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FREEDOM & (IN)EQUALITY
America Abroad: U.S. Empire in Pop Culture - IDH 3113
This course will examine the history of U.S. empire by analyzing how popular culture has depicted, supported, or challenged American expansion and interventions abroad. We will focus on cultural texts produced by and/or for a U.S. audience, e.g. travelogues, journalism, political cartoons, theater, cinema, video games, and television – and will pay close attention to how ideas about difference and diversity have shaped the historical narratives that have been passed down to us.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity and History.]
Appropriating the Past - IDH 3114
For centuries, the Greek and Roman worlds have been used to legitimize white supremacy, misogyny, xenophobia, and bigotry by those who seek to adopt the Mediterranean as the birthplace of what they view as the greatest civilization. This course examines evidence from the ancient world which challenges these views and presents diverse perspectives of Greek and Roman history, society, and culture.
[Requirements Satisfied: History, Scholarship in Practice, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Culture Wars - HUM 2937
This course investigates the problem of the so-called “culture wars” in recent U.S. history. The course will focus on studying the historical development of the “culture wars” from the emergence of the concept of in the early 1990s, to its contemporary relevance in American political, social, and cultural discourse. The content of the course will introduce students to several major themes in twentieth-century U.S. history that have contributed to contemporary culture wars, including controversial topics related to abortion, LGBTQ rights, race, and firearm ownership.
Feminism and Globalization: Domestic, Factory, and Sex Work - IDH 3403
By focusing on the roles that domestic workers, factory workers, and sex workers play within the global economy, this course engages feminist debates about the ethics of globalization, the challenges of transnational activism, and the potential complicities of U.S. citizens in maintaining global structures of inequality.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Ethics, Social Sciences, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Truth, Justice, and the American Way? Ethics, Religion, and Superheroes – IDH 3119
This course uses superhero mythology as a lens through which to view the historical development of ethical norms in the United States since the late 1930s. Students will learn how to unpack the ideological meanings of these stories while thinking critically about the political, historical, philosophical, psychological, and religious ideas that are reflected in the mythology.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Ethics, and Scholarship in Practice.]
Everyday Life: Time/Space/Power - IDH 3401
This course focuses on everydayness as an object of inquiry. We will focus on the notions of habits, routines, tempo, rhythms, plans, schedules, programs as well as boredom, lack of spontaneity and surprise, anxiety, and familiarity. We will explore the intricate relationships between power, social space, and everyday life and web of rhythms, places, objects, and bodies.
[Requirements Satisfied: Social Sciences and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Freedom and Religion: Liberal, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives - IDH 3140
By addressing issues such as free speech, sexual mores and identity, and compulsory military service, this course examines the ways that religious norms and practices across the globe sometimes come into conflict with the norms of liberal democracy.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Ethics, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Race and Religion in America Today: The Legacies of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements - IDH 3611
Focusing on the legacies of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, this course explores the ways that appeals to religious concepts and identities have influenced racial relations and politics in America.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity and Oral Communication Competency.]
Radical Visions of Freedom: Imagining Black and Queer Liberation - IDH 3108
This course explores how U.S. intellectuals, artists, and activists have responded to the devaluation of black and queer lives by creating radical visions of freedom that call into question the foundations of our social, economic, and legal institutions.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Humanities and Cultural Practice, Scholarship in Practice, and State Mandated Writing (W).]
Social (In)equalities: Social Construction of Differences and Inequalities - IDH 3117
This course explores the structures and institutions of social inequality along the intersectional axes of class, race, and gender/sexuality by focusing on how these categories are socially constructed, maintained, and experienced.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Social Science, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Us & Them: Navigating Disagreements in a Polarized Society - IDH 2602
Contemporary society is deeply divided along political, cultural, regional, religious, racial, and socioeconomic lines. This course will help students to both understand the sources of those divisions and develop strategies to navigate our polarized society.
[Requirements Satisfied: Ethics & Social Responsibility, Oral Communication Competency, and Scholarship in Practice.]
Utopias/Dystopias: An Homage to Social Dreaming - IDH 3118
As models of a perfect society or fictional contemplations of bleak futures, utopias and dystopias shed light on our present condition. This course examines utopian thinking and differing perspectives on state-society relations and the question of individual freedom within society through various materials such as political manifestos, movies, novels or poems.
[Requirements Satisfied: Humanities and Cultural Practice, Scholarship in Practice, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Yesses and Noes: The Ethics of Consent - IDS 3364
This course provides a critical philosophical examination of consent and the role of consent in everyday life. In the first half of the course, students examine theoretical perspectives on the nature and moral force of consent. In the second half of the course, students examine issues of consent in a broad range of applied contexts.
[Requirements Satisfied: E-Series, Ethics & Social Responsibility, and State-Mandated Writing (W)]
Youth Subcultures - IDH 3402
What is the role of youth subculture in challenging and reproducing structures of inequality? We will address this question by examining how youth subcultures are embedded within their particular sociohistorical contexts, indexing not only intergenerational difference but also changing race, gender, sexuality, and class relations.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Scholarship in Practice, Oral Communication Competency and Social Sciences.]
INFORMATION & SCIENTIFIC LITERACY
Alienating History – HUM 2937
The last decade has seen a dramatic change in media ostensibly meant for education. Channels such as History and Discovery have replaced much of their programming with shows like ‘Ancient Aliens’ and ‘The Curse of Oak Island’ that promote pseudoscience and speculation as a challenge to what they term ‘mainstream’ historical and archaeological methodology. This ‘pseudoarchaeology’ is also supported and promoted by an extensive digital presence. This course explores this phenomenon by utilizing the historical method and the principles of archaeology to interrogate the claims put forward on these programs and social media outlets. Students will gain an understanding of why these programs have become so popular, how they are affecting public understanding of the past, and how the fields of archaeology and history can adapt to digital media trends to disseminate scholarly understanding.
[Requirements Satisfied: History, Scholarship in Practice, and State-Mandated Writing (W).]
Asking Questions and Finding Answers: Information Literacy and Research Methods - ISS 2937
This is a foundational hands-on course in college-level research that will empower students to ask questions and feel confident they can find answers. Through navigating the information landscape and using academic libraries, students will learn to read and evaluate research for empirical rigor, transparency and replicability, and ethical research design. Students from all disciplines will learn to identify and apply research methods for answering unique and complex questions. This course will equip students with the skills to translate information into knowledge, insight, and creativity.
[Requirements Satisfied: Quantitative and Logical Thinking, Scholarship in Practice, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Communication Matters: Personal Responsibility in Public Speaking - IDS 2491
This course focuses on the speaker’s role and responsibilities in the creation of shared meaning. Participation in this course will help students build and practice essential public speaking skills, and prepare students to engage in responsible persuasion, to use communicative action to create understanding in contentious issues, to exercise personal responsibility in all communication contexts, and to better serve as engines of democracy.
[Requirements Satisfied: E-Series, Ethics, Oral Communication Competency, State Mandated Writing (W).]
Digital Microhistory Lab - IDS 2681
This course brings together microhistory, urban history, and digital history. Students collect comprehensive data about the events in a single city in a single year, through close reading of an English-language daily newspaper published in that city. They gather much of this data using digital methods and then work together to represent those events in a Web site that employs a variety of digital communication tools.
[Requirements Satisfied: E-Series, History, Scholarship in Practice, State Mandated Writing (W).]
Documenting Race, Gender, Work, and War Through Oral History - HUM 2937
This course will offer an introduction to the methodology, theory and practice of oral history with a focus on documenting the history of communities in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia. In this course, we will give particular attention to analyzing questions of class, race, gender, and ethnicity from a historical context. It will afford students the opportunity to participate in an oral history interview.
[Requirements Satisfied: History and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Information Ethics for the 21st Century - IDS 2144
Many diverse ethical challenges face us in the global information age. This course identifies past, present and future information ethics challenges and encourages students to develop their own standpoints from which to address them. The primary purpose of this course is to provide students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to make informed ethical decisions about information production, management and use. Students explore and apply a wide range of ethical theories to examine critical information ethics issues raised by recent advances in information and communication technology.
[Requirements Satisfied: E-Series, Ethics, and State-Mandated Writing (W)]
Language Birth, Language Death – IDS 2291
This course explores the origins and characteristics of real and constructed languages (conlangs) such as Esperanto, Na'vi and Heptapod B. This course also examines the factors leading to language loss and language death, the reasons why we, as global citizens, should care, and how language specialists and activists attempt to bring dying languages back to life.
[Requirements Satisfied: E-Series, Humanities and Cultural Practice, Scholarship in Practice, and State-Mandated Writing (W).]
Life with Google: The Unintended Consequences of Information Technology - IDS 3683
What are the unintended and unanticipated social consequences of implementing new information technologies in the 21st century? Does our increased reliance on, and trust in, advanced information systems pose dangers to life and limb? Do we risk losing the recorded knowledge of humanity as we produce more data? Are we becoming too dependent on the information technologies we created to make our lives easier? This course will explore the pros and cons of information technology in our everyday lives, and examine how we can identify and mitigate against risk factors that lead to information technology disasters.
[Requirements Satisfied: Upper Division Writing (UDW), Digital Literacy and Ethics.]
LGBTQ Oral History Methods - IDH 3405
In this course students are trained in oral history theory, method, and interpretation by examining the emergence of oral history practice in the 20th century and oral history's specific relevance to LGBTQ communities and experiences. Course work includes reading scholarship, listening to oral histories, examining oral history projects, and conducting oral history interviews with LGBTQ people.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY & CULTURE
Innovation by Design - ENT 3607
This course teaches methods common to human-centered innovation frameworks such as Design Thinking: empathizing with people in given situations, framing and reframing problems, ideating, prototyping and testing solutions. Students will learn the process of developing products, services, systems and other solutions from the initial discovery of needs, to presenting a tested solution ready for deployment. This course features learning by doing with the vast majority of class time dedicated to collaborative exploration, supported by inspirational case studies, insightful video lessons from thought-leaders in the field, and abundant online resources.
[Requirements Satisfied: General Education Elective (no area) and Scholarship in Practice.]
SUSTAINABILITY
Ecology of Food - IDS 2470
This course explores the basic ecology of agriculture and fisheries and consider how conventional and alternative food-production practices generate and solve ecological problems. We will focus on several major current issues (e.g. genetically modified organisms, pollinator declines, organic agriculture, and fisheries), and learn the science behind the issue and the social forces shaping the problem. Students also learn through discussions of scientific and popular writings, lectures, hands-on and written projects, oral presentations, local speakers and field trips.
[Requirements Satisfied: E-Series, Natural Science, and State-Mandated Writing (W).]
Environmental Justice - IDH 3404
This course engages with the history, core concepts, and effects of the environmental justice movement, examining how race and class interact to produce and sustain environmental inequities. Foundationally, it approaches environmental issues from a lens attentive to issues of social justice. Course materials highlight the need to address thorny environmental issues and their long-term consequences including the disproportionate burdening of historically marginalized communities with debilitation, displacement, and death.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity, Social Science, and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]
Global Urbanization: Urban Diversity and Culture in the Age of Globalization - IDH 3407
We live in a world where globalization has increasingly rendered the urban space the mainframe, the catalyst, and the stake of social action and human existence. In this course, students will focus on the great urban diversity (e.g., language, citizenship, religion, ethnicity/race, class and socioeconomic status, gender, and sexuality). Through class materials and assignments, students will acquire a solid perspective on how urban diversity is transformed into inequalities and exclusion in the cities. With case studies from around the world, students will explore how urban lifeways and cultural forms without giving in to ethnocentrism while acknowledging urban cultures’ broad cross-cultural and historical validity beyond European civilization.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity and Social Science.]
Green Global Health - URP 3527
In this course we explore how nature conservation is necessary for the continuation of life on earth with particular attention on the myriad ways that the natural environment and systems support human health, livelihoods, and wellbeing. We will investigate the numerous ecological theories of health and the evidence-based mechanisms by which nature supports human health. We will analyze not only the benefits (i.e. ecosystem services) that the natural environment provides to humans globally but also the local and global effects of human actions on the natural environment, and the disproportionate effects on racial and economic subsets of humanity.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity and Social Sciences.]
Sustainability in Public Discourse - IDH 3109
Known alternatively as "ecospeak," "popular science," and "science-based CSR," the phenomenon of moving scientific facts into the public sphere is one that deserves our critical attention. In this course, we examine sustainability through a critical cultural lens—drawing on genre theory, discourse studies, and spatial justice—in order to examine campaigns and conversations around sustainability topics, and to participate in their re/construction. We consider paradigms in written communication that perpetuate, devolve, or recycle themselves over time, and we focus our study in four spheres—environmental rhetoric, scientific and technical writing, archival conservation, and public policy.
[Requirements Satisfied: Diversity and Upper Division Writing (UDW).]