College Courses (COLL)
COLL 100 - INTENTIONALITY OF LANGUAGE: THE BENEFITS ON CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS (HANSZEN)
Short Title: INTENTIONALITY OF LANGUAGE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Language is critical in how individuals communicate as it is a shared tool for individuals to transfer thoughts. Through language we are able to expand on ideas, build the frameworks for support, and create a deeper level of connection between members in a conversation. The purpose of this course is to provide insight into how the utilization of language – and the ways in which we present ourselves through it – can improve one’s ability to not only listen but also converse. How can being intentional with how we use language affect the quality of a conversation or even the relationships we have? In this course, we will go over the many facets of language – verbal, physical/body, cultural differences, silence, and other special topics – and discuss strategies that can help us become better listeners and communicators, regardless of the type of conversation. I will assign appropriate readings and videos prior to class where we can open up a discussion and share relevant experiences. To make the material of the class useful, we will also do role-plays where students will be presented a scenario, assigned a role in a conversation, and then expected to use the strategies that have been discussed to guide such conversation."
COLL 101 - NOTHING BUT NOISE: RECOGNIZING ARTISTIC VALUE IN MODERN INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC (WIESS)
Short Title: NOTHING BUT NOISE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This discussion-based class will approach an appreciation for modern instrumental music through the formal and informal analytical lenses of art criticism. The course in large will entertain a variety of approaches on can take to appreciating music that is at face-value rather abstract, equipping students with an introductory out-of-the-box understanding of what constitutes musical/artistic value, even when it may not be immediately perceptible. Our conversations will integrate everything from the technicalities of music theory to trends in visual art to historical and political context, all of which can constitute a sense of purpose and/or meaning for works of new music. The course will be designed for students of all prior musical backgrounds (even those with no prior experience); I have carefully designed the class to be centered around accessible, relatable dialogues complemented by guided, example-based critical listening.
COLL 102 - UGH, AS IF! MODERN ADAPTATIONS OF CLASSIC LITERATURE (WILL RICE)
Short Title: MODERN ADAPTATIONS OF CLASSICS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "This course examines modern film reinterpretations of classic works of literature through historical and cultural lens. Students will watch popular contemporary adaptations of classics and read excerpts from the novels and plays these movies are based on, exploring the similarities and differences between the source material and the retellings."
COLL 103 - ORIGAMI: MAKING THE MUNDANE BEAUTIFUL (WIESS)
Short Title: ART OF ORIGAMI
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: How does one transform something mundane into a piece of art? One answer to this is origami, an art form which has, in some form, existed for nearly as long as paper has been in Japan. In modern day origami is a thriving art, with numerous styles having evolved from an already varied and beautiful art. This class will explore the many things which have been described as origami, starting with the strictest definition, which is folding a single square of paper without cuts into some new shape, then branching out to the various art forms which have been described as such, from historical forms of origami in Japan to modular origami. By the end of the class students will have a grasp of general origami terminology, be able to recognize and fold up to high intermediate difficulty models, and have a basic understanding of the theory and history behind origami. No background in origami will be expected for the course. Paper will be provided and any materials required for the course will be uploaded to canvas. The course will draw on Robert Lang’s opus “Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art” and many publicly available designs.
COLL 104 - INTRODUCTION TO AURAL DESIGN AND MUSIC PRODUCTION (SID RICH)
Short Title: INTRO AURAL DES & MUSIC PROD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Music, more or less, is an integral part of everyday life for the average person. Its presence may appear more discreetly in the form of hearing a song in an ad, or more intentionally such as in the thorough analysis of an album. To best receive what music has to offer in this world of diversifying styles and genres, it may be valuable to understand how to create your own music. This course attempts to tackle the objective that is teaching music production by asking the question: What makes a good song? Through a series of units that catalog different styles of music spanning from alternative rock to contemporary rap, this class will explore what it means to understand music by deconstructing its very essence. Students will learn the basics of music theory, and the process of production within many differing styles in order to be able to create their own pieces of music.
COLL 105 - VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Short Title: VIETNAMESE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This class is curated for anyone regardless of race and Vietnamese language skills interested in learning more about Vietnamese language and culture. The course will equip you with the fundamental knowledge needed to converse more confidently with your Vietnamese-speaking relationships, as well as, help you reconnect with Vietnamese culture on an academic level through cultural experiential learning.
COLL 106 - FLASH MOBS: A LOST ART (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: FLASH MOBS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a flash mob as a group of people summoned to a designated location at a specified time to perform an indicated action before dispersing. With the first flash mob occurring in 2003, flash mobs remained a popular trend until the early 2010s. In this class, we will explore in detail the cultural phenomenon of flash mobs with the goal of answering the question how can you conduct a well-organized flash mob in order for it to be a fun and engaging activity for all involved? We will begin by delving into the history of flash mobs by examining the influence of social media on flash mobs, the common threads between successful flash mobs, and the regulations surrounding them. Then, we will explore different types of popular dance and choreography with the help of different student dance groups on campus, eventually moving into choreographing dances of our own. Finally, we will rehearse and perform this flash mob as a class in a public setting as the ultimate culmination of our work. Students can expect to start this course from a completely beginner standpoint (no experience is required!) and end the course as a confident flash mob participant. "
COLL 107 - INTRO TO BUSINESS COMMUNICATION (WILL RICE)
Short Title: INTRO TO BUSI COMMUNICATION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: **Designed for non-business major and non-minor students. Business major/minor seeking students should enroll in BUSI 296 instead. ** How do we communicate more effectively? As a critical part of daily life and professional life, communication is everywhere. Communication is the process of exchanging information, ideas, feelings, and opinions with others. It is essential for building and maintaining relationships, both in professional and personal contexts. Communication can help us to understand different perspectives, resolve conflicts, express ourselves clearly, and achieve our goals. The course will cover key aspects of communication in a business context such as effective verbal communication, business writing, interviews, cognitive bias, persuasion, negotiation, and other topics using frameworks and examples from industry leaders. Although the class will be more focused toward professional and team communication often found in business environments, the skills learned from the class can also be applied to everyday life. After completing the course students should have a deeper understanding of how to communicate effectively in various situations as well as the forces that drive our ways of communication. Though the course has no exams, there will be occasional in-class activities complementing the topics covered in class.
COLL 108 - WOULD THE REAL COMEDIAN PLEASE STAND-UP? (HANSZEN)
Short Title: STAND-UP FOR YOURSELF
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this class, we will educate guaranteed, without a doubt, future Netflix special comedians. However, if that isn't your life goal, this class is still great for you. Perchance it isn't a happenstance you've read this far. Mayhaps you want to enhance your public speaking skills or tell better stories.
COLL 109 - GONGBI STYLE CHINESE PAINTING STUDIO (BROWN)
Short Title: GONGBI STYLE CHINESE PAINTING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: What makes a Chinese painting so distinctive, so immediately recognizable as Chinese? This course examines the characteristics of Chinese painting and its embodiment of Chinese ideology and aesthetic orientation through hands-on painting experience of the Gongbi style. Gongbi (or the Meticulous Style) is a careful realist technique in Chinese painting, meticulous in shape, neatness, and coloring. This course aims to cultivate students' form observing ability so that students can master the basic techniques of line drawing and coloring in Gongbi style. Students will be taught how to use the unique language of "Gongbi" to create a Chinese floral painting. No prior painting experience is required.
COLL 110 - SIP & BITES - THE ART OF MILK, TEA, AND COOKIE PAIRINGS (HANSZEN)
Short Title: MILK, TEA, AND COOKIES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Indulge your senses in a delectable journey through the enchanting realms of milk, tea, and cookies. This course delves into not only a culinary experience, but a cultural and scientific exploration that delves into the rich history and fascinating science behind these timeless treats through readings of texts such as The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide. Gain an appreciation for the cultural and scientific tapestry woven into every sip and bite, while embarking on a transformative experience where tradition meets innovation, and indulgence meets enlightenment.
COLL 111 - CHEESE: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE STINKY (HANSZEN)
Short Title: THE CHEESEMONGER'S GUIDEBOOK
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In Cheese: The Good, The Bad, and The Stinky, we will digest an abbreviated version of the American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional Exam content. From an anthropological introduction to chemical processes to product evaluation to trade controversies to a final in professional selling, you will become a true cheesemonger, while others monger only war, fear, and fish. You will eat up the content with frequent tasting platters, so lactose tolerance or a tolerance for stomach aches is a must.
COLL 112 - THE PHILOSOPHICAL FAUST: EXPLORING GOETHE'S PHILOSOPHY THROUGH THE FAUST TRAGEDY (BROWN)
Short Title: THE PHILOSOPHICAL FAUST
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Faith, Nihilism, Lust, and Meaning: Goethe’s Faust confronts evergreen battles in the human condition. Using the Faust narrative as our thread, we will chart the breadth of Goethe's thought. Throughout our journey we will confront questions concerning economics, politics, meaning, religion, and the best way to live, among so much more. Through investigating what Faust reveals about Goethe, we will reflect on what Faust reveals about our struggles with the challenge of being human. Our journey will conclude through a reflection on how Faust has been reflected on stage and in modern cinematic media. Through this we will consider the legacy and relevance of the text today, and be left with our own profound and timeless lessons. This class is for anyone, from any major or academic background, interested in the fundamental and perennial questions of human existence.
COLL 113 - NOT JUST GRANDMA'S HOBBY: STEM-INSPIRED CROCHET 101 (SID RICH)
Short Title: STEM-INSPIRED CROCHET 101
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Crochet isn’t just your grandma’s favorite pastime—from the Crochet Coral Reef’s response to climate change to a published model of chaos, this yarn-based handicraft has been used to illustrate, educate, and reimagine concepts from various STEM fields. While this strange combination remains relatively unexplored, many of these works have gained recognition for their approachability, presenting elaborate scientific and mathematical topics in easy-to-understand ways. Here, we seek to examine the question: what can crochet teach us about STEM, and how can we use this niche to reimagine our understanding of STEM? In this course, we will explore these intersections, taking a closer look at the form, function, and context behind STEM-based crochet projects. Students will learn basic crochet techniques, read short texts about specific artworks and applications, apply this knowledge toward guided crochet projects, and design their own STEM-inspired crochet concept. All students of any skill level are welcome; prior knowledge in crochet, science, or math is not required nor assumed."
COLL 114 - AMERICA'S ISLAND: PUERTO RICAN POLITICS, CULTURE, AND HISTORY (HANSZEN)
Short Title: AMERICA'S ISLAND
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: With only 54% of Americans aware that Puerto Ricans are citizens of the US, the Caribbean island often gets reduced to a hot tourist destination, the birthplace of Bad Bunny, or the hurricane-prone recipient of FEMA funds. Yet with nearly 130 years of history under United States control, Puerto Rico stands out as a society that doesn’t fit neatly into standard categories – a culture without a country. This anthropological-style course dives deep into the history and culture of Puerto Rico since the start of American control in 1898. Through lectures, discussions, and readings such as Nelson A. Denis’s “War Against All Puerto Ricans” and comic anthology “Puerto Rico Strong”, we will explore topics like emigration, independence movements, and energy infrastructure. We aim to consider the question: How has Puerto Rico’s relationship with the US shaped the island’s society, culture, and identity since 1898? Instruction will be provided in lecture, discussion, and audiovisual formats. Knowledge will be evaluated with brief reading responses and group quizzes, a 5-minute presentation, and a short course synthesis paper.
COLL 115 - KEEPING IT REAL: CULTURAL MIRRORS FROM KIM K TO SIMA AUNTY (MARTEL)
Short Title: REALITY TV: KEEPING IT REAL
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Whether you’ve seen clips on social media, watched video essays on Youtube, or religiously follow the Bachelor, most of us have come into contact with reality television at some point or the other. Love it or hate it, it’s become a cultural staple all over the world. In this course we will delve into the diverse landscape of reality TV shows from various places and time periods, from Keeping Up With the Kardashians to Indian Matchmaking. How does reality TV reflect the world around it and the culture that it comes from- and what kind of intellectual and artistic value does it have? Students will discuss these questions after class readings and in-class screenings, researching and learning about different perspectives, and for their final project, will propose an idea for their own reality TV show. The class will aim to cover an episode of a different reality show every 1-2 weeks.
COLL 116 - WOODWORM WISDOM: THE ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR OF TERMITES (MARTEL)
Short Title: WOODWORM WISDOM: TERMITE STUDY
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Through a study of termites, this course will encourage students to consider the question: “How can we recognize and appreciate beauty in forms of life different from our own?”, Through an exploration of subterranean tunnels and 30-foot dirt mounds, students will follow termites as they navigate landscapes using celestial cues or Earth's magnetic fields. The journey includes observing termite activities such as farming fungi, constructing caverns, and dodging desiccation. Class sessions will feature concise lectures, engaging discussions, and hands-on activities. While students may be required to read scholarly articles in preparation for class, there will be no exams. Instead, the emphasis is on fostering a deep understanding of termite behavior and developing the ability to discern the ways in which termites affect their environments. By the end of the course, students will be able to articulate at least three interesting facts about termites.
COLL 117 - BOBA TEA: CULTURE FOR THE SECOND-GENERATION (WILL RICE)
Short Title: BOBA TEA
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: “Asia doesn’t feel like our place. And to be honest, a lot of the time America doesn’t feel like our place, either. But the boba shop does…. We are the Boba Generation.” – The Boba Guys Developed in Taiwan in the ‘80s and spread across the world, boba tea is a fixture in many East Asian countries and immigrant communities. In America in particular, boba tea – a drink typically comprised of chewy tapioca pearls in a shaken iced milk tea base – has become a symbol for Asian diaspora. For decades, boba tea and boba shops have served as a cultural touchpoint for Asian-Americans who felt out of place in both Asia and America. How can food or drink shape a second-generation community? In this course, we will be discussing boba tea primarily from the Asian-American and American experiences. We will learn about the traditional influences available at the inception of boba tea, explore how and why boba continues to evolve in the present day, and investigate the history of boba culture from the perspectives of both those in the Asian-American community and those outside of it. Regardless of the student’s initial familiarity with boba, students will gain the cultural understanding to feel comfortable ordering and socializing in a boba shop. Students will demonstrate what they have learned in class and in readings/videos through online discussions. Learning will be augmented by hands-on boba-making activities and trips to local boba shops that are accompanied by individual reflections. At the end of the semester, students will be challenged to apply their understanding of boba composition and second-generation food culture in a final project.
COLL 118 - ZERO TO FORTUNE 500: HOW STARTUPS START UP (BAKER)
Short Title: ZERO TO FORTUNE 500
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Strategies in the business world are wide-ranging, but no company starts with a perfect solution. Following any company's "gameplan" does not guarantee success in this world, so this class examines both infamous and respected examples in the business world to consider the question what determines success in the art of entrepreneurship?
COLL 119 - SHARKS AND SHELLFISH: INVESTIGATING THE CULTURAL & BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF MARINE LIFE (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: SHARKS AND SHELLFISH
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Life began in the ocean and thrives there in the present. Gradually, however, marine life has also crept onto land–into human society. Oceanic organisms appear frequently in daily life, be it crabs in our cuisine, sharks as movie monsters, or guppies found in household fish bowls. However, such representation of marine organisms in our lived culture has generated powerful biases surrounding their nature. What about marine organisms polarizes us and why should we care to preserve them? In this course, students will gain an understanding of the basic biology of marine organisms. By reading book excerpts and watching films, students will learn to think critically about how these organisms have influenced cultural change in areas like morality and engineering. Through open forum discussions, the course encourages students to reflect on their current perspectives on these creatures and consider how such biases developed. Additionally, using scientific literature, students will analyze threats faced by marine species as well as the sociopolitical challenges associated with marine environment protection. As a course without exams, students will complete group projects to evaluate stereotypes surrounding a marine organism of interest and analyze current approaches to marine conservation."
COLL 120 - MUSIQUE WITH A MESSAGE: LEARNING FROM "LE RAP CONSCIENT" (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: MUSIQUE WITH A MESSAGE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Among cries for social change, some ask, are artists doing enough? We ask in return, what have they done? Designed for anyone interested in Francophone society or creative writing for social justice, this English-taught course explores language’s social change potential through 'le rap conscient', a socially and linguistically significant Francophone music genre that holds up a mirror to society to encourage social change. With selected works from artists of diverse backgrounds, we will discuss the artist and the work’s social/historical context, symbolism and meaning, and ways artists play with words and language structures. We will also discuss the genre’s broader linguistic significance and contributions to social progress. There are no exams and no *home*work other than occasional small reflections and the final project, where students create their own multilingual rap conscient with the optional help of ChatGPT. All other class-related work is reflective and designed to be completed in class, though students are always welcome to explore course-related questions more deeply between classes and share findings. Linking language learning with the communicative intent of 'le rap conscient', we consider our essential question: How can understanding 'le rap conscient' and its various roles help us envision a just world?
COLL 121 - PLANETARY HEALTH: HOW TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT AND OURSELVES (BROWN)
Short Title: PLANETARY HEALTH
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Climate change and its associated challenges are expected to cause millions of deaths over the next century. The dangers are varied and comprehensive: floods that wash away houses, wildfire smoke that suffocates lungs, and diseases that come knocking on the doorstep. Planetary health is an emerging field that studies the interdependence of human health and the health of our planet. In this discussion-based course, students will learn about anthropogenic environmental change and its associated health impacts, with a focus on environmental justice and health equity. The course will draw primarily from scholarly articles across disciplines, in a manner accessible to students from all backgrounds. Beyond identifying problems, students will also learn about social, political, scientific, and public health solutions. Planetary health touches every aspect of our society––as a final project, students will develop an action plan on how they can promote planetary health in their future careers. At the end of the course, students will collaboratively come to answer the question: “How can we understand our relationship with the natural world to pursue solutions that save not only the environment but also ourselves?”
COLL 122 - COOKING UP BEATS: AN INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC PRODUCTION (SID RICH)
Short Title: COOKING UP BEATS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Today, anyone with a laptop, tablet, or phone can potentially turn into a music producer. With affordable technology, a new generation of artists are changing the music industry from their bedroom. Not only are the tools of music more affordable, but there are also tons of resources to help an aspiring hobbyist build an adequate music studio at home. This course is designed to teach students who are looking for their next hobby the fundamental technical skills they need to start creating their own music from home. We will discuss essential equipment, how to navigate a Digital Audio Workstation, different genres and styles of music production, and how to develop a growth mindset when creating music. These lessons will be addressed through the help of online video guides, readings, and in-class discussion and demonstrations. A very surface level introduction to music theory and mixing mastering will also be taught. This course will answer two essential questions: (1) What influences the artistic choices a producer makes? & (2) How can an artist be productively critical of one’s own work in a way that balances perfectionism with progression? The course will culminate in a project where students release their own form of musical media. Students will also learn how music can improve their health and the value of creating music!"
COLL 123 - BEYOND THE BRAIN: NAVIGATING NEURODIVERSITY IN SOCIETY (SID RICH)
Short Title: BEYOND THE BRAIN
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Neurodiversity – also known as neurological diversity – challenges the assumption that there is only one “correct” way for the brain to work. What does it mean to be neurodivergent, and how does society respond to different ways of thinking, perceiving, and responding to our surroundings? This course will cover three major topics: (1) social movements, (2) representation (and misrepresentation) in modern media, and (3) the concept of neuro-inclusivity in current research topics. Throughout our time together, we will delve into the roots of neurodiversity, discuss the significance of neurological variations, and discover what it means to shape a world that values cognitive diversity. Students will be encouraged to engage in class discussions (whether this be spoken out loud, written, typed, or otherwise communicated) as a means of collaborative learning. Although no textbook is required for the course, we will refer to various journal articles, essays, and videos based on the work of neurodivergent scholars. The final project will consist of creating a Rice Neurodiversity Box folder, in which students will curate a compilation of relevant neurodiversity resources for Rice and the broader Houston community.
COLL 124 - TV MADE ME DO IT - MORAL LESSONS IN FICTIONAL MEDIA (DUNCAN)
Short Title: TV MADE ME DO IT
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "How do the stories we tell reflect our values? Aesop’s fables are a classic case of stories with a moral lesson. But moral lessons are all around us and are intrinsic in every story we tell. Heroes and villains wrestle with concepts of good and evil and so do we. Philosophy can seem like an intimidating subject matter, but we use it everyday. We make choices and judge them based on morality. In deciding the right course of action, we make philosophical arguments without even realizing it. This course is a very basic overview of how philosophers argue and what sort of moral arguments they make. But more than that this course is about the arguments we make, learn and analyze when we tell and listen to stories. In this course, students will read stories and watch TV shows then analyze what moral lesson is being taught and whether that lesson is a good one to teach. A cross between literature/film studies and philosophy, this course is designed to be relaxed, engaging and approachable for everyone. "
COLL 125 - INTRODUCTION TO MAINFRAME COMPUTING (SID RICH)
Short Title: INTRO TO MAINFRAME COMPUTING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: It is expected that students have at least one semester’s of programming experience (COMP 140/160/130, APCS, etc), and familiarity with basic programming concepts (variables, functions, loops, etc) will be assumed. Knowledge of any specific platform or programming language is not required. Mainframe computers are in use by two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, 45 of the world’s top 50 banks, eight of the top 10 insurers, seven of the top 10 global retailers, and eight of the top 10 telecommunications companies. Despite this overwhelming prevalence in large corporations, there is a serious shortage of skilled mainframe experts, with 91% of companies with mainframes identifying skills shortages as a critical issue in their organizations, leading to an immense demand for programmers and administrators with mainframe skills. This course will be an introduction to the mainframe platform, first covering it’s origins, hardware and software architecture, and design principles. Building on this foundation, the course will then cover the principles of operation of the most common mainframe operating system: z/OS, the principles of the most common programming languages on the mainframe platform, and the usage of several mainframe-specific subsystems. Using the mainframe platform, this course will help students answer: What does software development and program design look like on platforms with different fundamental design tenants, and how do I apply my existing development skills to such a platform? Finally, students will use these skills, to work collaboratively to build a real-world application, using the mainframe architectural pattern, languages, and subsystems, with the goal of building the foundational skills needed by enterprise, and broadening student’s repertoire of design patterns and layouts.
COLL 126 - A TASTE OF THE WORLD: INTERNATIONAL CUISINE (WILL RICE)
Short Title: A TASTE OF THE WORLD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: The 21st century is primarily defined by a greater interlacing of cultures; its diversity has led to many new collaborative initiatives, nevertheless the historically high immigration levels have raised social, cultural and economic anxieties internationally. Consequently as members of a diverse learning institution such as Rice we must work to embrace our cultures and learn of others’. In our modern and ever diversifying world, this course will seek to answer through a study of international cuisine, how our cultures have come to shape the culinary arts and what these influences reveal about our cultures? In A Taste of the World: International Cuisine students will work in collaborative baking and research projects to learn about the influence of culture on varying culinary styles. With no exams in this course, students will participate in in-class collaborative projects, discussions, and complete an individual final project on a culture of choice (one not covered in class).
COLL 127 - THE POLITICS OF POPLAR MUSIC: PURSUING LIBERATION FROM BTS TO BEYONCE (WIESS)
Short Title: THE POLITICS OF POPULAR MUSIC
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: By analyzing weekly song selections, this discussion-based course will examine popular music through various social, political, and economic lenses. Through critical dialogue, we will arrive at answers to our essential question, “how can popular music help us challenge oppression and create a more just world?”
COLL 128 - THE ART OF LAZY PROGRAMMING (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: THE ART OF LAZY PROGRAMMING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In your time as a Computer Scientist at Rice, you will learn many theoretical aspects of Computer Science and the way to apply programming to complex topics. However, another crucial step towards becoming a great Computer Scientist is efficiency as a developer. The Art of Lazy Programming is a one-credit course where students will be taught precisely that: students will learn vital information every programmer should know, tips on learning complex but time-saving tools, and most importantly, the answer to “how does one master their programming environment and gain the knowledge needed to be an experienced programmer”? The intention of this class is to teach students various tools and topics such as grep, docker, and sshfs – that will make their life easier by introducing efficiency. While students may learn some of these tools in classes and spend dozen of hours using them, their core benefits are never explicitly taught. Yet, mastering these tools will allow students to solve large-scale problems that seem impossibly complex. Additionally, upon completion of the course, students will also develop problem-solving skills that can be applicable outside Computer Science.
COLL 129 - ACCEPTING LOSS IN OUR DAILY LIVES: AN EXPLORATION OF "THE LEFTOVERS" (DUNCAN)
Short Title: ACCEPTING LOSS IN OUR LIVES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: We live in a binary world in which we have been programmed to believe that there are right and wrong answers to everything. Imagine that 2% of the world disappears in the blink of an eye, and all you can do is try to make sense of the senseless. In this course, we will be looking at Damon Lindelof’s “The Leftovers” through an analytical lens to expand upon the question “How does the un-explained loss of others affect our actions, keep us longing for answers, and magnify the already present ambiguity in our everyday lives”. During this course, students will watch “The Leftovers” primarily focusing on character analysis while exploring broader themes of loss, family values, grief, and ambiguity. This course aims to broaden the minds of students, allowing them to think beyond the black and white of the world they already know. Students will engage in heavy classroom participation/discussion accompanied by short readings and videos that introduce a diversity of perspectives.
COLL 130 - "OTHER" MAN: MONSTERS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERATURE (BROWN)
Short Title: "OTHER" MAN
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: What makes an “other”? Where did characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Count of Monte Cristo come from, and why do they transfix us into the 21st Century? Much of the literature we describe as “classic” today, particularly that from the nineteenth century, involves some sort of supernatural “other” squaring off against a human opponent. Furthermore, many of the themes explored even over a century ago are strikingly relevant to the modern day. In “Other” man, students will engage with nineteenth Century literature across novel excerpts, films, and summaries through time. We will discuss changes made from the source material. Students will widen their knowledge of literature, critically analyze multiple mediums of storytelling, and practice confidence in discussion, presentation, and essay writing.
COLL 131 - LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX(UALITY), BABY: QUEERNESS, SEX, AND THE MEDIA (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: QUEERNESS, SEX, AND THE MEDIA
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this course, we will ask ourselves how depictions of queerness in the media have evolved over time and how they compare to popular perceptions of queerness and primary accounts of queer existence at the time. We will analyze pieces of media, queer theory, as well as primary accounts from the LGBTQ+ community to create a more well-rounded picture of how depictions of queerness (especially in relation to depictions of queer sex) have evolved over time and how that impacts how we view queerness today and ask ourselves: why does the study of queerness matter — to ourselves and to society? You will develop your understanding of media analysis and employ a multifaceted approach to queer studies by gaining comfort working with queer theory, historical primary sources, and media including but not limited to theatre, film, and television. Throughout the semester, we will approach both queer and media studies with an eagerness to learn, embracing both queer joy and pain in our effort. While we will draw on a variety of materials and global perspectives, queer studies is a vast field, and the course will primarily focus on the LGBTQ+ community in the United States.
COLL 132 - HOW TO BUILD: THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A RESPONSIBLE BUILDING OCCUPANT (LOVETT)
Short Title: HOW TO BUILD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: We spend 90% of our time indoors, yet many of us are unfamiliar with the process of building and maintaining the spaces we occupy every day. In this course, students will learn the nuts and bolts of construction and renovations in addition to understanding the feasibility of construction projects. This course will be hands-on; students will learn from professionals who work in the construction industry as well as through short field trips to projects at different stages of completion. In addition to B.U.I.L.D.I.T. assignments – where students will look at successful buildings in their everyday lives – students will put their knowledge into practice through collaborative role play where they will act as different individuals involved in the construction process. What is a resident’s relationship to the building process and the future of the space they occupy? Students will uncover what it takes to be an effective client, a thoughtful builder, and a responsible building occupant.
COLL 133 - SIPPING CULTURE: TEA FROM SEED TO SOMMELIER (LOVETT)
Short Title: SIPPING CULTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "As the second most-consumed drink in the world (after water), tea holds a remarkable amount of significance in nearly every past and present culture. Historically, the cultivation and spread of tea can be used to illustrate the roots of trade, cultural diffusion, and the development of globalization. With the global tea market being worth an estimated 200 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, contemporary tea production has an astonishing economic and environmental impact in countries such as China and India. Encapsulated in this context is a fine dining tea culture built upon the scientific and sensory evaluation of tea. This class aims to delve into these issues, all while acquainting students with formal tea tasting and grading techniques. Guided by weekly tea tastings, a field trip to a local tea house, and interactive history lessons, we will be asking the following key questions: How has tea impacted the economic and political development in history? What role do current tea production and labor practices have in climate change, political unrest, and social justice? How can one develop their senses to assess dry and brewed tea? Altogether, this class strives to turn the casual tea-drinking student into a master tea sommelier by asking the following overarching inquiry: What does it mean to be a conscious and knowledgeable tea consumer in practice?"
COLL 134 - RUBIK'S CUBE/TWISTY PUZZLE AND SPEEDSOLVING THEORY (LOVETT)
Short Title: RUBIK'S CUBE THEORY
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: There are many ways to solve the Rubik’s Cube, often cited as the world’s most popular toy and the archetype of twisty puzzles, which vary greatly in difficulty and complexity. Unfortunately, when learning these methods, many beginners prioritize brute-force algorithm memorization over an intuitive understanding of twisty puzzle behavior and why these algorithms accomplish what they claim to do. Although advanced solution methods indeed are heavily reliant on algorithm memorization, learning introductory solution methods in this way will lead to rapid decay of their mastery. Thus, how does an intuitive understanding of twisty puzzles affect the long-term learning and application of their solution methods? In this course, students will learn the mathematical basis of twisty puzzle behavior, predominant methods of solving the Rubik’s Cube (3x3) and Rubik’s Revenge (4x4), and ways of constructing solves and critiquing their efficiency. Students should expect to spend time each week practicing solves of the 3x3 and 4x4, commentating on the choices they make to solve increasingly large portions of these puzzles. Students will also regularly analyze solution methods for the 3x3 and 4x4, through both physical manipulation and computer simulation of twisty puzzles.
COLL 135 - FORM AND FUNCTION: THE BEAUTIFUL ART FORM OF CERAMICS (BROWN)
Short Title: FORM AND FUNCTION OF CERAMICS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Clay is one of the most versatile materials in the world allowing people to create anything between a bowl to an art form. As such, people have had great successes in finding hand-building techniques that have elevated the craft. Like any other medium, artists use clay to express ideas or concepts. In particular, by combining clay with new technologies such as video, fashion, and painting, artists have set a precedent for an endless amount of possibilities for the future of ceramic art. But, in an ever-changing art world, how does the form and functionality of clay impact the art viewed by the audience? In Form and Function, students will apply ancient to modern hand-building techniques to elevate their technical and artistic abilities. Through a deep exploration of tried and true techniques, students will discover and explore their working style with clay. By the end of the semester, students will have utilized research from books, videos, pictures, exhibits, collections, and guest scholars. From this knowledge, students will examine, appreciate and differentiate the beautiful artforms that ceramics can inhabit. Instead of exams, students complete four in-class projects using different techniques taught throughout the course.
COLL 136 - THE ART OF HENNA: RESPECTFULY AND TIMELESS CREATIVE EXPRESSION (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: THE ART OF HENNA
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: """Henna is an age-old artform with roots in the Middle East and North Africa. It is used in cultures all around the world for celebration, self-expression, and even health purposes. Today, henna is everywhere, with Rihanna’s henna-inspired tattoo, the rise in TikTok fame of henna freckles, and festival goers decorating their bodies with temporary henna tattoos. What makes participating in this art form from a different culture cultural appreciation versus appropriation? How can we be mindful of this difference while creating art with henna? In this course you will learn the art of henna, from how to hold a henna cone to how to create shapes and patterns to how to put all of it together and create a design. Along the way, you will also learn the history behind the art and how it is used in different cultures through various sources including instructional videos, blog posts from henna artists, historical sources that talk about henna, and scholarly analyses of henna designs. At the end of this class, you will create their own henna design, incorporating some of the designs and shapes we use in class, and reflect on the meaning of their piece, both culturally and personally."""
COLL 137 - INVESTING, TRADING, AND PERSONAL FINANCE (WILL RICE)
Short Title: INVESTING AND TRADING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Have you ever thought of investing in the Financial Markets but aren’t sure how to get started? Do you think investing is for the old and wealthy? With the increasing precarity surrounding us, it is more important than ever to set yourself up for financial success. There is a common misconception in investing that you need a lot of money to get started. That is certainly not true anymore. All it takes is a plan. Learning how to invest is a skill that everyone can make use of. In this class, you will learn the basics of investing and account management. We will cover what the stock market is, how to invest, what stocks to pick, how to hedge, and the importance of investing your money. Starting to prepare for YOUR financial future is a luxury that many people wished they started doing in their early 20s. Over time, you will be able to generate more money through passive income than through a traditional office job, and this will be illustrated by the power of compound interest. We will discuss your needs as an individual financially and come up with an effective plan to meet those needs. We will also discuss something many mathematicians and investors have long debated – does technical analysis work? What are its limits, and when can you use it? Why should and why should it not work? By the end of the class, you will have the tools required to manage your own portfolio effectively and plan for your future and retirement.
COLL 138 - VOLLEYBALL MECHANICS AND CULTURE, A GUIDE TO PLAYING AND WATCHING (JONES)
Short Title: COLLEYBALL
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "How does volleyball represent the intersection of culture, physiology, and physics? This course hopes to motivate students of all experience levels interested in playing or watching volleyball to engage with the sport at an analytical level. We will explore the modern rules and customs of the sport and seek to understand how, and why, those have changed over time. In doing so, we will watch matches, have debates, and investigate different ranking systems. Additionally, we will watch and discuss the cultural significance of media like Haikyuu and Ashita e Attack. On the other hand, we want to know how volleyball is actually played. What is “proper form” and when does it fail? How do the motions differ between beach and indoor, men’s and women’s, collegiate and international? We also want to understand the physics and physiology that is volleyball. Though we can’t draw a free body diagram on every play, we will practice different skills and perform motor profile tests to understand our own movement preferences. By the end of this course, we will look to have a comprehensive understanding of what exercises, skills, strategies, mindsets, and extraneous factors contribute to success playing. "
COLL 139 - HYBRID BEINGS, MULTIPLE SELVES: THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN A DIGITAL AND MATERIAL AGE (BROWN)
Short Title: HYBRID BEINGS, MULTIPLE SELVES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: How much time do you spend online and how does that compare to your time offline? How do these different experiences mesh to influence the type of person you are? What kind of person does existing in these two planes make you? Hybrid Beings: Multiple Selves investigates the impacts of technology on our conceptions of self and embodied experience; focusing on visual technologies like print and screens. This course will focus predominantly on 21st century technologies, particularly the impact of social media on the way we conduct our lives and the ramifications of the corporate control of social life. A critical portion of the course will investigate the forms that social justice takes in the "real world" versus online; echo chambers, politically charged "news" generated by extremist groups, and the facilitation of these negative outcomes via the anonymity and lack of accountability afforded by the internet. Through our meanderings we will discuss ideas pertaining to materiality turn, phenomenology, power, gender, sexuality, race, intersectionality, and the social construction of experience. The ultimate question we pose is: What does it mean to BE in the 21st century and how can we adjust our behaviors to adapt to the inevitability of technology's growing guidance of our lives?
COLL 140 - THE HISTORY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF MURDER (LOVETT)
Short Title: HISTORY & PSYCHOLOGY OF MURDER
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: From manslaughter to capital punishment, there are many types of homicide. The focus of this class will be on murder, commonly distinguished from other kinds of homicide by the words "unlawful" and "premeditated". How can we define murder, and what factors go into the motivation and execution of a murder?
COLL 141 - THE SPOKEN WORD: HOW PERFORMANCE POETRY BRINGS NARRATIVE POEMS TO LIFE (DUNCAN)
Short Title: THE SPOKEN WORD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this course, we will take a critical look at the art of performance poetry and discuss its place in the realm of narrative poetry. Students will analyze poetry performances and will end the class by writing and performing original work.
COLL 142 - THE ART OF UNDERSTANDING CONCEPTS (MARTEL)
Short Title: AUC 152
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Throughout the course of our lives, we were bombarded with stimuli in an unknown world. So, we tried to understand this information with questions and other cognitive tools at our disposal. Gradually, we got older and for many of us, our ability to understand increasingly complex concepts has not caught up with our desire to do so. Though, through this course, this potential to understand is no longer a mystery. What we need is a restructuring of how we understand concepts. In this course, we will delve into the theory and application of understanding concepts through mainly cognitive science and philosophy. We will achieve this through reading the latest research on integrating conceptual information, mindmapping with proper chunking and interconnected techniques, utilizing self-guided questions in response to complex concepts, and working in teams to solve novel problems. For example, students will draw mindmaps for subjects like music theory or philosophy with the aim of high mastery of retention. Students will complete in-class progress cehcks, homework assignments, and a final project. Although this class has no prerequisites, there are high expectations for each student to come into each lecture ready to learn and participate in discussions."
COLL 143 - THE 2020 ELECTION: AN ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVE (JONES)
Short Title: THE 2020 ELECTION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In late October 2020, Biden had a double-digit polling lead over Trump, and many political observers virtually assured the public of a Democratic landslide. When the election happened, a closer-than-expected Biden victory left many Americans with the same takeaways they had from 2016: that polls were broken, pundits had no clue what they were talking about, and Trump was impossible to analyze. This course will examine each of these assumptions. Talking about elections—especially this one—is an emotionally charged, partisan exercise. What can we learn from 2020 by analyzing the campaign while controlling for our emotions and partisan leanings? Each week, the class will cover one aspect of the election (race, COVID, debates, etc.) informed by readings: a combination of primary sources from the campaign and retrospective analysis of the topics’ effects. Students will conclude the course by writing a short political memo to a hypothetical 2024 candidate advising them on a lesson they should learn from 2020.
COLL 144 - AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: COMMUNICATING NON-VERBALLY IN AN AUDITORY WORLD (WILL RICE)
Short Title: AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This course is meant as an introduction to American Sign Language. No prior experience is needed nor expected. There will be a focus on learning both basic signs and how to construct sentences from that.
COLL 145 - POKEMON: GAME STRATEGIES WITH IMPERFECT INFORMATION (LOVETT)
Short Title: POKEMON GAME STRATEGIES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Students will explore the game theory and strategy behind the competitive Pokémon scene, gaining insight on how to make decisions in scenarios with limited information. At the core of this class is the question “how do I decide what move to make?”, which involves analyzing what information is known and unknown, imagining possible obstacles and outcomes, and prioritizing appropriate goals. Students will develop skills and strategy tools to answer this question through the lens of Pokémon. The Pokémon games are turn-based strategy games where players create a team from a wide selection of characters and battle opponents with similarly constructed teams. Although typically this opponent is a simple AI, in a competitive context, human players battle each other. This increases the complexity of the game significantly. This course will focus on the “core series” of Pokémon video games for Nintendo handheld consoles, specifically the 8th and most recent installment of the series, Sword & Shield. The course will cover introductory mechanics and principles so that students with no prior experience won’t be lost, and at the end of the semester we will have an in-class tournament to apply skills gained.
COLL 146 - LAW IN FILM (MARTEL)
Short Title: LAW IN FILM
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Lightning trials, outbursts in the courtroom, and gavels slamming. Despite what movies might depict, these tropes are far from the reality. Through watching legal movies, learn how film distorts procedural and sociocultural aspects of the law.
COLL 147 - SUPERHEROES: MYTHOS & MORALITY (MARTEL)
Short Title: SUPERHEROES: MYTHOS & MORALITY
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Fictional superheroes shape common ideals of justice, responsibility, and moral good. This class will compare flat and dynamic superhero character arcs, find intention behind each story, and glean if our fascination with superheroes can tell us about our personal values and obsession for a society in need of simple, straightforward mending. Students will pick out aspects of various superhero mythoi from media selections and be able to outline a story arc and craft powerful character that's definitively theirs.
COLL 148 - THE ART OF THE BLOCKBUSTER: MOVIES MADE FOR THE MASSES (LOVETT)
Short Title: THE ART OF THE BLOCKBUSTER
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Do you like big-time movies and blockbusters? Do your wannabe movie snob friends scoff at your mainstream taste? Well, here is your chance to prove them wrong! From Steven Spielberg to Michael Bay and everyone in between, we will examine the nuances and stylings that make blockbusters what they are. We will also be diving into common blockbuster genres to examine how and why certain types of films become such big hits or massive failures. Whether it's Mean Girls or Marvel movies, you will be equipped to defend any film's perceived artistic value.
COLL 149 - WILL THE REAL COMEDIAN PLEASE STAND UP? (HANSZEN)
Short Title: STAND-UP (COMEDY) FOR YOURSELF
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: So you think you’re funny? Or at least you want to be? I mean that’s why you’re even looking at this class in the first place. But how do you know what it means to be funny? How does anyone know what it means to be funny? How does comedy play a role in understanding ourselves and connecting with each other? In this class, we will try to apply what we learn from watching famous comedians: Bo Burnham, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Neal Brenan, Wanda Sykes, and John Mulaney and analyzing their technique (style, timing, and stage presence) and their social commentary (race, identity, politics, sexuality, morals, and anything else you don’t want to talk about with your relatives) in creating our own standup sets and comedic styles. In creating their own sets and styles, students will learn more about their own style of comedy and learn how to best use that to form a relationship with any potential audiences. Through constant practice and several “Eye of the Tiger” training montages, we will develop and fine tune our sets to eventually host a comedy special, showcasing everything we have learned throughout the semester.
COLL 150 - WINES & VINES (HANSZEN)
Short Title: WINES & VINES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Wine has been a cultural and culinary cornerstone for over 5,000 years across many different cultures. Since 2013, the U.S. has been the number one global consumer of wine. However, wine lovers have existed for much longer. In fact, the first recorded wine was from 7,000 years ago in China. Not only is the history of wine extensive, but it also continues to be a predominant facet of the modern day, featuring on dinner tables around the world. How does understanding the long history of wine change the experience of appreciating wine? Through classroom wine tastings, students will learn how to properly serve a glass of wine, begin developing their taste palette, and expand their terminology for proper wine descriptions. Students will explore the geography of wine regions and their regional differences, as well as how wine arrived and developed across the world. Not only will we learn about the process of winemaking, but also its technical history and contemporary agricultural and environmental problems. Students must be 21+.
COLL 151 - THE STARS & YOU: YOUR LIFE & WORLD THROUGH ASTROLOGY (LOVETT)
Short Title: THE STARS & YOU
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this day and age, our society thrives off of our lack of knowing, understanding, and loving ourselves. When brands and businesses profit off our lack of fulfillment and distraction in the material world just to sell us the next best product to fix whatever is wrong with us or to fill whatever need we have, we end up lacking the energy, will, and resources to discover who we are. In a world that constantly tugs you to and fro between trends, unreasonable standards, and crippling pressure and expectations, do you know who you are and who you want to be? How can we use astrology as a method of continual introspection to better understand and engage with ourselves and the world around us? In what ways can astrology as a field evolve to better support our individual and societal needs? Astrology provides a cosmic look into the person you were divinely created to be and how you interact with the world around you. We go beyond horoscopes and sun-signs, and begin to dig into the depths and complexities of astrology using birth/natal charts - how the heavens aligned with the planets and constellations at the exact moment of your birth. In this course, students will learn how to use astrology as a guide on their life paths, through defining astrological terms and applying this to their own natal charts. This gained knowledge of the self will provide both freedom and grounding to allow students to better navigate their world. Students will also acknowledge and engage with astrology’s history and how that fits, or does not, into our changing world’s needs.
COLL 152 - TOURING THE WORLD THROUGH FOOD (MARTEL)
Short Title: TOURING THE WORLD THROUGH FOOD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This course will take a deeper dive in the building blocks of dishes, including fundamental ingredients, and explore which cuisines use them and how they are prepared in different cultures. We will analyze what drives their usage in unrelated dishes to understand the fundamental question: what is the essence that makes food taste good? In this course, we will examine the building blocks of dishes and compare their uses across different cultures. Select ingredients will be introduced with a historical approach, highlighting how trade and globalization have affected their prevalence. We will then build on this historical foundation and discuss different cultures’ preparation of these ingredients and how they are used in different dishes. Learning and assessment will center on participation in class discussions, reflective essays, and a final project synthesizing the knowledge of different cultures and cuisines. Students should have previous cooking experience. Note: this course entails working with meat, eggs, and dairy.
COLL 153 - HOW THE INTERNET SHAPES MODERN CINEMA (AND VICE VERSA) (HANSZEN)
Short Title: CINEMA AND THE INTERNET
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Cinema has changed since the inception of the internet, specifically social media. The ways that films are advertised and distributed as well as their content has shifted. In How the Internet Shapes Modern Cinema (and Vice Versa), students will investigate this while exploring the ways that movies have influenced trends and perception on the internet. Students will also leave with a clear image of the ways that members on social media have co-opted film terminology. Through taking this course, students will come to understand how the internet and the film industry interact to create modern cinema.
COLL 154 - CHESS FOR BEGINNERS: A BOARD GAME THAT MIRRORS THE WORLD (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: CHESS FOR BEGINNERS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: The game of chess is hundreds of years old, played around the world, and considered by many to be the most popular game of strategy in human history. Richard Réti, a man famous for his study of endgames in the early 20th century, once said that “In the idea of chess and the development of the chess mind we have a picture of the intellectual struggle of mankind.” In looking towards these historical games and players, we must ask: The game of chess is a tool to practice our logic and problem-solving skills. How can we use it to discover our best self through the eyes of players past? This course will teach you the fundamentals of chess and provide you with the tools you need to improve your chess play outside the classroom, offering room for self-evaluation. There will be guidance on beginning, developing, and ending a chess game, thorough analysis of historic and culturally relevant chess games and players, and structures for taking notes on games to better study the game. You will write papers analyzing your own play as well as the play of chess grandmasters, with multiple opportunities to play the game and learn through experience against your fellow students.
COLL 155 - FANTASTIC MICROBES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (WILL RICE)
Short Title: INTRODUCTION TO EXTREMOPHILES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction. From bacteria that survive in scalding waters to viruses mistaken for bacteria, microbes challenge our views of biology. Exceptions abound for seemingly fundamental rules. Although “mitochondria are the powerhouse of the eukaryotic cell,” monocercomonoides do not have them. What can these strange microbes reveal about life and its limits? In this course, we will study a variety of curious creatures and understand the mechanisms behind their existence. We will also delve into the broader evolution of microbes by exploring topics such as antibiotic resistance and the possibility of life on other planets. By discussing current scientific literature and preparing a presentation for an in-class conference, students will discover associations between different organisms and topics. Everyone, regardless of scientific background, is welcome to come and explore the fantastic world of microbes.
COLL 156 - MUSIC THAT DEFINED A CULTURE: EXPLORATION OF GRATEFUL DEAD LYRICS (DUNCAN)
Short Title: MUSIC THAT DEFINED A CULTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "A lot of music has been designed to appeal to the masses with catchy beats and superficial lyrics. However, a psychedelic rock band from the late 1960s defied the status quo and created a community. Through thought-provoking lyrics and improvisational music, the Grateful Dead were a cultural phenomena. Inspired by their time on the road, the band wrote mystical songs filled with allusion and symbolism. More importantly, the Grateful Dead played music that deeply resonated with their fans’ emotions. In this course, students will analyze Grateful Dead lyrics and learn about their lifestyle. A deep dive into the lyrics shows the range of the human experience and how a traveling band lived. Analysis of the Grateful Dead will help students answer the question: Why do certain lyrical and musical strategies cause people to react in different ways? Every class, students will participate in group discussions about different song interpretations and connect the songs to what was happening in the band at the time. There will be a final paper where students analyze a song, describe the allusions, and elaborate on their reaction to the song."
COLL 157 - ORIGINS, FAITH, SCIENCE: THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE IN MONOTHEISM AND MODERN SCIENCE (WILL RICE)
Short Title: ORIGINS, FAITH, SCIENCE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Our very existence poses the so-called greatest question: Why is there anything at all? Moreover, that humans have long asked such a transcendental question poses yet another: How did beings with such capacity for self-reflection come to exist? Whatever our answers, they shape the whole trajectory of our lives and communities. In this course, we focus on some of the most influential answers to the question of origins. Specifically, we consider, What do the monotheistic faiths and modern science say about origins of life, and how harmonious or conflicting are their visions? We study both the original historical context and modern-day interpretations of the religious texts, as well as the history of evolution as an alternative origins framework. At the end of the course, students will prepare a project with their personal synthesis of origin accounts in an answer to the question, “How compatible are faith and science?” No background knowledge is required, and diverse viewpoints are encouraged. There will be no exams.
COLL 158 - MEMES FROM A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE (JONES)
Short Title: MEMES & LINGUISTICS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Within the last thirty years, the advent of the internet has allowed humanity to share information faster than ever before, including such information as those funny repeated text, image, and audio motifs commonly known as memes. Today, nearly all online communities employ memes to express ideas in humorous and relatable formats, packaging information in reproducible, variable templates reliant on a shared cultural knowledge much like language does. While cat photos with funny captions often make us laugh, how often do we stop and ask: What can internet memes tell us about the structures & functions of human communication, cognition, and society? This course analyzes the phenomenon of the internet meme as symbolic communication, applying methods and theories used in the field of linguistics to better understand the structure and function of memes. Through comparison of the “language” of internet memes to spoken human language, students will discover how memes convey meaning, evolve over time, interact with one another, and reflect upon the demographics of those who post them. This course emphasizes interaction with real data, requiring students to collect and analyze meme exemplars found on internet forums in weekly homework assignments. For their final project, students will create and present an analysis of a meme format (or formats) of their choice utilizing the theory and methods discussed in class.
COLL 159 - EMPATHY: WHY WE HELP OTHERS (WIESS)
Short Title: EMPATHY
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Empathy is innate—evolved from a parent’s need to care for their children—but people often cannot put into words why they empathize. There’s a lot of information out there on empathy: self-help books, blog posts, and even peer-reviewed research. However, most of this information is either subjective or presents empathy as something that can be maximized with ten steps (and ten dollars). Subjective experience is a good starting point, but if we truly want to understand empathy, we need to answer the following question: what makes people empathize and why does empathy motivate them to help other people? In Empathy, students will take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding why people empathize. By exploring its psychological mechanisms, its neural correlates, how it is conveyed through language (semantics), and even computational recreations of it, students will be challenged to see empathy from a variety of perspectives. By the end of the course, students will be able to define empathy in their own words and either measure it using an inventory/tool they have written/created OR increase it using an intervention they have designed.
COLL 160 - GAME SKILL - PROBLEM SOLVING THROUGH GAME MECHANICS (JONES)
Short Title: GAME SKILL
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: How might we understand problem solving in every day activities through game mechanics? Students will learn how to transfer problem solving skills learned through game mechanics to real-world problems.
COLL 161 - ENVIRONMENT IN FICTION FILM (MARTEL)
Short Title: ENVIRONMENT IN FICTION FILM
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: How do fiction films portray the environment, how faithful are these cultural representations to environmental issues, and how does this affect people’s perception of the environment and environmental issues? In this class, students will watch environmental fiction movies spanning from the 1990’s to present day and will learn what fiction films get right and wrong about environmental issues. Students will participate in class discussion on how fiction films have shaped their own and society’s perception of the environment. Lectures and scholarly articles on environmental issues will be used to help shape students’ understanding of the reality of the environment. Students will complete a final project in which they present on a fiction film of their choice.
COLL 162 - BACH TO THE FUTURE: AN OVERVIEW OF CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORY (JONES)
Short Title: BACH TO THE FUTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: By studying music history, how would individuals become more familiar with classical music and its complexities? This course aims to show how listeners can gain a new appreciation for classical music through studying its history. Students will understand how political and social contexts influenced the composers' artistry and creations, and explore different genres of classical music, spanning from symphonies to operas.
COLL 163 - THE PHILOSOPHY OF BOJACK HORSEMAN (DUNCAN)
Short Title: PHILOSOPHY OF BOJACK HORSEMAN
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Framed around the popular Netflix show Bojack Horseman, students will gain an introduction to ontology and deep understanding of existential philosophy. The focus will consistently be on two fundamental questions: "What is the meaning of life?" and consequently "If life has no inherent meaning, what do we do?"
COLL 164 - A TRIP TO THE NETHERLANDS - AN INTRODUCTION TO DUTCH CULTURE (BROWN)
Short Title: DUTCH CULTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In a tourist society where most vacation plans are made using Tripadvisor or comparable services it is hard to get a feel for a country while also doing things you like. In this class the students will answer the question: What does your perfect trip to the Netherlands looks like?
COLL 165 - SKATEBOARDING ON FILM (WIESS)
Short Title: SKATEBOARDING ON FILM
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Digital video cameras have heavily influenced the development of skateboarding as a sport since their introduction. Giving pros and amateurs alike a way to record and share their newest tricks, lines, and ideas, video recording has pushed skateboarding to be nearly as much art as sport. In this class, students will learn the basics of riding a skateboard and creating and editing your own videos. We will also make at least two class trips to a Houston skatepark to introduce students to Houston skate culture and provide additional filming opportunities. Ultimately students should be able to answer the following essential question: How might I express my individual artistic style in my films?
COLL 166 - MIND GAMES: PSYCHOLOGICAL GAME THEORY CONCEPTS (JONES)
Short Title: MIND GAMES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Students will learn basic game theory concepts and the ways that those can be augmented in order to allow for human behavior. This class will look at how emotions can be added to models of games, and how these values will influence outcomes. Additionally, there will be discussions of these models, the augmentations, and the student's perceived efficacy of the changes.
COLL 167 - MISS AMERICANA: THE EVOLUTION AND LYRICS OF TAYLOR SWIFT (HANSZEN)
Short Title: TAYLOR SWIFT LYRICAL EVOLUTION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Hailed as the ""Songwriter of the Decade"", Taylor Swift has been at the forefront of pop culture for years, making her an enduring presence in a fast-paced industry. The name itself brings both appeal and aversions, yet what really shines about the star is her songwriting. Through close readings of her music, alongside considerations of her public discourse, this class will be a seminar discussing the nuances of her lyrics. Using a chronological approach, this course will spend time on each one of her ten albums. We'll consider a broad range of topics, including: femininity and gender; social media and public opinion; politics and social impact; fiction and nonfiction; American nationalism and whiteness; and finally, family and feuds. We therefore aim to answer the question: What does Taylor Swift’s songwriting evolution say about her own personal growth surrounding public discourse? Instruction will be provided in lecture, discussion, and audiovisual formats. Knowledge will be evaluated with short written responses, participation in class discussions, and a final essay analyzing a song of your choosing."
COLL 168 - INTRODUCTION TO THE SKIN WE LIVE IN (BAKER)
Short Title: INTRO TO SKIN
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Skin problems aren’t limited to acne; we sometimes get eczema, warts, and rashes. There’s a sea of intriguing skin conditions just waiting to be understood and treated! This course will cover the integumentary system, ingredients in the skin care/dermatological industry, skin care habits, and skin diseases and treatments!
COLL 169 - LEGAL INTERPRETATION (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: LEGAL INTERPRETATION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Designed as an introduction to law for all students, Legal Interpretation sets out to make sense of the laws that govern the land and all the people within - by introducing the fundamentals of legal research and writing - all while providing an opportunity to question the morality of those rules. From Affirmative Action to the Death Penalty, Legal Interpretation takes a deep dive into many of the issues that create the backdrop of modern-day America. Students will apply all the knowledge they gained in this course and their own moral beliefs to ultimately answer the question: how should our personal ethical codes intersect with our interpretation of the law?
COLL 170 - MEMES AND INTERNET CULTURE (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: INTERNET CULTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: First coined as a term to identify the most basic units of culture, memes have brought about a new mode of communication that has revolutionized the way we relate to each other. But do memes heal or harm our society, our culture, and our perception of the world? This course aims to explore the powerful nature of memes and how the increasing reliance on internet culture informs our society at large. We will discuss memes as a communication tool through sociological, philosophical, and critical discussions. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to thoughtfully examine this technique of communication that the digital age has created. Students of all disciplines and meme expertise are welcome to join our exploration of the internet culture we exist in.
COLL 171 - THE HETEROGENEITY OF CHINESE CULTURE THROUGH FOOD (BAKER)
Short Title: CHINESE CULTURE THROUGH FOOD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Chinese culture is one of the oldest and richest cultures with deep roots in agriculture, which is defined by regional differences in geography and climate. As such, Chinese cultural values are often expressed through food, often serving as symbols for good fortune or storytelling during Chinese holidays. These regional differences gave rise to many schools of Chinese cuisine that are each defined by unique regional characteristics. Traditionally, there are 8 Great Schools of Chinese Cuisine, but many more can be identified from China’s diverse geography and ethnic population. Similarly, Chinese culture represents a collection of many subcultures with regional definitions, including Chinese diasporic communities in America that have grown in recent years, presenting the opportunity to examine these subcultures from the lens of food. We therefore aim to answer the question: How do the schools of Chinese cuisine shape or represent their respective Chinese subcultures? Instruction will be provided in lecture, discussion, and demonstration formats. Knowledge will be evaluated with short written assignments, a map project, and a final project where you will design your own dish based on the 8 Great Schools of Chinese Cuisine.
COLL 172 - THE PERFECT HAIRCUT (WILL RICE)
Short Title: THE PERFECT HAIRCUT
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this course, we explore the essential question of: How do individual and social factors interact to compose the “perfect haircut” for every individual? Through case studies and interactive discussions, students will have the opportunity to explore a range of historical and cultural factors that shape the hairstyles of those around them. By studying individual factors such as genetics and lifestyles, students will be able to identify best hair-care practices and use modern-day techniques to create comprehensive recommendations for various scenarios.
COLL 173 - INTRO TO IMAGINEERING: HOW TO THINK LIKE A DISNEY IMAGINEER (BROWN)
Short Title: INTRO TO IMAGINEERING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this course, we will delve into the history and design process of Imagineering to fully understand what it means to be an Imagineer. Students will learn "Mickey's Ten Commandments" for theme park design used throughout the theme park entertainment industry, observe previous and present projects created by WDI, and establish an understanding of how to think like an Imagineer. Students will also be challenged to apply the Imagineering thinking and design process from Blue Sky to "construction" in a semester-long project.
COLL 174 - THE ART OF THE ALBUM: MUSIC ALBUM ANALYSIS (JONES)
Short Title: MUSIC ALBUM ANALYSIS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This course will be exploring various popular and ground breaking musical albums that are considered to be “works of art” and answering the question: When/How does an album stop being just a collection of songs, and become art? We will be attempting to answer this question through weekly explorations of critically acclaimed albums and analyzing said albums’ thematic elements, tracklisting, storytelling, lyrics, and more. In this course, students will learn the tools and writing techniques to write about music and albums to better understand the music they like and analyze it.
COLL 175 - THE ALCHEMY OF ART: THE SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENA IN A PAINTER'S PALETTE (WIESS)
Short Title: THE ALCHEMY OF ART
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "How do we create art? What are the scientific principles within an artwork’s materials that allow us to appreciate it? How can we use the creative sparks at the art/science interface to innovate the future? This course examines “meaning” and “meaning-making” through learning about common scientific principles that are inherent in materials used for artistic creation. How do egg yolks turn into paint on a canvas? What are the optics of pigment and perception? What are the composite properties present in creating hand-made paper? Students will formulate such questions about art in the context of the natural world, and foster an appreciation for the discoveries at the interface of art and science. In this course, students will apply learned science principles in a variety of hands-on studio sessions, experiment with creating art through the mechanics of differing mediums, and discuss the ways in which science and art fields supplement and affect one another in a larger societal context. The class will be an approachable way for artists to engage in creative scientific discussions around materials used in the artistic process and for scientists to appreciate theories applied within the arts and aesthetics. Students will leave this course having developed a greater appreciation for art, materials science, and creative expression — preparing them to become multifaceted innovators of the future."
COLL 176 - WHY DO I HATE CLASSICAL MUSIC? DECODING MUSICAL TASTES (SID RICH)
Short Title: DECODING MUSICAL TASTES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Have you ever wondered why a specific song can ignite a whirlwind of emotions, while another leaves you indifferent or even irritated? Why does your best friend love a music genre you can't stand? Embark on an enlightening journey through the maze of our minds as we explore the psychology of music listening. This course delves into the intricate connections between music, brain activity, personal experiences, and societal influences, shedding light on why we gravitate toward certain rhythms, melodies, and genres. By diving into scientific findings and listening to different genres of music with engaging classroom discussions, we'll unlock the mysteries of our musical preferences, biases, and emotional connections. Success in this course means developing a deeper understanding of your own musical tastes, and a newfound appreciation for the diverse tapestry of sounds that color our world. Tune into the symphony of the human psyche and diversify your musical palate.
COLL 177 - IDENTIFYING LEADING INDICATORS OF HIGH-PERFORMING SOFTWARE ENTERPRISES (HANSZEN)
Short Title: SOFTWARE METRICS THAT MATTER
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In this course, we will dive into the intricacies of the software industry as we uncover what are the core values, indicators, and habits of successful early-stage companies? We’ll discover the critical indicators that drive performance, using insights from leading financial services firms and personal, we will explore the fundamental concepts of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). We will evaluate the business models, market trends, and metrics that underpin financial and customer success.
COLL 178 - A CUP OF CULTURE: COFFEE'S HISTORY AND COMMODIFICATION (SID RICH)
Short Title: A CUP OF CULTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "From the consumption of Coffea Arabica in the 15th century to the modern Starbucks Blonde Vanilla Latte, the consumer experience regarding coffee, including its brewing method, global distribution, and industrialization has changed dramatically since its first cultivation. Coffee is, and will likely continue to be, a unifying characteristic of cultures around the globe for centuries to come. How has the commercialization of coffee impacted the development of a global coffee culture and the consumer experience? The aim of this course is to introduce you to the history and development of coffee culture as a global product. More specifically, this course focuses on coffee preparation methods, the cultural significance of coffee across different parts of the world, and the effects of the booming coffee industry in the United States. All students of any coffee background are welcome; prior knowledge in coffee, science, or history is not required nor assumed."
COLL 179 - EAT, PRAY, LATKE: JEWISH UNIFICATION THROUGH HOLIDAY FOOD (HANSZEN)
Short Title: EAT, PRAY, LATKE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: From as early as the 6th century BCE, Jews have been expelled from their historic homelands to countries all over the world. This movement, known as the Jewish Diaspora, led to the development of numerous ethnic divisions within the Jewish culture, such as the Ashkenazi, the Sephardic, and more. The global migration of the Jewish people has led to separate religious practices and cultural diversity within the religion. However, holiday celebrations have served as a bridge to unite Jews from different backgrounds through shared rituals, prayer, and, most importantly, food. Therefore, throughout this class, students will examine: why does food play such a central role in Jewish holidays? To investigate this, students will learn about the historical background and symbolism behind classic Jewish holiday cuisine. At the end of each lecture, students will participate in a Kahoot quiz to test their knowledge of the historical significance and symbolism of each holiday and its food. The following week, everyone will participate in a hands-on cooking tutorial based on the previous in-class lecture, allowing students to foster their interest and appreciation for unfamiliar cultures. At the end of the course, students will be expected to prepare a traditional Jewish holiday food of their choice and examine how food impacts their own holiday celebrations.
COLL 180 - STORYTELLING AND NARRATIVE IN ROLE-PLAYING VIDEO GAMES (BROWN)
Short Title: STORYTELLING IN GAMES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Role-playing video games, frequently shortened to role-playing games (RPGs), are a genre of video games, where the player interacts directly with the world, usually gaining character development in terms of recording statistics. The game world is often rooted in speculative fiction, drawing from fantasy and sci-fiction to inhabit worlds that suspend standard understandings of reality. More than other genres, RPGs rely on a combination of gameplay mechanics, cutscenes, and user interface to develop well-defined stories and settings that drive the complex negotiation between the player and the game. Building on this, how do RPGs integrate interactive gameplay and narrative elements to create an effective story? In this course, we will explore elements of role-playing games (abilities, items, combat, cutscenes, setting) through the lenses of narrative (character development, worldbuilding, plot) with an intersectional framework that attends to culture, gender, sexuality, and disability simultaneously. We will be thinking about how RPGs serve as a site of speculative possibility for experimental and unconventional stories. During class, we will discuss popular RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Legend of Zelda, as well as less known titles like Okami and Ib, walking through gameplay footage and cutscenes to eventually apply their understanding in a final project, where students get the opportunity to work in teams to either submit their own game design proposal or write a short analytical paper on a RPG of their choice.
COLL 181 - BULLET JOURNALING AND MODERN CALLIGRAPHY (HANSZEN)
Short Title: BULLET JOURNALING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Want to be more productive? Want better notes? Want to be more organized? Then bullet journaling might be your solution! De-stress. Procrastinate less. It’s possible. A bullet journal can be used for memory-keeping, planning, scrapbooking, art practicing, etc. making it beyond just an average “dear diary” journal. This course will introduce the basics of bullet journaling and how to utilize your journal to create a functional, life-long keepsake while improving self-organization. Lessons on modern brush calligraphy and its styles are included to elevate set-ups. Traditionally calligraphy and different typographies are used in conjunction with bullet journaling to provide visually interesting headers and pages. Additionally to tutorial style classes, you will be introduced to sources in the journaling community such as brands and influencers to trust. Students will create their own monthly spreads and learn to organize their daily goals using bullet journal founder Ryan Carroll’s “Bullet Journal Method” and plan productively with guidance from Jasmine Shao’s Plan with Me. Everyone from new beginners to bujo experts are encouraged to join. The world of journaling and calligraphy is intimidating but through this class you can learn the many tools needed to make your journal the most helpful for you!
COLL 182 - COLL 101: CONFRONTING ANTI-CHRISTIANITY (BROWN)
Short Title: CONFRONTING ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This class is designed to allow students (whether Christians or non-Christians) to articulate, evaluate, and respond to challenges and questions to Christianity. Non-Christians taking the class will understand Christian responses to traditional theistic doctrines, including arguments for the existence of God and the role of religion in public life. Christians taking the class will understand what objections skeptics and atheists have to Christian doctrines and how Christian thinkers have answered these objections over the past 2,000 years. The goal of this course is not to change anyone’s theological views; instead, it seeks to equip students to learn to evaluate the merits of these challenges and the responses by Christians.
COLL 183 - INTRODUCTION TO DJING (BROWN)
Short Title: INTRO TO DJING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: DJing a party is one of the most fun and rewarding activities in the world. A good DJ can turn a boring event into a packed, energized dancefloor. This course is designed to turn aspiring DJs into confident performers, able to select music, read a crowd, and control energy throughout a party. We will discuss the equipment one needs to own, how to mix songs together seamlessly, and what promoters and planners look for when hiring a DJ, both inside and outside of Rice. This is a deeply practical course, offering students the chance to be a part of the next generation of student DJs at Rice and elsewhere, culminating in a final project where students perform live in front of their classmates and friends.
COLL 184 - FUNCTIONAL FIBER ARTS: THE MATHEMATICS OF CLOTHING DESIGN THROUGH CROCHET (WILL RICE)
Short Title: FUNCTIONAL FIBER ARTS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Crochet isn’t just about art and self-expression – from counting stitches and rows to calculating the yardage to finish a garment, math is the foundation for all forms of this famous fiber art, especially clothing design. How can an understanding of mathematics help us create art with purpose and pattern? And how can these mathematical patterns be incorporated into clothing design, of all things?
COLL 185 - EAST ASIA TELEVISION: AN INTRODUCTION (MARTEL)
Short Title: EAST ASIA TELEVISION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Every day, millions of people across the globe turn on their televisions or open their computers to watch the latest episode of an East Asian television show. As entertaining as it may be, what you don’t see in that episode is just as important. From state regulation on depictions of history and gender in Chinese television dramas to the intense labor conditions of the anime industry, what you see on screen is just the tip of the iceberg. How does television reflect and affect how East Asians understand the world around them? In this course, students will gain a basic understanding of the history of East Asian television, as well as principles of textual analysis. They will apply these principles to East Asian television through in-class discussion and short writing assignments. The class will primarily focus on dramas, animated shows, and game and competition shows of China, Japan, and South Korea. No East Asian language skills are required. At the end of the course, students will present an analysis of a television program of their choice to the class in lieu of a final exam. "
COLL 186 - DEAD IN AMERICA:A CRASH COURSE ON THE POST-MORTEM FOR THE MORBIDLY CURIOUS (WILL RICE)
Short Title: DEAD IN AMERICA-A CRASH COURSE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: What happens to your body after death? Perhaps it’ll involve a funeral followed by a burial or cremation. Perhaps you’ll donate life-saving organs and tissues if denoted by your driver’s license. Perhaps you’ll even nourish a tree. Whatever happens, the fate of a post-mortem body is little talked about and often ignored until we’re faced with the death of someone we know. In the United States, traditional burial and cremation are the two most common options for body disposition. Recently, newer and more environmentally friendly options, such as water cremation and human composting, have been introduced. Yet these are rarely available or legal in only a few states. How should American society determine what happens to its dead? This course will discuss everything that may happen to a body after death, from decomposition to body disposition to organ donations. Students will learn the history and reasons behind the legalization and practice of body disposition methods. They will analyze what makes treatment of the dead body respectful or vilified in the United States. With no exams in this course, students will complete projects which include researching a funeral option from another culture and writing a letter to a state representative.
COLL 187 - TEA AROUND THE WORLD: CULTURAL, HISTORICAL, AND PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES (MARTEL)
Short Title: TEA AROUND THE WORLD
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: What can tea practices reveal about a culture? Students will explore tea practices around the world through tastings, readings, and discussions to discover the influence of tea on a culture and vice versa. Classes will involve an overview of the historical origins of tea as well as modern-day tea practices.
COLL 188 - SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY: 20 PHOTO BOOKS SINCE 1960 (WIESS)
Short Title: PHOTO BOOKS SINCE 1960
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This course introduces students to contemporary photography through a series of influential photo books published since 1960. The books are chosen to focus on works that can be fit broadly into the social documentary genre, stylistically they can be categorized as New Color Photography. Students will complete weekly reading and half of each class will consist of a lecture that introduces the students, while the other half will be discussions. Students are challenged to generate original readings into the works they engage in, supported by both visual and social-historical evidence. The students will produce textual responses as assignments. While the final project can be an analytical essay or a creative photography project based on a photo book of the student's choosing.
COLL 189 - BRIDGING ACADEMIA AND ACTIVISM: 11 PAPERS TO READ BEFORE YOU GRADUATE (WIESS)
Short Title: BRIDGING ACADEMIA AND ACTIVISM
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Society finds itself at the convergence of various crises: rampant social and economic inequality, ecological destruction, and state violence, to name a few. Thus, it should come as little surprise that institutional skepticism is on the rise, including increasingly negative public perception of higher education. Is academia doomed to wither away from its metaphorical ivory tower—or do academics occupy one of the last remaining spaces where alternative visions of the world are still possible? By analyzing one scholarly reading each week, this discussion-based course will examine the role academia can—or can’t—play in activist efforts to develop and implement political re-imaginings. Through critical dialogue exploring theoretical and material social/political/economic issues, we will arrive at answers to our essential question, “how can academia help us challenge oppression and create a more just world?”"
COLL 190 - BOARD GAMES OR "BORED" GAMES - HOW TO WIN AT THE BOARD GAMES OF LIFE (WILL RICE)
Short Title: BOARD GAMES OR "BORED" GAMES
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Have you been finding that the same people keep winning the games you play? It could be that there happen to be characteristics that make some people better at board games than others There can be social reasons, psychological reasons, even biomechanical reasons for this, so over the course, students will be able to play a wide variety of games from different categories (Settlers of Catan, One Night Werewolf, Codenames, etc.) and find some of these fundamentals in both board games and apply these to life scenarios such as the power dynamics in the economic world, social ladders, and so many more. The course will conclude with a presentation of the rules for a game that the students will have created, using the fundamentals learned throughout the course.
COLL 191 - PHOTOGRAPHY OF ART: THE LANGUAGE OF COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY (WIESS)
Short Title: PHOTOGRAPHY OF ART
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In the late ’60s, the question of color photography came into focus. Wrestling with the previous generation of artists who only took black and white seriously, the young artists started using color film and revolutionized the language of photography. Our class will start here, starting by understanding this new language in prominent formalist theories during that time. We will then move forward in time and look at the works of preceding artists, who narrate through that language, utilizing it for personal and political ends. By the end of the course, you will gain skills to analyze photographs you encounter everywhere — from those in news articles to those in gallery shows. You will also have a comprehensive understanding of how photography can be used for artistic means, and how are those photographs distinguished from photographic materials we encounter every day.
COLL 192 - THE UNIVERSE AND US: A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO COSMOLOGY (BAKER)
Short Title: THE UNIVERSE AND US
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Cosmology: The study of the universe, from its beginning to its end. Our understanding of the universe is constantly changing, with new discoveries and breakthroughs being made. The field of cosmology is filled with such discoveries, and its content and history contain the groundwork for answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions: Where did we come from? ...Why is the universe the way it is? ... How have we, the human race, come to understand the universe in which we live? In this course, we will delve into the history of scientific discovery, using Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time as a guide. Students will explore their own topics of interest and engage in discussions about their favorite concepts. A cross between cosmology, sociology, and science history, this course is a refreshing take on physical science, intended for students of any discipline who want to learn more about the universe in which we live, all without the use of mathematics.
COLL 193 - THE MAHABHARATA: THE INDIAN EPIC OF FAMILY, MORALITY, AND WAR (BROWN)
Short Title: THE MAHABHARATA
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Family drama. War. Betrayals. ELEPHANTS! What else could a great story even need? For over 5,000 years, the Mahabharata, one of this world’s largest epics, played a significant role in shaping Indian and Hindu culture. This class is for anyone interested in dissecting stories, debating moral dilemmas, and learning more about other cultures. While the Mahabharata translates directly to the Great War, these stories are not merely battles and fighting. Within this epic lies the Bhagavad Gita, a defining text for Hindu and Indian philosophy. In this course, we will delve into the exciting tales of the Mahabharata, exploring the relatable characters, complex themes, and, of course, the perplexing moral dilemmas. Success in this course will be determined primarily by participation in discussions and willingness to learn about new and exciting stories. There will also be short weekly discussion posts to assess understanding and encourage reflection. Through such thought-provoking discussions and investigation of the epic’s many interpretations and adaptations, we will explore the essential question of how stories, both within and outside our culture, shape our values and philosophy.
COLL 194 - ከውቂያኖስ ባሻገር - SPEAKING "ABYSSINIAN" (WIESS)
Short Title: SPEAKING "ABYSSINIAN"
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: While being one of the only two African countries never colonized by European powers has preserved Ethiopia’s sovereignty, having its own written language system has distanced the country and its official language from exploration. This course titled “ከውቂያኖስ ባሻገር” read as Ke’wik’iyanosi Bashageri, a phrase in the country’s official language, Amharic, which translates to “across the ocean” will push students out of what they know and peek into the country’s culture through its language. This is an introductory course for speaking Amharic with no previous exposure required. Even students with some exposure will improve greatly as they will recite the alphabets, count in Amharic, and use the most common words in basic social dialogues. Students will refer to the Amharic alphabet, amharicteacher.com resources and my teaching as a native speaker. By summarizing the cultural background each morphological and syntactical rule is rooted in, this class goes beyond a language to also learn about Ethiopia and its culture, hence the second part of the title – Speaking Abyssinian - Abyssinia being the first name given to Ethiopia. By the end of the term, this course ensures that students explain how languages serve as a means of understanding others and one’s own culture.
COLL 195 - THE BOOK OF ROMANS: A STUDY ON CHRISTIAN THEMES (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: THE BOOK OF ROMANS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Christianity is the world’s largest religion with nearly one-third of our global population identifying as followers. As a result, Christian ideologies and values have shaped our history and continue to shape our future. Romans serves as an important book of the Bible that outlines these influential Christian themes. For non-religious and religious students alike, this course’s study on Romans will frame a greater understanding on Christian faith as we discuss topics such as the Christian God’s wrath and love, suffering and justification, mercy and grace, and righteousness. Ultimately, through seminar-based classes, we will have Biblical and academic discussions that will pave the way to answer: What do Christians believe and why? Using one contextual creative assignment, two reading recap paragraphs, and one final presentation, students of this course will walk away with a greater scholarly and personal understanding of Romans and the Christian faith.
COLL 196 - PORTRAIT PIZZAZ - EXPLORING THE ART OF PORTRAIT MAKING THROUGH VARIOUS MEDIA (WILL RICE)
Short Title: PORTRAIT PIZZAZ
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "This course introduces students to the fundamental techniques, materials, and processes of drawing portraits. Students will explore line, contour, tone, space, form, composition, and content through a variety of portrait assignments in dry and wet media including pencil, charcoal, and oil paint. Through discussions and readings, students will also learn how humans recognize faces, why humans have evolved to look different, and the history of portraiture and its prevalence in society. Students will learn to understand and employ spatial and depth perception cues and mathematical approximations in drawing. Students will gradually learn how to draw portraits from both photographs and live models and dip their toes into the art of caricature. Students will learn the technical aspects of portrait making and will be given freedom to develop and explore their own individual style. No prior experience in drawing is required but recommended."
COLL 197 - FUNDAMENTALS OF VOICE ACTING (HANSZEN)
Short Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF VOICE ACTING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: An often overlooked but very significant component of today’s media is the voice-over industry. From radio ads, to audiobooks, to animated cartoons and films, and dubs of foreign media, this industry permeates so much of our everyday lives. As such, becoming proficient in the art of voice acting can lead you to gain a deeper understanding of how these forms of media are created and see this huge aspect of our world from a new perspective. This course seeks to provide an answer to the question: what makes a quality voice actor? Students will learn about the different ways one can become a voice actor, as well as the fundamental skills required for proficiency in the field, including the basics of audio editing software, proper recording technique, self-marketing, and of course, acting technique. Students will put their skills and knowledge to use through acting exercises, class discussions, recording projects, and ultimately creating their own demo reel.
COLL 198 - THE HISTORY OF FASHION (BAKER)
Short Title: HISTORY OF FASHION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Through this course, we will traverse the evolution of fashion from the 16th century to present, analyzing fashion through books, artwork, and photographs. Furthermore, we will discuss the connection between fashion and major historical events, feminism, and society. In this course, students will learn about the changes in fashion through a historical lens, the societal issues that have surrounded fashion, and how fashion is used today as a method of representation and activism. Students will be expected to complete weekly discussion posts and in-class assignments. Students will apply what they learned in this course through a creative in-class presentation, highlighting fashion from a specific time period, designer, or culture.
COLL 199 - ART CINEMA ISN'T BORING (JONES)
Short Title: ART CINEMA
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: What constitutes “art cinema” and what advantages does it offer as a form of artistic expression? Arthouse films get their name from the “arthouse” cinemas they play in, as opposed to blockbuster theaters. But the key to an art film is that it is about the artistic vision of its director, as opposed to an entertaining formula. These types of films can sometimes be written off as pretentious or boring. However, they are an entirely unique visual and aural route to engage with ideas on human nature itself. A film like Parasite indicates the potential that they have to make mainstream splashes. Watching art cinema can and should be an entirely exciting experience. Throughout the semester, we will be looking at some of the most acclaimed arthouse films from various countries around the world, gaining an appreciation for their context in larger cinematic movements. Students will analyze the directorial choices in these films and explore if they are making any significant statements beyond the surface of the film. By the end of the course, we will all have heightened our appreciation of these movies as a tool for personal expression, and students will be motivated to further explore uncharted cinematic territory. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for COLL 199 if student has credit for UNIV 235.
COLL 200 - TEACHING PRACTICUM
Short Title: TEACHING PRACTICUM
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Internship/Practicum
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Student instructors gain mastery of their subject of interest by practical application in teaching a course. Students are supervised by the faculty sponsor as approved by the Dean of Undergraduates. Students must have taken COLL 300 in developing the course. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.
COLL 202 - COOKING WITH CHEF ROGER (DUNCAN)
Short Title: COOKING WITH CHEF ROGER
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Laboratory
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Cooking with Chef Roger teaches the students the fundamentals of cooking and help them to cook healthy delicious meals. The class also gives the students a clear idea about shopping for fresh ingredients and how to host successful parties.
COLL 203 - CYBERCRIME (LOVETT)
Short Title: CYBERCRIME
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hours: 2
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This class will introduce students to the current issues in cybercrime. It will include topics such as auction fraud, hacking, and identity theft. Students will read and discuss the statutes and cases that govern each area. Each class will have a fact scenario that will be analyzed using Federal and State law.
COLL 205 - PRACTICAL APPROACH TO PERSONAL FINANCE (HANSZEN)
Short Title: PERSONAL FINANCE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Basic introduction to the framework for making informed personal financial decisions. Prior knowledge of accounting or finance is not required. The course will provide a practical approach to personal finance. Topics will include budgeting, tax issues, banking services, use of credit, housing selection and ownership, investments, insurance, retirement planning and legal documents.
COLL 212 - BLACK MEN WRITING ABOUT THEIR WORLD: DU BOIS, BALDWIN, AND THEIR HEIRS (WIESS)
Short Title: BLACK MEN WRITING
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: For Black men, what good are essays? This course explores the writerly activism, historical imagination, and the consequence of some of the best known work of W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and several of their 21st century heirs. Taking cues from the subjects of the course, students will also get ample practice using the essay as a way to describe, analyze, and affect the contemporary black male condition. Permission of Instructor required. Instructor Permission Required.
COLL 214 - MASS INCARCERATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS: RACE, REFORM AND THE LAW (WIESS)
Short Title: MASS INCARCERATION
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: A course about the origins of mass incarceration in the United States; about the consequences of the present carceral state; and about efforts to address injustices that have proceeded from the nation’s relatively recent and nearly insatiable impetus to cage its poor, non-white population.
COLL 218 - TO SERVE: LIVING A LIFE OF PUBLIC AND CIVIC SERVICE (BAKER)
Short Title: PUBLIC AND CIVIC SERVICE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Young Americans today are drawn to service-just not to public service. When so many people shrink from (or are repelled by) "politics" and "politicians", there has never been a better time to seek and exert leadership at every level. "Real Leaders, Real People" will draw practical lessons from the lives of leaders who overcame obstacles of various kinds.
COLL 219 - BORDER WALLS: SECURITY, MIGRATION, AND IDENTITY (BAKER)
Short Title: BORDER WALLS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: "Practitioner-led course regarding concepts of sovereignty, security, migration, and identity in the United States. The course surveys current events at the U.S. southwestern border and contextualizes those events in a legal, historical, and theoretical framework."
COLL 220 - WILLIAM MARSH RICE & SLAVERY (DUNCAN)
Short Title: WILLIAM MARSH RICE & SLAVERY
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: This seminar will meet every other week and will enable students to engage in original historical research about William Marsh Rice and his world, with a specific focus on slavery and its aftermath in Texas. The research will aid the work of the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice.
COLL 221 - THE BLACK EXPERIENCE AT RICE UNIVERSITY (WIESS)
Short Title: BLACK EXPERIENCE AT RICE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: What does it mean, and what has it meant to be black at Rice? This seminar is focused on documenting and recovering the experience of black staff, students, and faculty at the university. The class is associated with the work of the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice.
COLL 222 - RACE, PLACE, AND POWER IN HOUSTON, TEXAS
Short Title: HOUSTON: RACE, PLACE, POWER
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: An exploration of the ways that race, place, and power converge in and shape the city of Houston. Designed for students who completed UNIV 106. Instructor Permission Required. Recommended Prerequisite(s): UNIV 106: RISE
COLL 227 - INTRO TO BRAND DEVELOPMENT (MCMURTRY)
Short Title: INTRO TO BRAND DEVELOPMENT
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, possessing top-notch personal selling skills is no longer just an advantage - it's a necessity, regardless of your position. This course is designed to provide you with practical, real-world skills that are indispensable in the modern business world. From communication and market research to brand management and sales techniques, you'll learn how to prepare for your current and future careers by building a strong personal brand that aligns with your values, goals, and aspirations to succeed in your chosen field.
COLL 238 - SPECIAL TOPICS
Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Independent Study
Credit Hours: 1-4
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Topics and credit hours vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.
COLL 299 - SCIENTIA: LECTURES IN SCIENCE AND CULTURE
Short Title: SCIENTIA SCIENCE & CULTURE
Department: College Courses
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Lecture
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level
Description: Annual lecture series, panel discussions and discussion talks on topics bridging science, culture and art. 4 lectures plus 2 discussion talks. Lectures are on specified dates, usually Tuesdays. Discussion talks scheduled at semester beginning. Topics vary year to year. Repeatable for Credit.
COLL 300 - PEDAGOGY FOR STUDENT INSTRUCTORS
Short Title: PEDAGOGY FOR STDNT INSTRUCTORS
Department: Center for Teaching Excellence
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory
Credit Hour: 1
Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.
Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level
Description: In the first three weeks we will guide each student in the development of a proposal for a Student Taught Course. In the remaining four weeks we will learn and practice techniques of effective instruction.