For additional courses and more information, see the academic catalog.
AMS 230 - RELIGIONS OF BALTIMORE (4 credits)
(GCR RPP)(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
This course will provide an introduction to the world religions through attention to the religious life of Baltimore, MD and the engagement of religious communities in social justice work. Organized around two to three rotating themes such as housing, the environment, or gun violence, this course will explore the ways in which race, class, and imbalances of power and privilege contribute to structures of injustice. Readings and course work on the religious histories and theologies that inspire this work will be combined with community-based learning opportunities to increase the religious literacy and interreligious engagement skills of students. Offered fall 2019. Duncan.
ARH 279 - GLOBAL ROCK STARS: 17TH CENTURY ART IN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS (4 credits)
(VMC 279)
This course surveys the painting, sculpture, and architecture of 17th- and 18th- century Europe. We will study masterpieces by artists including Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer in their social and cultural contexts. Topics for consideration include the development of art theory and art market, the emergence of genres and specialized subject matter, the history of collecting, and the politics of art patronage. Prerequisite: ART 103 or permission of the instructor. Prerequisite: VMC 103 (ARH 103) or permission of the instructor. Fall. Variable semesters. Oettinger.
ART 375 - SPECIAL TOPICS: PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICES (4 credits)
(COM 409) (GCR Arts area)
Photographic Practices is a theme-based course in digital or black and white photography for students who have completed ART 201/COM 201, Photography I. The class will provide students an in-depth understanding of a particular topic in contemporary photography. Students will use technical and conceptual knowledge learned in Photography I while developing new techniques and ideas related to the course topic. Work for the class will include prompts/assignments, readings, writing, critiques and self-directed research. A different theme will be offered every semester. Examples of topics include Photography and Narrative, The Extended Photographic Project, and People and Places. Lab Fee $45. Students may repeat the course each time a new topic is offered. Prerequisite: ART 201 or COM 201. Variable semesters. Department.
ART 393 - STUDIO SEMINAR: ART AND AUDIENCE (4 credits)
Art and Audience serves as an introduction to contemporary practices in the visual arts. The course is designed as a seminar and critique course, and emphasizes the relationship between art making, culture, and audience. Students will create artwork based on personal interests, and current and previous art classes. Class discussions and assigned readings develop students’ critical and conceptual skills, while artist lectures and gallery/museum visits help students contextualize their artwork in contemporary artistic practices. Students will receive regularly assigned readings, attend artist presentations and galleries, and participate in class discussions about their own art work. This course is a core requirement for the Art major and the capstone course for the Art minor. Prerequisite: three studio courses, one of which must be a 200-level class or permission of instructor. Fall semester. Department.
CBL 115: Gateway to Service (2 credits)
This course will introduce students to the philosophy, theory, and best practices of academically-based community engagement. Through readings from a wide range of disciplines, students will reflect their role as thoughtful and engaged members of a community, and investigate assumptions about race, class and privilege. In investigating the various meanings of leadership, students learn how to develop beneficial, sustainable community collaborations. Topics include the nature and meaning of leadership, building capacity for change, gaining a greater understanding of community challenges, asset mapping, ethics of leadership, perspectives on learning development, and building collaborative community partnerships. This course includes a community-based component. Graded pass/no pass. Fall, spring.
COM 180 - AUDIO PRODUCTION (4 credits)
(GCR Arts area)
The performance techniques and sound technology podcasting. Emphasis on factual and fictional storytelling techniques in production. Fall semester. Program faculty.
COM 412 - MEDIA WORKSHOP (2 OR 4 credits)
Workshops in television, radio, and new media, emphasizing the development of skills in a particular format. The specific topic is posted before registration. Examples include: Advanced Public Relations; Advanced Television Writing; Animation; and Writing and Producing for Digital Media. Repeatable if topic is different. Prerequisites: varies according to topic, but always includes junior or senior status, by the beginning of the course; or permission of the instructor. Fall semester, repeated spring semester. Marcus, Morris, Zurawik.
CPEA 209 - DOCUMENT THIS! TELLING STORIES ABOUT THE REAL WORLD USING PHOTOGRAPHS AND WORDS. (4 credits)
(GCR Arts area)
With Reality TV, the 24/7/365 news cycle, and the almost manic documentation of daily life on Instagram and YouTube, you’d think we’d documented the world to death. But our communities are full of untold stories, perspectives, and lives aching to be exposed to the light. In this course, you’ll use cameras as tools to engage socially and politically with the world, while using approaches from the fields of documentary photography, anthropology, and art. During the semester, you will shoot and create projects alone, in pairs, and in groups. You will immerse yourselves in documentary practices to develop stories with images and text, you’ll be exposed to the work of documentary photographers, artists, and photojournalists as well as to writing about the documentary tradition. You will learn how to read photographs to gain an understanding of “visual literacy,” and you’ll grapple with the ethics of your editorial positions and actions. Emphasis will be on process (drafting proposals, conducting research, gaining access, photographing), and on practice (editing and building sequencing skills). Through trial and error, you will learn which ideas translate visually, which do not, and why. Be prepared to make mistakes, learn by weekly assignments and by iteration (returning to the same subject matter over and over). Your camera will be, as photographer Dorothea Lange stated, “a tool for learning how to see without a camera.”. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester.
CPEA 251 - SOCIAL ENGAGED ART PRACTICE: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (4 credits)
(GCR Arts area)
This course is focused on complex problem exploration within a socially engaged art practice. Socially engaged practice describes art that is collaborative, participatory, and involves members in addition to the artist to complete the work. Each semester a particular environmental issue will be selected for a focused inquiry: individual perspectives, open experimentation and creative interpretation are central elements. Group projects balance aesthetics with community engagement. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester. Thompson.
CPEB 207 - CHOCOLATE DIARIES (4 credits)
(GCR Social and Behavioral Sciences area)
Most everyone loves chocolate! The mention of the word conjures images and feelings of decadence, love, and extravagance. Chocolate has become a global commodity and business valued at $50b annually. Where does chocolate come from? Who makes it? What is the source of our infatuation? Where does all the money go? This CPE course will investigate all things chocolate in order to build an inventory of research approaches that can be applied to a wide range of social science questions. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester. Singer.
CPEB 204 - LABOR AND JUSTICE IN THE FIELDS: THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS (4 credits)
(GCR Social and Behavioral Sciences area)
We live in a world in which the products we enjoy hold invisible costs of suffering and violence. This is particularly true in the areas of our food system that rely on farmworker in the context of industrial agriculture. Is it possible to better the lives of those who provide the labor that produces the goods we consume? This is the challenge that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have been addressing, and this course explores their work to learn how to make a concrete difference. What would one want to know and be able to do in order to be successful in this kind of work? We will analyze this system and its impact on workers, and in partnership with CIW develop a project to contribute to their work. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester. Turner.
DMC 101 - Data Analytics (GCR DAF) (LER-MR) (4 credits)
Trillions of terabytes of data are generated and recorded daily by just using a smartphone, driving a car, or using a credit card. In this course, students examine how data is created, obtained, examined, and used to shape everyday life. Students will collect, represent, analyze, and interpret data from a variety of interests including social justice, environmental studies, social media, and business. Students perform statistical analysis and learn graphing techniques using data software such as R, Stata, and Microsoft Excel. Fall and Spring semester.
DMC 106 - STATISTICAL LINEAR MODELS (4 credits)
(GCR-DAF)
An introduction to basic statistical principles, including basic probability, hypothesis testing and normal distribution. This will culminate in the introduction of linear regression, ANOVA, logistic regression and correlation. The class will focus on the computational and programming aspects of linear regression and model building. Data cleaning and importing, experimental design, model refinement and visualization will be emphasized. Fall and Spring semesters. Le, Narock.
ES 410 - ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE (4 credits)
This course examines issues of environmental quality and social justice. It takes as axiomatic the premise that all people have a right to live in a clean environment free from hazardous pollution or contamination, and to the natural resources necessary to sustain health and livelihood. With this as our starting point, we will question why, and through what social, political and economic processes, some people are denied this basic right. Prerequisites: ES 140 and ES 230. Fall semester. Billo.
FYS 100 - FIRST YEAR SEMINAR (4 credits)
(formerly FRO 100)
First year seminars are based on faculty-chosen topics, designed to show students what faculty are thinking about but, more importantly, how faculty are thinking about a specific topic. They also point the way forward toward further exploration. As with a senior seminar, each class is small and is composed of students with similar interests. First year seminars emphasize student responsibility and participation and hone the skills involved in investigating a subject slowly, closely, and in depth. The first-year seminar launches students into the pleasures and demands of higher education. Course topics vary.
HIS 189 - MARINERS, RENEGADES, AND CASTAWAYS: WRITING HISTORY FROM THE MARGINS OF EMPIRE (4 credits)
(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
What is history, and who gets to write it? This course probes these questions by investigating Atlantic history from the “bottom up.” Rather than focusing on the lives of monarchs and nations, we’ll investigate the emergence of “globalization” through the lives of runaway slaves, pirates, and the bawdy tavern scene of the Atlantic World. Students will work closely with primary sources to uncover “hidden histories” of the maritime underground while touching on themes ranging from early modern prostitution to slave rebellions. Are you ready to set sail? This course is primarily intended for first or second year students. Spring semester. Dator.
PCE 316 - TOPICS: COLLABORATION FOR JUSTICE (2 credits)
(PH 216)
Students in this course will examine the intersections among health, equity, access to services and opportunities in relation to the jobs movement called Turnaround Tuesday and at least one offshoot program working in a Baltimore City elementary school. The course blends theory and practice as students collaborate with Baltimoreans involved in community-building and livability-enhancing activities such as improving access to employment, supporting leadership opportunities for returning citizens, and implementing restorative practice circles with school children. Course content will provide contextualizing information on trauma-informed restorative practices, social capital, social control, solidarity, and community well-being standards while students engage with academic definitions of social cohesion in relation to Turnaround Tuesday and its larger transformative aims. Note that off-campus activities are a required component of this course; interested students should contact the professor regarding the specific times that these activities will take place in any given semester. Course is repeatable for credit with different topic. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. Fall and Spring semesters. Bess.
PLS 204 - LAW AND SOCIETY (4 credits)
(Formerly PLS 100)
An introductory, interdisciplinary examination of law as a social institution. Focus is on the origin, history, and philosophy of legal systems from an international perspective, as well as the relationship in the United States between common law and statutory law, federal and state law, the courts and legislative bodies, and the courts and the executive branch of government. Exploration of the legal profession, its history, practice, goals, and place in American society. Spring semester.
PSC 143 - AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM (4 credits)
(Formerly PSC 243) (GCR Social and Behavioral Sciences area)
This course examines the American national political system with attention to political culture, governmental institutions, and political behavior. While the range of topics in this course approximates that of a survey course, the materials allows for more critical analysis and greater contemplation of the subject matter than a survey course. Fall semester. Kasniunas.
PSC 257 - PROBLEMS IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY (4 credits)
This is an introductory course to the study of international political economy (IPE). This course begins with reviewing major IPE approaches such as Mercantilism, Liberalism and Marxism. Students then evaluate the multifaceted role of international financial actors, identify key political, social and ecological factors that either hinder or help economic growth, and assess trends of protectionism and economic integration in the post-Cold War global economy. Prerequisite: PSC 150. Fall semester.
SOA 255 - POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (4 credits)
(formerly ANT 255) (GCR RPP)(GCR Social and Behavioral Sciences area)
Political orders and processes vary tremendously across cultures. How do different societies address such issues as legitimacy, order, justice, violence, hierarchy and power through political ideas and actions? How do societies respond to political domination and change? How is culture political and the political culture? Consideration will be given to traditional forms of political organization and to the relationship of peoples to the state and other dominating institutions. Spring semester. Offered 2019-2020 and alternate years. Turner.
SP 230S - INTERMEDIATE CONVERSATION AND COMPOSITIONS WITH COMMUNITY-BASED LEARNING (4 credits)
(GCR RPP and FL - Platforms 3 & 4)(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
Special section of SP 230. Development of conversation and writing skills through the study and discussion of texts, audio, short videos, and full length films. An integrated community-based learning component will provide the students with meaningful opportunities to increase their language skills while engaging with the local Spanish-speaking community. This interaction will replace one hour of class each week and will allow students to identify the factors that contribute to various types of differences, inequalities and power structures, whether they be historical, social, or political factors. Prerequisite: SP 130 or SP 130G or SP 130S or SP 130V with a minimum grade of A- or, SP 229 or placement exam. Variable semesters.
VMC 287 - SPECIAL TOPICS IN VISUAL AND MATERIAL CULTURE (4 credits)
(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
An in-depth investigation of a topic of current interest in the fields of visual and material culture. Examination of a variety of methodologies and critical approaches. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor. Variable semesters, first offered fall 2019. Oettinger, Sheller.
VMC 311 - ART IN FOCUS (2 credits)
(ARH 311)
This intense 7 week course explores a masterpiece of art or primary text (related to the history of art) in context and from different methodological perspectives. Repeatable if topic is different.
Prerequisites: VMC 103 (ARH 103), VMC 281 (ARH 281), or permission from the instructor. Fall and spring semesters. VMC faculty.
VMC 110 - PRESERVING OUR HERITAGE (4 credits)
(HP 110) (GCR ENV)(GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
An introduction to the field of historic preservation, covering its development and its role in American society. Students will study American architectural history, and will explore the impact of the built environment on the quality of urban life. The role of historic preservation in the environmental sustainability movement will also be examined. Also open to students who have not previously taken courses in history. Recommended but not required: 12 college credits or permission of the instructor. Fall semester. Sheller.
VMC 230 - UNDERSTANDING HISTORIC BUILDINGS (4 credits)
(HP 230) (GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
Development of the vocabulary to describe buildings: elements of a building, traditional construction techniques and building materials, and preservation issues. Students will study the architectural heritage of Baltimore through field trips. Recommended but not required: 12 college credits or permission of the instructor. Variable semesters. Sheller.
WGS 337 - GENDER AND MIGRATION: WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I “DETECT” AN ACCENT (4 credits)
(formerly WGS 237)
This course on gender and migration focuses on recurrent and recognizable patterns of migration that takes into account gender, politics, war, race, ethnicity, class and sexuality. It considers how economic factors, geopolitics, empire-building, neoliberal principles of national security and fighting terrorism affect the contemporary lived experience of migration. It will also address the human dimension of migration, of resisting, of border zones, statelessness, of identity, and dignity, survival and personal security. Prerequisite: WGS 150, or a 100-level PCE course, or FYS 100, or AFR 100, or permission of the instructor. Francois.
WRT 415 - ADVANCED WRITING WORKSHOP: POETRY (4 credits)
(Formerly ENG 315)
An advanced workshop in poetry. Written work for the seminar will be an extended project consisting of 10-15 pages of poetry. In-class critique of students’ work. Prerequisites: WRT 205 (ENG 205) or WRT 305 (ENG 305) or permission of the instructor. Fall semester. Spires.