Fall 2020
Why is the Amazon Burning?
How is Amazon portrayed globally? How has it been utilized by humans over time? What about indigenous rights for the human occupants? These questions and the complicated human relationship with this rich and diverse ecosystem lend themselves to multiple analytical lenses, including film, literature, anthropology, history, politics, sustainability, and international development.
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How is Amazon portrayed globally? How has it been utilized by humans over time? What about indigenous rights for the human occupants? These questions and the complicated human relationship with this rich and diverse ecosystem lend themselves to multiple analytical lenses, including film, literature, anthropology, history, politics, sustainability, and international development.
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Performing the Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is the current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Humanity’s impact on the planet is well-recognized. Yet, how well do we understand that our individual actions have a rippling effect on the entire planet? In this Lab, students will investigate global issues tied to human consumption and will then have the opportunity to shape those investigations into a culminating performance impact piece.
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The Anthropocene is the current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Humanity’s impact on the planet is well-recognized. Yet, how well do we understand that our individual actions have a rippling effect on the entire planet? In this Lab, students will investigate global issues tied to human consumption and will then have the opportunity to shape those investigations into a culminating performance impact piece.
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Only English?
Given the widespread attitude that the whole world speaks English, is there a need to study or maintain other languages? What laws have been created about language? Why? What are the values behind these decisions? Is English monolingualism a problem? Is it just? Students will develop their own possible solutions based on their inquiries into the policies, practices, and ethical principles related to monolingualism and multilingualism.
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Given the widespread attitude that the whole world speaks English, is there a need to study or maintain other languages? What laws have been created about language? Why? What are the values behind these decisions? Is English monolingualism a problem? Is it just? Students will develop their own possible solutions based on their inquiries into the policies, practices, and ethical principles related to monolingualism and multilingualism.
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Rethinking Addiction
The devastating impact of current opioid epidemic in the United States with 130 opioid-related overdose deaths every day has heightened public awareness about the danger of addiction. What is addiction? Who does addiction impact? Students in this Lab will focus on defining “addiction,” and investigate the way varied conceptual models of addiction affect societies, and how societies and individuals can and should respond, both ethically and pragmatically.
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The devastating impact of current opioid epidemic in the United States with 130 opioid-related overdose deaths every day has heightened public awareness about the danger of addiction. What is addiction? Who does addiction impact? Students in this Lab will focus on defining “addiction,” and investigate the way varied conceptual models of addiction affect societies, and how societies and individuals can and should respond, both ethically and pragmatically.
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Disrupting Dis/Ability
Students will investigate disabling discourses of disability across medical, legal, academic, media and other public institutions then develop ways to expand and enrich understandings of disability in our cultural imaginary. How can we re-imagine disability in ways that could reshape ableist structures, that are informed and shaped by the knowledge and experience of those most impinged upon by those structures?
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Students will investigate disabling discourses of disability across medical, legal, academic, media and other public institutions then develop ways to expand and enrich understandings of disability in our cultural imaginary. How can we re-imagine disability in ways that could reshape ableist structures, that are informed and shaped by the knowledge and experience of those most impinged upon by those structures?
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Shaping Climate Narratives
The faculty-team has gathered a unique collection of stories of survivor lived experiences from extreme weather events in the U.S. and around the world. These stories, in addition to student-driven inquiry, will provide insight as faculty and students collaborate to write a performance text that will ultimately be produced for live audiences.
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The faculty-team has gathered a unique collection of stories of survivor lived experiences from extreme weather events in the U.S. and around the world. These stories, in addition to student-driven inquiry, will provide insight as faculty and students collaborate to write a performance text that will ultimately be produced for live audiences.
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Spring 2020
Energy and Social Justice
Moving to clean energy sources is desirable but the transition can cause potentially devastating consequences for the most vulnerable populations. Work closely with faculty, fellow students, and prominent energy leaders to investigate issues and design narratives that will help protect the planet, promote social justice, and enhance human thriving in a future of transitions. View more information about this course
Moving to clean energy sources is desirable but the transition can cause potentially devastating consequences for the most vulnerable populations. Work closely with faculty, fellow students, and prominent energy leaders to investigate issues and design narratives that will help protect the planet, promote social justice, and enhance human thriving in a future of transitions. View more information about this courseLife without Earth
Work with faculty and local space activists and companies to examine how life and Earth are interconnected and imagine future possibilities for life absent Earth. By examining literary, philosophical, scientific, social, and cultural dimensions of the entanglement between life and Earth, we will pursue what notions of life we assume because of our shared planetary heritage.View more information about this course
Sound and Well-Being
Faculty and students will analyze the ways that sound affect our health, well-being, society, and environment. What is the power of sound to heal the body and the spirit? Can sound play a role in the healing of cultural and historical trauma? Investigate the meaning, emotion, and movement of sound and silence through exciting site visits, workshops, and collaborative research projects.View more information about this course
Working Bodies & Technology
Bodies were once the computers and machines that drove the world but twentieth- and early twenty-first-century technologies have upended that. Learn what role the smelling, tasting, moving body plays as more jobs are being turned over to computers. What type of work do we want for our bodies? We will connect art and science through exploratory, collaborative workshops along with hands-, mouth-, nose-, and feet activities.View more information about this course
Spring 2019
Rebuilding Puerto Rico 
The challenges posed in rebuilding Puerto Rico reflect the challenges of urban and human resilience in the context of climate change and the expected higher frequency of extreme weather phenomena. The Rebuilding Puerto Rico Humanities Lab will investigate the ethical and political questions, as well as the technological and strategic ones, entailed in this and other disaster recoveries. View more information about this course
The challenges posed in rebuilding Puerto Rico reflect the challenges of urban and human resilience in the context of climate change and the expected higher frequency of extreme weather phenomena. The Rebuilding Puerto Rico Humanities Lab will investigate the ethical and political questions, as well as the technological and strategic ones, entailed in this and other disaster recoveries. View more information about this courseThe Future of Cars
No technology has had a bigger impact – for better and for worse – on our everyday lives, our imaginations, and our planet than the automobile. As the negative aspects of the car become more apparent and new technologies, like autonomous or electric vehicles reshape the car, what is the future of the automobile? And, how will the car’s future affect us?
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No technology has had a bigger impact – for better and for worse – on our everyday lives, our imaginations, and our planet than the automobile. As the negative aspects of the car become more apparent and new technologies, like autonomous or electric vehicles reshape the car, what is the future of the automobile? And, how will the car’s future affect us?
View more information about this courseFacing Immigration II
This course will seek ways to respond to difficult, transdisciplinary questions on migration and movement. Together, students and faculty will engage with current and historical immigration and refugee movement at the local, national, and global level.
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This course will seek ways to respond to difficult, transdisciplinary questions on migration and movement. Together, students and faculty will engage with current and historical immigration and refugee movement at the local, national, and global level.
View more information about this courseFall 2018
Facing Immigration I
This course will seek ways to respond to difficult, transdisciplinary questions on migration and movement. Together, students and faculty will engage with current and historical immigration and refugee movement at the local, national, and global level.
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This course will seek ways to respond to difficult, transdisciplinary questions on migration and movement. Together, students and faculty will engage with current and historical immigration and refugee movement at the local, national, and global level.
View more information about this courseRe-Envisioning Food Systems
This course will reflect on challenges in the current food system, both locally and globally, and seek solutions to them. Challenges include nutritional deficits, unjust labor practices, the overuse of natural resources, and threats to the earth’s biodiversity. This Lab course will culminate in the development of new ideas and solutions to the food system’s problems.
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This course will reflect on challenges in the current food system, both locally and globally, and seek solutions to them. Challenges include nutritional deficits, unjust labor practices, the overuse of natural resources, and threats to the earth’s biodiversity. This Lab course will culminate in the development of new ideas and solutions to the food system’s problems.
View more information about this courseSpring 2018
Sexual Violence
What is sexual violence? Why is sexual violence so controversial? How can art processes be transformative? This course will take an interdisciplinary arts-and humanities-based perspective to explore these and other questions as we trace the history of sexual violence, as well as current attitudes and theories, social and personal narratives, research, and policies on sexual violence (both on and off college campuses).
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What is sexual violence? Why is sexual violence so controversial? How can art processes be transformative? This course will take an interdisciplinary arts-and humanities-based perspective to explore these and other questions as we trace the history of sexual violence, as well as current attitudes and theories, social and personal narratives, research, and policies on sexual violence (both on and off college campuses).
View more information about this courseHealth Humanities
This course is for you if you are inspired by personal and communal health and well-being, regardless of your major field of study. This is the Health Humanities—an interdisciplinary area of study that words at the intersections of the biological and medical sciences and the humanities.
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This course is for you if you are inspired by personal and communal health and well-being, regardless of your major field of study. This is the Health Humanities—an interdisciplinary area of study that words at the intersections of the biological and medical sciences and the humanities.
View more information about this courseSpring & Fall 2017
Health Humanities
This course is for you if you are inspired by personal and communal health and well-being, regardless of your major field of study. This is the Health Humanities—an interdisciplinary area of study that words at the intersections of the biological and medical sciences and the humanities.
View more information about this course
This course is for you if you are inspired by personal and communal health and well-being, regardless of your major field of study. This is the Health Humanities—an interdisciplinary area of study that words at the intersections of the biological and medical sciences and the humanities.
View more information about this courseSustaining Humans
This course explores human sustainability in its broadest sense: What does sustaining our species mean? How should we determine what must be sustained in our world(s)? What do the humanities–literature, art, history, and philosophy– have to teach us about how best to assess and preserve our cultures, our physical environs, and ourselves?
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This course explores human sustainability in its broadest sense: What does sustaining our species mean? How should we determine what must be sustained in our world(s)? What do the humanities–literature, art, history, and philosophy– have to teach us about how best to assess and preserve our cultures, our physical environs, and ourselves?
View more information about this course
