Today more than half of the world’s population live in cities, marking urban areas as critical sites for understanding the future of our society and possibilities for creating a different world. In order to address the growth and importance of urban social formations, the course will have readings from anthropology, history, geography, and urban studies to offer a multidisciplinary perspective on urban space, race, power and society. From the favelas of Brazil to the townships of South Africa, the dynamics of cities highlight the vibrancy of human cultural expression and the continued significance of social inequality and racial discrimination across the world.
Case studies will be drawn from the United States, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere in order to offer a cross-cultural perspective on the different ways that power and inequality have produced unequal effects – and insurgent responses – around the world.
Social SciencesCommunities across the globe are increasingly concerned that the byproducts from our industrial lives are causing climate change and irreparable damage to our natural environment. Anthropology provides a rich source of information on how humans interact with nature, and provides a baseline for understanding ecosystems’ dynamic pasts, which together can be used to place today's environmental crisis in perspective. Using examples and case studies from around the world, this course surveys the changing nature of human-environmental interactions over the last 60,000 years.
There are no required textbooks. Required readings will be posted on ICON.
Social Sciences SustainabilityAs museums collect and preserve artifacts and objects from our world, they reflect the values, creativity, and aspirations of human culture. This course intends to provide a broad overview of the past and present of museums (and take a good look into future possibilities). Using examples from various types of museums (e.g., art, history, natural history, science, culturally specific) this course will present the foundations of museum studies and explain how museums function. Students will investigate evolving approaches to collection and curatorial practice; governance and operations; audience and community engagement; and ethical issues. This course will present the variety of career pathways available in the field and link students to internship and service learning opportunities. This course is meant to encourage students to think about and contribute to a larger conversation about the significant role museums play in our society.
Social SciencesThis course covers the social, psychological, and biological aspects of aging. Major topics include demography of aging, health, economic issues, primary relationships, and social services. Evaluation of student performance may include any combination of papers, exams, class presentations, and class participation. The specific evaluation procedure and the percentage of the grade assigned to each aspect of the evaluation is delineated in a course outline distributed by the individual instructor within the first two weeks of the semester.
Social Sciences
This class introduces students to sustainability, a critically-important subject that explores how humans can improve their interactions with the natural environment to support long-term economic, social, and ecological well-being. Students will explore the ways in which humans can address the environmental challenges we face today. We will examine key areas of sustainability including population dynamics, ecosystems, global change, energy and water use, food production, urbanization, environmental economics, policy, ethics, and equity. Sustainability includes multiple perspectives and disciplines, thus this class will include material from fields spanning the social, natural, engineering, and business sciences to produce a holistic understanding of sustainability and its practices.
Social Sciences SustainabilityThis course offers an introduction to the nature, forms, and functions of communication in everyday life and various social and institutional settings. It will examine different approaches for understanding and analyzing interpersonal, small group, and mediated communication and encourage students to think critically about their communication practices, apply communication theory to their own life, and improve their communication skills.
Social SciencesMedia and Society 3 s.h.
COMM:1174 is an introductory course about the media in the context of the transformation from a mass society into a surveillance society. When new media technologies are invented, observers incorporate them into their visions of the future, though the precise contours of the future prove to be elusive. This class will focus on the social role of the media from a variety of perspectives to integrate visions about new media technologies with the subsequent development of the institutional and legal frameworks shaping them and the cultural practices that emerge around them. We’ll examine fears about a mass society, address the development of the commercial television industry and trace the transition to a fragmented media environment with its fears about a surveillance society in the wake of the popularity of the Internet. Requirements include papers, a midterm and a final and productive participation.
Social Sciences Values and SocietyThis course will provide students with an introduction to the field of public health. Students will be introduced to key disciplines, methods, and topics in public health practice and research. Foundational concepts used throughout the course include social determinants of health, health equity, behavioral theories and epidemiological methods. Lectures will cover a wide range of current public health topics, including infectious disease, maternal and child health, agricultural health, health policy, and indigenous health. Students will also hear from graduate students in public health and explore career options in public health.
By the end of the course, student should be able to:
Identify the differences between population-based health and individual-based health.
Describe how scientific evidence is utilized to develop public health practices and interventions.
Describe the major disciplines in public health.
Describe various career paths in public health.
Explain the major achievements of public health, including the impact they have had on the health of the population.
Apply creative problem-solving strategies to address specific issues in public health.
Describe future challenges for public health in the 21st century.
Social SciencesIntroduction to Criminology 3 s.h.
This course is an introduction to the study of crime. The course begins with a discussion of the extent and patterns of crime in the United States, and then reviews the basics of the major explanations of the causes of crime. The heart of the course focuses on introducing students to research on the major categories of crime, sometimes called the “criminal behavior systems,” including: property crime, violent crime, corporate crime, organized crime, political crime, and drug crime.
Social SciencesPsychology of Language 3 s.h.
Provides an overview of theoretical approaches to the study of language. Topics include: origins of language use by humans; components of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantic); processes involved in learning and using language (under normal and special circumstances); cognitive and brain mechanisms of language.
Social SciencesLanguage Acquisition 1, 2, 3 s.h.
Utilizing a combination of class projects and lecture content, this course covers the development of language skills from birth through age 18, including all components of language (syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics). You will learn about the time course of typical language development, learning mechanisms involved in typical language development, the application of scientific methods to studying language development, observation methods, and the ability to describe language differences.
for CSD:3118—LING:3001 and PSY:1001; for LING:3118—LING:3001 or LING:3117
Principles of Microeconomics 4 s.h.
This course introduces students to the tools used by economists to analyze markets and social issues. Students will gain an understanding of how individual economic agents, such as households and firms, make decisions and interact in markets and how markets allocate inputs among producers and output among consumers. Students will also learn how to evaluate the successes and failures of market systems and how government policies affect the economic well-being of the nation as a whole and of particular groups in the population.
Principles of Macroeconomics 4 s.h.
This course introduces students to the study of economic activity at the national level. It analyzes how households, firms, and the government interact and how they affect and are affected by economic growth, unemployment, and inflation. The goals of the course are to teach students to use the economist's lens to view the world more clearly and to give them the tools to understand and analyze aggregate economic measures, monetary and fiscal policies, and the role of the United States in a global economy.
Processes by which people perceive, respond to, create, and use music in their daily lives; basic physics of musical stimuli, psychoacoustics of musical perception, principles of musical cognition, neurological and physiological responses to music, theories of musical learning and development, and social psychology of musical activity; previous musical performing experience helpful but not required.
Social SciencesA person is born every 8 seconds, a person dies every 12. Five thousand years ago only 10 million people populated the earth. Today, there are nearly 20 megacities with populations over 10 million and the global population has swelled to over 7 billion. In this course you will learn how this dramatic increase in population size has changed fundamental characteristics of populations and processes such as migration, social networks and household structure. We will also examine the consequences of population changes such as environmental degradation, the spread of disease and armed conflict. The course material provides an important foundation for future study in topics such as environmental science and policy, public health, political science, international affairs and business.
Social SciencesWe consume (and create) a lot of media. We spend more time using media than doing almost anything else. All that media must have some effect on us, but what? In this class we’ll apply the philosophies, theories, and methods of social science to understanding media effects. We’ll explore questions that people have debated since the early days of newspapers and film: Does violent media really cause violence? Does news influence the political process? How does entertainment media create and reinforce harmful stereotypes? And if media does affect us, what can we do about it?
This course will give an overview of the current state of social scientific research into media effects.
We will focus on learning to understand, critique, and apply the three main social science research methods: survey, content analysis, and experiment. Intuition, opinion, and emotion are great tools for understanding media and the world, but they aren’t our primary work in this class. Taking a social science approach to studying media means developing a systematic approach to understanding media impacts and influence. Over the semester, you’ll also develop your abilities to be critical media consumers and creators through media literacy, a lifelong set of skills for our media-saturated world.
Social SciencesInitial study of law and legal reasoning; introduces the nature and function of rules/law, the distinctiveness of legal reasoning, and some basic kinds of law; broad level overview of legal profession, including both criminal and civil proceedings; general foundation for those interested in considering law school or for those whom basic legal knowledge will enhance their career aspirations.
Introduction to Law guides the undergraduate student in an initial study of law and legal reasoning. It introduces the nature and function of rules/law, the distinctiveness of legal reasoning, and some basic kinds of law. With a broad level overview of the legal profession, including both criminal and civil proceedings, the course serves as a general foundation for those interested in considering law school. It is also of interest to students who are not interested in pursuing a more formal law education, but for whom basic legal knowledge will enhance their career aspirations. Students will develop skills that are transferable to virtually any career. This course is a General Education CLAS Core Course. It satisfies the General Education requirement for Social Sciences.
Social SciencesHow to Change the World 3 s.h.
Structure and processes of American national government; how the United States manages political conflict; impact of the U.S. Constitution; effect of public opinion, interest groups, and media on government; role and evolution of Congress, presidency, bureaucracy, and Supreme Court.
This course is intended to provide students with an introduction to US government and politics and their study. We will engage with the constitutional and philosophical foundations of the US political system, explore the institutional organization and logic of US government, examine the workings of the US electoral and party systems and the ways in which the government and electorate are connected, and interrogate the individual and group factors that shape political behavior in the US. As part of the honors curriculum, this course is both discussion- and writing-intensive, providing students with abundant opportunities to connect the theories to the real world and foster thoughtful, informed, and civic-minded dialogue.
Social SciencesElementary Psychology 3 s.h.
Why do we act the way we do? This course introduces psychology as the science of behavior. Psychological science addresses the major experiences of every person: How do we perceive the world around us? How do we learn, remember, and think? How do we develop? What causes mental illnesses, and how can those illnesses be treated? To answer these questions, the course focuses on sensation and perception, learning, child development, memory and cognition, neuroscience, psychotherapy, abnormal behavior, and social influences on behavior. Course format consists of lectures and a discussion section. Requirements include assigned readings in the text, class lectures, short papers, and participation in discussions. Students also are required to become familiar with research methods in psychology either by participation in research studies or through brief reviews of selected research literature. Readings are primarily taken from a text, but additional readings and class materials may be assigned.
Social SciencesThis course is designed to introduce you to the concepts and methods of the science of clinical psychology. It has three areas of emphasis: 1) fundamentals of scientific clinical psychology; 2) evidence-based psychological assessment; and 3) evidence-based psychological intervention. This course will provide an introduction to (a) major theoretical models and research methods in scientific clinical psychology; (b) several psychological problems, with topics varying by semester but commonly including problems that are particularly relevant to college students (e.g., depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, and eating disorders); (c) the general principles underlying the construction, administration, and interpretation of evidence-based clinical assessments; and (d) empirically supported approaches to psychological intervention. You are urged to reconsider your decision to take this class if you are reluctant to examine these topics in a scientific manner. Taking this course should make you a more informed consumer of claims about contemporary clinical psychology and may assist in your evaluation of clinical psychology or other related potential career goals. This course is not designed to provide extensive information on the nature of psychological disorders (see Abnormal Psychology course) or to provide you with the skills to assess and treat psychological problems.
When do infants learn to reach, crawl, and walk? When do children learn their first words? When do children learn to read? These questions, although interesting, all focus on what happens at different ages. But as you will learn in this course, developmental science is not just about children or child development—it's also about how human behavior changes over time. Thus, the main questions developmental scientists ask revolve around the word "how": How do infants learn to reach? How do children learn their first words? How do children learn to read? Emphasis is placed on understanding the processes that underlie child development at multiple levels--from neurons to neighborhoods--and across multiple time scales. Topics include prenatal development, brain development in children, motor and physical development, perceptual development, language development, cognitive development, and aspects of social and emotional development. Lectures, supplementary readings, and discussion section exercises will give you an appreciation for how science is conducted by stepping back from the "facts" in the textbook to explore current research in developmental science and how this research impacts the real world.
How do humans think? How does memory work, and how do we prevent ourselves from being distracted? These questions center around problems in cognitive psychology, the area devoted to understanding thought processes. This course will provide a general introduction to human cognition, focusing on topics such as the brain mechanisms of cognition, perception, attention, memory, language, categorization, imagery, and intelligence. Students will learn the major theories and findings in various areas of cognitive psychology. The class also will discuss the contribution of other perspectives on cognition, such as relevant work in computer science and neuroscience. Readings are primarily taken from a textbook, but additional readings and class materials may be assigned.
Introduction to Sociology 3, 4 s.h.
How individuals are organized into social groups, ranging from intimate groups to bureaucracies, and how these influence individual behavior; nature and interrelationships of basic social institutions (family, education, religion, economy).
Sociology is the systematic study of the social world. Sociologists study many phenomena, such as small groups, organizations, cultures, and societies. Some of the topics we will cover are what some may call a “social problem,” for example, crime or poverty. Sociologists also examine social institutions like education, religion, and family. We will build on and probe beyond popular understandings of these topics, to achieve a deeper level of critical analysis. Moreover, we will explore the kinds of questions sociologists ask, why and how they ask them. In other words, the goal of this course is to learn how to “think sociologically.”
Social Sciences