Spring 2023 Courses

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

Death, Dying and Bereavement

Richard Steeves

You should take this University Seminar if you want to think and talk 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.

Blurred Line: Documenting Truth in Info & Media

Josh Thorud and Bethany Mickel

You should take this University Seminar if you have an interest in documentary film making and the influence of media in our perceptions of truth.

In the age of disinformation and misinformation, it requires rigor to effectively evaluate and disseminate information. This course looks at traditional information construction while also surfacing media as a form of empowerment and expression. We’ll investigate various forms of information and media, but ultimately focus on the documentary as a case study. The course culminates with the production of a short documentary video.

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.

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.

Gender-based Violence and Prison Abolition

Kathryn Laughon

You should take this University Seminar if you want to think about how to build a better world where everyone can feel safe.

As the problem of gender violence has gained prominence in our discourse, we have focused on criminal legal solutions. Yet, all objective measures suggest that these remedies are ineffective and perhaps actively harmful, particularly for marginalized communities. If we abolish police and prisons, how can we ensure community safety? How does this related to community health? In this course, we will imagine a world without policing.

Religion and Democracy in Black and White

Mark Hadley

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

You should take this University Seminar if you want to learn more about how American religion and American democracy have historically been compromised by anti-Black racism and how these compromises reverberate today.  

You should also take it if you want to learn how some of the best thinkers in the United States have envisioned an American democracy which lives up to its full potential.

American democracy which lives up to its full potential.
The course examines how the ideals of religion and democracy intersect with constructs of race throughout the history of the United States.  We will read classic texts and authors that have shaped American religion and democracy and have thereby advanced or deformed democracy including Thomas Jefferson, David Walker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.