Drew Seminar Course Descriptions

Have you ever heard someone say ancient peoples “couldn’t have” built massive monuments without outside help? Why do so many people believe these claims, even when there is strong scientific evidence that they are false? This seminar is about understanding how the past is used (and often misused), and why that matters today. As George Orwell stated in his dystopian novel, 1984, “He who controls the past, controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.” We will examine why myths about the past — such as the idea that Native Americans did not build the large earthworks in North America, that the ancient Maya could not have built pyramids, or that African societies did not construct Great Zimbabwe — became popular and why some people still believe them today. We will question why these stories rarely involve questioning European achievements but often question the accomplishments of non-European societies. Through discussion and writing-focused approaches, we will explore how frauds, myths, and propaganda about the past are created, why they spread, and their real-world consequences. Topics will include cases such as the “Myth of the Moundbuilders” and “Piltdown Man.” We will also examine and utilize new tools available to archaeology, such as 3D photogrammetry, to see how the use of artificial intelligence can make it easier to spread misinformation, including “deep fakes,” and why that makes critical thinking more important than ever.

How does art help us make sense of the unknown? In this seminar, we will explore how artistic practice provides several methods for communicating and grappling with experiences like grief, pain, illness, and other conditions that are difficult to put into words. We will trace strategies from areas like art, medical humanities, disability studies, philosophy, and data science to examine how different fields approach and try to understand experiences that cannot be easily measured or explained. This seminar content will be experienced through engaged class discussions, readings, formal and informal writing including creative journaling, oral presentations, and visualization exercises. Students will also collect personalized “soft data” (e.g. observations, feelings, memories, and bodily experiences) to synthesize, track, and defamiliarize their relationship with the hard-to-describe parts of being alive.

How much disruption is likely to result from climate change? How are political institutions responding to mitigate its potential impacts? This seminar will address these questions through class discussions, presentations, and writing as we explore the science of climate change, its consequences, and our political efforts to address it. We will consider the effects of climate change across various sectors, including economic and social systems, migration patterns, and political stability. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between climate change and American politics.

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” says HAL 9000, the A.I. system aboard the Discovery One spacecraft. In the past ten years, the rise and rapid evolution of A.I. technologies in public sight have brought not only hope, new ways of life, and all the praising words one could think of, but it has also raised ethical issues and dread predictions for our future, like: will Silicon-based creations/creatures ultimately take over our position on Earth, or even in the universe? Yet, long before the term “A.I.” was in use, people have had fantasies and critical discussions on many of these issues: from Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, to Alan Turing’s Turing Test on intelligence, to media such as Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, among many more. Through engaged debates, presentations, readings, and formal and informal writing, this seminar aims to spark discussion on the ethical issues behind the popularity of “Artificial Intelligence” from a multitude of perspectives, and to consider how carefully we should tread in the face of our future digital lords.

Psychology is the study of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. Effective treatments for depression and anxiety, improved child rearing practices, and enhanced educational techniques are just a few examples of how psychological research has directly and profoundly improved our quality of life. This seminar will explore some of the most influential studies in psychology—topics that include the influence of genetics and the environment, conformity, sexuality, and false memories. In the process of discussing the methods and results of the particular studies, we will address the controversies, ethical dilemmas, and long-term implications of the findings on understanding what makes us tick. Through engaged class discussions, close analysis of scholarly readings, and both informal and formal writing assignments and presentations, students will practice multiple forms of academic engagement while developing the analytical, writing, and communication skills essential to success in future college courses.

This seminar will explore the evolving role of women as patrons of art, makers of art, and as subjects of art. Through a series of case studies and a variety of media, we will explore the visual arts, both past and present, as a means to better understand the role of women in past cultures and in our modern society. Some of the topics covered will include: prominent, powerful women of the past such as Queen Christina of Sweden; ancient images of Venus/Aphrodite will be discussed in connection with their Renaissance reincarnation and modern images of the nude. In addition, we will question the emergence of the female artist in the sixteenth century and the role of women today as award-winning architects, street artists, and women whose works are in major museums around the world. This exploration will involve class discussion based on assigned readings, informal and formal writing assignments, presentations, and engagement with issues contemporary women in the arts are facing today.

This seminar will trace the advent of early rock and roll following World War II. Rock and Roll combined the various popular musical traditions and forms, most famously with the rise to stardom of Elvis Presley, to offer something both new and old for a rapidly expanding and changing audience. In the decades that followed, Rock and Roll expanded dramatically in form and influence to cut across lines of race, class, and gender (blues, folk, R&B, punk, etc.) to both fascinate and bedevil critics, political leaders, and mothers and fathers everywhere. The seminar will examine these developments and the various ways rock and roll continued to be both a reflection of and affected by late 20th century U.S. history. Through engaged class discussions, close analysis of scholarly readings, and both informal and formal writing assignments and presentations, students will practice multiple forms of academic engagement while developing the analytical, writing, and communication skills essential to success in future college courses.

Zora Neale Hurston, legendary Black novelist, folklorist, journalist and playwright of the Harlem Renaissance is the inspiration for this seminar, which gets its name from her collection of essays: I Love Myself When I Am Laughing And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean & Impressive. Whether we are improvising a monologue or photographing ourselves for Instagram, what is it we’re trying to say about ourselves, our dreams, our longings, our friends, our conflicts? When we see the self-expression of others, what’s our take-away? How much is real, how much is a mask? How much is about seeking and building community? In this seminar, we will look for answers in real life, in the news, arts and literature, through readings and observations, portraits and theatre exercises, through writing and performing monologues. Along with Hurston, the artists whose work we’ll examine include writer/performers John Leguizamo, Anna Deavere Smith, Lisa Kron, Christopher Shin, Sarah Jones, folk singer Patty Larkin and photographers Gordon Parks, Cindy Sherman and Annie Liebowitz. Students will engage with seminar content through sustained in-class discussions as well as through oral presentations and formal and informal writing assignments.

Media has played a powerful role in shaping public understandings of Latino identity in the United States. From early Hollywood’s stereotypes like the Latin Lover and the Mexican Bandit, to contemporary global figures like Bad Bunny and Shakira, representations have influenced – and continue to influence – how Latino identity is seen and understood. This seminar examines the history of Latino representation in U.S. film and television from the silent era to the present by analyzing recurring archetypes, changing star images, and media industry practices that influence who appears on screen and how. While centering on film and television, the seminar will also consider contemporary music artists and their crossover presence in U.S. media. We will explore how global celebrity, language, race, gender, and immigration shape and reshape conversations about Latino identity, visibility, and belonging in American culture. Throughout the semester, we will ask how and why representations change over time, what persists across decades, and what these portrayals reveal about power and cultural influence in the United States. Through engaged class discussions, close analysis of media and scholarly readings, and both informal and formal writing assignments and presentations, students will practice multiple forms of academic engagement while developing the analytical, writing, and communication skills essential to success in future college courses.

Why do we learn, and what is the ultimate aim of education? More than two millennia ago, Confucius offered a transformative answer: learning is the path to human goodness. Often unfairly dismissed as a rigid relic of the past, Confucianism remains a vibrant framework for moral living, relational ethics, and communal responsibility that continues to shape East Asian societies. In this seminar, we will critically examine the Confucian concept of “learning,” contrasting it with Western educational ideals. Through rigorous reading and debate, presentations, and informal and formal writing, students will explore how an ethics of virtue can address the unique challenges of the 21st century.

How do you view the chemicals that make up our world? What positive or negative connotations are attached to the words “chemicals” or “molecules”, “synthetic” or “organic”? Scientific communication plays a critical role in scientific advancement, but as a society we also need to communicate between scientists and the general public. Throughout the semester, students will engage in sustained class discussions about scientific topics explored by the media and learn how to “fact check” with original primary research and scholarly sources. Students will expand their writing skills through informal and formal writing assignments and oral presentations. We will also explore our perceptions of “natural” chemicals through a semester-long study of sugar and sugar substitute molecules. This seminar is open to all students who are curious about the sciences without necessarily having a strong chemistry background

How did college athletes go from just being student-athletes to being compensated tremendous amounts of money for the use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL)? It did not happen overnight, as the present landscape of Power 4 Conference sports has been many years in the making. From a defensive tackle from Oklahoma signing a mega one-year contract to a small MAC school player making $50,000, NIL compensation in sports is here to stay. This seminar explores the origins of NIL in college sports, how we got to the present landscape, and where things may be headed in the next five years. We will also examine the sports agent’s role in this business, as the seminar will be taught by an agent who negotiated record-breaking NIL contracts this past offseason. Designed to give students the ability to view college athletics as a business and to debate where it goes next, the seminar will empower students to examine sports from a business perspective through the lens of name, image, and likeness. This content will be experienced in the seminar through engaged class discussions, selected readings, formal and informal writing assignments, and oral presentations.

Paris is both the setting and the theme of numerous films and recent Netflix series. This seminar explores the representation of the French capital in these productions both as mythic and real through an analysis of plot construction, themes, and cinematography. In exploring a few “classics” as well as more recent examples (both French and non-French), we will discuss such questions as: How do narratives and cinematography perpetuate Paris as a mythic place? What myths does Paris embody on screen? How do we relate to and respond to these myths versus real urban experiences? How do gender, race, and class affect Parisians’, Provincials’, immigrants’ and tourists’ experience of this city? Cinematographic techniques, city maps, urban history, and contemporary issues are employed to contextualize these representations. This seminar content will be experienced through class discussions, formal and informal writings, and short presentations.

If I traded bodies with someone else, would I still be the same person? Would I continue to be the same person if my brain were transplanted into another human body or into the body of an android? Would a human being or an android with copies of my thoughts be me? These are vexing philosophical questions that are apt to give rise to widespread disagreement. However, there are at least two facts about which everyone is in agreement: 1) for every person there is some time at which that person is born and 2) there is some later time at which that person dies. This seminar is concerned with the question of what it is for some person who is born at one time to be the same person who dies at some later time. This investigation places us in a position to address the question of what it would be for a person to survive one’s death, or to be immortal. Readings include classical works by John Locke and David Hume, as well as works by contemporary philosophers Bernard Williams, Sydney Shoemaker, and Derek Parfit. Students will engage with these questions through sustained in-class discussions as well as through oral presentations and writing assignments.

Are financial markets rational? No more or less than you can say people are rational. Human behavior drives financial markets, whether it is the stock price of Apple or the latest meme stock. This seminar explores the linkages between finance, economics, and psychology and teaches students to make better personal financial and investing decisions. It is designed to expose students to the decision-making biases that cause people to deviate from actions predicted by economic and financial models, and that cause financial markets to behave in ways counter to these theories. Seminar content will be experienced through engaged class discussions, scholarly readings, presentations, and formal and informal writing.

This seminar examines the intersection of race and law throughout American history, exploring how legal frameworks have shaped and been shaped by racial identities, social structures, and power dynamics. Through a combination of historical analysis and case studies, students will investigate key moments in U.S. history where race and law intersected—such as slavery, segregation, the civil rights movement, and the politics of race and justice today. The seminar will explore the role of law in constructing racial categories and maintaining systems of oppression, but also in facilitating resistance movements. It will reveal how subaltern actors, and their allies, consistently made use of the law to fight for freedom and equality over the very legal obstacles that barred them from full inclusion in American society. Through class discussions, presentations, and writing assignments, students will critically analyze landmark legal decisions, pivotal constitutional and legislative reforms, and transformative social movements, while considering how race continues to influence legal practices and institutions today.

From classic science fiction and horror films such as Planet of the Apes, Alien, and Blade Runner to more contemporary movies, such as Civil War, 40 Acres, Queens of the Dead, films that depict the end of the world and dystopias have often been more interested in exploring what the end of the world (as we know it) reveals about the state of human existence than the end of the world itself. These films, and those like them, ask us to question how societally constructed issues and fears regarding race, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship are only heightened when the traditional frameworks of society break down. With a lens guided by queer, anti-racist, decolonial and feminist scholarship, this Drew Seminar explores the intersections of structural oppressions such as white supremacy, racism, misogyny, patriarchy, xenophobia, and homophobia within 20th and 21st Century dystopian and apocalyptic media. Through weekly viewings of films within the post-apocalyptic and dystopian sub-genres, rigorous in-class discussions, student presentations, and formal essays, we will investigate and interrogate the ideologies found within these films, examine how they have both shaped and been shaped by fears and anxieties toward racial, gendered, and politically oppressed “others,” and how recent depictions have attempted to push back or reinforce pre-existing systemic hierarchies.

Do you write to help you think and remember? Maybe in a diary or journal, or a training log or schedule? This seminar takes a deep dive into diaries, journals, and blogs, exploring their personal and broader historical and cultural value, and the power of telling stories (real and fictional) using the diary form. In addition to scandals, diaries tell us about the daily lives of ordinary and extraordinary people and contribute to our understanding of trends from health to global warming. Students will read, discuss, and write about extracts they select from published diaries ranging from American pioneers to Anne Frank, and we will also work in the Drew Archive reading handwritten diaries in their collection and bringing them to life through words and images. Each student will also keep their own brief daily journal tracking their first semester in college with a focus of their choice—from athletics to academics.

How do the stories we tell about ourselves shape who we are, how we connect with others, and our future? The seminar will explore the psychological foundations of identity through personal storytelling, examining how biology, memory, and social context influence the stories we tell about ourselves. We will consider cultural stories such as fairy tales, urban myths, and false narratives as well as our own personal stories. We will learn to recognize adaptive and problematic patterns in our own narratives and understand how revising these stories can foster personal growth. At the end of the semester, we will have gained insights into the power of storytelling as a tool for building meaning, resilience, and authentic human connection in your college experience and beyond. Through engaged class discussions, close analysis of popular and scholarly readings, and both informal and formal writing assignments and presentations, students will practice multiple forms of academic engagement while developing the analytical, writing, and communication skills essential to success in future college courses.

Carbs are bad for you! Protein powder will build muscle fast! Avoid saturated fat! No, cook with beef tallow! Health claims about foods and diets are everywhere and seem to change on a daily basis: eat this, don’t eat that, oh, never mind, that food’s okay after all. How do you know what and whom to believe? In this seminar, you’ll learn how to evaluate claims about food and health, and where to look for information that is reliable and trustworthy. We will use informal writing to explore the studies that have led to confusing and contradictory claims about such foods as red meat, sugar, alcohol, and coffee. In formal writing and oral presentations, students will put contradictory claims in dialogue with one another to make a persuasive argument about the health impact of particular foods and diets. Throughout the course, we will also discuss the basis of a healthy, nutritious diet, while evaluating the relative merits of low-carb, keto, vegetarian, and other diets.

If you like to read or write poetry (or to do both), you might struggle to explain why to other people. We ask nearly all schoolchildren to read and write poems but, as we get older, it’s assumed we will move on to more practical considerations. If you were to tell your family and friends that you are going to university because you want to study poetry, some of them might applaud your bravery and passion, but others would look at you quizzically, or even be actively hostile to the idea. They might even say something like “what’s the point of poetry?” What is the point of poetry? This class will try to answer that question while accepting that it might be impossible to answer. We’ll see what the Ancient Greeks thought the point of poetry was, and from there we will look at a host of other attempts to answer this question through the ages. We’ll ask what role poets might have played in different kinds of societies and cultures at different moments in history (how was it, for example, that a poet came to be the first president of Senegal when it declared independence in 1960?). We will also be finding out how the study of poetry came to be a subject that was taught at schools and universities in the first place. And, of course, we will be looking at a lot of different kinds of poems from all over the world and from a variety of times in history. You can expect a mixture of discussion, lecture, and to write three papers analyzing the question: what’s the point of poetry? Finally, there will be extra-credit opportunities, one of which will be to write your own poem.

This seminar examines the “science of shopping” or the study of consumer behavior, drawing upon anthropology, environmental psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and more to understand how and why people buy. It analyzes how store layouts, product placements, and sensory cues influence purchasing decisions, aiming to maximize sales by optimizing the physical or digital environment. Through class discussions, weekly low-stakes writing assignments, and two formal academic papers, students will learn to apply a series of “moves” in academic writing in response to questions about shopping and consumer behavior, culminating in a presentation given at the end of the semester that assesses the strengths and weaknesses of specific retail locations selected by students.

Does the specific individual in power truly change the course of history, or is the trajectory of a nation determined by larger economic and social forces regardless of who is in charge? This seminar explores this debate by introducing the theories and typologies of political leadership in the post-WWII era. We will navigate how the types of leadership and different styles of power impact political processes, such as independence, nation-building, economic transformation, democratization, and conflict resolution. Our survey is global in scope, drawing on influential leaders from different continents and political systems to see how leadership functions across various cultures. Throughout the course you will engage in vigorous class discussions, analyze empirical studies, and practice presentation skills and academic writing. By the end of the term, you will have a sophisticated toolkit for analyzing and comparing how leadership shapes the world today.