FYS Courses

Section: 01-LEC (6104)
Location: FA 301
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Jill Randles

Course Description: We are witnessing renewed interest in matters related to spirituality. Concomitant with headlines about war, genocide, environmental crises, and abject poverty is a vibrant dialogue about social responsibility, moral reasoning, ethical action, and the sources of beauty, creativity, and passion that give life a depth of purpose and meaning. We need people who can lead with head and heart, who can combine the life of the mind with work for the greater good, and who exhibit the skills, knowledge, imagination, and spirit to create an equitable, sustainable, whole, and hopeful world. This calls for a curriculum that explores the scientific, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of thought and behavior. This course is oriented toward that exploration.

Section: 02-LEC (6105)
Location: SOND 202
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Elaine MacDougall

Course Description: This course will explore our ongoing struggle to define and achieve happiness in a technological world, addressing the question: Can we ever actually achieve happiness? In the class, students will explore the connections among technology, time, and happiness in order to understand and make conclusions about their own journey towards happiness. As part of the course, students will participate in community-engaged learning in order to take concepts discussed in the classroom space and apply them within the larger community in and around Baltimore.

Section: 03-LEC (6106)
Location: PAHB 123
Instruction Mode: Hybrid
Instructor: Jennifer Harrison

Course Description: This course is taught in the Hybrid format, with in-person meetings on Wednesdays and service learning work for the remaining credit hours. The complete title for this seminar is Telling Tales: Narratives, Social Justice, & Identity. In this course students will explore how we use stories to share, preserve, and shape our experiences. How do we tell stories to craft our identities? How do other people use narratives to influence our views? When we interact with narratives as writers, readers, and listeners, do they influence us intellectually, experientially, or ethically? To reflect on these questions, we will practice crafting new narratives to share our experiences and express the voices of others. Additionally, we will work together to analyze intersectional narratives that call for social justice, illuminate diverse voices, and challenge readers to interact with nontraditional experiences.

Section: 04-LEC (6622)
Location: PAHB124
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Jeremy Spahr

Course Description: For more than forty years the world was divided between east and west, communism and democracy, socialism and capitalism, with the threat of nuclear annihilation an ever-present fear for most of the period. The Cold War not only defined the boundaries of foreign policy for most of the second half of the 20th Century, but it shaped domestic politics in both the United States and the Soviet Union as well. For Americans, Hollywood’s portrayals of the Cold War in films from the late 1940s through to the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, shaped perceptions of the conflict as much as political speeches, newspapers, and television. Examining these films reveals the changing views held by the American public, as well as efforts to shape those views by political and cultural leaders throughout the Cold War.

Section: 05-LEC (6623)
Location: SHER150
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Jeremy Spahr

Course Description: The 1980s saw the rise of modern conservatism with the election of Ronald Reagan, the end of the Cold War, and a vast expansion in consumer culture. All of these changes were reflected and influenced by the popular culture of the 1980s in film, television, and music. This course examines the political, social, and cultural changes of the 1980s, and the way these changes were portrayed and even shaped by the popular culture of the decade. Students will choose a historical event from the 1980s and examine how popular culture interpreted the event, often in contrast with the views and valuations of historians.

Section: 06-LEC (6624)
Location: PAHB 123
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Richard Otten

Course Description: This course will aim in illuminating the ways in which we are passive consumers of popular culture and empower individuals to become critical participants. Popular culture is all around us. It influences how we think, feel, vote, and how we live our lives. This interdisciplinary course will introduce students to the study of U.S. popular culture and aims to examine the multiple ways gender has been portrayed in various popular cultural forms. Through an intersectional and intertextual investigation of television, film , popular music, advertisement, and social media, we will explore how representation as objects, consumers, subjects, creators, challengers, and critics both reflect and produce socio-cultural phenomena and ideas about the proper role of women and men in society. Throughout this course, we will consider the intersections of gender, sex, and race and analyze how they are articulated in popular culture.

Section: 01-LEC (6123)
Location: SOND208
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Ciara Christian, Jasmine A. Lee

Course Description: This course is designed for people who have a deep interest in issues related to race, social justice, power, privilege, oppression, intercultural dialogue, and the ways such issues influence our leadership abilities and interests. By focusing on how we think and talk about social justice broadly, including race and other intersecting social identities in the United States, students will deepen their understanding and simultaneously learn techniques to engage in constructive conversations and critical dialogues across differences. Students will simultaneously develop skills for facilitating and leading difficult dialogues in ways that help them become more inclusive leaders and active contributors to a diverse and inclusive campus community.

Section: 02-LEC (5993)
Location: ENGR102
Instruction Mode: Hybrid
Instructor: Josh Abrams, Collin Sullivan

Course Description: This course is a hybrid course with in person meetings on Mondays, and Asynchronous work for the remaining credit hours. Course Description: This 3-credit First-Year Seminar course delves into the multifaceted realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI), guiding students through its historical evolution, fundamental concepts, and ethical implications. Through interactive lectures and hands-on projects, students will explore AI’s impact on problem-solving, decision-making, and societal structures. Topics include the definition and history of AI, its role in shaping the future of work and education, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI implementation. By analyzing case studies and engaging in discussions, students will develop critical thinking skills and an understanding of AI’s potential to transform industries and societies. Through reflection and practical applications, students will emerge with a nuanced understanding of AI’s capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations, equipping them to navigate the complex landscape of AI technologies with confidence and insight.

Section: 04-LEC (6122)
Location: AOK-LIB259
Instruction Mode: Hybrid
Instructor: Joanna Gadsby, Kathryn Sullivan

Course Description: This course is taught in the Hybrid format, with In-Person meetings on Thursdays and Synchronous meetings on Tuesdays. Course Description: This course introduces students to the reflective discovery and critique of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge. Through guided discussion and hands-on activities, students will explore issues related to privacy, censorship, digital activism, as well as how issues of gender, race, and class affect information access and creation. Students will develop the skills necessary to ethically and effectively use information to make decisions, solve problems, and communicate their views. In the process of exploring the information cycle and their own information seeking and consumption behaviors, they will develop strategies to better find, evaluate, manage and cite information.

Section: 05-LEC (6628)
Location: MP105
Instruction Mode: Hybrid
Instructor: Nandita Dasgupta

Course Description: This course is taught in the Hybrid format, with in-person meetings on Mondays and Asynchronous work for the remaining credit hours. Course Description: The American Story is not an oft-quoted word in USA. Nonetheless, the phenomenon of poverty is worth exploring especially in the backdrop of the Great Recession that US has recently experienced. With continuing unemployment and increasing costs of living, more and more families have to choose between necessities like health care, child care, and even food. This seminar will examine the nature and extent of poverty in the U.S., its causes and consequences, and the poverty alleviation measures adopted through government programs and policies.

Section: 06-LEC (6629)
Location: ILSB301
Instruction Mode: Hybrid
Instructor: Vickie Williams

Course Description: This course is taught in the Hybrid format, with In-Person meetings on Wednesdays and Service Learning for the remaining credit hours. Course Description: Course will explore and mediate the tension between the current climate of school reform and the learning needs of highly diverse students through the lens of multicultural classrooms in diverse schools. In multicultural America, classrooms mirror the diverse nature of children’s backgrounds, cultural experiences, languages, and ways of knowing. This course offers opportunities to learn about the challenges of local schools firsthand and to understand the implementation of federal and local policies aimed at supporting the academic success of all students, regardless of cultural, linguistic, ethnic, or diverse backgrounds. The course will first examine the multicultural nature of society and schools. Then, Brown v. the Board of Education will be revisited as a foundation for understanding the legal, political, and social forces that impact a multicultural education system.

Section: 01-LEC (6899)
Location: IT238
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Robert Oehrli

Course Description: The Discovering The Engineering World course will allow students to explore what it means to be an engineer and how engineers and non-engineers alike can change the world. Students will learn basic engineering skills including, design, 3D modeling, technical writing, computational thinking and problem solving skills. Students will engage in a community design process where they work with actual stakeholders in the community to complete an engineering design project.

Section: 01-LEC (6121)
Location: MP102
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Lauren Allen, Jodi Kelber-Kaye

Course Description: This course investigates gender-based harms, including harassment, intimate partner abuse, and sexual coercion and violence, through the diverse disciplinary lenses of psychology, sociology, social work, history, biology, information technology, art, and media studies. We will explore the multi-faceted nature of genderbased harms and create action-based opportunities for students to use their individual strengths and academic interests to make positive social change in their personal lives and communities. We will combine traditional academic content with opportunities for students to develop skills for healthy relationship building–platonic, romantic, sexual, and everything in between.

Section: 01-LEC (6121)
Location: SOND110
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Ever Hanna, Reilly Metzger

Course Description: This course investigates gender-based harms, including harassment, intimate partner abuse, and sexual coercion and violence, through the diverse disciplinary lenses of psychology, sociology, social work, history, biology, information technology, art, and media studies. We will explore the multi-faceted nature of genderbased harms and create action-based opportunities for students to use their individual strengths and academic interests to make positive social change in their personal lives and communities. We will combine traditional academic content with opportunities for students to develop skills for healthy relationship building–platonic, romantic, sexual, and everything in between.

Section: 01-LEC (6139)
Location: PAHB124
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Michael Canale

Course Description: Introduction to Disability Studies is a three-credit course designed to introduce the foundations of Disability Studies. This course is designed to understand the history of disability, categorization of disabilities, communication, and behaviors needed to apply the inclusion of disabilities in your work and personal interactions. Additionally, the course will provide you with resources for further study of equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Section: 02-LEC (6630)
Instruction Mode: Online
Instructor: Samantha Smith

Course Description: This course is taught in the Online format with Synchronous meetings on Wednesdays and Asynchronous work for the remaining credit hours. This course critically evaluates the relationship between social movements, social justice, and population health using critical analysis and dialogue. The class will focus on the roles of socially constructed differences and social determinants of health in developing and proliferating health disparities domestically and globally. This course aims to introduce the intersection of sociology and public health, with particular focus on the role of social movements. This course aims to have students conceptualize the profound and historical impact of social injustice on global and domestic health disparities and begin to think through how we might use principles of social justice to address health disparities meaningfully and enact social change.

Section: 01-LEC (6098)
Location: ILSB233
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Brian Souders

Course Description: This course is designed for students who are interesting in developing and growing intercultural communications skills within the U.S. American context. The course will be divided into three main components: foundations of identity and culture, applications of those skills to real-world contemporary issues with a focus on the interconnectedness of local issues to global issues (e.g. social justice, environmental sustainability, globalization, and immigration), and practicing those skills in a collaborative, immersive environment with students from an international partner institution. Through reflection and understanding our own identities and their role in local and global issues, students will develop an awareness of their role in their own communities and an interest in becoming an engaged citizen in the world around them. They will practice techniques that will be applied at both levels and serve them in their future social and professional lives.

Section: 02-LEC (6138)
Location: ILSB302
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Janet Gross

Course Description: This course will engage students in investigating the diverse examples of fashion, art, hairstyle, architecture, music, physiognomy and more used in various countries throughout history to define the beautiful and often denigrate the not-so-pleasing. The course will include an interdisciplinary exploration and critical discussion of readings on beauty and ugliness in various categories and time periods. Students will have individualized research opportunities to produce critical and creative essays and presentations on the category, example, timeframe and perspective they choose to focus on in the U.S. or abroad. The class will collaborate on a final visual project to tie all these notions of beauty together through time and space.

Section: 03-LEC (6831)
Location: ILSB301
Instruction Mode: In Person
Instructor: Janet Gross

Course Description: We will investigate diverse contemporary and historic examples of songs used in various countries to protest or resist existing social conditions. We will explore readings on social movements and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings of protest songs from dozens of countries. Students will choose the specific country’s songs and social unrest to research in order to produce original critical and creative essays as well as presentations to enlighten the class. Students may also produce their own original protest songs about contemporary issues in the U.S. or abroad.