Spring semester course registration is right around the corner! Unless you’ve thought ahead or had a chance to navigate Albert, chances are you’ll be scrambling to choose your classes when the day arrives. And in your haste, you may overlook some really cool opportunities. We’ve done some of the work for you and made a list of 8 courses worth checking out.
1. Global Noodles: Silk Routes & Subway Connections
This course description opens with the question, “Is this just an excuse to eat lots of noodles? Yes, it is!” We’ll let you do with that what you will. Besides being a time of the week to meet and eat yummy noodles from around the globe, you will discuss historical critical theory and learn about the silk route movements throughout Central Asia. Learning while eating? Should there ever be any other way?
2. Science and Pseudoscience
Do you find yourself researching UFO sightings at night or trying to debunk the media myths surrounding them? If so, this class if definitely for you. An intermingling of philosophy and science, you will find yourself thinking just as deeply about alien abductions as you will about astrology and global warming.
3. History of Children’s Television
Have you ever wondered about the way in which the shows you watched as a kid, may have influenced who you are now? If not, you certainly will when signing up for this course. From interviewing preschoolers to re-watching some of your childhood favorites, find out just how deeply cartoons resonate.
4. Classical Mythology
Relive your pre-teen Percy Jackson fan phase and discuss Greek mythologies at the collegiate level. From Gods to greek heroes, you are sure to enter a fantastical world every time you step into class.
5. Desperate Housewives of the 19th-Century Novel
Remember when Gone Girl came out and basically turned the happy marriage plot on its head? Turns out people have been examining what happens after the “I do’s” for quite some time. Join Professor June Foley to discuss everything from the hit TV show, Desperate Housewives, to the literary desperate housewives found in novels such as Madame Bovary and The Odd Women. (P.S. I’ve had the pleasure of taking a class with June and she is a delight!)
6. Animal Minds
This is a MUST take class for all the animal lovers and pet owners who spend the better portion of their day wondering what their furry friend is thinking and feeling. Have an existential crisis on behalf of your dog by contemplating such questions as: “Are animals agents? Do they have free will?” and “Do they live meaningful lives?”
7. Popular Music and Protest in the 21st Century
Beyonce’s Lemonade, released earlier this year, was undeniably groundbreaking. It shattered the expectation of modern pop and was simultaneously very explicit about the way it was politicizing the concept of infidelity. An anthem of the modern day black woman, Beyonce dared anyone to try and diminish her voice. Could one say, it was a sign of protest? Well, what actually constitutes as protest music nowadays? And who has taken part in it? Beyonce is just one of many artists you will be examining. Fans of Kanye, Kendrick Lamar and TV on the Radio, rejoice.
8. Pirates and Buccaneers: Seaborne Terrorism in the Early Modern World
If this isn’t one of the best titles you’ve ever read for a course, then I don’t know where you’ve been looking. When did piracy first emerge and how much truth is rooted in the concept as we think of it today? Also, will wearing a Jack Sparrow shirt be heavily frowned upon?