Complex Problems & Enduring Questions Courses

Daniel Callahan, Music
Brian Robinette, Theology

How might we train for encounters with beauty and the sacred?

One objective of these linked courses is to help students realize that their own personal experiences can be the departing point for—and even the subject of—scholarly inquiry, that theology, the arts, and philosophy are not mere disciplines to be learned but practices that are indispensable to being alive and serving the common good. Another aim is for students to realize that deeply meaningful experiences—whether of the true, the beautiful, and the good, or the divine in the world and in one’s self—often don’t just happen. Instead, such experiences are usually the result of being situated in the right place and time with the right preparation and mindset; in other words, they are usually the result of a certain type of exercise.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
• TTh 1:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Reflection will be held:

• TH 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.
  

Deborah De Chiara-Quenzer, Philosophy
Matthew Petillo, Theology

What does it mean to be virtuous and why does it matter?

These courses will consider what it means to be virtuous and how that contributes to living a flourishing life. Both courses begin with ancient texts—the Bible and writings of Plato and Aristotle—and introduce students to foundational ethical and religious notions of virtue. Each course, in its own distinctive manner, will invite students to think about how notions of virtue relate either to famous literary figures (Philosophy course) or to the works of later philosophers and theologians (Theology course). The texts of Plato and Aristotle will serve as a point of connection between the two courses.

These course lectures meet:

• MWF 9:00 – 9:50 a.m.
• MWF 10:00 – 10:50 a.m.

Reflection will be held:

• TH 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.
  

Susan Michalczyk, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences
John Michalczyk, Art, Art History, and Film

Why do the wicked prosper?

At the heart of so many stories told through the centuries is the question, “Why do the wicked prosper?” It remains without an answer, as authors and artists offer endless interpretations—lessons with or without morals—to an audience eager for explanations. Students will have opportunities to study narratives of heroes and villains and reflect upon the ways in which writers influence how we think about good and evil in the world, how we react to the unfairness we see happening around us, and how we come to terms with our own choices and understanding of the complexities of human nature.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
• TTh 1:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Reflection will be held:

• Th 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.
  

Ingu Hwang, International Studies
Christina Klein, English

What is the relationship between politics and popular culture?

How did East Asia emerge from the wreckage of the Second World War to become the dominant political, economic, and cultural force it is in the world today? What is the relationship between politics and popular culture? Since 1945, East Asia has experienced the Cold War, civil war, communist revolution, modernization, capitalism, democratization, and economic booms and busts. It has also become a powerhouse producer of popular and art cinema. In these paired courses, students will explore the relationship between politics and culture as they learn how historians and filmmakers have grappled with the tumultuous events of the past 75 years.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
• TTh 1:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Film screenings will be held:

• M 7:00 – 8:50 p.m.
  

Elizabeth Graver, English
Lynne Anderson, English

How does migration in today's world shape questions of identity, borders, and belonging and lead to a reimagining of home?

In these paired courses, students will read a range of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (including spoken word poems) by authors whose migration stories to the United States offer multiple ways to think about what it means to be an outsider and build a new life and home. They will explore their own migration stories, the routes that brought them here, and the ways in which their family roots shape their identities. Some of the questions students will consider include: What are the gifts and challenges of making a home across cultures? Of being multilingual? What do you know, and what don't you know, about your own family's migration story, whether recent or more removed? How might that story intersect with the topics we encounter in our texts? How does the writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk on the danger of the single story invite us to ask questions about power, memory, silence, and voice? What does it mean to migrate in a globalized, wired, yet often divided world? Reflection sessions will include an author talk, a museum visit, creative writing, and several shared meals.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
• TTh 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.

Reflections will be held 4 times during the semester:

• W 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.
  

Jeffrey Lamoureux, Associate Dean, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences & Psychology
Robert Stanton, English

What is a human and who is an animal?

What is a human, and who is an animal? Humanism has questionably attributed reason, morality, speech, ritual, and the capacity to imagine future worlds to humans alone. All major philosophies and religions try to separate humans from animals. For instance, in Genesis, God distinguishes Adam and Eve from the beasts, then instructs Adam to name them. Humans still grapple with the ethics of eating, wearing, and experimenting on animals, as well as with understanding how various mental abilities are represented across species. These courses use comparative psychology and literary study to interrogate the blurry and problematic boundaries between human and non-human animals.

These course lectures meet:

• MWF 12:00 – 12:50 p.m.
• TTh 4:30 – 5:45 p.m.

Reflections will be held 4 times during the semester:

• W 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.
  

Dermot Moran, Philosophy
Thomas Sapsford, Classical Studies

Whatis the relationship between the individual self and its social roles?

These paired courses examine what factors make us free individuals and how that freedom has historically been removed from certain people. One course will explore the nature of the self in historical and contemporary perspectives from East and West to look at the nature of self-consciousness and personhood. The other will investigate how ancient Greeks and Romans justified the enslavement of individuals for material gain and how ancient slavery influenced American society both in terms of its use of slave-labor and in the arguments made for abolition.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
• TTh 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.

Reflections will be held 4 times during the semester:

• T 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.
  

Deanna Danforth, English
Ethan Tupelo, Core Fellow, Political Science

How do we create a just society?

Utopia, a word derived from Greek and literally translating to “no place,” has, since the sixteenth century, come to mean an ideal, perfect society. While utopias thus may seem to exist only as imaginary spaces, separatist groups throughout history have experimented with turning them into realities, communalizing land and resources. In these paired courses, students will examine the contexts, motivating ideologies, and social structures of a series of these attempts as well as literary texts that spawned and responded to them. Following reflection on the successes and failures of these endeavors as ways of life, social experimentation, and lasting legacies, students will exercise collective imagination in envisioning a just and hopeful future by designing their own utopian communities.

These course lectures meet:

• TTh 9:00 – 10:15 a.m.
• TTh 10:30 – 11:45 a.m.

Reflections will be held 4 times during the semester:

• T 6:00 – 7:50 p.m.