Please refer to the USEM course listings within SIS for course meeting times.

 

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Death, Dying and Bereavement

Richard Steeves

You should take this University Seminar if you are interested in exploring death, dying, grief and bereavement from a number of points of view.

This course is an exploration of thinking about dying, death and bereavement. Although western culture and American culture in particular has a reputation for being death denying, we do in fact confront images of and talk about death on almost a daily basis. This course will not be a study about death and dying in the news and popular media, rather it will about those who have thought about our mortality seriously and extensively.

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Educating Girls and Young Women

Eleanor Wilson

You should take this University Seminar if you would like to examine the historical and pedagogical influences on women's education.

This course explores a variety of issues affecting girls and young women in education today. The course applies a theoretically grounded and practical approach to examine the role of gender in elementary and secondary classrooms and beyond. The course will analyze assumptions and attitudes informing the development of girls’ and women’s roles in education and apply this knowledge to educational issues of concern in the 21st century.

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A Diversity of Voices: Seeking Truth in Research

Meredith Wolnick and Bethany Mickel

You should take this University Seminar if you are interested in learning about your place in the scholarly conversation.

This course will explore the role of diverse voices in research through topics such as social justice, community engagement, and the impact of bias in an increasingly divided society. By understanding how to navigate a free market of information where dissemination is open to all, students will learn how to successfully generate high quality research; analyze the creation process; leverage their knowledge to craft strong lines of inquiry; and understand and protect their own contributions to scholarship.

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Behind the Stethoscope: Doctors in their Own Words

Diane Pappas

You should take this University Seminar if you want to explore and understand the medical profession from the physician's perspective.

This course will explore the formative experiences that create and mold the physician (e.g. imposter syndrome, uncertainty, medical errors, gender and racial bias, death, etc.). We will focus on the human, feeling side of what it means to be a physician using the reflections and insights of practitioners themselves as shared in short narratives, essays, poems, blogposts, podcasts, etc.

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Gender-based Violence & Prison Abolition

Dorothe Bach

You should take this University Seminar if you've ever wondered "if we abolish prisons, what happens to rapists?"

If we abolish police and prisons, how can we address gender violence and ensure safety? We will examine the trauma resulting from sexual and intimate partner violence and the ways in which is embedded in other forms of historical traumas; explore how institutional betrayal replicates and sustains that trauma; and think about the criminal legal system and explore abolitionist ways to address violence. We will imagine a world free of violence.

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Australia

Mark Thomas

You should take this University Seminar if you are interested in learning about a society that on the surface looks quite familiar to American audiences, but is truly distinctive, in terms of its history, its politics, its culture.

Australia is a paradox. A penal colony that became the richest country in the world within a century; independent of Britain since 1901, yet the Queen remains the head of state; long among the most urbanized of global societies, with a cultural identity that is largely shaped by rural idealism. We will use novels and diaries, movies and artwork, to explore these paradoxes: to understand the history, culture and society of the land ‘down under'.

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Around Grounds: Art, Arch., & History at UVA

Dylan Rodgers

You should take this University Seminar if you want to delve deep into the history of UVA and Charlottesville by using buildings, objects, archives, and people to help uncover those stories.

This seminar explores the histories of UVA, from its Monacan origins, the labor of enslaved people, its art and architecture, to issues impacting the local community today. We will use buildings, objects, archives, and people to tell stories that have been forgotten—or never told in the first place. Each class meeting will include in-class discussion paired with visits around Grounds and Charlottesville, to engage more fully with topics on-site.

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Dream-Life

Julia Gutterman

You should take this University Seminar if you have ever pondered the relationship between dreams and truth and want to explore the realm of dreams in literature, film, and theory.

Dreams, at once elusive and powerfully present, have puzzled and inspired generations of philosophers, psychologists, political thinkers, literary writers, and artists. 'Dream-Life' will explore the world of dreams in texts and films as diverse as Calderón de la Barca’s Life is a Dream (1635) or Charlotte Beradt’s documentation The Third Reich of Dreams. Students will document and reflect on their own dreams by keeping a dream journal.

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Flights of Fancy: A Media History of Birds

Samhita Sunya

You should take this University Seminar if you would enjoy looking at birds of all kinds with fresh eyes – and hearing them with fresh ears!

This class engages our longstanding fascinations and interactions with birds. We will consider genealogies of poetry, (audio)visual forms, design, and technology across time periods and cultures, towards a media history of birds: as representational motifs; as communication devices; as objects of colonial classification and collection; as drivers of aviation; and as barometers and co-inhabitants of our pre- and postindustrial environments.

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