance in the Arab world through the use of public diplomacy tools including traditional and new media, cultural exchanges, and educational programs. Students will debate whether public diplomacy should be integrated into the policy-making process, and how it could complement traditional diplomacy and advance political, military, and economic policies. |
SCON |
Political Science
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
POSC-204 Spring 2025 |
Competing Political Ideologies Reiner, Jason This class surveys the major ideologies that compete for political support in Western societies, such as liberalism, conservatism, and socialism, as well as radical alternatives (anarchism and fascism), and new perspectives such as feminism and ecologism/environmentalism. We will also examine the nature of ideology, and whether it is possible to develop a neutral, non-ideological perspective on politics. Prerequisite: 180, or permission of the instructor. |
SCON |
Religion
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
RELG-116 Spring 2025 |
Religion, Nature, and the Environment Vann, Jodie This course explores how various religious and spiritual traditions have understood, conceptualized, and interacted with the natural world. Incorporating from both conventional religions (such as Catholicism, Judaism, and Buddhism) as well as newer spiritual forms (like Contemporary Paganism), the course provides a comparative survey of the relationships between religiosity and nature. Themes under examination include notions of human dominion, stewardship, panentheism, and naturalism. Students will consider how religious ideologies have shaped conceptions of nature, and how changing understandings of the natural world have challenged religious ideas. |
SINV |
Spanish
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
SPAN-231 Spring 2025 |
Hispanic Cultures through Women's Voices Copeland, Eva This class explores literary texts and films created by women writers and directors from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. The course delves into overarching themes such as representation, identity, diversity, gender roles, and empowerment. This course is taught entirely in Spanish. |
SCON |
Theatre & Dance
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
|
THDA-302 Spring 2025 |
Theatre and the Environment Kirkham, Karen This class will investigate theater's historic and contemporary engagement with the environment. Students will explore green practice in theater, theater linked to climate action and the practice of site-specific work in outdoor environments. The course will culminate in an outdoor production as part of exploring the complications and methodology surrounding the intersection of theatre practice and environmentalism. |
SINV |
Women's, Gender & Sexuality St
| Course Number/Term | Title/Instructor/Description | Designation |
|---|---|---|
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WGSS-100 Spring 2025 |
Introduction to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Oliviero, Kathryn This course offers an introduction to central concepts, questions and debates in gender and sexuality studies from US, Women of Color, queer and transnational perspectives. Throughout the semester we will explore the construction and maintenance of norms governing sex, gender, and sexuality, with an emphasis on how opportunity and inequality operate through categories of race, ethnicity, class, ability and nationality. After an introduction to some of the main concepts guiding scholarship in the field of feminist studies (the centrality of difference; social and political constructions of gender and sex; representation; privilege and power; intersectionality; globalization; transnationalism), we will consider how power inequalities attached to interlocking categories of difference shape key feminist areas of inquiry, including questions of: work, resource allocation, sexuality, queerness, reproduction, marriage, gendered violence, militarization, consumerism, resistance and community sustainability. |
SCON |
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WGSS-201 Spring 2025 |
Hispanic Cultures through Women's Voices Copeland, Eva This class explores literary texts and films created by women writers and directors from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. The course delves into overarching themes such as representation, identity, diversity, gender roles, and empowerment. This course is taught entirely in Spanish. |
SCON |
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WGSS-302 Spring 2025 |
Gender and Development Kongar, Mesude This course examines the gender dimensions of economic development and globalization from the perspective of feminist economics. This perspective implies foregrounding labor, broadly defined to include paid and unpaid work, and examining gender differences in work, access to resources, and wellbeing outcomes, and how these are affected by macroeconomic policies and how gender inequalities are relevant for societal wellbeing. Since the early 1980's economic globalization has been achieved on the basis of a common set of macroeconomic policies pursued in industrial and developing countries alike. These policies frame both the gender-differentiated impacts of policy and the initiatives that are implemented to reduce inequalities between men and women. The main objective of the course is to examine the impact of these policies on men and women in the global South (a.k.a. developing countries/Third World) on gender inequalities and to evaluate the policies/strategies for reducing gender inequalities and promoting the well-being of all people. The pursuit of these objectives will entail first a brief examination of the central tenets of feminist economics and an historical overview of the policy-oriented field of gender and development. Gender-differentiated statistics will be reviewed as they pertain to the topics under discussion. |
SCON |
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WGSS-351 Spring 2025 |
Writing, Identity, & Queer Studies: In & Out, Either/Or, and Everything in Between Kersh, Sarah Kate Bornstein writes: "I know I'm not a man...and I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably not a woman either. The trouble is, we're living in a world that insists we be one or the other." In this reading and writing intensive course, students will investigate how we approach the space outside of "one or the other" through literature, film, and narrative more generally. Throughout the semester we will explore and engage critically with established and emerging arguments in queer theory, as well as read and watch texts dealing with issues of identity and identification. Although "queer" is a contested term, it describes-at least potentially-sexualities and genders that fall outside of normative constellations. Students will learn how to summarize and engage with arguments, and to craft and insert their own voice into the ongoing debates about the efficacy of queer theory and queer studies. Moreover, we'll take on questions that relate "word" to "world" in order to ask: How might our theory productively intervene in LGBTQ civil rights discourse outside our classroom? How do we define queer and is it necessarily attached to sexual orientation? How do our own histories and narratives intersect with the works we analyze? Our course texts will pull from a range of genres including graphic novels, film, poetry, memoir, and fiction. Some texts may include Alison Bechdel's _Fun Home_, Audre Lorde's _Zami_, Jackie Kay's _Trumpet_, David Sedaris' _Me Talk Pretty One Day_, and films such as _Paris is Burning_ and _Boys Don't Cry_. |
SCON |