First-Year Experience

Kelly Bowen

Censorship, Free Speech, & Book Banning: Is your reading freedom at risk? Across the United States, banning books is, once again, headline news. Since 2021, a movement to ban books has advanced extreme conservative viewpoints that jeopardize students’ reading choices. From small local school boards to state legislatures, the opposition voices are loud as they call for removing “controversial” books from public spaces. In 2023-2024, an estimated 10,000 titles were removed from public schools, a 200% increase from 2022. Florida led the nation in banning 4,500 titles last year alone. What factors drive the hysteria, and why should it matter to you? In COR 102 Reading & Writing: Banned Books, we will examine censorship and its history in Western culture. We will sample a variety of banned works and investigate how students and critical thinking are impacted, what social constructs foster censorship, and how book banning affects society at large. In our critical reading and writing, we will explore why works with themes of race, racism, gender, sexuality, LGBTQ+, and memoir become targets of a moral minority. We will evaluate how this practice creates disinformation and further marginalizes underrepresented communities. Students leave COR 102 Reading & Writing: Banned Books with a critical understanding of censorship, book banning, and the foundations for academic writing success.

David Kite

What do you want from life? Is real happiness possible? How do we find it both as individuals and within community? Centering on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, this course will take a deep dive into the most important question using fresh ideas from contemporary philosophy, psychology and evolutionary biology. You will take up big questions about ethics and personal character, justice, intellectual and experiential growth, friendship and pleasure as you develop your own ideas about what makes for a good life.

Al Capone

Have you ever wondered who Karl Marx is or what he wrote? Have you ever wondered why so many admire or revile him? Have you ever wondered what it means to be a Marxist? In this section we will examine Marx’s writings using the lenses of philosophy, literature, and economics, and you will answer all these questions for yourself.

Al Capone

Have you ever wondered who Karl Marx is or what he wrote? Have you ever wondered why so many admire or revile him? Have you ever wondered what it means to be a Marxist? In this section we will examine Marx’s writings using the lenses of philosophy, literature, and economics, and you will answer all these questions for yourself.

Erik Esckilsen

Would you call an ordinary snow shovel leaning in an art gallery a work of art? Artist Marcel Duchamp made that claim in 1915 with Prelude to a Broken Arm. The seemingly silly display, however, also leveled a critique of the art world and of the broader cultural forces responsible for World War I (underway at the time). Neither the world nor the art would ever be the same. Students in FYI: Reading, Writing, & Revolutionary Art Movements will encounter the work of Duchamp and other artists across a wide span of art history—from neoclassical painters to Japanese anime creators—to examine how art has shaped, and has been shaped by, its cultural contexts. Students will analyze art through multiple critical perspectives to gain a deep understanding of how art illuminates the challenges, joys, and wonders of the human experience.

Erik Esckilsen

Would you call an ordinary snow shovel leaning in an art gallery a work of art? Artist Marcel Duchamp made that claim in 1915 with Prelude to a Broken Arm. The seemingly silly display, however, also leveled a critique of the art world and of the broader cultural forces responsible for World War I (underway at the time). Neither the world nor the art would ever be the same. Students in FYI: Reading, Writing, & Revolutionary Art Movements will encounter the work of Duchamp and other artists across a wide span of art history—from neoclassical painters to Japanese anime creators—to examine how art has shaped, and has been shaped by, its cultural contexts. Students will analyze art through multiple critical perspectives to gain a deep understanding of how art illuminates the challenges, joys, and wonders of the human experience.

Erik Esckilsen

Would you call an ordinary snow shovel leaning in an art gallery a work of art? Artist Marcel Duchamp made that claim in 1915 with Prelude to a Broken Arm. The seemingly silly display, however, also leveled a critique of the art world and of the broader cultural forces responsible for World War I (underway at the time). Neither the world nor the art would ever be the same. Students in FYI: Reading, Writing, & Revolutionary Art Movements will encounter the work of Duchamp and other artists across a wide span of art history—from neoclassical painters to Japanese anime creators—to examine how art has shaped, and has been shaped by, its cultural contexts. Students will analyze art through multiple critical perspectives to gain a deep understanding of how art illuminates the challenges, joys, and wonders of the human experience.

Jeff Haig

Dive into an exploration of literature, social transformation, and the profound influence of language and images in “Reading, Writing, and Censorship.” This dynamic course utilizes critical theories from the humanities and social sciences to examine how visual art, music, films, books, and ideas have been, and continue to be, subject to censorship. By engaging with controversial texts, participating in vibrant debates, and undertaking reflective writing assignments, students will critically analyze the impact of censorship on societal norms and individual freedoms.

Jeff Haig

Dive into an exploration of literature, social transformation, and the profound influence of language and images in “Reading, Writing, and Censorship.” This dynamic course utilizes critical theories from the humanities and social sciences to examine how visual art, music, films, books, and ideas have been, and continue to be, subject to censorship. By engaging with controversial texts, participating in vibrant debates, and undertaking reflective writing assignments, students will critically analyze the impact of censorship on societal norms and individual freedoms.

David Kite

What do you want from life? Is real happiness possible? How do we find it both as individuals and within community? Centering on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, this course will take a deep dive into the most important question using fresh ideas from contemporary philosophy, psychology and evolutionary biology. You will take up big questions about ethics and personal character, justice, intellectual and experiential growth, friendship and pleasure as you develop your own ideas about what makes for a good life.

Frank Robinson

From Critical Race Theory to the death of George Floyd, from arguments for reparations to White Supremacist marches, and from Supreme Court definitions of equality to uncomfortable social media posts, race is a topic never far from risky conversation or public consternation. In this course we will explore our questions about race. What is race? Despite the civil rights movement 60 years ago, why is race still an issue? What are the stories about race in the U.S.? Drawing on autobiography, film, and history for answers — and more questions — the course will nurture the thinking skills of inquiry through reading, writing, and conversation.

Frank Robinson

From Critical Race Theory to the death of George Floyd, from arguments for reparations to White Supremacist marches, and from Supreme Court definitions of equality to uncomfortable social media posts, race is a topic never far from risky conversation or public consternation. In this course we will explore our questions about race. What is race? Despite the civil rights movement 60 years ago, why is race still an issue? What are the stories about race in the U.S.? Drawing on autobiography, film, and history for answers — and more questions — the course will nurture the thinking skills of inquiry through reading, writing, and conversation.

David Rous

Why are men allowed to get angry but not cry, while women are allowed to cry but not get angry? Why are men expected to lead, while women are expected to nurture? Why are little boys sometimes told to suck it up and deal, but little girls sometimes get hugged and comforted? Why are girls often given pink things, but boys blue things? Why do boys typically receive trucks and legos and toy guns at Christmas, while girls often get dolls or things with unicorns on them? Why are young men allowed to indulge their sexual appetite, but young women are encouraged to control theirs? And what are the rules for people who don’t fit into the traditional molds at all? In this section, we will explore why males and females are encouraged by society to do and be certain things, and why they are also encouraged not to do or be certain things. Through the lens of western popular culture, we will study how gender works and how it is changing in our times.

David Rous

Why are men allowed to get angry but not cry, while women are allowed to cry but not get angry? Why are men expected to lead, while women are expected to nurture? Why are little boys sometimes told to suck it up and deal, but little girls sometimes get hugged and comforted? Why are girls often given pink things, but boys blue things? Why do boys typically receive trucks and legos and toy guns at Christmas, while girls often get dolls or things with unicorns on them? Why are young men allowed to indulge their sexual appetite, but young women are encouraged to control theirs? And what are the rules for people who don’t fit into the traditional molds at all? In this section, we will explore why males and females are encouraged by society to do and be certain things, and why they are also encouraged not to do or be certain things. Through the lens of western popular culture, we will study how gender works and how it is changing in our times.

David Rous

Why are men allowed to get angry but not cry, while women are allowed to cry but not get angry? Why are men expected to lead, while women are expected to nurture? Why are little boys sometimes told to suck it up and deal, but little girls sometimes get hugged and comforted? Why are girls often given pink things, but boys blue things? Why do boys typically receive trucks and legos and toy guns at Christmas, while girls often get dolls or things with unicorns on them? Why are young men allowed to indulge their sexual appetite, but young women are encouraged to control theirs? And what are the rules for people who don’t fit into the traditional molds at all? In this section, we will explore why males and females are encouraged by society to do and be certain things, and why they are also encouraged not to do or be certain things. Through the lens of western popular culture, we will study how gender works and how it is changing in our times.

Bill Stratton

While Role Playing Games (as we currently understand them) were formed first from wargames, they have since evolved to encompass a myriad of popular culture, including more “traditional” pen and paper, video games, novels (litrpg) movies, and even spawning immensely popular Youtube and other social media channels (such as Critical Role). As it’s evolution continues, we’ll be reading, writing, and experiencing these games in order to best examine their social, cultural, and philosophical impact, as well as learning about their history (and the history that inspired them), mythology, and ways in which they construct meaning from both the worlds created, and the world we live in.

Kelly Thomas

Millions world-wide today share their lives with an animal they consider a member of the family. Why is that? How and why have humans developed relationships with other species for thousands of years? What roles do our furry, feathered, scaled and aquatic friends play in our lives, and we in theirs? Who “domesticated” whom? In this course, you’ll practice college-level close-reading and analysis as well as academic writing by investigating the emotional, behavioral and commercial aspects to human-animal bonding and its far-reaching cultural impact.

Kelly Thomas

Millions world-wide today share their lives with an animal they consider a member of the family. Why is that? How and why have humans developed relationships with other species for thousands of years? What roles do our furry, feathered, scaled and aquatic friends play in our lives, and we in theirs? Who “domesticated” whom? In this course, you’ll practice college-level close-reading and analysis as well as academic writing by investigating the emotional, behavioral and commercial aspects to human-animal bonding and its far-reaching cultural impact.