Fall 2019 Topics

17718
Cassada, Katherine

Students will explore the complex lives, expectations of, and pressures on middle and high school children, including social, physical, developmental, and emotional challenges that are unique to adolescence. The class will investigate learning styles, autonomy and independence, and expectations for this age group. Students will determine whether they find legitimacy in the popular concept that boys and girls learn and should be taught differently, and how adolescence might influence learning styles and academic success. Students will visit public and independent K-12 schools, single-sex and coeducational classrooms, and possibly after-school programs to develop positions for and participate in debates regarding educational issues that affect adolescents. We will also have fun studying and creating adolescent literature in a diary format.

17462
Feldman, Sharon

What do artists Salvador Dali and Joan Miro, architect Antoni Gaudi, playwright Sergi Belbel, and athlete Lionel Messi all have in common? The city of Barcelona! In this seminar, we shall look at how Barcelona has been portrayed in works of literature, theatre, film, and other arts. Focusing on the cultural history of this Catalan city from the mid nineteenth century to the present day, we shall see how Barcelona's perpetual transformations, expansions, and urban projects have come to invade and inspire the artistic imagination.

17682,17697
Kenzer, Robert

This seminar explores how baseball has been portrayed in American film and literature through four mediums: documentary, feature film, fiction, and non-fiction. The course will encourage students to think about the ways these mediums reveal how baseball has embodied critical aspects of American society including race and ethnicity, urbanization and suburbanization, business, labor-management relations, and media. While all levels of baseball will be touched on, the primary focus will be Major League Baseball.

17452
Mullen, Thomas

In this course, students will learn that journalists don't just report the news - they often have a responsibility to tell stories that inspire social change. This course explores the role and responsibility of journalism in identifying social issues and uncovering ways to resolve them.

17480
Loo, Tze

This course uses the act of collecting and the institution of museums as lenses to think about something that many people take for granted: how what is accepted as "history" is the result of deliberate processes of collecting facts and representing them in the shape of particular narratives. It combines an examination of the history of collecting with a study of the evolution of institutions of museums as public and often state sponsored attempts to weave a collective national memory. In asking students to analyze how narratives of the past take shape in museums and their material objects, this course introduces students to the power that physical objects possess to tell stories as well as to the implications of those stories.

17460
Brandenberger, David

"Crime and Punishment in Russian Fiction and Film" examines the acts of transgression and retribution, two long-standing preoccupations of the Russian intelligentsia. An interdisciplinary investigation of how writers, artists and cinematographers have depicted the changing boundaries of propriety and criminality since the early 19th century, this course includes not only short stories and novels, but also poetry, theater, opera and cinema. Indeed, of particular interest in the course is how works of classical literature by authors like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy have been reimagined for performance on the stage and silver screen.

17479
Browder, Laura

In this course we will be looking at court cases and media coverage of crimes that have become flashpoints in American history. The foci for popular, political and scholarly discussions about what constitutes crime and what social meanings the event has, as a way of discussing what it can teach us about race, gender, power and class in America. We will also be examining popular fiction and non-fiction as a way of asking why crime entertains us. And what these entertainments suggest about our cultural obsessions.

17458
Ross, William

Most of the plane and solid geometry students learn in high school essentially comes from the same source, Euclid's tour de force book The Elements. In this book, Euclid, the famous Greek mathematician, teacher, and cataloger of mathematics, complies and refines much of the mathematics known to the Greeks into one remarkable book that had an incredible journey from ancient Greece to the modern education of most geometry students. In this course, we begin with early results of the Egyptians, Thales, Pythagoras and then look forward from Euclid to Archimedes, Descartes, Euler, and Legendre all the way to modern geometry and topology. This course is designed for students who appreciate mathematics and mathematical proofs. No prior college-level mathematics is required.

17497
Kapanga, Kasongo

This seminar examines the idea of society, equality and social strife resolution against the background of the encounter of Europe into the New World (notably Africa) as a paradigm of occupation. Today's debate is to see whether China and India inroads into Africa replicates the same paradigm. The seminar will look at the rationalizing ideas as they evolved from the Renaissance (humanism) to their alterations of the 19th and the 20th centuries, then into the 21st century with the rise of new power centers in Asia. The course will start with the perception of China and India on the world stage. Then, John Locke's, "The Second Treatise of Government?" and Montaigne's essay "On Cannibals," will constitute the foundational ideas of the course. The subsequent texts will be read as arguments between two camps pitting, on the one hand, Europe or Asia as the initiator of the encounter, on the other hand, a more egalitarian approach on behalf of Africa on the ground of ideals of equality and individual rights. Mandela's South Africa will serve as a practical test case that we nowadays are familiar with. The seminar will therefore end with questions scrutinizing how South Africa as a whole is grappling with issues of equality on economic, social, legal and environmental fronts in a globalized world where China and India play important roles.

17463
Damer, Erika

What role can literature from and influenced by the Roman world play in universities in the 21st Century? Ovid's Metamorphoses will guide a careful examination of gender violence in the Roman world and in contemporary U.S. universities. Gender, Violence, Rome will study the ways that Ovid's Metamorphoses has offered solace and resistance against gendered violence, and been read as supporting power hierarchies that enable violence against women and men. In this course, students will meet Roman literature, and films, drama, and novels inspired by the tradition of Roman culture in Shakespeare, the Godfather, and in Toni Morrison's novel, Love.

17461
Yanikdag, Yucel

This course explores the history of eugenics, an early-to-mid 20th century movement, which proposed a variety of policies for supposedly improving the hereditary quality of race by controlling human reproduction. It claimed that most problems such as criminality, alcoholism, pauperism, prostitution, insanity, and others were transmitted genetically from parent to child. Eugenicists aimed to reduce the numbers of these defective, or dysgenic people while trying to increase the number of those judged to have good genes, or eugenic people. The course will examine the history of the development of eugenic science, its policies and practices, and connections to other movements and public responses.

17496
Sulzer-Reichel, Martin

What perpetuates conflicts and allows catchwords to be reborn and reused over and over again? Is there an inherent force in the way a story is told and retold? Does it create myths or do myths create stories and even locations? All this goes into exploring the relationship between peoples, beliefs, and locations from the Middle East to the United States today. This course will concentrate on how lasting and formative historical narratives are. We will use the crusades as a case study for the relationship between historical events and their reception and re-use in the course of history up until our current political and social lives. We will start with questions about what actually happened during the crusades, how we know what happened, and how reliable our sources as well as academic articles about them are. From there, we will look into what drives the conflicts, especially between the Middle East and the West today. After centuries of warfare between Islam and Christianity, we will look behind and beyond the rationales of the conflicts. In the end, we will see that the mutations of historical narratives are not limited to the crusades, and we will try to determine the extent to which this might be a general human reaction to events that are too complex to cope with. Finally, we will look into the mechanisms and strategies that evolve over time, and how they might not only be the result of making complex realities manageable, but also become the nucleus of future conflict.

17723
Spires, Robert

Human trafficking is a social justice issue that has become prominently addressed in the media and through a variety of academic disciplines. However, human trafficking as a construct is embedded in conflicting and problematic paradigms and discourses that manipulate the concepts in political, economic and social ways that may perpetuate the underlying structures and issues causing human trafficking. From humanitarian and development perspectives, to law enforcement, education, policy and social science orientations, the varying discourses related to human trafficking will be explored and students will grapple with challenging questions through a writing intensive approach to inquiry.

17716
Radi, Lidia

This course will examine the Italian-American experience through the lenses of literature, cinema and the performing arts. We will examine the ways in which Italians who migrated to the United States after the unification of Italy depicted their aspirations and their struggles. We will discuss the causes that led to the mass migration of Italians, their relationship to the homeland they left, and their contributions to the country they embraced. We will also investigate how Italian-Americans were constructed as "other" (racially and ethnically) in American literature, television, and cinema.

17699
Brown, Mavis

There are many lenses through which to analyze the human experience. In this seminar, we will examine knowing on the one hand, and various ways of choosing in the face of adversity and uncertainty on the other, as these concepts play out in selected literary texts and environmental sustainability.

17457
Dagger, Richard

In this course, we explore important themes in political and legal philosophy by examining novels, plays, and short philosophical works that pose deep and apparently perennial questions about the relationship of law, politics, and justice. Among these questions are: What, if anything, gives some people authority over others? When, if ever, is breaking the law justified? What distinguishes the rule of law from sheer power? What are rights, and how do we come to have them? Is there really such a thing as the public interest or the common good? If so, do citizens have a duty to promote it? While exploring and trying to answer these and related questions, we will also be working to develop skills necessary to scholarly success, especially those involving close reading and clear writing.

17780,17834
Holland, Dorothy

In Belonging: A Culture of Place, Bell Hooks writes, "Spaces can be real and imagined. Spaces can tell stories and unfold histories. Spaces can be interrupted, appropriated, and transformed through artistic and literary practice." This course explores the significance and meanings of material space in our individual and our collective lives. Students will learn various ways to analyze spaces and the stories they tell. Writings by key thinkers on space and will provide concepts for analysis, and kinesthetic engagement with space will enhance spatial awareness. Some of the questions we will ask: How does the configuration of space influence our thinking, our behaviors and our feelings? In what ways does it convey a sense of welcome or exclusion? What stories does it tell?

17680
McCormick, Miriam

Have you ever wondered what makes a person's life go well? Or have you ever wondered how you might make your own life go well? This course is a quest to identify the features of a good human life. In our quest to unravel the components of such a life, we will also gain some insight into how we can improve our own lives by, for instance, instilling our lives with greater meaning and finding ways to become happier. Some more specific questions we will consider are the following: What things are worth pursuing? What is the relationship between a good life and a life of pleasure, happiness and virtue? What are some barriers to living a good life? Could an immortal life be a good or meaningful one? What is the best way to think about death? Is there any meaning or purpose in human existence and can such meaning be found without a faith in God or religion?

17779
Stubbs, Jonathan

Many lawyers become leaders and serve in roles ranging from heads of local civic and religious institutions, to President of the United States. This course explores the relationship between the law and leadership. It will challenge students to define what leadership means to them in theory as well as provide practical experiences for reflection. The specific focal point for such thought and writing will be roles that lawyers have played in addressing social justice issues in America. The course proceeds on the explicit premise that leadership involves service to others for the common good.

17533
MacAllister, Joyce

This course explores accounts from history, literature, and science about ways animals have improved our lives by protecting us, working for us, and serving us as sources of comfort, recreation, and entertainment. It also examines the problems and conflicts that can arise with reference to our responsibilities to animals (e.g. in terms of their rights, their welfare, and their health). Our study will be guided by questions such as the following: What do we know about animal nature and intelligence, and how do we know what we know? What do we get from our relationships with animals? What are the relative influences of training, instinct, and intelligence upon animal behavior? What are the implications of this knowledge for our relationships--both with animals and with each other?

17453
Erkulwater, Jennifer

This course uses the politics and policy of food in the United States, particularly the rise of the organic and food justice movements, to introduce students to college-level research, analysis, and writing. Students will learn about how our practices concerning food production and consumption affect the world around us and our relationships with one another. Students will read the works of food activists, journalists, and scholars. They will chose a food to research and formulate a scholarly argument about that food. Past student projects include research into breakfast cereal, bagels, corn dogs, potato chips, diet soda, and many more.

17645
Becker, Richard

This course primarily strives to enhance understanding of the techniques, topics, and evolution of modern poetry. A focus of our work is reading aloud to activate the musical, bodily and rhythmic features inherent in the sound of the course's poetry. The course surveys mostly American verse, from two of its forerunners, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, to early moderns W.B. Yeats and Robert Frost. It will highlight innovations by Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens and Robert Creeley. The course covers revolutionary blues poet Langston Hughes, African American feminist poets, protest poets and beats, concluding with post moderns W.S. Merwin, John Ashbery and Jorie Graham. A secondary idea of the course is to listen to associated classical, blues, jazz and pop and view associated visual art.

17836
Snaza, Nathan

This course will examine contemporary practices of sexual education in schools, and the controversies surrounding them, in light of a longer history of sexuality as a concept, drawing on biology, sexology, political history, educational philosophy, and feminist and queer studies. We will track the emergence of "sexuality" as a scientific and political concept in the nineteenth century, and examine how state-regulated institutions, especially the school and the hospital have operationalized sexuality as a means of regulating the behavior of individuals and the "health" of populations.

17478
Kissling, Elizabeth

Why do certain accents sound good or bad? Who decides what is "proper" English? Why do we change our speech style? Students will learn that our views about accent are linguistically arbitrary. Students will expose language prejudices in the world around them, starting with television and film. Next, they will explore the construction of "standard" language and debunk popular notions about "African American English" and "Spanglish." They will learn about educational practices that either support or disenfranchise speakers of nonstandard varieties. Finally, students will learn about how linguistic style constructs identity and shapes social interaction. They will analyze their own speech and discover their prejudices about language.

17534
Linask, Maia

This is a companion course to Principles of Microeconomics. To complement the study of markets and prices in the economics course, students will explore the tension between efficiency and equity through topics such as rent control, price gouging laws, pay express lanes, and sin taxes. Students will also be introduced to various definitions and interpretations of equity and efficiency. Through these lenses students will gain insight into some of the underlying conflict that informs current policy disagreements.

17676
Skerrett, Kathleen

This seminar introduces laws and judicial decisions that have defined racial status as the basis for political and social order in the United States. We address issues of citizenship, justice, and freedom, by exploring how racial status can empower and entitle some individuals while exposing others to coercion and subjugation. We will read key judicial decisions to identify core political visions and the arguments that advance them. Yet we will also learn how these decisions and their consequences were contested at every point, generating persistent, conflicting visions of American democracy. Class members will be required to speak and write about values and policies that matter to American democracy. Moreover, we will consider how our own values are reflected in historical contests over race matters in the U.S.

17454
Bowie, Jennifer

This course will tackle important and controversial questions surrounding criminal procedure and the role of the Supreme Court in the development of the rights of the criminally accused. Topics include: (1) The Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, (2) The Fifth Amendment's privilege against self incrimination, double jeopardy issues, and grand jury requirement, (3) The Sixth Amendment's right to an attorney, impartial trial, and speedy trial, (4) The Eight Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. We will focus on understanding the limitations the Constitution puts on the government when it comes to police practices, grand jury practices, evidence, investigations, interrogations, juries, trials, and punishment to name a few. We will question the policy implications of how the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eight Amendments. What does cruel and unusual punishment mean? What are the consequences of secret grand jury proceedings, what reforms should we consider and why?

17719
Kuti, Laura

There are many aspects involved in learning a second language. How do humans learn a second language? What instructional approach and strategies should be employed and what teaching strategies support second language acquisition? How does one unpack the fine granularity of phonetics, syntax, and discourse within the context of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)? How is American English distinct? What role does sociology and linguistics play in second language acquisition? Given the connections between language and culture, how does one teach the sociological-cultural context along with TEFL and what should be taught? Students will study how languages are learned, and how second languages are taught. The class will investigate important aspects of English language acquisition including general linguistic concepts, applied sociology and linguistics, and the sociological/cultural context of language teaching.

17536,17535
Fishe, Raymond Patrick

Methods to summarize information in visual displays are introduced. These tools are used to develop effective visual displays and to increase your knowledge of the information and claims provided in such displays. Visual images are studied to dissect the relevant information and create better images of this information. Both simple (graphs and charts) and complex (photographs, movies, or multipart graphs) images are studied.

17835
Ooten, Melissa

This course explores the history of U.S. slavery and its manifestations in popular culture today. We will not only learn about the historical context of slavery, but we will also explore contemporary films, music, art, literature, and public history sites that grapple with slavery and its meanings in our society today. Examples range from Oscar-winning films like 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther to Childish Gambino's Grammy-winning song "This is America" and Beyonce's "Lemonade." Prominent historian Ira Berlin asserts that American history cannot be understood without slavery yet it has only been in the 21st century that prominent dialogues about the continuing meaning of slavery have taken place. Berlin ultimately argues that slavery has become "a language, a way to talk about race in a society in which race is difficult to discuss." This course, then, will focus on analyzing popular material to better understand this "language."

17450,17451
Hass, Jeffrey

What is socialism? This word has been thrown around for over a century. We have seen the rise and fall of supposedly socialist regimes and societies in the former USSR, while China is basically capitalist now. (Is only Cuba truly "socialist" now?) But what is "socialism?" Is it what Marx-ists or Soviet scholars and leaders said it was? Is it what right-wing pundits or left-leaning British trade unionists say it is? What can we add to the debate? And is socialism dead? Socialism is an important topic, in no small part because in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it provided the foundation and rough outlines for an alternative modernity, in which private property and general economic inequality were tamed in the name of human empowerment and progress. The reality of Soviet-style socialism was less than stellar. Although to be fair, there was a baby in the bathwater (e.g. in much education). Whether socialism leads to perdition automatically, or whether the Soviet case was one form of socialism (as there are many forms of capitalism) or an aberration of socialism, is something that demands serious exploration. And whether socialism as an idea has run its course or can still generate something useful also demands our attention. For socialism was not just an alternative modernity. It was also a sustained critique of Western capitalist modernity as it existed, and as such socialism and socialists did contribute to some of the benefits we reap today but that are under threat from neoliberalism (e.g. labor rights, a fair distribution of wealth, positive welfare provision, etc.). And so, in this course we will ask just what "socialism" was, is, and could be (if it has a future). And in doing so, hopefully we will ask serious questions about modern life and who we are, and what we could be. Which is exactly what early socialists themselves were doing.

17526
Watts, Sydney

The problem of social utopias is in realizing them. Born of rational thought and subject to romantic design, utopian communities continue to inspire grand plans. This semester, we will read, discuss, and write about how some of the greatest utopian thinkers, Plato, Rousseau, More, and other revolutionaries, have confronted the knotty problems of social utopia with creativity, sound judgment, and passion. How philosophers, political theorists, leaders of social movements, and community activists imagine utopia reveals a great deal about the actual societies in which they lived.

17722
Fairtile, Linda

Opera is more than entertainment. Like works of literature and operas address the concerns of individuals, families, societies, and nations. They reflect the times in which they were created and the times in which they are performed. Through reading, viewing, and discussion, we will explore these themes in their historical contexts and relate them to contemporary experience. Students will learn to decode the language of opera by watching videos and attending performances. No musical knowledge or experience is required.

17717
Dolson, Theresa

This course explores the role that stories play in forming our own identity, forming relationships with others, and forming the structures through which we understand our world. Students will grapple with these ideas by participating in community-based learning, story-sharing with local incarcerated youth at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center. All participants in the project collaborate to produce a final creative piece which represents their experience telling stories together. UR students will also read, discuss, research, and write analytically as a way of making sense of their experiences.

17679,17678
Pappas, Sara

Paris is one of the most idealized and romanticized cities in the world. Even for those who have never visited, Paris easily conjures recognizable images and reliable stereotypes, from the Eiffel Tower to the Arch of Triumph, and from famous fashion houses to the typical Parisian cafe. In this course, we will challenge this first cliched version of Paris by contrasting it with another version: Paris as the space of political unrest, social conflict, and protest. Through literary texts, film, newspaper articles, historical documentation, and essays, we will explore the long history of the double life of Paris.

17838
Bell, Lloyd

It is estimated that more than 4 trillion photos will be shared over the Internet in 2019. As photography becomes more ubiquitous in society, the ability to deconstruct how our brain processes images becomes more relevant. By knowing more about the workings of the brain in general and of the visual brain in particular, one can attempt to develop the outlines of a theory of aesthetics that is biologically based. This course uses the core concepts of neuroscience to give students the tools to critically think about the photographic stories they see and share.

17677
Hidalgo, Javier

Is freedom valuable? Why should we care about it? In this course we will examine the nature and value of freedom. We will consider the value of different freedoms, such as freedom of expression and economic freedom, and explore the relationship between freedom and various public policy issues.

17720
Kachurek, Lynda

This course explores the past, present, and future role of books as a significant part of the world's cultural heritage. As a transmitter of literacy, knowledge, and culture, a book's impact can be profound, but as an object of worth, desire, or artistic beauty, its value extends beyond the text and even the printed page. By exploring the multifaceted history of the book, students will engage in their own exploration of how they interact with books as well as develop an understanding of the complexity, artistry, and cultural and technological effects on society and culture.

17726
Essid, Joseph

Between the launch of Sputnik and Apollo 11 the world watched as two superpowers competed peacefully for the prestige of being the first nation to put a human in space, then head to the Moon. No international competition since has quite compared to the scope of The Space Race, and we live in its shadows. Who were the scientists, politicians, astronauts, and cosmonauts of the 1960s? What did artists and historians have to say about them? Why did public interest wane? What remained undone, and what might spur a new Space Race and era of human spaceflight today?

17701,17715
Hobgood, Linda

This course is a semester-long study of the presidency as conveyed by chief executives in their own words, by official statements from those appointed to speak on the president's behalf and by official public announcements. Remarks of first ladies, speechwriter's recollections, and mediated interpretations by members of the White House press corps serve as text for scholarly analysis of presidential discourse. We will explore foundational rhetorical precepts and introduce the nature and practice of rhetorical criticism via the genre of contemporary presidential oratory and commentary. Course objectives include: 1. providing a rhetorical perspective of language, leadership, politics and media; 2. introducing terms and practices fundamental to rhetoric and encouraging confidence in using them; 3. demonstrating the epistemological value of rhetorical inquiry.

17724
Datta, Monti

The United States of America is arguably the most powerful country in the history of world. Some love America for what is and does, giving rise to pro-Americanism, whereas others dislike America just as much, giving rise to anti-Americanism. With the rise of President Trump, however, many at home and abroad are wondering what the future of the United States will be. Will the long-standing Transatlantic Alliance between America and Europe come to an end? What might be the impact of the Border Wall between the United States and Mexico? Is the rise and popularity of President Trump an outlier, or is he a harbinger of more populist leaders to come? What exactly does it mean to "Make America Great Again?" What is "America," to what extent is the "American Dream" still alive, for whom does America belong? In this course, we will take a deep dive into the nature and origins of pro- and anti-American sentiment, from the dawn of the American republic in Jamestown Virginia in 1619, to the triumph of the US after World War Two, to the American retreat from globalism and the rise of populism under President Trump. Students will explore key debates on how individuals and countries have perceived America over time and examine a diversity of documents including qualitative sources (e.g., the writings of foreign observers like Charles Dickens and Alexis de Tocqueville, the speeches of US Presidents from George Washington to Donald Trump) and quantitative sources (e.g., public opinion surveys about the United States from Eurobarometer and the Pew Global Attitudes Project). In addition to meeting all of the prerequisites of a First-Year Seminar (FYS), students will be involved in Dr. Datta's research agenda on the US Image and Anti-Americanism.

17731
Davis, G.

An introduction to Tolkien through his work in medieval English language and literature.

17456
Simpson, Andrea

"The Wire," a series produced by HBO, is the main text for this course. Baltimore serves as a case study of cities in America where drugs, mayhem, and corruption routinely betray the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that is our "American Dream." Students learn to analyze the show using the tools of television criticism. Engaging these issues helps develop critical thinking, writing, speaking, and observation skills. Through online posts and writing assignments, students reflect on a world very different from their own. Class presentations allow students to explore topics tangential to the ones illuminated in "The Wire."

17843
Davison, Michael

Where is Cuba? Musically, geographically, politically, historically, economically and culturally? We will experience the culture of Cuba by studying the history and music of our island neighbor. Besides the US and Brazil, Cuba is one of the superpowers of popular music. We will learn why, and how this came about. We will eat, watch, critically listen to, write, dance and sing! All students can hear a great deal in a musical recording. Our goal is to direct your listening, and learn musical jargon along the way.

17681
Simon, Stephen

We find ourselves surrounded by physical things: mountains, lakes, chairs, and coffee mugs. In our daily lives we ask countless questions about the reasons for particular things: why is a friend upset, or why is the air conditioner making that clanking noise? But on occasion we cannot help asking a very different kind of question: not why this or that thing behaves as it does, but why are there any things at all. No question about the universe is more fundamental than why there is one in the first place. We will explore competing explanations for the world's existence, including: the natural laws of science; necessary truths of mathematics; the inherent goodness of existence; and an all-powerful deity. We will also examine responses that deny the world has an explanation or that reject the question as meaningless. By engaging strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, and exploring their wider implications, we will learn more about our own deepest commitments while improving the ability to think through and defend positions on challenging inquiries.

17842
Keefer, Jeannine

This course will explore the various roles architecture, building, and design play in shaping how we live, work, play and interact with one another. We will read texts covering a variety or periods and points of view. In reading critical and primary texts students will appreciate the impact design can have on our experience of place. This semester our class will participate in the East End Collaboratory with projects exploring not only the cemetery, but also social infrastructure in the city of Richmond. Questions we will address include: Can we fix a broken society through design? What is the role of the architect or planner in shaping society? What are the roles of old and new structures in our understanding of place and ourselves?

17778
Tate, Mary

This course is an examination into causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in America. It delves into how race and class impact our criminal justice system at a structural level. We study cases of wrongful convictions and make efforts to understand forensic science, the role of prosecutors, police practices, and other elements of the criminal justice system.