Looking for a GE? Check out our courses bulletin board!
Scheduling soon? We know there are a lot of courses to choose from — here are some general education courses that will broaden your horizons and allow you to explore your passions.
Arts
MUSIC 2250: Music Cultures of the World
A survey of musical cultures outside the Western European tradition of the fine arts.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
GE: Global Studies
ARTEDUC 2367.02: Writing Art Criticism
Focuses on critical literacy and writing about contemporary American art by a variety of artists with diverse points of view.
GE: Writing and Communication, level 2
ART 2555: Photography I - Digital Camera
Introduces photographic theory, practice, and aesthetics with image production, commercial lab prints and critiques. Student provides digital camera, minimum 6 mp, with full manual controls and exposure compensation available.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
Dance 3402: Dance in Global Contexts
Surveys dance forms from around the globe, offering insights into the religious, social, and political functions of dances in their historical and contemporary practices.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
GE: Global Studies
HISTART 2002: Western Art II: The Renaissance to the Present
This course examines the art of the United States and Europe from about 1500 to the present, with an emphasis on painting. It will concentrate on a select group of representative works that shaped—and were shaped by— developments in western social, political, and intellectual history and that participated in individual and community identity formation.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
GE: Global Studies
GE: Historical Studies
HISTART 4825: From Modernism to Manga: Modern and Contemporary Art in Japan
GE: VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS & GLOBAL STUDIES
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ART 2100: Visual Studies: Beginning Drawing
An introduction to basic freehand drawing, exploration of a range of drawing methods, media, concepts; emphasis on drawing from observation.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
ARTEDUC 2520: Digital Artmaking
Introductory study of digital artmaking through interpreting contemporary artists, constructing a language of art critique, and producing images using graphic design software.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
DANCE 2401: Western Concert Dance: Renaissance to Present
Includes European origins of classical ballet, Africanist contributions, postmodern impulses; looks at aesthetic, cultural, and political themes in the history of concert dance in America.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
Dance 3401: Dance in Popular Culture: Embodying American Identities, Ideas and Cultures
Popular dance in the United States, with an emphasis on how movement constructs identity and community. What are the dances that have captured the attention and imagination of the American public over the last century on the stage, the club, and the screen? We will look at who dances, how they move, and how movement constructs identity through styles such as ballroom, Broadway, Hip-Hop, YouTube, television and video gaming. Online course, no dance experience required.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
GE: Social Diversity in the United States
THEATRE 2100: Introduction to Theatre
A study of the art and profession of theatre, with an emphasis on evaluating and appreciating live performance, theatre's cultural importance, and its relationship to issues of social diversity.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
Humanities
AFAMAST 2288: Bebop to Doowop to Hiphop — The Rhythm and Blues Tradition
Examines the aesthetic and historical evolution of rhythm and blues (black music tradition including bebop, rock and roll and hiphop) that redefined American popular culture post-WWII.
GE: Social Diversity in the United States
COMPSTDS 2340: Intro to Cultures of Science and Technology
Critical analysis of the multiple relations of science to society, with emphasis on knowledge, power, authority, values and ethics.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
GE: Global Studies
COMPSTDS 3465: Cultures of Medicine
Emphasis on humanistic, scientific and clinical perspectives on medical issues; literary uses of medical themes; and medicine as art and science.
GE: Global Studies
GE: Culture and Ideas
ENGLISH 3364: Insurgent Youth — Punk, riot Grrrl and Black Metal
How do cultural worlds respond to moments of political distress? How can music, art and lifestyles model other ways of living and thinking? This class pursues these two questions by investigating three distinct subcultures: punk, riot grrrl and black metal. We will listen to a wide range of music, placing it in its historical context and tracing its lasting influences. Readings and viewings will range across documentary films, memoirs, cultural theory, zines and other literary and visual texts. Our class will also host visits from music journalists, scholars and participants in these three subcultures.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
WGSST 2367.02: Latina Women Writers
Writing and analysis of U.S. Latina experiences, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary relationships between literature and U.S. Latina socio-political history.
GE: Literature
SPAN 2322: Spanish Society and the Arts
Introduction to Spanish art and its relationship to society, from Goya to Toral: a visual approach to culture.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
HISTORY 2680: It's the End of the World!: Apocalypticism in Christianity, Judaism and Islam
This course will explore how the end of the world—generally understood to be preceded by enormous wars and disasters as well as the judgment of people and a reckoning of their deeds—was imagined over two millennia by Christians, Jews and Muslims. The course will cover primary and secondary historical works, as well as fictional bestsellers, about the apocalypse from around the world.
GE: Global Studies
SPAN 2380: Introduction to Latin American Film
This course provides an overview of Latin American cinema from the classical studio era to the present. The course will place particular emphasis on the ways in which, from its very first moments, Latin American cinema was in conversation with local cultural traditions as well as with cinematic trends in other parts of the world. We will explore the flow of aesthetic tendencies between Latin America, Europe and the United States, and also how filmmakers have traveled between different film industries. In the process, we will analyze mainstream, popular films as well as more aesthetically experimental works by directors from several different countries.
GE: Global Studies
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
ITAL 3052: Mediterranean Voyages
Migrants and tourists conceive of the Mediterranean as a space to be moved through, rather than an endpoint. Their travels reinforce the contemporary division between the sea’s European shore and its other coasts by making a transit zone of the Mediterranean, a barrier that presents the possibility of its traverse.
GE: Global Studies
GE: Culture and Ideas
MEDREN 2666: Magic and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
GE: Cultures and Ideas
GE: Global Studies
PHILOS 2340: The Future of Humanity
An exploration of philosophical and ethical issues concerning the future of humanity. Topics will include climate change, sustainability, population growth, automation and its implications for unemployment, human enhancement and transhumanism, space colonization, artificial intelligence and the risk of human extinction.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
QUECHUA 5501.01: Beginning Quechua I
A beginning language course for students with no previous experience in Quechua. This course is comprehensive, integrating culture and language from the southern Quechua family of Bolivia and Peru. Of special interest to students in anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, Spanish, history, international studies, political science, geography and many other disciplines.
GE: Language Proficiency
RELSTDS 3679: Popular Culture and World Religion
Emphasis on the representation of religion in visual culture, in the United States and around the world; the ways that religious traditions are represented or misrepresented; the ways religious traditions appropriate popular culture for their own purposes; new forms of religious practice and community that grow directly out of popular culture.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
SLAVIC 3310: Science Fiction — East vs West
Slavic, American and British sci-fi on page and screen as a reflection of major cultural concerns: progress, utopia, human perfectibility, limits of science and knowledge, gender and identity. Taught in English.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
POLISH 1101: Elementary Polish I
Introduction to Polish focuses on the development of listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. Not open to students with credit for 101. This course is available for EM credit. Hybrid format course.
GE: Language Proficiency
CLAS 3404: Magic in the Ancient World
An introduction to the theory and practice of magic in the ancient Mediterranean, how people viewed it and how it survived in later epochs.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
COMPSTDS 2367.02: U.S. Latino Identity
Emphasis on Latino/a cultural history and expression with a focus on the role of race, class, gender and sexuality in identity construction.
GE: Writing
GE: Social Diversity in the U.S.
ENGLISH 2282: Introduction to Queer Studies
Introduces and problematizes foundational concepts of the interdisciplinary field of queer studies, highlighting the intersections of sexuality with race, class and nationality.
GE: Culture and Ideas
GE: Social Diversity in the U.S.
ENGLISH 2367.06: Composing Disability in the U.S.
Extends and refines expository writing and analytical reading skills, emphasizing recognition of intertextuality and reflection on compositional strategies and topics pertaining to education and popular culture in America. Only one decimal subdivision of English 2367 may be taken for credit. PREREQ: English 1110; and Soph standing, or a declared major in English.
GE: Writing
GE: Social Diversity in the U.S.
English 3372: Science Fiction and/or Fantasy
Introduction to the tradition and practice of speculative writing. Provides students the opportunity to examine and compare works of science fiction and/or fantasy.
GE: Literature
History 2070: Introduction to Native American History
This course is taught online.
GE: Historical Study
GE: Social Diversity in the U.S.
PHILOS 2680: Scientific Controversies
What can science tell us about ourselves and the nature of the world? Modern science raises many difficult questions about the nature of the universe and our place in it. This class considers several controversies that arise within science and investigates their broader philosophical significance.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
HISTORY 2704: Water — A Human History
History of human use and understandings of water from ancient to modern times, with case studies taken from different geographic locations.
GE: Global Studies
LING 3603: Languages Across Cultures
This course examines the relationships between language and culture in different societies with a view to shedding light on cross-cultural similarities and differences.
GE: Social Science
GE: Global Studies
NELC 2241: Beyond Harems and Belly Dancers — Turkish Culture
This is a course exposing students to a diverse and living culture with a great and ancient heritage. Contributions of the local and international Turkish communities, in the form of performances arranged for the class, films, slides and recordings, will form the in-class experience. Through these means and assigned readings and discussion, students will comprehend the span and depth of the Turkish contribution to human values, and they will research one aspect of that culture in some detail according to his or her personal interests. By the end of the course students will have an enlightened understanding of the Turkish role in shaping human history and contemporary events.
GE: Cultures and Ideas
GE: Global Studies
PORT 1101: Introduction to Portuguese Languages and Cultures
As the sixth most widely spoken language in the world, with native speakers in eight countries on four continents, Portuguese is a great language to learn. This is the first of three classes which introduce students to the Portuguese language and the cultures that speak it.
ONLINE COURSE
GE: Language Proficiency
SLAVIC 2230: Vampires, Monstrosity and Evil — From Slavic Myth to Twilight
Emphasis on the changing approaches to evil as embodied in vampires in East European folk belief and European and American pop culture; function of vampire and monster tales in cultural context, including peasant world and West from Enlightenment to now. Taught in English.
GE: Global Studies
WGSST 3317: Hollywood, Women and Film
A critical survey of the representation of women in Hollywood cinema, with examples drawn from the 1930's to present. Learn how film has functioned in its representation of women and how and why women filmmakers have created alternative visions of women in film.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
German 2451: Hollywood Exiles and Émigrés
German cinema has played an influential role in the development of international film genres. In this class, we look at examples of films made in Hollywood that bear the stamp of German influence. We also look at films made in Germany that show that influence flows in both directions. This course assumes no prior knowledge of the German language, German films or film theory in general. It is taught in English.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
ITAL 2053: Introduction to Italian Cinema
This course presents an overview of Italian cinema of the last seventy years and looks in detail at films and serial television by important Italian directors. It also touches upon major genres and movements, including Neorealism, comedy Italian style, political cinema, the woman’s film, spaghetti westerns, mafia movies, film noir, coming-of-age film, docudramas, queer cinema and quality television.
GE: Visual and Performing Arts
GE: Global Studies
Social and Behavioral Sciences
POLITSC 3596: Nationalism and Ethnicity
Explores socio-political identities, especially ethnicity and nationality, from a comparative perspective. Drawing upon theories from political science, psychology, anthropology, sociology and economics, we will study the origins and characteristics of these identities, as well as their consequences for democracy, economic development, and violent conflict.
GE: Social Science (Individuals and Groups)
GE: Open Options (Cross-disciplinary Seminar)
ANTHROP 3304: The Living Primates
Survey of the behavior, morphology and conservation of living primates; particular emphasis given to field studies and the position of humans within the Order Primates.
GE: Natural Science
COMM 2596: An Introduction to Health, Environment, Risk & Science Communication
Provides a general introduction to the fields of science, risk, environmental and health communication from multiple perspectives including psychological, social, and cultural. Students will develop a prototype communication intervention or campaign to address a health, safety or environmental issue drawing on theories and research covered in the course.
GE: Open Options (Cross-disciplinary Seminar)
GEOG 2800: Our Global Environment
Introduction to global environmental issues, including the interaction of physical and social factors in the causes of and strategies for ameliorating environmental problems.
GE: Natural Science
ANTHROP 3597.01: Crisis! An Anthropological Perspective of Global Issues
Analysis of cultural conflict in developing nations resulting from rapid and extensive technological and social change.
GE: Social Science (Individuals and Groups)
GE: Global Studies
GE: Open Options (Cross-disciplinary Seminar)
GEOG 3701: The Making of the Modern World
GEOG 3701 critically investigates the spatial formation and transformation of our modern world. By scrutinizing the forces and concepts of modernity, modernism, and modernization, we will examine what animates the modern world system in order to help students better understand the world we live in, and their place in it.
GE: Social Science (Organizations and Polities)
GE: Global Studies
ECON 2001.01: Principles of Microeconomics
Introduction to economic theory: supply and demand for goods, services, and factor inputs; market structure; international trade, the distribution of income. First required course for students planning to take 4000-level courses in Econ. Available in person and online.
GE: Social Science (Human, Natural and Economics Resources)
INTSTDS 3850: Introduction to Globalization
Analysis of globalization in its various aspects, economic, political, environmental and technological, as well as of its extent and desirability.
GE: Social Science (Individuals and Groups)
GE: Global Studies
POLITSC 2150: Voters and Elections
Study of U.S. elections, focusing on voter attitudes, group behavior, and political participation.
GE: Social Science (Individuals and Groups)
PSYCH 3375: Stereotyping and Prejudice
Lectures address experimental research in stereotyping and prejudice; readings focus on historical, cultural and sociological perspectives on issues related to gender, ethnicity and social class. Prereq: PSYCH1100 (100) or 1100H (100H).
GE: Social Diversity in the United States.
SOCIOL 3200: Sociology of Immigration
Provides a sociological understanding of contemporary migration both globally and with a particular focus on the U.S. The course will examine why migration occurs; how it is sustained over time; and how immigrants are incorporated into the host society. Social relations as central to understanding immigration will be a focus of the course.
GE: Social Diversity in the United States
SPHHRNG 3350: Speech-Language Communication Across the Life Span: Issues and Problems in Our Communities
Exploration of the development of communication skills throughout the life span and the consequences of communication disorders for individuals, their families, and their communities.
GE: Social Science (Individuals and Groups)
Natural and Mathematical Sciences
ASTRO 1101: From Planets to the Cosmos
An overview of astronomy from our solar system to the universe as a whole. The goals of courses in this category are for students to understand the principles, theories, and methods of modern science, the relationship between science and technology, the implications of scientific discoveries, and the potential of science and technology to address problems of the contemporary world.
GE: Physical Science
BIO 1113: Energy Transfer and Development
Exploration of biology and biological principles; evolution and the origin of life, cellular structure and function, bioenergetics and genetics.
GE: Natural Science
Physics 1103: The World of Energy: Forces, Electricity, Magnetism, Machines
An examination of the physical concepts related to energy, including force, electricity, magnetism, and motors. Uses the hands-on discovery mode of instruction. Intended for non-science majors.
GE: Natural Science
MATH 1149: Trigonometry
Trigonometric functions and their properties. Vectors, polar coordinates and complex numbers.
GE: Quantitative and Logical Skills
CHEM 1100: Chemistry and Society
Terminology, methods and principles of chemistry; examination of the roles of chemistry in our modern technological society.
GE: Natural Science
BIO 1105: Human Biology in Cinema
Human Biology in Cinema will show that mainstream films with a core biological theme can be entertaining AND educational and that having some basic biological insights will enhance your comprehension and appreciation of these films. Lectures and discussions will cover basic principles in biology that will help elucidate the content of each film.
GE: Natural Science
EARTHSC 1108: Gemstones
General introduction to gemstones, including the origin of gems, identification techniques, and the history of important gems. Precious metals are also discussed.
GE: Natural Science
ASTRO 1141: Life in the Universe
For most of human history, we have known of exactly one planetary system, our own. In the past few decades, we have discovered many thousands of confirmed planets around other stars, with many thousand more candidate systems awaiting confirmation. We are starting to find planets that appear to be the size of Earth, and in regions around their parent stars where we might expect to find liquid water on such planets. This raises the possibility of other habitable planets in our universe from the realm of science fiction to the level of a question that can be addressed scientifically, the answer to which has potentially revolutionary implications for our species.
GE: Natural Science
STAT 1350: Elementary Statistics
This is a statistical literacy course designed to help students become thoughtful and critical consumers of statistics in everyday life. Students will learn about how data is produced, organized, and summarized. They will also learn about how samples of data can be used to make inferences about populations. Online sections are offered for students studying in the US.
GE: Quantitative and Logical Skills
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