Violence threatens and impedes human civilization. As the world becomes more connected through high-speed internet, artificial intelligence, and the global economy, people's peace of mind and inner connection may get less attention. Someone who lacks the understanding and practice of peace and nonviolence may resort to violence when conflict arises in our competitive world. Above all, even a single act of violence may cause long-lasting harm to society. But, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, we can choose: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation." Unlike outbursts of violence, peace and nonviolence require creative study, practice, effort, and courage. Thus, the study of nonviolence and peace is emerging as a critically important field of scholarship, research, and training in both academic and non-academic settings. This course aims to provide introductory but crucial knowledge in the field of Nonviolence and Peace Studies. The course focuses on philosophical, social, and psychological factors contributing to violence and the creation of peace and nonviolence, particularly relevant to personal, interpersonal, and global mental health and well-being. Students will learn about ancient and modern nonviolence and peace philosophies and well-known thinkers, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, Maha Ghosananda, and Aung San Suu Kyi. We will also explore nonviolent strategies and tactics applied to social change movements, and contemporary research studies on nonviolence and peace. Course assignments will include applied learning opportunities to personal and community settings of violence and peacebuilding. Students must demonstrate comprehension of fundamental philosophy and practice perspectives of nonviolence and peace. This course employs a cooperative group study format focused on a problem-based learning approach to peacebuilding. The semester will conclude with a group presentation by the students on a selected personal or social issue and its remedy through nonviolent interventions.

Elective

The question, What is the meaning of life? is unclear in large measure because the word "meaning" is ambiguous. The various ways "meaning" can be construed, both objectively and subjectively, in everyday life and in the philosophical arena will be explored. Literature, film, and philosophical texts will be used as vehicles to illuminate how reflection, experience, and transitions through life's stages influence assignment of value to one's existence.

Elective

This course examines the historical, social, and cultural interrelationships between cities, regions, and food systems.  How have urban regions produced, processed, and distributed food across space and time?  How have foodways influenced public and private life?  Major course topics will include the meanings of food in human societies; the role of science and technology in nutrition and diet; food security and sovereignty; sustainability and resilience in food systems; and community-based food planning and policy governance.

Elective

East Asia has the largest population and one of the most vital economies in the world today. While serving as an economic powerhouse, the region also faces persistent social, cultural, and political challenges. Many of those challenges, such as the tension on the Korean peninsula and across the Taiwan strait, could be traced to the earlier history. This course provides an introduction to the histories of East Asia over the last four centuries. It would examine significant events in the region's history, including the encounter with the West, colonialism and imperialism, the rise of nationalism and Communist revolution, decolonization, World War Two, and the impact of the Cold War. We will explore the historical forces behind the changes of East Asian politics, society and cultures. Furthermore, through analyzing the historical complexity of East Asian affairs, we hope to contribute to the fostering of a peaceful, rational, and dynamic mechanism in the region.

Elective

East Asia has the largest population and one of the most vital economies in the world today. While serving as an economic powerhouse, the region also faces persistent social, cultural, and political challenges. Many of those challenges, such as the tension on the Korean peninsula and across the Taiwan strait, could be traced to the earlier history. This course provides an introduction to the histories of East Asia over the last four centuries. It would examine significant events in the region's history, including the encounter with the West, colonialism and imperialism, the rise of nationalism and Communist revolution, decolonization, World War Two, and the impact of the Cold War. We will explore the historical forces behind the changes of East Asian politics, society and cultures. Furthermore, through analyzing the historical complexity of East Asian affairs, we hope to contribute to the fostering of a peaceful, rational, and dynamic mechanism in the region.

Elective

China has been undergoing tremendous changes in the modern era. This course explores the Chinese political and social transformations from the beginning of the Qing Dynasty until today. After a broad survey of modern Chinese history in the past four centuries, including the Manchu conquest, the Nationalist Revolution, the Communist Revolution, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution, and the Reform and opening-up era, we will take a closer look at the political and social structure, one-child policy, frontier/ethnic issue, urban/rural discrepancy and other issues in modern China. Through readings and discussions, this course will deepen our understanding of China from a critical as well as an empathetic perspective.

Elective

We live in a complex social and physical world. The goal of this course is to examine how we perceive, process, and use information to interact with the world around us, and how our social partners impact our thinking. Using examples from research with animals and from across the human lifespan, we will explore topics such as attention, learning, memory, and categorization. For example, how does the way your dog approach problem solving differ from what you do? We will also examine each of these topics from a social lens, understanding how mental processes can be influenced by others. This course will help you better understand your own thinking, applying your own experiences to discussions, readings, and experimental design.

Elective

Welcome to The Art of Healing.  We will begin with a general overview and introduction to counseling techniques, with specific attention to the therapeutic applications of art making. Students will be introduced to the foundational aspects of art therapy, creative expression and the use of art media to treat both emotional and physical illness.  

This is an experiential course that will emphasize practice as well as didactic information. This course will review how the creative arts can be used in the counseling process, focusing on music, dance and movement, imagery, visual arts, literature and writing.   Students will be provided information on the history, rationale, and benefits of using artistic methods, as well as trends in the use of the arts in counseling. Course meetings include lectures, class discussions, films, and peer exchanges. 

Elective

How and why does fear motivate human action? In what ways do we try to address the effects of fear, both individually and collectively? How do things like morality and religion inform our solutions to the problem(s) of fear? To what extent do concepts such as virtue or ethics hold up in the face of fear? In this class we will use literature from the horror genre as well as excerpts from select philosophers, to address these questions. In addressing these questions, this course speaks to how both the horror genre specifically and literature more generally aid philosophy in its attempt to help us understand important aspects of the human experience.

Elective

What is the study of ethics? What does it mean to be moral? What do we owe ourselves, our communities, and our world? Why does it matter? In this course, students will explore what it means to live ethically according to a range of philosophical texts and thinkers. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to think critically about the terms of specific ethical debates, as well as the social, cultural, and economic frameworks that shape them. Students will be challenged to engage with ethics not simply as a tradition, but as a praxis that extends beyond the classroom into our everyday lives. The course will include lectures, discussions, and student presentations. In addition to three short papers, students will develop a final project investigating ethics within their own areas of interest.

A version of this course was taught previously as an S101: Topics in History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences. If you took this topic as your S101, please do not enroll in this course.

Elective

What is the study of ethics? What does it mean to be moral? What do we owe ourselves, our communities, and our world? Why does it matter? In this course, students will explore what it means to live ethically according to a range of philosophical texts and thinkers. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to think critically about the terms of specific ethical debates, as well as the social, cultural, and economic frameworks that shape them. Students will be challenged to engage with ethics not simply as a tradition, but as a praxis that extends beyond the classroom into our everyday lives. The course will include lectures, discussions, and student presentations. In addition to three short papers, students will develop a final project investigating ethics within their own areas of interest.

A version of this course was taught previously as an S101: Topics in History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences. If you took this topic as your S101, please do not enroll in this course.

Elective

This course is designed to invite students on an exploratory journey to the basics of Buddhist history, culture, philosophy, psychology, ethics, and logic in the part of the world known as Tibet. Through the in-depth study, the students will acquire a more profound understanding of the Buddhist worldview. The course will examine Buddhism's origins, the chronology of its introduction into Tibet, and influential figures and events in its development over the past 1500 years. Students will be invited to explore fundamental Buddhist teachings and practices to achieve well-being, meditation, enlightenment, and happiness. Specific attention will be given to how Buddhist forms of compassion, meditation, and wisdom traditions can contribute to peace and happiness in a chaotic and politically conflicted world. The course will conclude with an analysis of the rapidly growing interest in Buddhism in the west, for example, its potential for neuroscientific research on mind-body connections. Note: Students should understand that this is a course exploring one of the world's great belief systems and should be viewed as a course in religious studies, not a religion course. Therefore, there will not be any form of proselytizing, and there is no expectation for students to adopt Buddhism as their belief system.

Elective

Ever feel sleepy or sleep deprived? Been to a city that never sleeps? As our immediate worlds speed faster and faster, and work becomes 24/7, this course asks what role do sleep, rest, and dreams play in our societies today? This course examines the social dimensions of resting or sleeping in different cultures across the world. It will introduce students to anthropological studies of sleep and dreaming. We will think through sleep science, psychologies related to sleep, religious stances on sleep, and the economics of sleep from a social science perspective.

As artists and designers we will also brainstorm about the ways in which sleep objects and environments affect sleep and rest. Students will produce comparative studies of sleep environments and practices across cultures. As with most anthropological courses, special attention will be paid to questions of equity, rights, and cross-cultural understandings. Contrary to popular expectation there will be no napping in this course.

Elective

Tradwives, alpha males, clean girls, femboys, bimbos…There is a seemingly endless supply of labels for contemporary versions of femininity and masculinity, all with their own norms, aesthetics, and critics. This course acts as an introduction to gender studies through the modern internet’s taxonomy of gendered labels. We will learn about the systems of power that led these trendy genders to emerge, how they relate to race, economy, and sexuality, and how they challenge and uphold structures of domination. Using feminist and queer theory, we'll analyze digital objects like TikToks and memes as we think critically about the present and future of gender.

Elective

This course presents Indigenous-produced, -directed, and -acted productions from all over the world. It provides a cultural and artistic framework for world Indigenous filmmaking and centers classic cinema and film pieces that are foundational works. Through lectures, screenings, discussion, project work, and guest speakers the students will learn how to identify various narratives, aesthetics, styles, approaches and delivery of story from indigenous groups from around the world.

Elective

Inflation is usually associated with retail price increases. While this is a commonly accepted indicator, it only reflects certain symptoms of inflation. The root causes of inflation are deeper and more complex. In this course we will unravel the complexity and examine the main components of the inflation pyramid, from the prices we pay at the store, to the cost of investment goods and labor, to monetary policies, to cultural perceptions, to social forces that use inflation as a vehicle to achieve their goals. We will investigate inflation as a phenomenon that spans economics, politics, and sociology. The purely quantitative aspects of inflation are not included in our discussion, we leave them to econometricians. Instead, we concentrate on social forces, political power, and economic exchange. 

Familiarity with formal economics, while useful, is not a prerequisite for this course. In the first three meetings we will discuss the basics of the economic frame of reference. The remaining time will be devoted to establishing connections between inflation (both visible and hidden), political power, collective action, and normative-value preferences of the social groups that are in position to benefit from inflation.  After taking this course, the students will be able to recognize socio-political changes that are likely to produce inflation or change the existing inflationary regime.

Elective

The Psychology of Aging provides an overview of human development from early adulthood through elderhood and death. Topics include behavior-biology interactions and perceptual, cognitive, and intellectual functioning. The goal of the course is to establish a basis for understanding the processes of change through which humans progress. We do this by reviewing the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of human development as it applies to others and ourselves.

Elective

Many people, across cultures, have experienced an enthusiasm that changes them. In this course, rooted in the interdisciplinary field of fan studies, we will investigate various histories of such passion, especially how groups of people, over time, have used ardent beliefs and practices to shape new identities and communities and how others, often in authority, have sought to suppress or manage those identities and communities. We will study early instances of fandom, from 19th-century social manias to various groups of lovers, fanciers, buffs, and kranks, as well as modern fans of media, music, and sports. Students can expect advanced reading in cultural history and media theory, as well as several short papers.

Elective

For millions of people today, music is experienced less in marked events, like concerts, and more in the unmarked or mundane moments of each day: commuting to work, going for a walk, shopping at a store, cleaning the kitchen. In this course, we will explore different aspects of everyday musicality, from common acts of making and listening to the communities of learning and psychological affordances they create. Throughout, we will pay close attention to the diverse functions of musicking, including self-making, motivation, social control, and healing, as well as the changing music technologies and institutions that have shaped musical experience. Assignments include readings in ethnomusicology, sociology, and history, as well as fieldwork observation and interviewing.

Elective

This course will examine the ways that listening can be understood historically. Using North America as a context for study, we will explore changing listening practices and their meanings over the last three centuries, including ideologies of sound and hearing in settler-colonialism; the politics of attention in 19th-century church and theater; sectional reactions to Civil War soundscapes; the emergence of acoustic technologies, from telephony to radio; 20th-century noise abatement movements, and the manipulable auditory experiences of the digital age. Throughout, we will situate listening in culture, law, materiality, and the body. Work will include primary source research and short writing assignments.

Elective