UCOR Section Descriptions

Course Description

How has well-being been represented (in popular and academic discourses) as a thing to be attained in the 21st century? This course will offer a more complex perspective on the lived experience of well-being particularly in an era in which humans face potential catastrophe from myriad sources: environmental, political, social, economic, etc. We will read literary narratives of homelessness (exile, dislocation, refugee-ism, a sense of being estranged or a stranger, etc.) that, simultaneously, locate a sense of connectedness, community, and hope in the midst of such upheaval.

Course Description

The global challenge this course explores, through dystopian literature, is how desires for social order, and the globalizing philosophies underlying those desires, result in hegemonic forms of social control achievable only through the imposition of ideologies of perfection. Dystopian literature imagines grim worlds where plurality and co-existence are sacrificed for the hegemonic establishment of social harmony. Students will engage and critique these literary landscapes to analyze and assess how global dreams can become global nightmares.

Course Description

Trauma is a prevalent mode of remembering and writing history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What can literature of trauma teach us about the experience of bearing witness to, and giving testimonies of, trauma? As a Humanities and Global Challenges core course, we will foreground the close-textual analysis of literary texts in conversation with the historical, political, legal, and ideological contexts in which and about which they were written. Our focus on the literary representations of trauma will depend on what I consider to be the other major "text" of the course: students' work with organizations that support war veterans, refugees, and the homeless in the context of Service Learning.

Course Description

The global challenge this course explores, through dystopian literature, is how desires for social order, and the globalizing philosophies underlying those desires, result in hegemonic forms of social control achievable only through the imposition of ideologies of perfection. Dystopian literature imagines grim worlds where plurality and co-existence are sacrificed for the hegemonic establishment of social harmony. Students will engage and critique these literary landscapes to analyze and assess how global dreams can become global nightmares.

Course Description

Trauma is a prevalent mode of remembering and writing history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What can literature of trauma teach us about the experience of bearing witness to, and giving testimonies of, trauma? As a Humanities and Global Challenges core course, we will foreground the close-textual analysis of literary texts in conversation with the historical, political, legal, and ideological contexts in which and about which they were written. Our focus on the literary representations of trauma will depend on what I consider to be the other major "text" of the course: students' work with organizations that support war veterans, refugees, and the homeless in the context of Service Learning.

Course Description

This class is a post-colonial study of the tensions and crises in the contemporary Middle East through the lenses of history and culture. We will survey the history of the region with a thorough analysis of primary documents and secondary sources dating from the foundation of Islam to the present. Our materials will also include close analyses of news media, film, and resistance art.

Course Description

Literature has always been a reflection of self and world: a creative work that tries to balance who I am IN the world with who I am FOR the world. In this course, we’ll unpack those ideas, reading work that hopes to inspire something in the community and meeting cultural leaders that want to bring sustainable development into the communities that inspire them.

Course Description

More information will be available soon.

Course Description

How has well-being been represented (in popular and academic discourses) as a thing to be attained in the 21st century? This course will offer a more complex perspective on the lived experience of well-being particularly in an era in which humans face potential catastrophe from myriad sources: environmental, political, social, economic, etc. We will read literary narratives of homelessness (exile, dislocation, refugee-ism, a sense of being estranged or a stranger, etc.) that, simultaneously, locate a sense of connectedness, community, and hope in the midst of such upheaval.

Course Description

Students will cultivate awareness of and advocacy skills to address global health and development issues. Includes understanding foundational concepts such as health and human rights, determinants of health, health inequities, and comparative global healthcare systems, as well as investigating specific global health issues. Students will also apply population health advocacy tools to increase their confidence in taking action toward social justice change around global health issues locally, nationally, and internationally.