BCLA Anti-Racism Courses

LMU students marching in support of Black Lives Matter

 
BCLA Classes for Anti-Black Racism and Racial Justice

BCLA proudly and regularly offers classes that delve into issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In light of recent University and BCLA antiracist efforts, the following is a list of courses that feature content that explore matters of race, racism, and antiracism.  Although the list was created with the consultation of unit leaders, it is not exhaustive, and it will change. By engaging the courses listed, students can learn a great deal about racial justice and formations. The departments in the Ethnic Studies Village: African American Studies, Asian and Asian American Studies, Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies, have always specialized in covering antiracist material in their lower and upper division classes, but other departments and classes do quite well to address these issues as well. Students, by enrolling in these courses, can be better equipped to confront America’s oldest and most enduring pandemic: racism.

Please visit the LMU Bulletin for the most up-to-date course information. 

  • Course Description: An introductory course designed to give an overview of African American Studies in order to familiarize the student with the history, culture, aspirations, and contemporary issues of the African American experience.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: With particular emphasis upon the contemporary era (i.e., the 1970’s forward), this course primarily follows the struggles and triumphs of African Americans through the various developments and contributions of selected intellectuals, artists and religious leaders. Additionally, the course will acquaint students with the history and struggles of selected other ethnic groups in the U.S. via interdisciplinary and intersectional modalities. We will examine some of the cultural, historical, religious, political and artistic influences which have contributed to the survival and empowerment of selected ethnic groups in American society.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: Gospel Choir provides students an experience of African-American Gospel Music through artistic, cultural and spiritual means. Students learn to perform vocal music styles representative of Gospel music, including Traditional Gospel, Contemporary Gospel, Praise and Worship, Hymns and Spirituals in a choir rehearsal context. The course includes informal lecture segments, musical demonstrations and church worship experiences both in and out of the classroom. Students are taught basic vocal technique and gospel singing interpretation. The class is conducted primarily in the form of a choir rehearsal. Music is learned mostly by rote, with some score reading introduced. Neither audition nor musical experience required. Class discussions will include theological, scriptural, historical, spiritual, and cultural perspectives of Gospel music and related forms. Live and video-recorded performances as well as guest presenters will enhance students’ exposure and understanding of the art form. Course work culminates in a concert presenting repertoire mastered in class.

  • Course Description: This course follows the struggles and triumphs of African Americans through the various theological developments and contributions of selected African American theologians, sociologists, intellectuals and religious leaders. We will read and explore notions of freedom and Black Liberationist Theologies via African American experiences from enslavement to the present.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections.

  • Course Description: The purpose of this synchronous and asynchronous course is to provide young scholars with a foundational understanding of the African American experience. The course will explore the role of the African American experience within the larger context of U.S. History as well as the History of the African Diaspora. In addition to the political, cultural, and economic aspects of African American life, this course investigates the social norms and mores of the African American community. Young scholars will examine the experience of African Americans from pre-Atlantic Slave Trade to the Movement for Black Lives. In doing so, young scholars will note the ways in which African Americans have been portrayed throughout history in the media, literature, music, and film. This course will call young scholars to recognize the nuances of class, gender, and ethnic differences amongst African Americans throughout the history of the United States.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives; Flag: Engaged Learning.

  • Course Description: In this post-Civil Rights era, African Americans are a part of American culture in ways that reflect not only a high degree of visibility but also extraordinary popularity. Moreover, American cinema has delivered, whether real or fictional, various representations of black people, racial progress and notions of racial pathology. This course examines how Hollywood cinema, has defined the issue of race in American society by offering controversial, entertaining and engaging representations of African Americans. Accordingly, an in-depth exploration of the history and criticism of the Black image in film, the film industry along with issues of audience reception are covered concerning how to critically “read” film for the ideological subtext as well as social and political symbolism. The class is also concerned with connecting the cultural ferment created by the Civil Rights, Black Power Movements of the 1960s and the mainstreaming of Hip-Hop as substantial moments in bringing about many of the changes in the status, role and representation of African Americans in American film.

  • Course Description: The aim of this course is to explore some prominent themes, queries and applications toward an understanding of race/ism, health, and society. Drawing from cross-disciplinary perspectives, frameworks, approaches, and materials from across the social, health, and medical sciences, our departure point is the understanding of race/ism and its construction upon a foundation of anti-Blackness and anti-indigeneity. This course also explores the ways in which the history, development, and the evolution of racial politics and anti-Blackness have and continue to shape and transform the health and livelihoods of people at various intersections of human experience. The course critically examines and interrogates racialized health disparities and the social and structural determinants of health. This course cultivates a critical lens through analysis of historical (i.e., medical apartheid) and contemporary (Hurricane Katrina disaster response, COVID-19) case studies, illuminating the role of social, political, and economic landscapes to which health inequities foreground. Students leave the course with a set of practical concepts, justice- oriented frameworks, and reflexive practices that can serve as a foundation for the work of racial justice in health.

    While some themes of global relevance are explored, the primary geospatial and geopolitical scope of this course emphasizes the role of race within the imaginary, socially engineered border commonly referred to as "America.”

    This course is interactive, engaging, and fully delivered online through both synchronous and asynchronous learning activities. As the course instructor, I draw from a bevy of Afrocentric and feminist pedagogies through the integration and facilitation of collaboration, critical dialogue, reflection, and points of praxis.

  • Course Description: An introductory course which surveys the cultures and histories of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States. Interaction among various Asian Pacific American communities also will be discussed.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: A survey of Asian Pacific American writers and their literature, using critical analysis of autobiographies, short stories, novels, poetry, essays, and films.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Creative Experience; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: An interdisciplinary and comparative examination of the historical role of immigration and migration in shaping the Los Angeles region as well as the social, political, economic, and cultural impact of immigration in contemporary Los Angeles.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: This course engages in an interdisciplinary examination of the identity development of persons of mixed race ancestry in the United States through which students derive a critical understanding of race, ethnicity, and culture, while developing a deeper appreciation for ethnic, class, gender, generational, and racial diversity.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections.

  • Course Description: This seminar focuses the students on a single bioethical issue, allowing a deep dive into the nuance and complexity of real-life dilemmas, as framed by the best practices of clinical bioethicists, medical ethics scholars, and “systems” experts–such as regulators, commerce-drivers and researchers. Issues include but are not limited to Justice and Health Care, Bioethics and the Beginning of Life, Bioethics and the End of Life, and Clinical Bioethics. As both a capstone and interdisciplinary seminar, this course will require a student to examine and evaluate a bioethical issue by approaching and integrating content and knowledge from other courses in the Bioethics minor.

    Prerequisites: BIOE 1000

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections.

  • Course Description: Historically and contemporarily, the cross, a foundational image of Christian faith, has also been associated with political terror. In this course, beginning with the landmark theological work of Black liberation theologian Dr. James Cone, we will explore the meaning of the cross during the Roman Empire and in the post Reconstruction American South. We will ask who are crucified, and the affect of Black and Brown people being framed as crucifiable. We will reflect on what the cross and the lynching tree mean to Christians and to followers of other traditions, and examine what role we play as the narrative of crucifixion and empire is played and replayed.

    This course examines questions of faith, God, religious practice, humanity, spirituality, and liberation in light of diverse African American experiences, ideas, and practices. By an analysis of diverse sources in both Black and Womanist theology, the class explores the complex dynamics between race and religion and highlights how Black voices contribute to the human search for God.

    Prerequisites: Junior/Senior standing required.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Faith and Reason.

     

  • Course Description: An interdisciplinary overview of Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies to familiarize students with historical and contemporary issues in Chicana/o and Latina/o communities.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: This course introduces students to interdisciplinary and intersectional forms of analysis and is required of CLST majors and minors. This is a course about how we approach our fields of study (they may be multiple) and how the questions we ask shape what we can know.

  • Course Description: Using readings from across disciplines, you will be introduced to the concepts and methods used to study and analyze Latino Politics in the United States. In light of the fact that Latinos are quickly becoming the majority in many parts of the United States and have begun to inhabit new geographic spaces (i.e. New Orleans, Atlanta, Durham), this course will focus on Latino political behavior, policy preferences, public opinion, and race relations with other racial groups. We will also focus on how they identify within the American political system when confronted with various forms of racial oppression, pressures to assimilate and, at times, a lack of attachment to and/or knowledge about their ethnic origin.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Engaged Learning.

  • Course Description: This course explores Latinx experiences in California since the 16th century, with a primary focus on the period from 1848 to the present. Themes and topics include: colonialism, race, labor, migration, social movements, and state violence. The assigned readings and discussions will cover Chicanx and Latinx communities throughout the U.S. but will focus on communities of Mexican and Central American origin. The objective of this course is to understand the origins and evolution of Chicanx and Latinx communities in the United States.

  • Course Description: A survey of the policy and theoretical issues that are raised when economic analysis is applied in an urban setting. Topics include urbanization and urban growth housing markets, location decisions of households and firms, transportation, urban labor markets, the local public sector, and discrimination.

    Prerequisite: ECON 1050

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections.

  • Course Description: This course is about the challenges posed by massive and persistent poverty across the world from primarily an economics perspective. Topics include the global debates about poverty and inequality, the ethics of global citizenship, and public policy solutions to alleviate poverty.

    Prerequisite: ECON 1050

  • Course Description: A course designed to develop an appreciation of drama through critical analysis and creative writing.

    Restrictions: Not open to English majors and minors.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Creative Experience; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: An intermediate level writing class and an introduction to journalism. Covers the basic components of both features and news stories, interview strategies, and legal and ethical concerns.

    Prerequisites: ENGL 2206 or JOUR 2100.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: A survey of American literature from 1865 to the present.

    Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing or permission of the Chairperson required.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections.

  • Course Description: Students will complete their Journalism major or minor by producing a multi-platform journalism project.

    Prerequisites: Open to senior Journalism majors or minors by permission of instructor.

  • Course Description: This course surveys the rise of the modern era using a pluralistic understanding of world history. It examines major global events through the themes of exploration and the advent of capitalism from the “age of exploration” and colonization in the fifteenth century to the present day. The class texts and lectures are primarily guided by the question: What makes the modern age modern? Due to the immensity of the subject, the course will focus on the themes of voyage, empire, and economic networks while analyzing and comparing different regions and time periods. Our aim is to understand how the modern world system developed, as well as its positive, negative, and transformative consequences for different communities across the globe. The course will provide students with an opportunity to analyze change over time during a long period of human history, offering a deeper comprehension of the ideas, processes, and economic pressures that define the modern world.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives.

  • Course Description: This course serves as an introductory survey of American history from the fifteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, from the pre-Columbian period to the eve of the Civil War. It focuses on the experiences of individuals and groups, and examines their relationships to the broader structures of American society. Though broad in scope this course will explore in depth various facets of American history, examining changes to society over time by considering causes and analyzing consequences. Topics include indigenous societies before and after contact with Europeans, the colonization of North America, the shaping of colonial society, race and slavery, the American Revolution and its aftermath, life in the early republic, political developments in the new nation, expansionism and westward migration, the creation of a market economy, and the growth of sectionalism and its consequences.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives.

  • Course Description: Eight successive rulers reigned over the vast multilingual and multiethnic Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, or Aztec Empire, across six decades before the arrival of Spanish-speakers on Ayiti in 1492. Nahuatl-speakers looked with curiosity at these chontalli arriving from another world, and this class will examine with like-minded curiosity the evolution of American colonies throughout the Atlantic basin between the mid-fifteenth through mid-nineteenth centuries. Our narrative will turn on the interaction of people, ideas, commodities, and nonhumans that tied together Europe, West and West Central Africa, and Indigenous nations. We will strive to see the Atlantic world as a startlingly diverse global zone populated by men and women speaking languages like KiKongo, Wôpanâak, ​Yokotʼan​, Danish, and Akan. English settlers in Wampanoki and Tsenacommacah relied on interpreters and go-betweens to learn their way around these alien landscapes. We will keep in mind just how unfamiliar places like Lenapehoking were for Europeans, and how Atlantic Africans frequently took advantage of that unfamiliarity to form their own mocambos beyond the reach of their captors. Our community will question the divergent motivations of European settlers, Indigenous diplomats, and African intellectuals. Some of our themes will be the formation of new ethnolinguistic groups, the rise and fall of Indian and Atlantic slavery, and asking just how revolutionary was the Age of Revolutions that culminated in what one author called the “Black Empire of Hayti.”

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives.

  • Course Description: This course will survey the history of the United States from 1850 to the present. Broadly, this class will trace a number of interrelated themes: how technology has impacted work, leisure, communication, and domestic life; how evolving notions of citizenship have changed government and created struggles over political participation; how social movements have transformed the political, artistic, and cultural landscapes of the United States; and how the experiences of immigrants and their descendants have established public policy, educational reforms, and cultural efflorescence. This class also seeks to place American history in a global framework. Since the 19th century, the United States emerged as a powerful empire, exerting its influence not only militarily, politically, and economically but also culturally. Now challenges at home and abroad have prompted people to ask whether these signify its end.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives.

  • Course Description: This introductory course traces political, economic, and social developments on the African continent since 1600, placing this continent at the center of historical dynamics linking Europe, the Americas, and Asia. We will cover themes such as the robust trade routes across the Sahara which produced cultural, intellectual and religious exchange between North and West Africa; the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on the polities of Central Africa; the role of West African women in producing export goods necessary for the Industrial Revolution; colonial rule and resistance across the continent; the global importance of Ethiopia in pan-African thought; African soldiers in World War Two; decolonization in Algeria; Apartheid in South Africa, and contemporary social movements such as #RhodesMustFall. The class will emphasize gender and sexuality as consistent modes of analysis, both tracing changing concepts of gender and sexuality over time and in different social, religious, political and economic contexts, and highlighting African women as central historical actors. We will discuss these alongside other axes of social difference, such as generation, occupational social group (caste) status, religion, and race. Additionally, this course will introduce students to the practices of historical analysis, including the analysis of primary sources like epic poetry, Arabic-language travelogues, and 20th century photographic material (such as the collections of the Archive of Malian Photography). We will contextualize these primary sources using academic scholarship, and creative works including graphic novels, films, albums, and novels.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives.

  • Course Description: This course offers an overview of society and culture in modern Latin America—Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. Class activities, lectures, and independent research will cover the history of Latin America and its people from Independence (~1820s from Spain and Portugal) to the present day. Among the questions that students will grapple with over the duration of the semester are: What is Latin America and what does it mean to be Latin American? What are the historical roots of poverty, gendered violence, racism, organized crime, and political instability in the region? In what ways have foreign states intervened in Latin American nations and what are the legacies today of that intervention? What is the history of voluntary and forced migrations of Latin Americans from their places of origin? And, lastly, why is Latin music and food so damn good? To answer these questions, the course will have a thematic approach (race, gender, and class) and will move chronologically, shifting between individual stories and nations and the broader movements and ideologies they illuminate.

    University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Historical Analysis and Perspectives.

  • Course Description: Using interdisciplinary approaches and cross-cultural perspectives, this class explores the ways in which visual imageries have been used to create and shape notions of race and gender, both reflecting and influencing socioeconomic relations and political modalities in the United States from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. We will examine a wide variety of cultural productions such as artworks, political cartoons, museum exhibitions, television programs, films, photographs, music videos, and advertisements to analyze questions concerning the construction of gender-role expectations, interracial exchanges, and the establishment of national identities, among others.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: The History Learning Community is an opportunity for students to come together to discuss their courses in the specific context of one of the History program’s thematic concentrations. In fall 2020, the thematic focus of the HIST Learning Community is the Race, Gender, and Culture concentration, with an additional focus on Public and Applied History. The learning community will enable students to consider questions and issues central to those concentrations in terms of the question of how we might “decolonize” the study of history. In recent years, there has been considerable attention on the challenges of inclusion and access, diversifying university curricula, de-centering whiteness and “western civilization,” and developing anti-racist courses and pedagogies. This is a particular challenge for the discipline of history, which is intertwined with nation- and empire-building projects. In this learning community, we will discuss how we might “decolonize” the study of history, both here at LMU in the context of the university’s and BCLA’s anti-racism efforts and in the discipline more generally.

    Prerequisites: History majors and minors only.

  • Course Description: Why have European cities filled with museums over the last few hundred years? Why have people built them, and what do museums do? What do they contain, and why? How have cities preserved historic monuments, turning themselves into museums? What is the tourist experience, and why have people over the last few hundred years sought out particular places? This course will tackle these questions (and more!) by considering the history and theory of museums in modern Europe, c. 1750 to the present. We will study specific case studies, considering how museums have engaged with and have helped to define art, ethnography, the natural sciences, and history, including difficult histories like the Holocaust and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. By investigating how important museums have been to establishing and maintaining systems of classification and historical narratives, you will gain a new understanding of debates about knowledge, culture, power, and privilege; this course questions multiple, overlapping power structures of race, class, and gender, and uses an explicitly anti-racist lens to understand cultural institutions in relation to European imperialism. As part of our application of these ideas, we will consider curatorial approaches and investigate how museums and historic sites have responded to the pandemic and expanded public online outreach and exhibitions. Finally, HIST 3910 students will put on an online exhibition, so you will gain the ability to present to a broad audience and put your studies into practice, including audio guides/podcasts, publicity/posters, content creation, and exhibition design.

    University Core Fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections; Flag: Engaged Learning; Flag: Information Literacy

  • Course Description: This course introduces students to the history of health interventions and international development in Africa. We will move chronologically and thematically, using historical methods to analyze changes in scientific technology and public health trends, from missionary medicine in the 19th century to mental health interventions and cancer treatment in the 20th, placing health issues and interventions in their historical context – including colonialism, decolonization, and the Cold War. The second part of the course will focus on contemporary themes such as family planning, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and Covid-19. Throughout the semester, we will discuss the relationship between health interventions and coercion, between resource extraction and global health priorities, and between gendered family structures and strategies of seeking care. Our class will emphasize African responses to “global medicine.” Students will be introduced to the diverse meanings and practices of health and healing in Africa, such as public healing, and trace the human experience of care, such as family strategies to ensure conception, fertility, and safe childbirth. This course also uses gender and sexuality as consistent modes of analysis, both tracing changing concepts of gender and sexuality over time in relation to ideas about the body and health, and highlighting African women as central actors in the history of medicine.

  • Course Description: This seminar addresses recent scholarship on the history of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. While framed by the conditions of European and American settler colonialism, it focuses on Indigenous Peoples’ active roles in negotiating and shaping modern North American culture and society. Weekly discussions will cover topics such as the theoretical foundations of settler colonialism, the contested North American West, Indigenous Peoples and California, Indigenous Nation histories, reservation struggles, American Indian activism, Native peoples and modern society, and how to write Indigenous Peoples into North American history.

    Prerequisites: Junior or Senior standing; History majors or minors only

    University Core Fulfilled: Flag:Oral Skills; Flag: Writing

  • Course Description: This course introduces students to the study of peace and justice, drawing on theories and practices from interdisciplinary perspectives. It aims to cover the development of the academic discipline of peace and justice studies as well as the histories and ethical dilemmas of non-violent social action and civil disobedience.

    University Core Fulfilled: Explorations: Understanding Human Behavior.

  • Course Description: This course will provide an introduction to the study of urban politics and public administration in urban areas of the United States. Use will be made of the social system framework of analysis to explore urban political culture and social structure, political participation patterns, urban power structures, the structure of formal governmental organizations, governmental decision making processes, the implementation of urban public programs, and the impacts of urban public policies. Attention will also be given to the role of the private sector in the creation of urban problems and efforts to find solutions, the nature of urban public service delivery systems, urban public fiscal problems, and intergovernmental relations relevant to urban politics.

  • Course Description: In this class, students explore multiple factors contributing to conflict, de-escalation, resolution and creation/maintenance of a sustainable peace in societies with a noted recent history of conflict. Particular attention will be paid to understanding the challenges to peace from psychological and political perspectives. We first interrogate why conflict exists from multiple levels of analysis (interpersonal, intergroup, and international) and theoretical approaches. We then explore ways to resolve, manage, and control conflict by analyzing case studies of negotiation and reconciliation.

    University Core Fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections; Flag: Engaged Learning.

  • Course Description: The aim of the course is to enhance the students’ understanding of practical politics. This is accomplished by classroom discussions, readings and a three-day trip to the California State Capitol in Sacramento. While in Sacramento, there will be panel discussions with staff, lobbyists, press and legislative leaders. There will also be seminars on politics, elections and public policy.

  • Course Description: Despite its legal abolition, slavery is practiced across the globe.  Kevin Bales, founder of the nonprofit Free the Slaves, estimates that 35 million people are enslaved today. This figure signifies that more people are enslaved today, in the 21st century, than in any other time in history. Slavery’s continued existence is both an affront to human dignity and a call to action. The course is divided into three sections. In the first part of the course, we examine historical slavery in ways that you most likely have not examined slavery in the past. This will be done by contrasting it with contemporary human trafficking, by examining how otherness and race have varied over time, by exploring the East and Trans-Saharan Africa slave trades as well as the well known Atlantic trade, and by discussing slavery’s legal abolition in the 19th and 20th centuries with regard to what lessons can we draw for slavery’s eradication in the modern period. Second, we turn our attention to modern slavery and trafficking, within countries and across borders, and examine the recent trends and attempts to understand the issues and debates related to slavery in the 21st century. In the last section of the course, we will confront the issue of slavery eradication. We will examine potential solutions for combating slavery, including internal government policies, in-country grass roots activism, foreign policy pressures, the roles of international agencies and non-governmental organizations, personal consumption patterns, and tackling global poverty.  

    University Core Fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections

  • Course Description: According to the group GenerationFive (a group whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations): “Transformative Justice seeks to provide people who experience violence with immediate safety and long-term healing and reparations while holding people who commit violence accountable within and by their communities.” Put this way, Transformative Justice is about building practices of genuine accountability and justice between people, acknowledging at two fundamental and uncomfortable realities about harm in the world: first, most often, and most likely, comes from people that we know, trust, and with whom we are in community with. Second, it argues that the state is at its core always a source of violence.

    Transformative Justice (POLS 4998) is an in-depth seminar that is part of the 2020-2021 Bellarmine Forum and takes up this idea and practice to better understand it (and ourselves) at this particular moment in history. The course is organized around a series of public events (4-6 over the semester) featuring notable guest speakers and experts on the theory and practice of transformative justice. Guests will come to LMU (virtually) and give public talks to the LMU community (and the world at large). Students enrolled in POLS 4998: Transformative Justice will take leadership in facilitating these events, acting both as moderators and respondents to our esteemed guests. These guests will be notable academics and organizers whose work focuses on our topic. Students will work in small groups, preparing extensively each guest speaker by reading a large amount of their research, discussing it in detail with each other, and preparing to host the speaker publicly.

    Enrollment in the course is by application only and priority will be given to students who have taken part in a previous Bellarmine Forum course or who have a background in transformative justice work.

    Prerequisites: Class acceptance by application only.

  • Course Description: This course is designed to expose students to careers in social justice, with particular attention to the role of international politics.  Students are required to intern at an organization that fits within the course parameters, which complements their classroom experience.  The goal is for students to gain experience in the active promotion of a particular issue by being exposed both to the functioning of an organization (eg administration) and the way in which it advocates for particular issues. In conjunction with an internship (6-10 hours per week), students will learn about ideas of justice, including distributive justice and just war, as well as their practical applications through international norms and law. Major topics to be explored include human rights, climate change, and drone warfare, among others.  

    **Note: Students MUST have an internationally-focused internship by the end of the first week of class.

    Prerequisites: POLS 1600 and POLS 2100.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Ethics & Justice; Flag: Engaged Learning; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: The objective of this course is to examine the personality and mental health issues of Asian Americans. Special emphasis is given to how minority group status, adaptation processes and bicultural development influence various aspects of psychological functioning.   Other topics to be covered include acculturation and enculturation, stereotypes and racism; cultural values and behavioral norms; ethnic identity; relationships with other racial groups; gender and sexuality; and mental health and culturally-responsive treatment strategies. 

    Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing required. Grade of C (2.0) or higher in PSYC 1000.

  • Course Description: A survey of the major contemporary theories of personality and relevant research and applications related to each theory.

    Prerequisites: Open to Psychology majors and minors only. Junior or senior standing required. Grade of C (2.0) or higher in PSYC 1000, PSYC 2001, PSYC 2002, and PSYC 2003.

  • Course Description: Seminar focuses on a faculty-selected topic to be investigated using the biopsychological perspective. The topic of this seminar is selected by the faculty member from within his or her area of expertise. Students are expected to broadly review and integrate their learning in psychology across the curriculum. This course fulfills the capstone requirement.

    Prerequisites: Open only to psychology majors with a senior standing. All required courses for the major must either be completed or currently in progress.  

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Writing

  • Course Description: An examination of the interaction between ethnic and racial minorities and the majority group in the light of current sociological theories of social conflict and social change.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Oral Skills.

     

  • Course Description: An examination of the basic historical processes which have shaped cities, including spatial differentiation. Topics may include the formation of community, metropolitan deconcentration, urban poverty, housing segregation, and third world urbanization.

     

  • Course Description: Social Movements examines the role of people-driven social change throughout the globe. We examine how and why social movements emerge, such as the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements, as well as what makes them successful.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Engaged Learning.

     

  • Course Description: Designed as a senior seminar for sociology majors. Stress will be on organization and integration of sociology studies, bringing together in a meaningful way sociological facts, understandings, and knowledge.

    Prerequisites: Students must have 90 semester hours completed at time of registration. Senior majors only. Prerequisite classes SOCL 2000 and SOCL 3000.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Writing.

     

  • Course Description: This course will introduce students to the meaning and significance of spiritual practice in its distinctively Christian expressions and expressions associated with other traditions. The focus of the course is on “lived religion”–the embodied, eclectic and often improvisational character of spiritual experience, both collective and individual. It also seeks to understand the critical role of practice in shaping spiritual meaning and identity.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Theological Inquiry.

  • Course Description: Rooted in the experiences of contemporary Latinx communities living in the United States, this course explores the unique contributions and challenges presented by the embodiment of Christian theology with a Latinx flavor.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Faith and Reason; Flag: Engaged Learning.

  • Course Description: This course provides an introduction to Islam and a detailed understanding of Islam in the American context. It examines the history of American Islam that goes back to the transatlantic slave trade and discusses how American Muslims have helped in the construction of what it means to be “American.”

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Faith and Reason; Flags: Oral Skills; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: This course utilizes feminist theory and theology to analyze the religions of the world as they affect and are affected by women. Students connect major religious beliefs and practices to the oppression and liberation of women, employ feminist theory to analyze those beliefs and practices, and appreciate the roles that women play in shaping and re-shaping their religious traditions.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Faith and Reason; Flags: Information Literacy; Flag: Oral Skills.

  • Course Description: An interdisciplinary study of women in society through overview of the major issues, innovations, and debates that have characterized the field of Women’s and Gender Studies. Course introduces history of feminist activism and discourse in the U.S.

     University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: An introduction to critical thinking skills about concepts such as gender, race, class, and sexuality, how these intersect in lives of women of color together with women’s strategies of surviving, resisting, and overcoming barriers.

    University Core fulfilled: Foundations: Studies in American Diversity.

  • Course Description: This course addresses women’s health and sexuality from a feminist perspective. It also deals with body images not only from the perspective of health but also in terms of their relationship to structures of power.

     University Core fulfilled: Explorations: Understanding Human Behavior.

  • Course Description: This course explores the relationship between sexuality and gender as well as a diversity of sexual identities. It focuses on issues of the body, sex, nature, and power within the context of history, culture, and public policy.

  • Course Description: This course examines discourse on body and sexuality in different religious traditions with a special emphasis on Christianity. Employing a variety of theological methods, the course probes gender theories, theologies of the body, and perspectives on sexuality in pertinent primary and secondary sources.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Faith and Reason; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: Gender and Disability is a critical feminist study of disability justice, hetero-ableism, and normality. This course examines: the ways in which disability and gender are socially constructed and co-constructed via rhetoric of dependence and autonomy; the centrality of “interdependence” to both feminist and disability justice movements; the entanglement of disability and gender in over-diagnosis, under-diagnosis, and over- and under- representation of disability in cultural texts; disability and sex, including consent, competence, and access; and legal and cultural issues of disability justice in Spring 2021.

  • Course Description: Women Beyond Borders--This course deals with some of the issues raised in French / francophone women texts (writings and films) from the second half of the 20th century to the present, such as feminist literary theory, the writing of female desire, the (re-)creation of (sex-) identity, and gender and / or racial equity. For students taking the class as FREN 4530 to complete a minor or major in French, all written works and oral group work will be in French. For students enrolled in WGST 3998, French films will be available with English subtitles and texts will be in English translation. The class will be conducted in both French (groups) and English.

    Prerequisites: One (1) FREN 3000-level course other than FREN 3104, or consent of instructor.

  • Course Description: This course explores the emergence, conceptual frameworks, themes, and critical tools of queer theory. This course critically analyzes sex, gender, and sexuality and the gaps between them and their interactions, as well as how these concepts are implicated in or frame many other discourses, such as the war on terror, aesthetics, death, history, race, ethics, monstrosity, nationalism, affect, punk rock, colonialism, temporality, and gentrification.

    Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing required.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Information Literacy; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: The course will address issues of racism, sexism, classism, and violence against women who are trafficked and those who also work as sex workers. We will discuss the relationship between ethics and human trafficking as well as who benefits from such approaches.

    University Core fulfilled: Integrations: Interdisciplinary Connections; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: Designed as a last course for students obtaining the Women’s and Gender Studies major or minor. Stress is on the organization and integration of knowledge gained regarding women in society.

    Prerequisites: Offered only during the Spring semester. Junior or senior standing required. Women's and Gender Studies major or minor required.

    University Core fulfilled: Flag: Oral Skills; Flag: Writing.

  • Course Description: The course takes as its starting point the question: how queer is TV? From there, students will investigate questions such as what does it mean to queer TV? What does it mean to queer a text? What is camp?