In a time and culture saturated with information and images, attention has become a scarce resource. The ongoing competition for your attention has become a driving force of our economy through social media and other algorithmic metrics of digital life, which has consequences for creativity, democracy, freedom, and human experience. This class invites students to think critically about the ways humans engage with technology. We will draw from an array of sources and disciplines, including history, social and behavioral sciences, art, science fiction, and literature, to explore in depth how communication technologies and human identities are intertwined.

Substance use, abuse, and addiction is often glorified, villified, or otherwise plays a major supporting role in a movie or book. This class will examine how the HBO show Euphoria, along with several other works of fiction that portray behaviors and physiology associated with substance abuse and addiction. We will take a closer look at how accurately pop culture portrays substance use and addiction, how the substance affects an individuals’ biology, and why we crave drug-filled movies and literature.

We all need to make choices every day about what we eat, and we are bombarded with information about diets and nutrients. We will discuss where our food comes from and societal influences that may affect food choices. After taking this course, you will have a better understanding of issues related to nutrition in order to make informed decisions in the future.

This seminar will explore the art of criticism in popular culture, focusing primarily on food, film and tv, and music. We will look at a range of strategies in which critics produce reviews that appear in social media, in popular newspaper and magazines, and in more challenging long-form pieces that take “deep dives” into their subject matter. We will think about questions of audience, language, and purpose while examining these texts, and in turn students will be asked to write and reflect in their own reviews and critiques of musical artists, restaurants, food products, films, and television shows.

This seminar will explore the relationship between songs and poetry as we learn how to engage academically at SMCM. Our guiding question, to begin, is this: are song lyrics poetry? On a page, song lyrics and poems look similar, relying on figures of speech and poetic techniques. But what happens when we add music, performance, and technology? What happens when we take away those aspects? How do songwriters respond to, reflect, and incorporate various musical styles, genres, and themes into their work? What themes are specific to individual writers? What makes music so powerful? How has it influenced daily life and society as a whole? In search of answers, we will pay attention to sound, structure, form, language, and cultural context of song lyrics across genres and periods. We will also investigate the historical and literary roots of poetry and song to better appreciate their relationship. We’ll examine the social, personal, and political environment in which a song was written and discuss how personal expression, emotional authenticity, social commentary, ritual, and entertainment intersect.

This seminar will take humor seriously—but without taking the fun and laughter out of it. We’re going to ask questions about how humor works, and what cultural work it does, especially in literature and media. In particular, we’ll focus on the rhetorical power and risks of satire, which uses humor as a tool for critique and argumentation. Satires we’ll look at will include TV shows like Stephen Colbert’s and John Oliver’s, literary works Swift’s Modest Proposal (yes, the one about cannibalism as a solution to poverty) and Ebenezer Cooke’s “The Sotweed Factor” (a Maryland poem that was the first satire written in English in America), a couple of classic Hollywood movies (Ninotchka and Sullivan’s Travels), and, very importantly, examples that students will bring to the table. In addition to analyzing satire, students will also write a short satirical essay.

Literature and Identity: Readings of texts (novels, stories, essays) that interrogate identity through various literary forms, while challenging stereotypes and creating a space in the literary canon of underrepresented and marginalized voices.

Dealing with conflict is basic to being human. We inevitably encounter people who seem unusual or do things differently, who have opposing priorities, or whose view of the world contradicts our own. In this seminar, we’ll explore sources of conflict and look specifically at how the need to respond might fuel creativity. Our subject matter, however, will not be the stories trending in today’s media but examples from some of our earliest records of the human story. We’ll examine our themes through stories of mythic heroes, priestesses, pharaohs, warriors, philosophers, artists, and poets of the ancient world. Along the way, we will discover that many of the challenges that we face today have been present in world societies for millennia. We will also hone critical reading and thinking skills and express ideas through discussion, writing, and other peer interactions.

This course investigates the complicated history of Asian peoples in America, tracing the origins and development of various forms of discrimination from the exclusion laws of the 1800s and stereotyped depictions of popular culture through the notorious internment camps of World War II and beyond. Asian Americans carved out a place for themselves and the post-war years indeed saw tremendous successes. But new cleavages appeared, particularly as the “model minority myth” was used to divide and weaken the Civil Rights movement. Overcoming these lingering cleavages is what this intersectional study is all about, and along the way we’ll see that Asian America is not peripheral but instead is at the heart of U.S. history and culture.

For as long as love has existed (and when hasn’t it?), music has had something to say about it. In this course we will study two of the most famous and beloved musical disquisitions on love, the operas La Boheme (1896) and Madam Butterfly (1904), by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924). Indeed, these works are as relevant today as they ever were, dealing as they do with issues both of public health (La Boheme) and of race and colonialism (Madam Butterfly). We will consider not only the literary sources that inspired them, but also how they in their turn inspired two of the most significant musicals of the late twentieth century, Rent (1996, inspired by La Boheme) and Miss Saigon (1989, inspired by Madam Butterfly).

This seminar will investigate different ways of thinking about the relationship between mind and body. We will be examining traditional, modern, eastern and western conceptions of the relationship, the ways in which embodiment shapes the mind, as well as the significance of cultivating the mind-body relationship through practices such as meditation.

What can fiction teach us about our moral lives? We will discuss various philosophical and moral problems relating to virtues such as wisdom, temperance, courage, and friendship, as they are addressed in literary and philosophical works.

This course presents a secular reflection on the fragility of life in our world across deep time. We’ll sweep through the ages to examine global extinction events, calamitous moments in human history, climactic forces that threaten life on our planet, and the certainty of ultimate cosmic doom. By the end of the course, you’ll be prepared to act with new ideas and skills that might bolster our chances. Well, at least for a while because . . . nothing lasts forever. It’s the history of The End!

Synthetic opioids have flooded the American drug supply, causing more deaths than any other substance of abuse. Who is addicted to opioids in America and why? We will explore how addiction to synthetic opioids has ensnared so many in America by exploring the neuroscience of addiction. We will explore sociological and self-identity factors that contribute to addiction and recovery. We will address whether current drug policy is helping opioid addiction or reinforcing structural inequality. Ultimately, this course seeks to give students an introduction to addiction in America with the goal of identifying compassionate approaches and attitudes toward improving our nation’s health.

Heralded by many as one of the greatest threats to democracy is the pervasive misinformation that plagues our society. From social media to the daily news, misinformation and disinformation are everywhere, perpetuated by a number of different players. In this course we will focus on the war on science and explore current topics such as vaccine hesitancy and climate change denial among others. Using contemporary examples, we will examine who and what drive misinformation and disinformation, learn how to avoid common traps, and discuss ways to defend science in an age where the line between fact and fiction is often ironically blurred by recent technological advances.

The Roman Empire rose and fell millennia ago, yet its influence on our modern culture is everywhere. We see the evidence of ancient Rome in the art and architecture of cities across the world. However, we also have echoes of ancient Roman political and cultural ideals in our political systems, sports and entertainment, trade and commercial practices, foreign policies and even the various religions practiced today. By employing the modern detective work of archaeology and listening to the voices of the Romans themselves in text, this course explores the world of ancient Rome, examines its legacy in today’s world and considers the question: “What can the past teach us about the present and the future?”

What, if anything, do we owe other people? How is who we or they determined, and what do we mean by the “right” way to act towards others? We will explore the idea that who we are and what we owe each other in any situation are both largely constructed by our social relationships – relationships with our parents, our teachers, our friends, our co-workers, and even total strangers.

Art and politics have long shared a much-debated relationship. Artistic experience can influence and critique our political language, our cultural beliefs, and our shared spaces. This seminar will provide students with an introduction to the many links between art, creativity, political life, revolution, and community building. Public art– art that is created, enacted, or placed, in our communal spaces– in particular is interesting to consider, as it brings the experience of art to everyday life. In this course, you will explore and reflect on art and creativity through a political and philosophical lens.

This seminar will commence with readings in moral philosophy and will be followed by study of the ethical dilemmas raised by the biotechnological revolution of the last fifty years.

In this first-year seminar, we will examine our society’s complicated relationship with the Internet, a technology whose rapid evolution has made it nearly ubiquitous, touching many features of life, from our education and employment, to transportation and our social lives. We will begin by discussing the origins of the Internet and its growth over the past half century, along the way examining a cross section of the seemingly countless impacts the Internet has on us. A partial list of those topics includes: the Internet and political discourse, especially around ideas of “truth”; the impact of the Internet on journalism; Internet privacy and security; “net neutrality” and Internet access; Internet storage energy-use; social media and other social impacts; and the future of the Internet, particularly the Internet of Things. To enrich our discussions and responses, we will examine books, essays, short stories, articles, video essays, films, TV shows, songs and other media about the Internet.

What, if anything, do we owe other people? How is who we or they determined, and what do we mean by the “right” way to act towards others? We will explore the idea that who we are and what we owe each other in any situation are both largely constructed by our social relationships – relationships with our parents, our teachers, our friends, our co-workers, and even total strangers.

The Roman Empire rose and fell millennia ago, yet its influence on our modern culture is everywhere. We see the evidence of ancient Rome in the art and architecture of cities across the world. However, we also have echoes of ancient Roman political and cultural ideals in our political systems, sports and entertainment, trade and commercial practices, foreign policies and even the various religions practiced today. By employing the modern detective work of archaeology and listening to the voices of the Romans themselves in text, this course explores the world of ancient Rome, examines its legacy in today’s world and considers the question: “What can the past teach us about the present and the future?”

Synthetic opioids have flooded the American drug supply, causing more deaths than any other substance of abuse. Who is addicted to opioids in America and why? We will explore how addiction to synthetic opioids has ensnared so many in America by exploring the neuroscience of addiction. We will explore sociological and self-identity factors that contribute to addiction and recovery. We will address whether current drug policy is helping opioid addiction or reinforcing structural inequality. Ultimately, this course seeks to give students an introduction to addiction in America with the goal of identifying compassionate approaches and attitudes toward improving our nation’s health.

Most scientists recognize the importance of communicating scientific results to the public as being critical to our society’s progress and ultimately its survival. Unfortunately, many efforts to convey scientific information fall short for various reasons including scientists’ inability to effectively tell their “story” in ways that are interesting and compelling to non-scientists. This class will investigate the aims of scientific communication (hy do we want to communicate science and hat do we want to communicate?), the forms of scientific communication (how and when do we communicate scientific information?), the role of scientists and other stakeholders (who gets to communicate science?), and finally, the audience (who are we trying to reach with this scientific information?).

College students, regardless of race, class, gender or sexual orientation, have been drawn to the objectives of Black Lives Matter and many have become part of a new generation of American activists. This course will examine why, in the twenty-first century, the founding members felt the need to remind all Americans of our shared worth and humanity, interrogate America’s increasingly racialized prison industrial complex, question the use of militarized police forces in underrepresented communities, and reinvigorate age-old practices of civil disobedience and democratic resistance. Note: This section of Core 101 is available only to DeSousa-Brent Scholars.

What is American Islam? Who are U.S. Muslims? What is Islamophobia? Is it a form of racism? Why shouldn’t I be an Islamophobe? What does Islam have to do with the Civil Rights movement? What about #BlackLivesMatter and the Women’s March in Washington, DC? Can Muslims be feminists? Why did Allah make some Muslims funny? In this course, we will focus on the experiences and perspectives of Muslims in the US, primarily (but not exclusively) of Muslim women. We will explore Muslim engagement in various contemporary national and global justice movements, such as the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the 2017 Women’s March in DC. We will also explore debates about the shifting relationships between race, gender, class and power in relation to what constitutes justice and who is deemed worthy of it.

In this seminar we will develop your written expression and examine writing and other forms of popular creative expression (including film, music, radio and TV) that have as an obvious aim the promotion of social change while dealing with the complexities of race, class, disability, and/or gender and sexuality in different cultures. Discussion of other texts will lead students to develop and present their own creative writing during the semester. Our work together will explore the distinctive experiences, challenges, and opportunities of marginalized populations. Note: This section of Core 101 is available only to DeSousa-Brent Scholars.