Summer 2025 Course Descriptions
First Summer
ENGS 302 D1 (CRN: 30386) “Literature of War”
Professor: Jennifer Adair
Online Asynchronous
This class provides a broad overview of the major themes of modern war through a mixture of fictional and non-fictional texts. Although the majority of the works cover the Global War on Terror (GWOT), other classic selections have been woven in to provide evolving perspectives. Subjects covered include training for combat, modern combat, the crippling military bureaucracy, PTSD and other post-combat experiences. Finally, the course hopes to raise awareness of psychological stressors in both the military and civilian world and consider healthy coping techniques.
ENGS 304-D1 (CRN:30223): “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome“
Professor: Sean Heuston
Online Asynchronous
This course will examine a wide range of written sources (fiction and nonfiction from the Roman Empire to the present) and films that deal with the central issue of the Wellness Strand: how to live a good life. We will read and discuss selections from classic works of nonfiction (including the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning) and fiction (including Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried) and films (such as Apocalypse Now, Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, and Little Dieter Needs to Fly) alongside more recent nonfiction texts about facing and overcoming life’s manifold challenges. In addition to developing a familiarity with our course texts, students will become familiar with related research on aspects of wellness they can apply to their own lives. This course will help you hone your skills as a critical viewer and reader who engages with and questions a variety of challenging texts and issues. In addition to the required texts listed above, we will read and view a wide range of critical essays, news articles, and online resources. Many of the texts will require substantial, careful reading and will give us a great deal of provocative material to discuss, so make sure to look ahead in the syllabus and budget sufficient time to read them thoroughly. You will apply your ideas and insights directly to your chosen area of academic interest and/or specialization by developing a semester-long research project in consultation with me. The course will also help you develop your skills as a writer. I will assign short response papers and a longer essay (the culmination of the semester project), all of which will be related to the texts or issues we read, view, and discuss in class.
SCSS 301-D1 (CRN:30402): “Tech & Representative Govt.”
Professor: Mark Owens
Online Asynchronous
Technological advances have government practices more efficient and transparent. This course focuses on the principles of representation that have guided how new technologies are implemented in how the public participates in government from paying taxes to voting in elections. It also offers students an introduction to the expertise and skills that the public now expects governments to have in order to reinforce equal access to our representative government.
SCSS 304-D1 (CRN:30315): “Sports and Exercise Psychology”
Professor: Allison Grace
Online Asynchronous
This course will examine a wide range of psychological factors relating to participation in sport and athletic performance, and to physical activity more generally. Particular emphasis will be given to social psychological variables affecting participation and performance and their relationship to the psychological well-being of the individual athlete, to include attention to sports fans and sports marketing.
Second Summer
ENGS 301 E1 (CRN: 30387) “From Robots to AI”
Professor Thomas Horan
Online Asynchronous
While technology often fulfils its promise to make our lives easier, innovations that replicate human intelligence, dexterity, and efficacy can also create significant challenges, anxieties, and hazards. Spanning the last hundred years, the literature you will read for this course addresses these concerns by raising important questions: How will A.I. affect the need for human labor, particularly if used in the service of corporations and other profit-motivated institutions? What are our moral responsibilities to these artificial yet conscious entities? To what extent could these developments blur the distinction between human and mechanical? Could A.I. ultimately threaten our existence? Course content will include Carel Kapek’s play R.U.R. (1920), which originated the word “robot”; Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains,” which envisions a future in which our sentient creations survive human extinction; Philip K. Dick’s post-apocalyptic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968); Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982), a cyberpunk film based on Dick’s novel; Morna Pearson’s play Dark Lands (2019), in which a corporation induces a vulnerable young couple to raise a cyborg child; and Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021). Through a series of activities and assignments, you will connect the concepts and concerns raised in this speculative fiction to contemporary aspirations and anxieties.
HISS 302-E1 (CRN:30241): “The Crusades”
Professor: Melanie Maddox
Online Asynchronous
This course will consider the question ‘What were the Crusades?’ While reflecting on this question students will be introduced to the causes behind Christians flocking to the Holy Land against Muslims and other groups that were considered infidels and heretics. The time period covered will be from the eleventh to the twenty-first century. By the end of the course students will have learned how the Crusades impact our world today, as well as the perspective on the Crusades from Muslim and Jewish communities impacted. Students will work directly with primary sources and material culture of the time period.
SCSS 302-E1 (CRN:30475): “Political Ideologies“
Professor: Scott Segrest
Online Asynchronous
A study of political ideology as a source of social conflict and violence.
SCSS 303-E1 (CRN:30316): “Cultural Psychology“
Professor: Audrey Parrish
Online Asynchronous
This course will offer a critical review of the theoretical and experimental foundations of cultural psychology. Different cultural contexts lead to fundamentally different ways of thinking and behaving, yet similarities are prevalent across distinct cultures. In this course, we will explore how cultural influences play a role across multiple psychological disciplines, including clinical, cognitive, developmental, social and personality. Different methodologies used to explore cultural psychology will be discussed, including observational, survey, and experimental methods. Students will be able to answer questions surrounding the roots of cultural differences, how humans are distinct yet similar, and why comparative perspectives provide a window into the psychology of all humans.
SCSS 304 E1 (CRN:30161): “Social Problems”
Professor: Robert McNamara
Online Asynchronous
This course is designed to acquaint students with a fundamental understanding of social problems in American society.
This course is designed to:
Acquaint students with a fundamental understanding of how social problems emerge in American society; Analyze and inquire the incongruence between conventional wisdom about a problem and the data outlining actual trends and features. Describe how these problems impact our society, both in terms of social policy as well as how they influence people’s understanding and interaction with others.
Minimester A
ENGS 303-A1 (CRN:30470): “What is an American?“
Professor: Lauren Maxwell
Lecture: MWR, 10:20-12:10
This course involves inquiry-based study culminating in papers and projects on various aspects of American identity. By considering a wide range of subjects—including works of American literature, art, and music as well as political and philosophical writings—we will develop a deeper understanding about what it means, and what it historically has meant, to be an American. As we investigate how American identity has changed over time, we will analyze how historical and cultural factors have affected United States citizenship. You will design and create your own projects, and, in doing so, you will develop skills that will serve you well throughout your life. In addition to becoming knowledgeable about important works by a diverse group of American authors, goals of this course include improving your writing, inquiry, textual analysis, critical thinking, and oral communication skills.
HISS 302-41 (CRN:30421): “Coups & Dictatorship Latin America“
Professor Nancy Aguirre
Lecture: MWR, 10:20-12:10
This course will examine the military coups that have shaped Latin America since 1810. Students will be asked to consider the following themes throughout the semester: 1) caudillismo, 2) left-wing/right-wing political ideologies and “isms,” 3) popular reactions/resistance to dictatorships, 4) U.S./Latin American relations. The readings trace historical developments from a variety of perspectives, including cultural history and autobiography, and students will also be asked to read primary sources.
NTSS 302-A1 (CRN:30428): “Bioterrorism with Lab“
Professor: Kristy Johnson
Online Asynchronous
This course will examine diverse aspects of the creation, use, and response to the weaponization of biological agents. An understanding of the science underlying biological agents is critical to preventing the escalation of biological outbreaks. A detailed study of the biological characteristics of these organisms will be the focus for this course. Lab activities will include interactive activities and simulations designed to complement lecture topics.
NTSS 304-A1 (CRN:30471): “Human Diseases”
Professor: Patrice Capers
Online Asynchronous
What causes human diseases? In NTSS 304, a wellness strand science course, we will explore the general classifications of the causes of disease as well as investigate the disease processes associated with specific diseases and body systems. We will also explore our body’s defense mechanisms to combat diseases and begin to quantify the prevalence of diseases in multiple populations. The purpose of this course is to present a systematic approach and application to the study of human diseases so that the student will be able to use appropriate terminology to describe diseases 2) understand the mechanism and progression of diseases and 3) understand the appropriate treatment options.
Minimester B