The Communities
Art & Activism
Can art effect social change?
How may we use the history of radical and avant-garde art to inform present-day movements of artistic and creative activism?
Digital Media & Law
What are our constitutional rights and ethical responsibilities as citizens of the digital world?
Explore the historical foundations of free speech and their present-day applications to information gathering and sharing through social media.
Health Justice
Does every individual have a fair shot at living a long and healthy life?
What is the role that information plays in creating and intensifying health disparities?
iGive
How do I give?
Learn about philanthropy, innovation, and social change - then make it happen! As a class you'll identify a social cause you're passionate about then donate $7,500 to a real local organization!
Language
Does information drive human history?
We will use tools from the language sciences to examine what mythological recurrences say about cultures that had to adapt their world views while attempting to preserve them.
Once & Future Planet
How does understanding Earth's past help us plan for the future?
Through primary research, explore how life began and evolved and the ways in which its emergence and diversification has shaped our Earth and vice versa. Learn about our world and other worlds, and how humans affect this planet and its future.
Visualizing Knowledge
Is data beautiful?
"Visualizing Knowledge" pulls back the curtain on a ubiquitous feature of contemporary life—data visualization. We know that we live in an age of information, but what is less obvious is how visualization practices shape that information.
Weather & Climate
What are weather and climate?
Climate change is a phrase that evokes strong emotions. Some of those talking the loudest don’t know what climate is and how it’s different from weather. We will learn the basics of weather and climate.
Cities
How do cities work?
Fall 2021
Enterprising Cultures
How does personal identity shape our lives as entrepreneurs, workers, and consumers in a thoroughly business-oriented society?
Fall 2017, 2018, & 2019
Free Speech
Why is the right to free speech so fiercely defended in a democracy and such a threat to totalitarianism?
Fall 2018, 2020
Freedom Fighting
How did ordinary people destroy American slavery?
Fall 2019, 2020
Linguistic Profiling
What are the implications of speaking with a dialect?
Fall 2018, 2019
Novel Humans
What are the dark, uncertain borders between the human and the nonhuman, between the natural and the unnatural, between life and death?
Fall 2015, 2016
Riots
When and how can riots be morally justified?
Fall 2018, 2019, 2020
Write Now
Why does poetry matter?
Fall 2014 & Spring 2015