Sustainability-related courses explore social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability challenges and solutions. The courses vary in the degree to which sustainability is a focus of study and are classified into two categories. Sustainability Investigations courses (SINV) engage students in a deep and focused study of problems with sustainability as a major emphasis of the course. Sustainability Connections courses (SCON) engage students in making connections between the main topic of the course and sustainability. Sustainability is related to but is not a major focus of SCON courses. Beginning with the Class of 2019, all students must complete a sustainability course as a graduation requirement.


Sustainability Course Search


Sustainability Courses
in Spring 2024

Anthropology

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
ANTH-101
Spring 2024
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Ellison, James
Pesantes Villa, Maria
This course is a comprehensive introduction to how cultural anthropologists study culture and society in diverse contexts. We will use ethnographic case studies from across the world to examine the ways people experience and transform social relationships and culture in areas including families, gender, ethnicity, health, religion, exchange, science, and even what it means to be a person. We will examine how culture and society are embedded within, shape, and are shaped by forces of economics, politics, and environment. Offered every semester.
SCON
ANTH-262
Spring 2024
South American Archaeology
Biwer, Matthew
This course examines the development of prehistoric societies in the South American continent through archaeological data. This course will explore the interactions of culture, economics, and politics in the prehistory of two major regions: the western Andean mountains and Pacific coast, and the eastern lowlands focusing on the Amazon River basin and Atlantic coast. In addition to learning the particular developments in each region, we will address three overarching themes: 1)What role did the environment play in shaping socio-political developments? 2) What influence do ethnographic and ethno-historical sources have on the interpretation of pre-Hispanic societies in South America? 3) What were the interactions between highland and lowland populations, and what influence did they have (if any) on their respective developments? This course is cross-listed as ARCH 262 and LALC 262.
SCON

Archaeology

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
ARCH-218
Spring 2024
Geographic Information Systems
Sinha, Deb
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a powerful technology for managing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data and geographically-referenced information. It is used in a wide variety of fields including archaeology, agriculture, business, defense and intelligence, education, government, health care, natural resource management, public safety, transportation, and utility management. This course provides a fundamental foundation of theoretical and applied skills in GIS technology that will enable students to investigate and make reasoned decisions regarding spatial issues. Utilizing GIS software applications from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), students work on a progression of tasks and assignments focused on GIS data collection, manipulation, analysis, output, and presentation. The course will culminate in a final, independent project in which the students design and prepare a GIS analysis application of their own choosing. Three hours per week. This course is cross-listed as ENST 218 , GEOS 218 and GISP 218.
SCON
ARCH-262
Spring 2024
South American Archaeology
Biwer, Matthew
This course examines the development of prehistoric societies in the South American continent through archaeological data. This course will explore the interactions of culture, economics, and politics in the prehistory of two major regions: the western Andean mountains and Pacific coast, and the eastern lowlands focusing on the Amazon River basin and Atlantic coast. In addition to learning the particular developments in each region, we will address three overarching themes: 1)What role did the environment play in shaping socio-political developments? 2) What influence do ethnographic and ethno-historical sources have on the interpretation of pre-Hispanic societies in South America? 3) What were the interactions between highland and lowland populations, and what influence did they have (if any) on their respective developments? This course is cross-listed as ANTH 262 and LALC 262.
SCON

Art & Art History

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
ARTH-224
Spring 2024
Wheelwork Ceramics
Eng, Rachel
A studio course exploring expressive possibilities offered by the potters wheel. Students will examine both utilitarian and sculptural aspects of the medium. A variety of clays, glazes and firing approaches will be examined.
SCON

Biology

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
BIOL-131
Spring 2024
Introduction to Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems: Topics in Field Natural History
Wingert, Harold
This introductory course spans levels of biological organization from basic multicellular microanatomy to organismal physiology and ecology, as understood through the lens of evolution. Course content will be focused around a specific theme determined by the instructor, and will include evolutionary principles of variation, selection, competition and cooperation, and how their operation at different levels of organization accounts for form and function of organisms, communities, and ecosystems. We will investigate homeostasis, reproduction and development as physiological processes that take place within organisms, and as ecological processes that interact with the environment and generate diversity of form over evolutionary time. Finally we will take stock of the existing forms and levels of biological organization and ask how their relationships establish the biosphere in which we live. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. This is one of two courses required of all Biology majors before entering the upper level. It is complementary to BIOL 132 – Introduction to Molecules, Genes, and Cells, and the courses may be taken in either order.
SINV
BIOL-131
Spring 2024
Introduction to Organisms, Populations, and Ecosystems: Topics in Ocean Ecology
Potthoff, Michael
This introductory course spans levels of biological organization from basic multicellular microanatomy to organismal physiology and ecology, as understood through the lens of evolution. Course content will be focused around a specific theme determined by the instructor, and will include evolutionary principles of variation, selection, competition and cooperation, and how their operation at different levels of organization accounts for form and function of organisms, communities, and ecosystems. We will investigate homeostasis, reproduction and development as physiological processes that take place within organisms, and as ecological processes that interact with the environment and generate diversity of form over evolutionary time. Finally we will take stock of the existing forms and levels of biological organization and ask how their relationships establish the biosphere in which we live. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. This is one of two courses required of all Biology majors before entering the upper level. It is complementary to BIOL 132 – Introduction to Molecules, Genes, and Cells, and the courses may be taken in either order.
SINV
BIOL-342
Spring 2024
Structure and Function of Biomolecules w/Lab
Connor, Rebecca
Rathbun, Colin
This course is an introductory biochemistry course focused on the chemistry of the major molecules that compose living matter. The structure and function of the major classes of biomolecules (nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) are addressed along with other topics including bioenergetics, enzyme catalysis, and information transfer at the molecular level. The laboratory portion of the course focuses on methods used to study the properties and behavior of biological molecules and their functions in the cell. Three hours lecture and four hours of laboratory per week. Prerequisite: CHEM 242; an introductory biology course is highly recommended. This course is cross-listed as CHEM 342.
SCON

Chemistry

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
CHEM-132
Spring 2024
General Chemistry II with Lab
Barker, Kathryn
A continuation of Chemistry 131. Topics covered in the second semester will include: kinetics, equilibrium, acids, bases, and buffers, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry, and transition metal chemistry. Three hours of classroom and three hours of laboratory per week. Prerequisite: 131.
SCON
CHEM-242
Spring 2024
Organic Chemistry II with Lab
Holden, Michael
Rathbun, Colin
Rego, James
This course continues the study of the reactivities of organic and inorganic molecules started in 241. Particular emphasis is placed on unsaturated systems. Laboratory work continues investigations into the synthesis, analysis, and identification of organic and inorganic molecules begun in 241. Three hours classroom and four hours laboratory per week. Prerequisite: 241.
SCON
CHEM-342
Spring 2024
Structure and Function of Biomolecules w/Lab
Connor, Rebecca
Rathbun, Colin
This course is an introductory biochemistry course focused on the chemistry of the major molecules that compose living matter. The structure and function of the major classes of biomolecules (nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) are addressed along with other topics including bioenergetics, enzyme catalysis, and information transfer at the molecular level. The laboratory portion of the course focuses on methods used to study the properties and behavior of biological molecules and their functions in the cell. Three hours lecture and four hours of laboratory per week. Prerequisite 242; an introductory biology course is highly recommended. This course is cross-listed as BIOL 342.
SCON

Economics

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
ECON-222
Spring 2024
Environmental Economics
Singh, Sanjay
A study of human production and consumption activities as they affect the natural and human environmental systems and as they are affected by those systems. The economic behavioral patterns associated with the market economy are scrutinized in order to reveal the biases in the decision-making process which may contribute to the deterioration of the resource base and of the quality of life in general. External costs and benefits, technological impacts, limits to economic growth, and issues of income and wealth distribution are examined. A range of potential policy measures, some consistent with our life style and some not, are evaluated. Prerequisite: 111.
SINV
ECON-226
Spring 2024
Global Economy
Alam, Shamma
The course introduces economic theory that builds on ideas from introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics. It uses that theory as a framework for examining developments in the changing global system. Developments include the revolution in information technology; the dynamics of human population growth; the implications of climate change; challenges to human security; and emerging patterns of organizational interdependence and collaboration. Those developments provide the context for business managers and for government officials responsible for shaping strategies and implementing policies. Prerequisite: ECON 111 and 112; concurrent enrollment in ECON 112 by permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as INST 200.
SCON
ECON-230
Spring 2024
Political Economy of Gender
Kongar, Mesude
Political Economy of Gender adopts a gender-aware perspective to examine how people secure their livelihoods through labor market and nonmarket work. The course examines the nature of labor market inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity and other social categories, how they are integrated with non-market activities, their wellbeing effects, their role in the macroeconomy, and the impact of macroeconomic policies on these work inequalities. These questions are examined from the perspective of feminist economics that has emerged since the early 1990s as a heterodox economics discourse, critical of both mainstream and gender-blind heterodox economics. While we will pay special attention to the US economy, our starting point is that there is one world economy with connections between the global South and the North, in spite of the structural differences between (and within) these regions.For ECON 230: ECON 111 (ECON 112 recommended); For SOCI 227: SOCI 110 or ECON 111; For WGSS 202: none (ECON 111 recommended) This course is cross-listed as SOCI 227 & WGSS 202.
SCON
ECON-288
Spring 2024
Contending Economic Perspectives
Kongar, Mesude
A study of major heterodox economic theories such as Marxian, institutional, feminist, post-Keynesian, or Austrian economics. Students will study these contending economic perspectives through their historical evolution, methods and theoretical structures, and/or current policy debates. Prerequisites: 111 and 112.
SCON
ECON-496
Spring 2024
Political Economy of Health
Kongar, Mesude
Permission of Instructor Required. In a world of unprecedented wealth, the average life-expectancy in some parts of the world is as low as 49 years. Almost 2 million children die each year because they lack access to clean water and adequate sanitation. 100 million women are not alive today due to unequal access to nutrition, care and economic resources. In the United States, infant mortality rates are significantly higher among African-Americans. What are the political and economic conditions which lead to these differences in well-being across and within nations? In this course, students will examine the relationships between health and political and economic conditions world populations face today. The emphasis throughout the course will be on how socioeconomic inequalities based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, nationality and other social categories affect health and well-being outcomes.
SCON

Environmental Studies

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
ENST-162
Spring 2024
Integrative Environmental Science
Benka-Coker, Akinwande
Decker, Allyssa
This course is an introduction to interdisciplinary environmental science. Students will learn to draw upon a variety of natural sciences to identify and address environmental challenges. Students will examine environmental issues analytically, learn to evaluate existing data, and begin to develop skills for acquiring new knowledge via the scientific method. They will be exposed to basic techniques for assessing environmental problems in lectures, laboratory exercises, and fieldwork. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. Prerequisite: 161
SINV
ENST-218
Spring 2024
Geographic Information Systems
Sinha, Deb
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a powerful technology for managing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data and geographically-referenced information. It is used in a wide variety of fields including archaeology, agriculture, business, defense and intelligence, education, government, health care, natural resource management, public safety, transportation, and utility management. This course provides a fundamental foundation of theoretical and applied skills in GIS technology that will enable students to investigate and make reasoned decisions regarding spatial issues. Utilizing GIS software applications from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), students work on a progression of tasks and assignments focused on GIS data collection, manipulation, analysis, output, and presentation. The course will culminate in a final, independent project in which the students design and prepare a GIS analysis application of their own choosing. Three hours per week. This course is cross-listed as ARCH 218, GEOS 218 and GISP 218.
SCON
ENST-280
Spring 2024
Environmental and Social Justice
Bedi, Heather
This course reviews social inequalities in relation to environmental issues. We examine the social construction of equity and justice, and apply this learning to understand how societies frame environmental risk. Drawing from domestic and international case studies, we explore how marginalized people and communities disproportionately experience environmental externalities. The social and environmental consequences of uneven development across place exemplify justice and capitalism contradictions. Examples of community agency to re-appropriate or reframe their environment will allow us to understand collective action to counter social and environmental injustices. This course is cross-listed with SOCI 230.
SINV
ENST-372
Spring 2024
Environment, Conflict and Peace
Beevers, Michael
The goal of this class is to examine the complex relationships between the environment, conflict and peace. We will discuss the emergence of the environment as a topic of conflict and peace studies, and ask if the environment should be a security concern. We will scrutinize the extent to which environmental degradation, resource scarcity, natural resource wealth, and even climate change, increases the likelihood of violent conflict, and discuss the environmental consequences of war itself. We will explore whether environmental cooperation reduces the risk of violent conflicts, and whether responses to environmental problems can serve as catalyst for peace. We will strive to understand how international institutions—governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental—act to address security and peacebuilding challenges linked to the environment. The course approaches the topic from different levels of analysis (local, national, transnational and supranational), diverse theoretical frameworks and analytical methods and range of environmental issue areas. Finally, we will use a broad range of materials, employ lectures and seminar-like discussions and incorporate field trips and guest speakers.
SCON
ENST-406
Spring 2024
Environmental Innovations and Activism Capstone
Bedi, Heather
A keystone seminar designed to integrate and apply students' past coursework, internships, and other educational experiences, and to provide a basis for future professional and academic endeavors. The course format varies depending on faculty and student interests, and scholarly concerns in the field. Course components may include developing written and oral presentations, reading and discussing primary literature, and defining and performing individual or group research. Students in this course will be particularly responsible for acquiring and disseminating knowledge. This course is not equivalent to an independent study or independent research course. Prerequisite: Senior standing or permission of the instructor. Normally offered in Spring semester.
SCON
ENST-406
Spring 2024
What Does the Earth Ask of Us
Douglas, Margaret
Permission of Instructor Required.The question motivating this senior seminar is drawn from the work of Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, an ecologist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Dr. Kimmerer invites us to consider not only what benefits humans derive from the Earth, but also what gifts we have to offer in return. In this senior seminar, we will explore this question individually and collectively, taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws on both scholarly/creative work and the work of practitioners in the environmental field. We will critically examine paradigms that have been put forward to help repair the human relationship to the Earth (e.g. restoration, reconciliation, regeneration) and case studies in which such paradigms have been put into practice, with varying degrees of success. Students will help lead class discussions and develop a capstone project focused on a particular environmental challenge. Throughout, students will be encouraged to reflect on their education and experiences to identify the gifts they have to offer the Earth in their post-graduation pursuits.
SCON

Food Studies

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
FDST-401
Spring 2024
Capstone Seminar
Soldin, Adeline
This capstone seminar builds on the introductory Food Studies course (FDST 201). It requires students to reflect, synthesize, and apply knowledge gained through their academic coursework and experiential learning experiences. A substantive, reflective piece which could take many forms will be required. Students will work collaboratively to organize a symposium, performance, event, or other public presentation of their work. In order to register for FDST 401, students must have completed FDST 201 and at least 3 of the four electives, along with the experiential learning component. The latter may be taken simultaneously with FDST 401.Prerequisite: FDST 201, at least three of the four electives, and the experiential component which can be take simultaneously with FDST 401.
SCON

Film & Media Studies

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
FMST-320
Spring 2024
Dickinson Wears Prada
Marini Maio, Nicoletta
Note: Part of the Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation Mosaic. Additional Time Slot: Wed. 3-4 pm for FLIC Students in Bosler 305. In Italian culture, fashion plays a vital role in enabling individuals to construct, sculpt and express their identities. This course examines Italian fashion as a cultural dimension, an industry, and an indicator of social change. We will analyze fashion "texts," such as ads, pictures, feature films, documentaries, television shows, fashion shows, magazines, and literary pieces to investigate the fashion universe from multiple critical perspectives (including history, semiotics, culture, ethnicity, and gender). A specific section will be devoted to explore sustainable fashion. This course is taught in Engiish. It can be taken on its own or as part of the spring 2024 mosaic, "Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation: Fashion through the lens of History, Culture, Gender, and Race." An FLIC in Italian is offered for Italian minors/majors and INBM and International Studies majors (who have completed ITAL 231) on Wednesdays from 3-4pm.
SCON

French

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
FREN-302
Spring 2024
Issues in Contemporary French Society
Laurent, Dominique
This course is designed to give students an understanding of the main tensions and controversies of contemporary French culture. Focusing on political, social, and economic topics such as Americanization, regionalism, immigration, France's place in the European Union, the course facilitates acculturation in France or provides an academic substitute for that experience. Prerequisite: FREN 231 or FREN 232.
SCON

Geosciences

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
GEOS-151
Spring 2024
Foundations of Earth Sciences
Edwards, Benjamin
How do mountains and oceans form? Why do the positions of continents shift? Can rocks bend or flow? What is the history of life on our planet? This course explores the materials that make up the Earth and the processes that shape it, both at and below the surface. Students will take field trips around the Carlisle area as well as complete analytical and computer laboratory activities in order to acquire basic field, laboratory, and computer modelling skills. This course serves as a gateway to the Earth Sciences major, but is also appropriate for non-majors. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lab per week.
SCON
GEOS-218
Spring 2024
Geographic Information Systems
Sinha, Deb
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a powerful technology for managing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data and geographically-referenced information. It is used in a wide variety of fields including archaeology, agriculture, business, defense and intelligence, education, government, health care, natural resource management, public safety, transportation, and utility management. This course provides a fundamental foundation of theoretical and applied skills in GIS technology that will enable students to investigate and make reasoned decisions regarding spatial issues. Utilizing GIS software applications from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), students work on a progression of tasks and assignments focused on GIS data collection, manipulation, analysis, output, and presentation. The course will culminate in a final, independent project in which the students design and prepare a GIS analysis application of their own choosing. Three hours per week. This course is cross-listed as ARCH 218, ENST 218 and GISP 218.
SCON
GEOS-221
Spring 2024
Oceanography
Hayes, Jorden
An interdisciplinary introduction to the marine environment, including the chemistry of seawater, the physics of currents, water masses and waves, the geology of ocean basins, marine sediments and coastal features, and the biology of marine ecosystems. Topics include the theory of plate tectonics as an explanation for ocean basins, mid-ocean ridges, trenches, and island arcs. The interaction of man as exploiter and polluter in the marine environment is also considered. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory per week. Prerequisite: One introductory lab science or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.
SCON
GEOS-331
Spring 2024
Geochemistry
Thibodeau, Alyson
An introduction to the origin, distribution, and behavior of elements in the geochemical cycles and processes of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. Topics include the chemistry of magma, hydrothermal fluids, weathering, fresh and ocean waters, sediment digenesis, hydrocarbons, and metamorphism. Includes radiometric dating and stable isotope applications. Lab will focus on sampling, instrumental analysis, and data interpretation of earth materials. Prerequisites: 151 and CHEM 131 or 141, or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.
SCON

Geographic Info Systems Prog

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
GISP-218
Spring 2024
Geographic Information Systems
Sinha, Deb
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a powerful technology for managing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data and geographically-referenced information. It is used in a wide variety of fields including archaeology, agriculture, business, defense and intelligence, education, government, health care, natural resource management, public safety, transportation, and utility management. This course provides a fundamental foundation of theoretical and applied skills in GIS technology that will enable students to investigate and make reasoned decisions regarding spatial issues. Utilizing GIS software applications from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), students work on a progression of tasks and assignments focused on GIS data collection, manipulation, analysis, output, and presentation. The course will culminate in a final, independent project in which the students design and prepare a GIS analysis application of their own choosing. Three hours per week. This course is cross-listed as ARCH 218, ENST 218 and GEOS 218.
SCON

History

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
HIST-206
Spring 2024
American Environmental History
Pawley, Emily
Examines the interaction between humans and the natural environment in the history of North America. Explores the problem of sustainable human uses of the North America environment form the pre-colonial period to the present. Also serves as an introduction to the subfield of environmental history, which integrates evidence from various scientific disciplines with traditional documentary and oral sources. Topics include: American Indian uses of the environment, colonial frontiers, agricultural change, industrialization, urbanization, westward expansion, the Progressive-Era conservation movement, changes in lifestyle and consumption including their increasingly global impact, shifts in environmental policy, and the rise of the post-World War II environmental movement.
SINV

Intl Business & Management

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
INBM-100
Spring 2024
Fundamentals of Business
Riccio, Steven
This course features an introductory focus on a wide range of business subjects including the following: business in a global environment; forms of business ownership including small businesses, partnerships, multinational and domestic corporations, joint ventures, and franchises; management decision making; ethics; marketing; accounting; management information systems; human resources; finance; business law; taxation; uses of the internet in business; and how all of the above are integrated into running a successful business. You will learn how a company gets ideas, develops products, raises money, makes its products, sells them and accounts for the money earned and spent. This course will not fulfill a distribution requirement.
SCON
INBM-300
Spring 2024
Consumer Behavior
Wade, Wade
Marketing requires an understanding of the needs, wants, and values of consumers. This course is designed to introduce students to the psychology of consumption and provide tools for understanding how individuals make decisions in marketplace contexts. In this course, we will draw upon a research-based curriculum to explore how motivation, attitude, attention, memory, cultural background, emotion, and other factors shape consumer behavior. We will learn how consumers process information and use products to solve problems. Additionally, we will explore the insights that marketing reveals about the workings of the consumer mind.
SCON
INBM-300
Spring 2024
Consumer Behavior
Wade, Wade
A topics course examining important issues in international management. Examples of course possibilities include issues in cross-cultural communication and ethics, issues in international marketing, issues in international dimensions of financial reporting, issues in government regulation of business, and issues in financial decision-making. Prerequisite dependent upon topic/topic area.
SCON
INBM-300
Spring 2024
Marketing for Social Impact
Watson, Forrest
Private, public, and third sector firms increasingly use marketing strategies to create social impact among their stakeholders. In this course, students will learn how social marketing techniques are used to influence individuals or groups to change their behavior in ways that benefit society. We will address global issues that impact society (e.g., environmental sustainability, health behaviors, racial inequalities, etc.), consider the complexity of systemic problems, and debate the ethics of behavior change. We will also consider corporate social initiatives to engage their customers in social good. Students will develop a real-world social marketing plan to benefit the community.
SCON

International Studies

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
INST-200
Spring 2024
Global Economy
Alam, Shamma
The course introduces economic theory that builds on ideas from introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics. It uses that theory as a framework for examining developments in the changing global system. Developments include the revolution in information technology; the dynamics of human population growth; the implications of climate change; challenges to human security; and emerging patterns of organizational interdependence and collaboration. Those developments provide the context for business managers and for government officials responsible for shaping strategies and implementing policies. Prerequisite: ECON 111 and 112; concurrent enrollment in ECON 112 by permission of the instructor. This course is cross-listed as ECON 226.
SCON
INST-277
Spring 2024
International Politics of the Middle East
Webb, Edward
This course examines key factors and events in the formation of the modern Middle East state system and evolving patterns of conflict and cooperation in the region. Students will apply a range of analytical approaches to issues such as the conflicts between Arabs and Israelis, Iraq's wars since 1980, and the changing place of the region in global politics and economics.Prerequisite: one course in any of International Studies, Middle East Studies, or Political Science. This course is cross-listed as POSC 277 and MEST 266.
SCON
INST-290
Spring 2024
Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration
Oliviero, Kathryn
Why do global controversies over immigration so often center on migrant women's fertility and their children's access to government benefits? Why do some countries accept LGBTQ migrants but deny them the right to adopt, use assisted reproductive technologies, or extend citizenship to their children? How are efforts to limit marriage-and-family based migration racialized and classed? What are the gendered implications when nurses are a country's central export? Could building a border wall or sending refugees back stop unwanted immigration? This course examines how intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic hierarchies shape and are shaped by immigration. Applying insights from feminist and queer theories of migration, students will explore how the gendered processes surrounding immigration craft concepts of nation, borders and citizenship. Readings and films examine how racial and sexual norms are renegotiated through the selection and regulation of immigrants. Central to our investigation is how transnational and economic forces compel migration, reshaping understandings of national belonging, workplaces, and family in the process. We will particularly consider how migrants negotiate multiple marginalizations, and in turn refashion understandings of community, identities, culture, and politics. An interdisciplinary framework combines sociological, historical, legal, activist, media, literary and artistic accounts. Prerequisite: One WGSS or SOCI course, or permission of instructor; not appropriate for first-year students.
SCON

Italian

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
ITAL-201
Spring 2024
Intermediate Italian
Lanzilotta, Luca
Intensive introduction to conversation and composition, with special attention to grammar review and refinement. Essays, fiction and theater, as well as Italian television and films, provide opportunities to improve familiarity with contemporary Italian language and civilization. Prerequisite: 102 or the equivalent. This course fulfills the language graduation requirement.
SCON
ITAL-323
Spring 2024
Dickinson Wears Prada
Marini Maio, Nicoletta
Part of the Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation Mosaic. Additional Time Slot Wednesday 3:00-4:00pm for FLIC Students in Bosler 305. In Italian culture, fashion plays a vital role in enabling individuals to construct, sculpt and express their identities. This course examines Italian fashion as a cultural dimension, an industry, and an indicator of social change. We will analyze fashion "texts," such as ads, pictures, feature films, documentaries, television shows, fashion shows, magazines, and literary pieces to investigate the fashion universe from multiple critical perspectives (including history, semiotics, culture, ethnicity, and gender). A specific section will be devoted to explore sustainable fashion. This course is taught in Engiish. It can be taken on its own or as part of the spring 2024 mosaic, "Fashioning the Body, Shaping the Nation: Fashion through the lens of History, Culture, Gender, and Race." An FLIC in Italian is offered for Italian minors/majors and INBM and International Studies majors (who have completed ITAL 231) on Wednesdays from 3-4pm.
SCON

Lat Am/Latinx/Caribbean Stdies

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
LALC-262
Spring 2024
South American Archaeology
Biwer, Matthew
This course examines the development of prehistoric societies in the South American continent through archaeological data. This course will explore the interactions of culture, economics, and politics in the prehistory of two major regions: the western Andean mountains and Pacific coast, and the eastern lowlands focusing on the Amazon River basin and Atlantic coast. In addition to learning the particular developments in each region, we will address three overarching themes: 1) What role did the environment play in shaping socio-political developments? 2) What influence do ethnographic and ethno-historical sources have on the interpretation of pre-Hispanic societies in South America? 3) What were the interactions between highland and lowland populations, and what influence did they have (if any) on their respective developments? This course is cross-listed as ARCH 262 and ANTH 262.
SCON

Middle East Studies

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
MEST-233
Spring 2024
U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab World
Siekert, Magda
Part of the Globally Integrated Program in Israel. This course introduces the students to the theory and practice of U.S. public diplomacy in the Arab world from a historical and a comparative perspective, looking at past challenges, successes and failures. The course examines the role of public diplomacy in the context of U.S. strategic interests in the region, U.S. efforts to promote democratic governance in the Arab world through the use of public diplomacy tools including traditional and new media, cultural exchanges, and educational programs. Students will debate whether public diplomacy should be integrated into the policy-making process, and how it could complement traditional diplomacy and advance political, military, and economic policies.
SCON
MEST-266
Spring 2024
International Politics of the Middle East
Webb, Edward
This course examines key factors and events in the formation of the modern Middle East state system and evolving patterns of conflict and cooperation in the region. Students will apply a range of analytical approaches to issues such as the conflicts between Arabs and Israelis, Iraq's wars since 1980, and the changing place of the region in global politics and economics.Prerequisite: one course in any of International Studies, Middle East Studies, or Political Science. This course is cross-listed as POSC 277 and INST 277.
SCON

Physics

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
PHYS-114
Spring 2024
Climate Change and Renewable Energies
Pfister, Hans
An introduction to the physics of global climate change and a hands-on exposure to several types of renewable energy. The first third of this project-centered course introduces the basic physical principles of global climate change with a focus on radiative equilibrium, greenhouse effect, energy balance, and entropy. Since the energy sources of an energetically sustainable future will consist of renewable energies and possibly thermonuclear fusion energy, the remaining two thirds of the course is devoted to an exploration of wind turbines, solar concentrators, thermoelectric convertors, and photovoltaic systems. This course will not count toward major requirements in physics. Offered every two years.
SINV

Political Science

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
POSC-277
Spring 2024
International Politics of the Middle East
Webb, Edward
This course examines key factors and events in the formation of the modern Middle East state system and evolving patterns of conflict and cooperation in the region. Students will apply a range of analytical approaches to issues such as the conflicts between Arabs and Israelis, Iraq's wars since 1980, and the changing place of the region in global politics and economics. Prerequisite: one course in any of International Studies, Middle East Studies, or Political Science. This course is cross-listed as MEST 266 and INST 277.
SCON

Psychology

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
PSYC-120
Spring 2024
Introduction to Health Psychology
Guardino, Christine
This course is designed to provide a broad overview of the interdisciplinary field of health psychology, which uses scientific research methods to study the bi-directional relationship between psychology and health. We will discuss psychological states such as stress and how they affect the body, and mental processes such as finding meaning that are associated with effective coping and positive health outcomes. We will also study health behaviors such as exercise, sleep, eating, and substance use. Finally, we will explore how psychological concepts and research can be applied to health promotion and illness prevention. Course content will be especially relevant to students considering careers in health care or public health.
SCON

Religion

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
RELG-116
Spring 2024
Religion, Nature, and the Environment
Vann, Jodie
This course explores how various religious and spiritual traditions have understood, conceptualized, and interacted with the natural world. Incorporating from both conventional religions (such as Catholicism, Judaism, and Buddhism) as well as newer spiritual forms (like Contemporary Paganism), the course provides a comparative survey of the relationships between religiosity and nature. Themes under examination include notions of human dominion, stewardship, panentheism, and naturalism. Students will consider how religious ideologies have shaped conceptions of nature, and how changing understandings of the natural world have challenged religious ideas.
SCON
RELG-250
Spring 2024
Faith, Interfaith and Equity: Critical Approaches to Religious Understanding & Justice in N America
Nielsen, Jacob
This course examines the history of the "interfaith" movement, beginning with the 1896 Parliament of the World's Religions and the 20th century's reactionary movements toward religious inclusion. This course will examine the ways in which the interfaith movement has and has not changed religious experience in North America. Using a variety of methods, including the study of film and mass media, historical analysis, and experiential learning opportunities, students will gain an understanding of the movement toward religious equity in North America. Students will also critically evaluate systems of religious inequity as contributing to systemic and structural racism and colonialism.
SCON

Russian

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
RUSS-248
Spring 2024
Russian Culture and the Environment
DeBlasio, Alyssa
Russia is the largest country in the world. It contains some of our largest supplies of natural resources, including the most voluminous freshwater lake and the most square miles of forest. Russia and the Soviet Union have also been home to devastating environmental catastrophes, such as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It is thus fitting that the theme of the environment—both natural and man-made—have played a pivotal role in the Russian cultural imagination of the past two centuries. This course will look at how Russian and Soviet culture from the nineteenth century to the present engage with the theme of the environment over a variety of genres, including literature, film, journalism, and art. No knowledge of Russian is required. Taught in English. Offered every three years.
SCON

Sociology

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
SOCI-227
Spring 2024
Political Economy of Gender
Kongar, Mesude
Political Economy of Gender adopts a gender-aware perspective to examine how people secure their livelihoods through labor market and nonmarket work. The course examines the nature of labor market inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity and other social categories, how they are integrated with non-market activities, their wellbeing effects, their role in the macroeconomy, and the impact of macroeconomic policies on these work inequalities. These questions are examined from the perspective of feminist economics that has emerged since the early 1990s as a heterodox economics discourse, critical of both mainstream and gender-blind heterodox economics. While we will pay special attention to the US economy, our starting point is that there is one world economy with connections between the global South and the North, in spite of the structural differences between (and within) these regions.For ECON 230: ECON 111 (ECON 112 recommended); For SOCI 227: SOCI 110 or ECON 111; For WGSS 202: none (ECON 111 recommended). This course is cross-listed as ECON 230 & WGSS 202.
SCON
SOCI-230
Spring 2024
Campus Sustainability
Leary, Cornelius
Dickinson and other colleges and universities are part of a movement in higher education that is striving to advance environmental, social, and economic sustainability at their institutions, in their communities, and in the wider world. We will examine motivations, practices, successes, and challenges of the movement, using Dickinson as a laboratory for our learning and for investigating opportunities to improve sustainability performance. The course will feature a semester-long team research project that will contribute to Dickinson's new climate change resilience initiative. While our focus will be on sustainability and resilience in college and university settings, you will gain knowledge and skills that are applicable to other contexts for sustainability action.
SINV
SOCI-230
Spring 2024
Environmental and Social Justice
Bedi, Heather
This course reviews social inequalities in relation to environmental issues. We examine the social construction of equity and justice, and apply this learning to understand how societies frame environmental risk. Drawing from domestic and international case studies, we explore how marginalized people and communities disproportionately experience environmental externalities. The social and environmental consequences of uneven development across place exemplify justice and capitalism contradictions. Examples of community agency to re-appropriate or reframe their environment will allow us to understand collective action to counter social and environmental injustices.
SINV
SOCI-237
Spring 2024
Global Inequality
Lee, Helene
Exploring the relationship between globalization and inequality, this course examines the complex forces driving the integration of ideas, people, societies and economies worldwide. This inquiry into global disparities will consider the complexities of growth, poverty reduction, and the roles of international organizations. Among the global issues under scrutiny, will be environmental degradation; debt forgiveness; land distribution; sweatshops, labor practices and standards; slavery in the global economy; and the vulnerability of the world's children. Under specific investigation will be the social construction and processes of marginalization, disenfranchisement and the effects of globalization that have reinforced the division between the world's rich and poor. Offered every year.
SCON
SOCI-310
Spring 2024
Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration
Oliviero, Kathryn
Why do global controversies over immigration so often center on migrant women’s fertility and their children’s access to government benefits? Why do some countries accept LGBTQ migrants but deny them the right to adopt, use assisted reproductive technologies, or extend citizenship to their children? How are efforts to limit marriage-and-family based migration racialized and classed? What are the gendered implications when nurses are a country’s central export? Could building a border wall or sending refugees back stop unwanted immigration? This course examines how intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic hierarchies shape and are shaped by immigration. Applying insights from feminist and queer theories of migration, students will explore how the gendered processes surrounding immigration craft concepts of nation, borders and citizenship. Readings and films examine how racial and sexual norms are renegotiated through the selection and regulation of immigrants. Central to our investigation is how transnational and economic forces compel migration, reshaping understandings of national belonging, workplaces, and family in the process. We will particularly consider how migrants negotiate multiple marginalizations, and in turn refashion understandings of community, identities, culture, and politics. An interdisciplinary framework combines sociological, historical, legal, activist, media, literary and artistic accounts.Prerequisite: One WGSS or SOCI course, or permission of instructor; not appropriate for first-year students. Cross-listed as WGSS 310.
SCON

Spanish

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
SPAN-231
Spring 2024
Gastronomy and Health in the Basque Country
Arnedo, Maria Asuncion
Part of the Globally Integrated Semester in Spain.
SCON

Sustainability

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
SUST-200
Spring 2024
Campus Sustainability
Leary, Cornelius
Dickinson and other colleges and universities are part of a movement in higher education that is striving to advance environmental, social, and economic sustainability at their institutions, in their communities, and in the wider world. We will examine motivations, practices, successes, and challenges of the movement, using Dickinson as a laboratory for our learning and for investigating opportunities to improve sustainability performance. The course will feature a semester-long team research project that will contribute to Dickinson's new climate change resilience initiative. While our focus will be on sustainability and resilience in college and university settings, you will gain knowledge and skills that are applicable to other contexts for sustainability action.
SINV

Theatre & Dance

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
THDA-214
Spring 2024
Body and Place
Crawley-Woods, Erin
"Body is our first environment. It is the medium through which we know the earth." Andrea Olsen Drawing from movement ecology, somatic practice, site-specific artistic investigation, and current conversations in the multidisciplinary field of Environmental Humanities, this course is an embodied interrogation of Olsen's statement. How can we explore our body as an environment? What does it mean for this to be the medium through which we know the earth? What is this knowing good for? Through reading, discussion and creative projects (many of which will take place outdoors) we will investigate how our interactions with built and natural environments influences our perception of space and place and our role within it. What shifts in our relationship and approach to the pressing environmental issues of our time when we experience ourselves as a part of nature?
SCON
THDA-230
Spring 2024
Design Principles and Practices for the Stage
Barrett, Kent
Bounds, Julianne
A study of the language, principles, elements, and tools designers use to both formulate and communicate ideas as part of the collaborative process. Students will learn the basic elements of composition for stage design and will see how these elements function in the areas of costuming, lighting, scenery, and sound. Two hours classroom and three hours laboratory per week.
SCON
THDA-316
Spring 2024
Dance History Seminar: Modernism and the Body
Skaggs, Sarah
This course will focus on contemporary dance history using theoretical frameworks that interrogate how race, class and gender resist, assimilate, and converge to create the construction of American modern concert dance. We will explore how the politics of the dancing female body on the concert stage produced a radicalized agenda for contemporary dance. We will address key themes and questions throughout the semester, questions such as: What makes a body "modern?" How does the feminist agenda on the concert stage aid in the construction of a "modern" body? What was the role of appropriating from exotic cultures in the making of contemporary concert dance? What is the role of technology in the creation of modern dance? What are the effects of war and politics on the dancing body? Orientalism, the Africanist presence in Western concert dance, and the restaging of Native American dances by American choreographers will be addressed as part of the overall construction of American modern dance. Through response papers, in-class presentations, and an in-depth research paper, students will engage with significant issues contributing to the development of modern concert dance. Prerequisite: 102. This course is cross-listed as WGSS 301.
SCON

Women's, Gender & Sexuality St

Course Number/Term Title/Instructor/Description Designation
WGSS-100
Spring 2024
Introduction to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Schweighofer, Katherine
This course offers an introduction to central concepts, questions and debates in gender and sexuality studies from US, Women of Color, queer and transnational perspectives. Throughout the semester we will explore the construction and maintenance of norms governing sex, gender, and sexuality, with an emphasis on how opportunity and inequality operate through categories of race, ethnicity, class, ability and nationality. After an introduction to some of the main concepts guiding scholarship in the field of feminist studies (the centrality of difference; social and political constructions of gender and sex; representation; privilege and power; intersectionality; globalization; transnationalism), we will consider how power inequalities attached to interlocking categories of difference shape key feminist areas of inquiry, including questions of: work, resource allocation, sexuality, queerness, reproduction, marriage, gendered violence, militarization, consumerism, resistance and community sustainability.
SCON
WGSS-202
Spring 2024
Political Economy of Gender
Kongar, Mesude
Political Economy of Gender adopts a gender-aware perspective to examine how people secure their livelihoods through labor market and nonmarket work. The course examines the nature of labor market inequalities by gender, race, ethnicity and other social categories, how they are integrated with non-market activities, their wellbeing effects, their role in the macroeconomy, and the impact of macroeconomic policies on these work inequalities. These questions are examined from the perspective of feminist economics that has emerged since the early 1990s as a heterodox economics discourse, critical of both mainstream and gender-blind heterodox economics. While we will pay special attention to the US economy, our starting point is that there is one world economy with connections between the global South and the North, in spite of the structural differences between (and within) these regions.For ECON 230: ECON 111 (ECON 112 recommended); For SOCI 227: SOCI 110 or ECON 111; For WGSS 202: none (ECON 111 recommended)
SCON
WGSS-301
Spring 2024
Dance History Seminar: Modernism and the Body
Skaggs, Sarah
SCON
WGSS-310
Spring 2024
Immigration Politics: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Migration
Oliviero, Kathryn
Why do global controversies over immigration so often center on migrant women’s fertility and their children’s access to government benefits? Why do some countries accept LGBTQ migrants but deny them the right to adopt, use assisted reproductive technologies, or extend citizenship to their children? How are efforts to limit marriage-and-family based migration racialized and classed? What are the gendered implications when nurses are a country’s central export? Could building a border wall or sending refugees back stop unwanted immigration? This course examines how intersecting gender, sexual and ethnic hierarchies shape and are shaped by immigration. Applying insights from feminist and queer theories of migration, students will explore how the gendered processes surrounding immigration craft concepts of nation, borders and citizenship. Readings and films examine how racial and sexual norms are renegotiated through the selection and regulation of immigrants. Central to our investigation is how transnational and economic forces compel migration, reshaping understandings of national belonging, workplaces, and family in the process. We will particularly consider how migrants negotiate multiple marginalizations, and in turn refashion understandings of community, identities, culture, and politics. An interdisciplinary framework combines sociological, historical, legal, activist, media, literary and artistic accounts.Prerequisite: One WGSS or SOCI course, or permission of instructor; not appropriate for first-year students. Cross-listed as SOCI 310.
SCON