Themester 2023 courses are still being collected and will be added here shortly.
Some Themester courses meet College (CASE), General Education (GenEd), major, or minor requirements. Others count as elective credit. Students should consult with an academic advisor to learn how Themester courses count in their program of study.
In The Art of Astronomy, we explore the science of imaging the universe and the technology that makes the images possible. Topics include the night sky, telescopes and cameras, light and color, and the science behind the images.
Learn more about this courseUse of the Past - Scientist as Storyteller provides an overview of the different uses of narratives in science, analyzes their contributions and caveats, and concludes with how past stories inform about the future.
Learn more about this courseIn this course we will examine and discuss questions about scientific reasoning and methods. These questions include: Why accept any scientific claim? How do scientists produce hypotheses and evaluate them? How do they use data as evidence for hypotheses? Are there different levels of strength of evidence? What can go wrong?
Learn more about this courseWhat can we know and how do we know it? This course will introduce students from the sciences and humanities to key elements of scientific research: observation and experimentation.
Learn more about this courseThis course introduces formal semantics, which borrows tools from mathematical logic to investigate how word meaning and sentence syntax interact to determine a sentence’s truth conditions, thereby illuminating how a speaker of a language understands a sentence—even one never encountered before.
Learn more about this courseNot despite but because of its otherness, fantasy fiction interrogates reality. Magical worlds operate metaphorically and allegorically, bringing disturbing truths into the light where real histories and systems of oppression can be constructively confronted. This semester, we will analyze three bestselling authors – Tomi Adeyemi, Chelsea Abdullah, and Sarah J. Maas – whose secondary worlds bring our own into view.
Learn more about this courseThis course considers the very real roles that perceptual illusions have played and continue to play in a range of humanities topics—including philosophy, art, folklore, music, sports, magic, film, and food. Interdisciplinary at its core, our discussions and coursework will oscillate between scientific and humanistic descriptions of illusory experience as we answer bedrock intellectual questions—What am I? Who are we? What is reality?—manifest as illusions in culture.
Learn more about this courseUsing a variety of materials from mass-media and social media, political science, film, fiction, and other arts, we will examine how and why France has succeeded or failed in its ambition to achieve economic and social justice, to face its colonial past, to eradicate racism and embrace sound immigration policies, and to deal with political polarization, nationalism, and xenophobia.
Learn more about this courseOur brains routinely solve problem too complex for the mightiest computer, yet fails dramatically to establish correct knowledge and make logical inferences regarding simple everyday events. The culprits can be partially traced to cognitive shortcuts (heuristics) and their inevitable biases; these account for errors in economics, medicine, business, judicial systems, and human relations. This course offers a theoretical and pragmatic analysis of these cognitive tools.
Learn more about this courseThe PACE-C 200 Issue Forum is an opportunity for students to engage in a one-day experience in democratic deliberation. Student conversations will focus on the topic of Truth, Media, and Democracy.
Learn more about this courseThis course looks to understand who held religious power between the years 400-1500. We will look at the papal church, then at saints, monks and other ascetics and visionaries who had charismatic power, as well as scholars and mystics, kings, popes, and others.
Learn more about this courseIn this course we will examine the ways in which humans relate to the realms of the divine, the animal and the inanimate by focusing on the importance of transformational tales in works of mythology, fiction, history and autobiography, as expressed in writing and the visual arts.
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The College of Arts