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First-Year Seminar/Launch Archive

Term Subject Catalog Number Section Same As Recitation Course Title Days Times Description Instructor Instructor Bio Instructor 2 Instructor 2 Bio Instructor 3 Instructor 3 Bio Instructor 4 Instructor 4 Bio
Fall 2022 AAAD 51 001 Masquerades of Blackness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar is designed to investigate how the concept of race has been represented in cinema historically, with a particular focus on representations of race when blackness is masqueraded. Its intent is to launch an investigative inquiry into how African Americans are represented on screen in various time periods, how we as spectators are manipulated by these cinematic constructions of race, and how race is marked or coded other than through visual representation. Students will view films that deal with “passing” from the various historical periods and will utilize theoretical concepts introduced in class to read these visual representations. Films selected for viewing include the pre-World War II Era, the Civil Rights Era, and the “Post-Racial” era. Students will be required to write three papers that reflect their ability to apply theoretical concepts to reading racialized representations on screen in these three historical periods to demonstrate their understanding of how racial masquerades have evolved over time and continue to persist in contemporary culture.

Charlene Regester

Charlene Regester is an Associate Professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies and Affiliate Faculty for the Global Cinema Minor. She received her BA, MA, Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960 (which was nominated by the press to the NAACP Image Awards). She is the 2011 recipient of the Trailblazer Award Hayti Heritage Film Festival and 2007 Oscar Micheaux Book and Film Award from the Oscar Micheaux Film Festival, South Dakota. She has appeared on North Carolina Bookwatch with UNC-TV 2011; WUNC-FM Radio “The State of Things;” and Turner Movie Classics. Documentaries in which she has appeared include: Movies of Color: Black Southern Cinema (2003, Tom Thurman director), Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), Madison Davis Lacy director), and Birth of a Movement (2017, Bestor Cram and Susan Gray directors).

Fall 2022 AAAD 54 001 African Migrations, Boundaries, Displacements, and Belonging MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

Boundary making, migration, and population displacement have been significant dimensions of the contemporary African experience. How has boundary making, broadly defined (inclusive of national borders, rural-urban distinctions, and ethnic and racial groupings, for example), shaped contemporary Africa? What types of and through what processes were boundaries were created? How did the African people respond to these processes? What population displacements unfolded in the context of this boundary making? And how did the people of Africa make sense of and understand boundary making, migration, and displacement? These are some of the questions we will be examining in this interactive and discussion oriented class. We will build our examination of these issues around six novels written by African authors. These novels will provide insight into the ways by which boundaries, migration, and displacement impacted the everyday lives of the African people.

Michael Lambert

Michael Lambert is an Associate Professor of African Studies and Anthropology. His research has principally been in francophone West Africa with a focus on issues related to migration. He has lived for over five years in Senegal and the neighboring nation of Mauritania, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer, and he has travelled extensively throughout the continent. His first book, Longing for Exile: Migration and the Making of a Translocal Community in Senegal (West Africa) (Heinemann, 2002), explores the cultural and social history of urban migration in a Senegalese community. His most recent book (co-authored), Up from These Hills: Memories of Cherokee Boyhood (Nebraska [Bison Books], 2011), explores American Indian experience in the mid-20th century.

Fall 2022 ANTH 62 001 Indian Country Today MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

With the United States as our geographic focus, this seminar explores a range of 20th- and early-21st-century American Indian topics and current issues. We look at Indian casinos, tribal colleges, identity, gender, tribal courts, sports, and other topics. An exploration of the history of American Indians before and after the arrival of Europeans, a history with which we begin the seminar, provides essential background for looking at the present and recent past. This seminar will help students better understand the challenges facing American Indian communities both internally and externally and the creative solutions being forged to address these challenges. It will also help students further develop skills in reading, writing, critical analysis, and public speaking.

Valerie Lambert

Valerie Lambert is professor of anthropology and an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and has won awards for undergraduate teaching and for each of her two single-authored books. Her first book is about her Tribe; her second one is about American Indian and Alaska Native workers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She has twice been elected president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. She is the mother of two daughters, both of whom are in their twenties.

Fall 2022 ANTH 64 001 Public Archaeology in Bronzeville, Chicago's Black Metropolis MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

The term “African diaspora” usually refers to the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade, but there have been many diasporas of people of African descent. One major movement took place in the U.S. in the early 20th century when millions of people left small southern communities for large industrial northern cities. This seminar examines that phenomenon through the lens of a single site where migrants lived in the city of Chicago. The Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls was run by black women to provide social services for female migrants from 1926 through the 1960s. Research at this site combines elements of archaeology, anthropology and history to study their lives. Students, working in teams, will have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing research effort via analysis of written records and artifacts. This multidisciplinary project will be of interest to students curious about 20th century history, African-American culture, museums and heritage, women’s and gender studies, migration and labor history.

Anna Agbe-Davies

Anna Agbe-Davies is an historical archaeologist whose excavations have explored the plantation societies of the colonial southeastern US and Caribbean, as well as towns and cities of the 19th and 20th century Midwest, with an emphasis on sites of the African diaspora. Her projects have included excavation and community collaboration at the sites of New Philadelphia, Illinois and the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls on the south side of Chicago. Her research and teaching interests are strongly shaped by her own experiences as an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary and the time she spent working in museum settings before becoming a professor. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she was a staff archaeologist for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Department of Archaeological Research.

Fall 2022 ANTH 89 001 Don’t Dis My Disability TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this course, we examine disability from the perspective of cultural and medical anthropology. Specifically, we consider how people living with physical, mental, visible, and invisible disabilities navigate physical and social spaces, deal with prejudices of all kinds, and experience everyday life. By engaging with leading anthropologists and activists, spending time with community-based disability groups on and off campus, and studying cross-cultural scholarship, we will learn about the richness and vitality of disability worlds. Furthermore, we will look at how societal and medical conceptions of disability are changing in the context of COVID-19, human-animal entanglements, and climate change. Overall, the people we meet and material we cover emphasize the multitude of ways in which a focus on disability can generate creative modes of thinking, connection, and experience in the twenty-first century.

Aalyia Sadruddin

Aalyia Sadruddin is a cultural and medical anthropologist who teaches and writes on topics related to aging, biomedical technologies, care, and political culture in postconflict societies. She is currently working on her first book, "After-After-Lives," which documents how women and men in Rwanda who witnessed multiple episodes of political and ethnic conflict between the late 1950s and early 1990s piece together their lives through everyday practices of care, death preparations, and storytelling. Aalyia was born and raised in Kenya and attended college in South Africa. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Yale University. Prior to joining the Department of Anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs at Brown University. Outside of her academic life, Aalyia enjoys reading novels and watching tennis.

Fall 2022 ANTH 53H 037 Darwin's Dangerous Idea TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to one of the most profound revolutions in the history of thought, generating stunning insights but also some misunderstanding and tragic abuse. This seminar aims to provide a clear understanding of how natural selection works, and how it doesn’t. We will examine objections to the theory; how the environmental and health problems we face today reflect processes of natural selection; and recent attempts to understand why we get sick, how we respond to disease, why we get old, why we choose mates the way we do, and more. Class sessions will feature a mix of lecture and discussion of concepts and issues. Students will also engage in small group projects—cooperative explorations of problems raised in class or in the readings and/or designing mini research projects.

Paul Leslie

Paul Leslie’s professional interests focus on human ecology, and he has pursued this primarily through research among nomadic peoples in East Africa. His most recent project entails studying (while nursing an aged Land Rover across the African savanna) human-environment interactions in northern Tanzania, especially how the changing land use and livelihood patterns of the Maasai people living there affect and are affected by wildlife and conservation efforts. When not teaching or practicing anthropology, he enjoys bicycling, motorcycling, woodworking, and jazz.

Fall 2022 APPL 110 02F Introduction to Design and Making: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Richard Goldberg

Dr. Richard Goldberg is a Teaching Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Goldberg is leading the effort to develop new programs in Applied Sciences and Engineering, including a minor that started in 2020 and plans for an upcoming major. He is interested in developing programs that bridge ties between engineering and the liberal arts by promoting an entrepreneurial mindset in our students. His research interests are in engineering education, and in developing technology for people with disabilities.

Fall 2022 ARTH 61 001 African American Art of the Carolinas MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Focusing on the Carolinas, this seminar explores the many ways African Americans have used art to define themselves and their communities. We will ask how art has been used to maintain cultural traditions, shape American culture and build political solidarity from the era of colonialism and slavery to the present. We will study the cultivation of artistic practices from Africa; African American painters, sculptors and craftsmen who earned national reputations for the quality of their work; artists who re-imagined and redefined African American identity through art; and artists throughout the 20th century who represented the daily lives and hardships of rural and working-class blacks. Students will visit campus museums and archives and conduct original research using regional sources. Persistent questions throughout the semester will include, How does the art of African Americans in the Carolinas provoke us to question our own identities and roles within the region, and what is the contemporary role of art in shaping public discourse?

John Bowles

John Bowles received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002 and is a graduate of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He is an historian of African American art, who works from the assumption that art plays an important role in determining how we see ourselves as morally responsible individuals. In his research and teaching, he attempts to convey the urgency of art by addressing moral and political dilemmas we would often rather ignore. He has published articles and art criticism in various journals and has recently completed a book that examines the work of artist Adrian Piper. He is currently writing a book that explores how African American artists have engaged simultaneously with modernism, globalization and diaspora from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s until today.

Fall 2022 ARTS 59 001 Time, A Doorway to Visual Expression MW 2:30 PM – 4:25 PM

Alice Walker wrote “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly”. Tennessee Williams wrote, “Time is the longest distance between two places”. Throughout history, time has captivated and inspired artists, writers and musicians. From subtle movements to clearly defined sequences of change, artists will manipulate the element of time to enhance their ideas. “Time, A Doorway to Visual Expression”, considers the concept of time from a variety of perspectives and provides a path to investigate your own notions of time. As a group, we examine this mystifying topic through readings and discussions of Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams and Leonard Shlain’s Art and Physics. We also watch films, analyze videos and listen to music as we express our personal views through the art making process. As a first-year seminar, the course presumes no previous art experience and students may carry out their projects through a medium of their chossing (e.g., drawing, photography, painting, video, sound, performance and/or sculpture). We will immerse ourselves in the subject of time and create works of art inspired by our personal experiences and increased understanding of Time.

Jim Hirschfield

Jim Hirschfield is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History who began contemplating the experience of time during his travels through the deserts of the southwest in his VW Microbus. He still treasures the experience of travel and travels for inspiration and for adventure. Jim has received a number of art commissions from cities across the country: From Anchorage, Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and from San Diego, California to Orono, Maine. He has also received numerous awards for his art installations, which he describes as explorations in meditative and ethereal environments that expand our perceptions of time.

Fall 2022 ASIA 72 001 Transnational Korea: Literature, Film, and Popular Culture TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Taking the recent Korean Wave phenomenon as its point of departure, this course introduces students to the history of transnational imaginations in modern and contemporary Korean culture. Drawing upon literature, film, television, and secondary scholarship, we will explore how a diverse array of Korean cultural producers have used narratives of cross-border travel, migration, and exchange to rethink Korea’s place in the world and refashion Korean identity. In each section of the course, we will consider a different domain or dimension of border-crossing activity: education; labor; migration and diaspora; North-South interactions; war and military; cosmopolitan imaginings and the making of “global Korea.” In so doing, we will learn to think critically about the relationship between works from colonial Korea, postcolonial North Korea, postcolonial South Korea, and the Korean diaspora, and we will also gain a more nuanced understanding of popular culture’s place within its broader social and historical contexts.

Jonathan Kief

Jonathan Kief is a scholar of modern Korean literature and culture whose research focuses on interactions between words and images in postcolonial North and South Korea. He is also interested in the Korean diaspora, the history of Korean translation practices, and the history of radio and television in Cold War-era East Asia. His teaching combines literature, film, and popular culture to help students explore both the contemporary globalization of Korean culture and the robust history of transnational exchanges that it builds upon. Before moving to North Carolina, he lived in Korea, Japan, and many different parts of the U.S.

Fall 2022 ASIA 89 001 Love in China TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

We all know that love is not easy. But what makes it so complicated? This course examines how the Chinese conception of “love” offers a key for us to understand Chinese emotions, family structure, gender and sexuality, consumer desire, as well as political passion. We will probe into these issues through some of the most essential Chinese cultural texts from the 8th century B.C.E. to the 21st century, reading a variety of genres including poetry, fictional narratives, and films. We will also visit the Ackland Art Museum and engage with creative transmedia storytelling, exploring different perspectives to approach primary sources. By the end of the course, you will be able to deconstruct fixed notions about love in the contemporary West, and broaden your perceptions of selfhood, partnership, and community through “love” in the Chinese-speaking world. No prior knowledge of Chinese language and culture is required, and all readings are available in English translation.

Keren He

Keren He specializes in modern Chinese literature, media, and popular culture. Her research focuses on how aging and suicide negotiated “the politics of life” in the Chinese-speaking world. She is also interested in posthumanism, queer theory, and game studies in China and Sinophone regions. She had lived in Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong before receiving her Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Fall 2022 BIOL 89 001 Unsolved Problems in the Genomic Age TTH 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

We are living in times of a genetic revolution. We have sequenced the human genome and are in a position to transform medical treatment in the world. In spite of the advances in DNA sequencing, there remain mysteries in terms of how the cell accesses genetic information and how our genomes are transmitted to progeny cells with such high fidelity. The principles governing chromosome organization have been discovered through advances in biology, physics, statistics and computational sciences. This class will explore advances from the diverse disciplines and discuss the successes and limitations of the different approaches.

Kerry Bloom

Dr. Kerry Bloom has a long-standing interest in chromosomes. How does the cell pack 2 meters of DNA into a tiny (10 micron) cell. We use a combination of tools including genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, polymer physics, computer simulations and molecular modeling to understand basic mechanisms of chromosome organization and segregation.

Fall 2022 BIOL 101 01F Principles of Biology TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course is the prerequisite to most higher courses in biology. An introduction to the fundamental principles of biology, including cell structure, chemistry, and function; genetics; evolution; adaptation; and ecology. (See department concerning Advanced Placement credit.) Three lecture hours a week.

Alaina Garland
Fall 2022 CHEM 89 001 Bread from Air? The Chemistry of Fertilizers TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Fear of a global famine inspired chemist Fritz Haber’s research into the production of ammonia from nitrogen in the air. Following a breakthrough laboratory discovery, engineer Carl Bosch led the development of a large-scale industrial process to produce ammonia… and together they changed the world. This First Year Seminar will introduce concepts of scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary collaboration in the context of the humankind’s utilization of fertilizers. Weaving together elements of plant biology, chemical synthesis and catalysis, environmental science, and technoeconomic analysis, the course will critically examine the past, present, and future of fertilizers.

Alexander Miller

Professor Alexander Miller is fascinated by the ability to control chemical reactivity by altering molecular structures based on transition metal ions. He gets to work with an incredible group of chemists to help apply chemical principles to grand challenges in alternative energy and sustainability, including projects that can underpin the development of light-driven fuel production and sustainable ammonia synthesis. Prof. Miller is an enthusiastic teacher who believes in the power of student-driven discovery. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and was (when he was younger) included in Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list in the Energy category.

Fall 2022 CHEM 101 01F various REC sections available General Descriptive Chemistry I MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Prerequisite, MATH 110. Chemistry 101 is the first half of a yearlong overview of the exciting field of chemistry, the study of the properties and changes of matter and energy. Students will be exposed to many new concepts, techniques and phenomena including atomic and molecular structure, stoichiometry, conservation of mass and energy and thermochemical changes. Chemistry 101 is a pre-requisite for Chemistry 102, and together, Chemistry 101 and 102 are the gateway to all courses in chemistry.

Jillian Dempsey

Professor Jillian Dempsey develops strategies to use sunlight to drive the production of liquid fuels. Liquid solar fuels are expected to be an important component of our future global energy portfolio. In the lab, Professor Dempsey works with undergraduate and graduate students to advance the chemistry crucial to realizing liquid solar fuels. In the classroom, she's passionate about helping draw connections between fundamental chemical concepts and real world applications of chemistry. Professor Dempsey is the Deputy Director of the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE).

Fall 2022 CHEM 102 01F General Descriptive Chemistry II TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

CHEM 101 and 101L; C- or better required in CHEM 101 and from community college or AP/IB exam. The General Descriptive Chemistry II course is a continuation of Introduction to College Chemistry (CHEM 101) and considers a range of important and fascinating topics: • How do batteries, which are potential energy in a metal housing, work? • Why does sweating cool us? Why is sweating more effective in a dry desert than in humid North Carolina? How is the same effect achieved when dogs pant? • Why does brining the roads before an ice storm make it safer to travel? How does the salt lower the temperature at which liquid water turns into slippery ice? Why does salt dissolve in water anyway? • How does an enzyme increase the rate of a biochemical reaction? • What is a semiconductor, present in electronics and solar panels, and how is it different from a metal? CHEM 102 is a wonderful course because so many concepts you will learn can be found in real-world examples and will be concepts you would utilize in a range of other disciplines and areas of study, not just chemistry. Bulk properties of gases, liquids and solids, intermolecular forces, solutions and solution behavior, chemical equilibria, spontaneity and Gibbs energy, chemical kinetics and rates of reactions, acid-base chemistry, and electrochemistry. (thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium, intermolecular forces, solutions and solution behavior, bulk properties of gases, liquids and solids, acid-base chemistry, and electrochemistry). What is exciting about the First-Year Launch CHEM 102 class is that you will explore how the concepts you are learning in class reveal themselves in the world around you, and in modern research endeavors. In addition, we will build community, examine data and concepts, and develop problem solving and critical thinking skills. One planned activity will be to find examples of the concepts in the news and taking the first 5 minutes of class to share with the rest of the class, whether medically related examples, environmental examples, materials science examples, or other areas that interest you. Unlike regular CHEM 102 classes, we will help you engage with the science in meaningful ways, while also allowing you to learn how scientists think and solve problems. We’ll bring current research into the classroom, whether by interviewing research faculty to learn how they got interested in their area of chemistry and learn about the research they conduct, or attending a research seminar that would have concepts pertinent to class topics, or a research scientist as a guest lecturer. UNC is one of the top research institutions in the world, so we have as a goal to expose all of you to what is happening at UNC. Because the FYL classes are capped at 30 students, a lot like our First-Year Seminar classes and some of our Honors Chemistry classes, students will get to experience a small class environment. The class will become its own community as we explore these concepts together and begin to fill your “toolbox” with those tools that will allow you to be successful in your upper level classes, and be excited about what you are learning. All the introductory chemistry classes at UNC are high structured active learning classes, so we will use evidence-based pedagogical methods to help you master course goals. While introductory chemistry classes can sometimes make students a little nervous, we as a class will be walking this path together to learn, to explore, and to grow in our appreciation of chemistry.

This will be an in-person class with in-person exams; no remote options. The FY Launch section will take their exams during the regular class exam time and not during the common time with all the other CHEM 101 and 102 sections.

Domenic John Tiani

Dr. Domenic Tiani has been teaching at UNC since 2003, teaching a range of courses and labs. Dr. Tiani is an analytical chemist by training, working in the areas of spectroscopy and surface analysis during graduate school. Dr. Tiani was very interested in investigating the chemistry that occurs at interfaces and developing tools to help accomplish those measurements. At UNC he is part of a larger team of term faculty members that focus on chemical education, lab and curriculum development, and improving learning outcomes for students taking chemistry courses. He is committed to helping students be successful in chemistry and provide them with the tools to be prepared for their successive STEM classes. Dr. Tiani is an energetic teacher and a past recipient of The Tanner Award for Undergraduate Teaching at UNC-CH. He was a first-generation college student, as well as a transfer student when he was an undergraduate, so he can relate to a lot of other Carolina Firsts and transfer students he meets at UNC. Dr. Tiani also serves as one of three faculty advisers in the Department of Chemistry, he is a Carolina First Advocate, and a Carolina Covenant Mentor.

Fall 2022 CLAS 59 001 Ancient Magic and Religion MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

Bindings and curses, love charms and healing potions, amulets and talismans – from simple spells to complex group rituals, ancient societies made use of both magic and religion to try to influence the world around them. In this course, we shall examine the roles of magic and religion in the ancient Greek
and Roman worlds, paying special attention to their local contexts and to the myths and actual techniques ancient practitioners used to serve their clientele.

In this class, we examine descriptions of religious and magical practices in the multicultural contexts of ancient Greece and Rome. Our sources include literary accounts, legal documents, and material objects, such as inscriptions, amulets, tablets, magical images, and papyri. Additionally, instruction for this class incorporates a combination of locations and technologies, including the the BeAM Makerspaces, the Greenlaw Gameroom, and the Ackland Art Museum. During the course of the term, students will be expected to analyze ancient literature and material artifacts, construct replicas of ancient objects, and explore reconstructions of the ancient Greco-Roman world in video games.

Suzanne Lye

Suzanne Lye received her A.B. from Harvard University, where she studied organic chemistry and the history of antibiotics. After receiving her Ph.D. in Classics from the University of California, Los Angeles, she was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College. At present, she is working on a book-length project about conceptions of the afterlife in ancient Greek Underworld narratives from Homer to Lucian. She has also participated in several digital humanities initiatives through Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies, including the Homer Multitext Project. She has published on ancient epic, ancient religion and magic, ancient representations of gender and ethnicity, modern pedagogy, and Classical reception.

Fall 2022 CLAS 51H 001 Greek Drama from Page to Stage MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Taking a participatory approach to ancient Greek drama, this course pairs readings from three Athenian playwrights (Aeschylus, Euripides, and Aristophanes) with performance-oriented activities and scholarship. At its most traditional, this course surveys the historical and cultural context of the so-called “classical” Athens of the fifth-century BCE, emphasizing the political, religious, and aesthetic forces that gave rise to humankind’s first recorded theater. More innovatively, this course probes the dual nature of theater, its distinct but intertwined existences as codified script and socially-embedded performance, through sustained investigations of some of its most influential texts and their modern reception in a global context with case studies focused on post-Apartheid South African and 21st-century Chicanx experiences. Through a variety of original compositions (including Tweets, TikTok/FlipGrid videos, character backstories, stand-up routines, director’s notes, and scholarly analyses), students gain practical experience and theoretical insight into the ways text, performance, and culture interact. Through improvisational activities, recorded videos, and scene rehearsals, students become thespians in their own right, pressing the limits of how far performance might extend beyond the traditional stage. Class trips to Davis Library, the Forest Theater, and live performances introduce first-year students to some of the academic and cultural resources UNC offers.

Al Duncan

Al Duncan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics. He holds a B.A. in English and Classical Languages & Literature from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Classics and the Humanities from Stanford University. Having previously taught in Classics and Comparative Literature at the University at Utah, he joined the Carolina faculty in 2015, where he teaches a variety of courses on ancient Greek language and literature and ancient Mediterranean culture. Professor Duncan’s research focuses on theatrical production, aesthetics, and genre. He is currently preparing a book on ugliness in Greek drama, as well as several chapters and articles on the material and cognitive aspects of ancient theater.

Fall 2022 CLAS 57H 001 Dead and Deadly Women: Greek Tragic Heroines from Aeschylus to Eliot TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this course, we will study the great tragic heroines of ancient Greek drama, focusing on Clytemnestra, Medea, Alcestis, Phaedra, the Trojan Women, Antigone. We will also read a contemporary novel, by Fay Weldon, that engages many of these mythic women. We will studythe Greek tragedies intensively, along with their reception in later art, from paintings to poems, stage productions to sculptures, operas to ballets. Our questions will include: why does Greek tragedy focus so intensely on women? Are the playwrights misogynists or do they express some sympathy for women? What about these female characters grabbed the imaginations not only of ancient Greek playwrights but of later writers, painters, composers, not to mention readers? How are their stories relevant to the 21st century? Did the ancient Athenians know something we don’t?

Sharon James

Professor Sharon James specializes in Roman comedy, Latin poetry, and women in ancient Greece and Rome. She has published many articles on these subjects, as well as a book on Roman love elegy (published in 2003); she is currently preparing a large-scale book on women in Greek and Roman New Comedy (the plays of Menander, Plautus, and Terence). She is also the co-editor of Blackwell’s Companion to Women in the Ancient World (published 2012). Professor James regularly teaches all these subjects at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her lecture courses, CLAS/WMST 240/240H (Women in Ancient Greece) and CLAS/WMST 241/241H (Women in Ancient Rome) are cross-listed between Classics and Women’s Studies. In summer 2012 she co-directed an NEH Institute on the performance of Roman comedy. In 2013, she won the University’s William C. Friday/Class of 1986 Award for Excellence in Inspirational Teaching; in 2021, she won the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Fall 2022 COMM 170 01F Rhetoric and Public Issues TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Examines the basic nature and importance of rhetoric and argumentation. Attention is devoted to interpreting the persuasive function of texts and their relation to modern forms of life.

Cori Dauber

Dr. Cori E. Dauber (@coridauber) is Professor of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is also a Research Fellow at the Triangle Institute for Security Studies (TISS.) She is co-editor of Visual Propaganda and Extremism in the Online Environment (US Army War College Press, 2014), and the author of You Tube War: Fighting in a World of Cameras in Every Cell Phone and Photoshop on Every Computer (US Army War College Press, 2010). She has been the Visiting Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College. Her research focus is the communication strategies of terrorist groups, with a particular focus on their use of visual imagery. Her work has been published in venues such as Military Review, Armed Forces & Society, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, and Jihadology.net, and she has presented her research to the Canadian Forces College, the John Kennedy School for Special Warfare, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the NATO Communication and Information Conference among others. Dr. Dauber holds a Ph.D. and BS from Northwestern University, and an MA from Chapel Hill, all in Communication Studies.

Fall 2022 CMPL 62 001 Curiosity and the Birth of the Imagination MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Today we tend to see curiosity and imagination as two peas in a very positive pod. Yet, although they have often been linked together, neither curiosity nor the imagination has always been viewed in such a favorable light. Pandora’s curiosity supposedly unleashed all ills and calamities upon the world. In the sixteenth century, Michel de Montaigne famously called the imagination a “runaway horse” and asserted that the imagination brings fevers and death to those who give it a free hand and encourage it. How did we get from Pandora’s calamitous curiosity and Montaigne’s death-dealing imagination to Epcot Center’s gleeful celebration of curiosity and the imagination? In this course, we will seek answers to this question by looking back in time to the thought and literature of classical antiquity and Early Modern Europe–to writings by Plato, Lucian, Cervantes, Shakespeare, and others.

Marsha S. Collins

Marsha S. Collins is a Professor of Comparative Literature.  Her research focuses on Early Modern Spanish Literature and Culture in the context of Early Modern Europe, Literature and the Visual Arts, and Idealizing Forms of Literature. She is the author of three books, over thirty articles, and is currently writing a book on friendship and community in Cervantes’s Don Quixote. She loves dogs, yoga, piano, travel, being at the ocean, and spending time with family and friends.

Fall 2022 COMM 63 001 The Creative Process in Performance MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

Students in this seminar will attend and study the production process of multimedia, music, dance and theater performances on campus and on-line. The Process Series of the Performance Studies program in the Department of Communication Studies, Playmakers, Carolina Performing Arts, and others across campus and additional on-line performance. We will discuss how performance as it was experienced (pre-Covid) and as it currently experienced. We will examine performance through multiple lenses, from Aristotle’s Poetics, Peter Brooks’s Empty Space, up to current writing from Performance Studies scholars. We will explore the ways that performances engage us, communicating powerful ideas and emotions through their various media of expression. Students will research performance pieces, interview the performers, attend rehearsals and performances, and write essays that combine their own experiences of the performances with class readings. Students will also create their own performance pieces as they observe the relationship of preparation and practice to the spontaneity and surprise of performance.

Joseph Megel

Joseph Megel has spent the last 20 years focusing on the direction and development of new works, for theatre, film and video. Mr. Megel is a member of SSDC (Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers), Co-Artistic Director of StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and an Associate Artist for The Working Theatre in New York. He holds the M.F.A. degree from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California, a Master of Arts from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and a B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University. He served for six years as Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, a new play development theatre, and continues to serve as Co-Executive Producer of Harland’s Creek Productions, producer of New York premieres of new plays, developmental producer of screenplays, readings and films.

Fall 2022 COMM 140 01F Introduction to Media History, Theory, and Criticism MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

An introduction to the critical analysis of film, television, advertising, video, and new media texts, contexts, and audiences.

David Monje

Dr. David Monje’s research and teaching interests are in the environment, art, aesthetics and politics. He has travelled widely pursuing these interests and brings a broad perspective to the class. His interdisciplinary approach to teaching is informed by his education: he has BFA in painting, a BA in Linguistics, an MA in Communication and Society, and Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and Communication.

Fall 2022 COMP 89 084 Computing All Around Us MW 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM

The majority of computing devices are not inside personal computers, laptops, or in data centers. Instead, they are integrated into multiple objects around us. From the small computers integrated into water taps that automatically shut off when not in use to the integrated computers assessing the health of jet engines, these computers are pervasive and impact several walks of life. In this course, we study such embedded devices. We first investigate the various applications of such embedded computing systems in our day to day lives. We then understand the design principles behind these embedded devices by studying the design constraints and the possible space of solutions. Finally, we will pick a specific application of interest and design an embedded system for that application.

Parasara Sridhar Duggirala

Parasara Sridhar Duggirala is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interest are in designing safe autonomous systems, techniques for rigorously proving properties of software systems, and embedded and real-time systems. He teaches undergraduate students how to write proofs without making them seem too daunting. He has mentored several undergraduate students in building miniature autonomous vehicles and has participated and won a couple of autonomous vehicle racing competitions. He sometimes entertains his students by integrating memes into lectures, juggling in class, and reciting a ridiculous number of digits of pi.

Fall 2022 DRAM 79 001 The Heart of the Play: Fundamentals of Acting, Playwriting, and Collaboration MW 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM

The goal of this seminar is to get you doing theatre, to spark your creativity and to connect you with the deeper lessons of this dynamic art form. You will act. You will write. You will work with others. It will not always be easy, but if you are willing to stretch yourself, you should have a great time. Each lesson is organized around a principle or virtue inherent in the practice of the art. Participants study a quotation or two that relate to that principle and then engage in drama exercises that spring from that principle. By the end of the course, you will have gained skills to make you comfortable to write, stage and perform your own 10 minute plays. Not just for those interested in pursuing theatre, this seminar will give you a more holistic understanding of essential principles in the practice of your life.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2022 DRAM 83 001 Spectacle in the Theatre TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Fall 2022 DRAM 120 01F Play Analysis TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Development of the skill to analyze plays for academic and production purposes through the intensive study of representative plays. DRAM 120 is the first course in the major and the minor in dramatic art.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2022 DRAM 81H 001 Staging America: The American Drama TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines our national drama from its colonial origins to the present. Participants read plays and criticism, screen videos, engage in critical writing, and consider performance as related means of exploring the visions and revisions constituting American dramatic history. We will approach American drama as both a literary and commercial art form, and look to its history to provide a context for current American theater practice. Readings are chosen for their intrinsic merit and historical importance, but also for their treatment of key issues and events in American life. Our focus throughout will be on the forces that shaped the American drama as well as, in turn, that drama’s ability to shed light on the national experience.

Gregory Kable

Gregory Kable is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art, where he teaches dramatic literature, theatre history, and performance courses and serves as an Associate Dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company. He also teaches seminars on Modern British Drama and American Musicals for the Honors program. He has directed dozens of productions at UNC and throughout the local community, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Fall 2022 ECON 101H 01F ECON 101H-601 Introduction to Economics MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Introduction to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, inflation, and the determination of prices.

Rita Balaban

Rita Balaban is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Economics at UNC-Chapel Hill where she has been a faculty member since 2006. She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh in 1999 and prior to her arrival at UNC-CH, she taught at Samford University and the College of Charleston. Rita is an experienced teacher whose teaching interests are in Applied Microeconomics, specifically the Economics of Sports. She has won several university-wide teaching awards including the Chapman Family Award (201) and the Tanner Award (2015) for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Her research interests are in economics pedagogy and she has presented her work at conferences in Wilmington, Philadelphia and San Diego.

Fall 2022 ENGL 66 001 Blake 2.0: William Blake in Popular Culture TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

William Blake, the visionary poet, artist and printmaker of the British Romantic period, has had enormous influence on modern art and popular culture. His illuminated poetry integrated word and image anticipating graphic novels and influencing many modern musicians, poets, writers (including Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy, Bono, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison). Using the Blake Archive, a hypertext of Blake’s poetry and art, we will study key Blake works as well as the digital medium that enables us to study these works in new ways. We will also explore the Web for performances and adaptations of the works we study and for works by musicians, painters, poets, writers, actors, playwrights, performers, dancers and film and video makers who were or are inspired or influenced by Blake. Students will share their discoveries with the class and produce critical or creative responses to a work by Blake or by an influenced artist.

Joseph Viscomi

Joseph Viscomi, the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English Literature, directs and co-edits the William Blake Archive (blakearchive.org). His special interests are British Romantic literature, art, and printmaking and digital humanities. He has co-edited 9 illuminated works for The William Blake Trust and over 172 digital editions of Blake's literary and art works for the Blake Archive. He is the author of Prints by Blake and his Followers, Blake and the Idea of the Book, and Blake’s Printed Paintings: Methods, Origins, Meanings. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation, Getty Foundation, and the National Humanities Center.

Fall 2022 ENGL 74 001 Epic/Anti-Epic in Western Literature TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In this course, students will study epic and anti-epic strains in Western literature, reading key texts in the epic tradition from Homer and Virgil through the 20th century in light of various challenges to that tradition and tensions within it.

Jessica Wolfe

Jessica Wolfe (Marcel Bataillon Professor of English and Comparative Literature) has taught at UNC for two decades, principally as a scholar of the intellectual and literary history of the English and European Renaissance (ca. 1450-1700). Her research focuses on the history of science (or “natural philosophy”) from ancient Greece through the late seventeenth century, on topics ranging from unicorns and glow-worms to early writings on magnetism and electricity, mechanics, and the science of the soul.

Fall 2022 ENGL 89 002 Human Rights and Literature TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this class we will investigate the history of human rights from the perspective of literature. We will explore how rights are represented and narrated in novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and how founding declarations—famously, the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—rely on fictional structures. While attending to some of the more politically contentious issues involved with human rights, such as the claim that universal rights lack political and legal enforcement, we will also consider the following questions: how does fiction help articulate and represent claims to human rights? Why might a political philosopher or legal scholar turn to a work of fiction from the eighteenth century or present day in order to make an argument about human rights? Alongside theoretical and historical writings about human rights we will read authors such as Hannah Arendt, Edmund Burke, Behrouz Boochani, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Hobbes, Mohsin Hamid, Thomas Paine, Mary Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Stephanie DeGooyer

Stephanie Degooyer’s research examines intersections between law and literature, with interests in immigration, migration, history of disease and global health, and human rights and humanitarianism. She teaches classes on law and literature, transatlantic and colonial literature, Medical Humanities, and theories and history of the novel. Stephanie Degooyer’s forthcoming book, Acts of Naturalization, (JHUP, 2022) looks to the legal process of naturalization in the long eighteenth century to argue for a new fictional conception of nationality in early modernity. She is currently working on two projects: Asylum Nation: Refugees and the Founding of America, which traces the colonial history of legal concepts such as “asylum” and “refugees” in British common law and early American legal and literary history, and a book project on the history and social function of unidentified bodily remains. She is co-author of The Right to Have Rights (Verso Books, 2018), and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Novel (forthcoming 2023). She has written on a variety of topics – immigration, borders, vaccines, disease, and literature – for The Nation, Guardian, Dissent, Boston Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, Humanity, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books.

Fall 2022 ENGL 129 01F Literature and Cultural Diversity TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Fulfills a major core requirement. Studies in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Native American, Anglo-Indian, Caribbean, gay-lesbian, and other literatures written in English.

Søren G. Palmer

Søren G. Palmer’s work has appeared in Barely South Review, Ecotone, Huffington Post, North American Review and been shortlisted for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. He holds an MTS from Vanderbilt Divinity School, an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State and a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Cincinnati. He lives in Durham with his wife and three dogs.

Fall 2022 ENGL 89H 001 American Poetry in Motion TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course focuses on the creative processes involved in writing poetry. We will look at poets’ revisions of their work, their statements about poetry, their letters to and from other writers, and the publication and reception of their poems in their own time. We will concentrate on specific case studies: the manuscripts and letter-poems of the reclusive writer Emily Dickinson; the notebooks, letters, and poems of Walt Whitman that he wrote while tending the wounded in the Civil War hospitals; the poems, manuscripts, and letters of George Moses Horton, who taught himself to read and write and published two books of poetry while enslaved in North Carolina; and the drafts, revisions, and animal drawings of twentieth-century modernist Marianne Moore. The course seeks to develop close reading skills that are crucial for interpreting poetry; to explore how social and cultural conditions both limit and enable poetic expression, and how poets analyze and criticize those conditions; to strengthen writing and oral communication skills; and to develop research skills.

Eliza Richards

Eliza Richards is a Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She teaches American literature before 1900 and American poetry. She has written about Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, the poetry of the US Civil War, and popular women’s poetry. Professor Richards has won awards for teaching on both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Fall 2022 ENGL 89H 002 The Machine Mistake from Frankenstein to the Smartphone  MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

There is the assumption that science fiction propagandizes for the gleaming gadgetry that it depicts. It’s true that science fiction often endorses the scientific endeavor and worldview. It’s further true that the science fictionists of the 1940s and 1950s tended to pine for the space age that began in 1969. But even at its giddiest and wonkiest, science fiction remembers the lesson of Frankenstein. It remembers that our monsters develop ideas of their own; that they wind up haunting us and even hunting us; that our innovations—however seemingly benign—however fenced and fail-safe—threaten to escape our control and our comprehension. This course traces the genealogy of this machine anxiety. Our guiding questions will be: What are machines? Does the artificially intelligent “machine” cease to be a machine? Are machines “natural” or “unnatural”? Are they heretical? Are their dangers inherent? How do they change us?

Our course epigraph might paraphrase Winston Churchill: We shape our machines; thereafter they shape us.

David A. Ross

Dr. David A. Ross is a graduate of Yale and Oxford. He has been a member of the Department of English & Comparative Literature at UNC–Chapel Hill since 2002. He is the author of A Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats (2009) and the co-editor/co-translator of The Search for the Avant-Garde, 1946¬–1969 (2012), the descriptive catalogue of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. A collector and dilettante scholar of traditional Chinese painting, he has served as president of Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and as both editor and book review editor of the Southeast Review of Asian Studies.

Fall 2022 ENVR 89 001 Environment-ECUIPP Lab: Connecting with Communities through Environmental Research for Public Health TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course is an entry into an undergraduate learning community organized by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. The ECUIPP Lab (Environmentally-Engaged Communities and Undergraduate students Investigating for Public health Protection) is a creative community of students, faculty members and practice partners. Students in ENVR 89-001 will become members of the Environment-ECUIPP Lab. Over the course of the semester they will design and conduct research that addresses a pressing environmental health issue in a local community. Students will work with the local community partner to develop a research question and use the resources of the ECUIPP Lab and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering to answer the question through the research process. The course is a hands-on undergraduate research experience

Amanda Northcross

Professor Amanda Northcross likes to build things and enjoys working together with students and communities to explore environmental health concerns, design field campaigns, and build and deploy networks of sensors to answer environmental health questions. With BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical and environmental engineering she is passionate about health equity. Dr. Northcross has conducted environmental health and engineering research in Guatemala, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. She will work together with faculty from UNC’s Water Institute to conduct community-engaged environmental research with first year students.

Fall 2022 ENVR 89 002 Environment-ECUIPP Lab: Connecting with Communities through Environmental Research for Public Health TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course is an entry into an undergraduate learning community organized by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. The ECUIPP Lab (Environmentally-Engaged Communities and Undergraduate students Investigating for Public health Protection) is a creative community of students, faculty members and practice partners. Students in ENVR 89-001 will become members of the Environment-ECUIPP Lab. Over the course of the semester they will design and conduct research that addresses a pressing environmental health issue in a local community. Students will work with the local community partner to develop a research question and use the resources of the ECUIPP Lab and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering to answer the question through the research process. The course is a hands-on undergraduate research experience.

Amanda Northcross

Professor Amanda Northcross likes to build things and enjoys working together with students and communities to explore environmental health concerns, design field campaigns, and build and deploy networks of sensors to answer environmental health questions. With BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical and environmental engineering she is passionate about health equity. Dr. Northcross has conducted environmental health and engineering research in Guatemala, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. She will work together with faculty from UNC’s Water Institute to conduct community-engaged environmental research with first year students.

Fall 2022 FREN 65 001 La mode: Fashion in French Culture MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

French culture and fashion have been synonymous since the age of Louis XIV. This is not only because Paris traditionally occupied the center of the global fashion industry. It’s also because fashion has a respected place in French culture. This seminar investigates what fashion has meant to French-speaking writers, artists, and philosophers through the centuries. We will explore key episodes in the history of French fashion from the emergence of the idea of fashion in the seventeenth century, to Marie-Antoinette’s role as fashion icon, to the birth of haute couture in the 20th century, to contemporary debates about fashion’s impact on the environment and global economy. Along the way, we will discover how French thinkers have interpreted the allure and significance of fashion from multiple perspectives. In short, we will consider what it means to take fashion seriously. This seminar will take place in English. No knowledge of French is required (although French speakers are very welcome!).

Ellen Welch

Ellen Welch is a Professor in the French & Francophone Studies program where she teaches on French cultural history, literature, and theater and performance. A specialist of Ancien Régime France, she has written books on the history of exoticism in French literature and on the role of the performing arts (especially ballet) in early modern diplomacy. She holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Brown University, where working on an honors thesis sparked the passion for research that she now enjoys sharing with UNC undergrads.

Fall 2022 GEOG 52 001 Political Ecology of Health and Disease TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course examines the ecology of infectious diseases including environmental and anthropogenic drivers of those diseases. During the semester we will focus on several case studies of diseases including COVID-19, malaria, cholera, and HIV/AIDS. The biophysical and evolutionary drivers of diseases will be examined as well as the political, economic, social, and environmental systems that shape health and disease across spatial and temporal scales. A political ecological framework is used to examine such topics as how political forces and economic interests helped shape the HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics in Africa and beyond. We will also examine how emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19 diffuse through populations and how public health efforts and geographical and epidemiological modelling and analyses can be used to predict and limit their spread.

Michael Emch

Michael Emch is W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Geography and Epidemiology at UNC. His expertise is in infectious disease ecology, spatial epidemiology, neighborhood determinants of health, and geographic information science applications of public health. He leads the Spatial Health Research Group which conducts research that explores spatio-temporal patterns of disease, primarily infectious diseases of the developing world. His research group focuses on diverse topics such as the role of population-environment drivers in pathogen evolution, how social connectivity contributes to disease incidence, and using environmental indicators to predict disease outbreaks. For more information see the Spatial Health Research Group website at spatialhealth.web.unc.edu/.

Fall 2022 GEOG 67 001 Politics of Everyday Life TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar examines the ways that politics, especially contests over territory, are part of our day-to-day life. We will explore a range of cases, from immigration policy and rhetoric in the US, to popular representations of geopolitics in film, to the politics of family planning in India. How do questions of love, friendship, family and youth identity tie into the international and national political stories that we see on the news? What does national identity have to do with our individual sense of self? We will also explore alternative ways that international politics have been studied, as feminist geopolitics or anti-geopolitics and questions of citizenship. Work for the seminar will involve original research on intersections of international politics and students’ daily life, as well as exploring representations of geopolitical issues in the media, film and fiction.

Sara Smith

Sara Smith is a political geographer with a South Asia focus, specializing in feminist political geography and political geographies of youth and the future. She has been involved in non-profit work and research in India since 1999. Her Ph.D. is in geography, and she has been teaching in UNC’s Department of Geography since 2009. Professor Smith’s current research in the Ladakh region of India’s Jammu and Kashmir State addresses the ways that individuals’ personal lives (especially their decisions about love and babies) are entangled in territorial struggle. Smith is developing a new project about how marginalized young people from India’s remote mountain regions experience university life in major Indian cities and how this shapes their politics. If you are curious, you can find out more about this work on her faculty website: https://sarasmith.web.unc.edu/.

Fall 2022 GEOG 89 001 Freshwaters in the Anthropocene MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Freshwaters sustain myriad ecosystem services by providing drinking water, irrigation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreational opportunities, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. At the same time, both water quality and quantity are impacted by land use, water abstraction, damming, contamination, and climate change. This seminar will focus (1) on understanding how these anthropogenic pressures affect freshwater ecosystems differently across ecoregions, and (2) how management, legislative, and social initiatives have adapted or developed solutions. We will focus mainly on the United States but consider case studies from around the world. Students should be prepared to read and discuss three materials per week. These reading materials will include a range of popular media including podcasts, newspaper articles, and book chapters, as well as scientific articles and overviews. We will also spend some time exploring and talking about streams accessible to the UNC campus. Class will culminate with research projects in which students get to explore a topic of their choice and presenting findings to their peers.

Amanda DelVecchia

I am a physical geographer focusing on freshwater ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves connecting various spatial and temporal scales, and biotic and abiotic factors, within groundwater, lakes, wetlands, rivers, and their watersheds. In particular, I ask how connectivity between different parts of the landscape (including those we cannot see!), and over time, affect functions like carbon and nutrient cycling, food webs, and greenhouse gas dynamics. By understanding these connections, we can better predict how freshwaters react to climate change and anthropogenic alteration, so that we may better protect freshwater biodiversity and function. I use a mix of empirical and data science, and work across the U.S. and internationally. You can learn more about my research by visiting my website at amandadelvecchia.weebly.com, by emailing me, or by visiting during my office hours, in which case I can promise you a warm reception and an offer for tea.

Fall 2022 GEOL 101 01F Planet Earth TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course will introduce geological concepts through the lens of U.S. national parks and a plate tectonic framework. The course will take a small-group approach to in-class work where developing collaboration and communication skills will be a focus. Students will apply their talents, skills, knowledge, and creativity to investigate related topics of interest as they manifest in a specific U.S. National Park to examine the interconnectedness of the geologic sciences and other fields of study. They will present their work in a manner appropriate to their project. Because this course is geared toward students newer to the university environment, the course will also discuss adjacent issues relevant to first-year students such as studying approaches, professionalism, as well as usefulness of meta-cognition, self-reflection, and feedback. Students will practice employing these ideas and approaches though individual and small-group work. Optional laboratory: GEOL 101L.

Michelle Haskin

Michelle Haskin is an Assistant Teaching Professor who strives to facilitate undergraduate learning through equitable pedagogical practices and collaborative learning. She has an interest in metacognition and applying learning strategies to help students discover new ways to approach and reframe their learning. She has taught over 2300 UNC students and looks forward to teaching many more.

Fall 2022 GEOL 72H 001 Field Geology of Eastern California TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Have you ever wanted to stand on a volcano, see a glacier, trace out an earthquake fault, or see the Earth’s oldest living things? This seminar is designed around a one-week field trip to eastern California, where students will study geologic features including active volcanoes, earthquake-producing faults, and evidence for recent glaciation and extreme climate change. Before the field trip (which will take place the week of Fall Break and be based at a research station near Bishop, California), the class will meet twice a week to learn basic geologic principles and to work on developing field research topics. During the field trip students will work on field exercises (e.g. mapping, measuring, and describing an active fault; observing and recording glacial features) and collect data for the research projects. After the field trip, students will obtain laboratory data from samples collected during the trip and test research hypotheses using field and laboratory data. Grading will be based on presentation of group research projects, and on a variety of small projects during the trip (notebook descriptions, mapping projects, etc.). Students may be required to pay some of the costs of the trip (a maximum of about $500.) This course will require missing three days of classes. The course is designed to teach basic geology “on the rocks”, so there are no prerequisites. Link to Yosemite Nature Notes video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5RQp77uVPA

Drew Coleman

Drew Coleman’s research focuses on understanding how the Earth works by determining the rates of processes (mountain building, extinction, volcanism, etc.) that occurred in the past. To accomplish this he and his students date rocks. His teaching is inquiry based and he is most happy when he is teaching “hands on” in the field or lab.

Fall 2022 GSLL 56 001 JWST 56-001 Germans, Jews, and the History of Anti-Semitism TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar offers first-year students an introduction to the German-Jewish experience and the history of anti-semitism in Germany, from early modernity to the present day. Students in this seminar will learn to analyze a variety of texts (both literary and philosophical), musical works, and films in relation to the history of Jews in German-speaking countries, and will be able to apply their knowledge to their analysis of present-day manifestations of antisemitism and xenophobia in Germany. The course has no requisites and presumes no prior knowledge of the subject matter.

Adi Nester

Adi Nester received her Ph.D. in German Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds additional degrees in Musicology and Piano Performance from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Southern California. She joined the department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at UNC in fall 2020. Adi’s research focuses on German-Jewish Studies and the intersection of literature, music, theology, and politics in the cultures and traditions of German-speaking countries.

Fall 2022 GSLL 80 001 Not Just Dogs: Animals in Russian Literature TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar explores the “question of the animal” in the works of major Russian writers (Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov) and introduces students to the main theoretical texts on the animal/human relationship (Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, Irigaray). Among the topics to be discussed are the animal as the other, animal and human natures, dominance and submission, ethics of the human/animal relations, and the theme of “talking” animals.

Radislav Lapushin

Radislav Lapushin, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His primary research interests are Chekhov; interrelationship between prose and poetry; and Russian literature on stage and screen. His well-received book, Dew on the Grass: The Poetics of Inbetweenness in Chekhov, focuses on the poetic dimensions of Anton Chekhov’s prose and drama. An author of several volumes of Russian poetry, his most recent collection, Dog Poetry (Boston, 2016), dovetails nicely with the topic of this seminar.

GSLL 76 001 Uncharted Territory: Underworlds in Literature and the Visual Arts TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Ever since antiquity, the notion of underworlds has been an integral part of how humans see and understand their living environment. This course examines concepts and representations of underworlds in literature and the visual arts from the ancient world to the Middle Ages and Renaissance to modernity. Our journey will take us to the realms of the afterlife as well as into the abyss of the human psyche and the shady areas of underground criminal activities. We will explore how the desire to know the beyond has triggered people’s imagination, inspired literary and artistic traditions and influenced new forms of knowledge, moral and intellectual values and social realities. Readings include excerpts from the Bible, Homer’s Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Plato’s Republic, Dante’s Inferno, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, Primo Levi’s Auschwitz memoirs, Don de Lillo’s Underworld and we will watch movies and episodes from TV shows such as Apocalypse Now, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. We will visit the museum and a music/theater performance. Through reading responses, a creative writing project, an argumentative paper, and an oral presentation you will develop and practice skills of critical thinking as well as persuasive written and oral communication and you will have the opportunity to develop and use your creativity effectively.

Fall 2022 HIST 51 001 Latin American Revolutions TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar explores the problem of revolutionary upheaval in Latin American history. Why did people like Simón Bolívar, Pancho Villa, Che Guevara, and Fidel Castro take up arms, and what has been the impact of the insurgencies they helped lead? This explores these and other questions by examining the various causes, manifestations, and outcomes of revolutionary violence in modern Latin American history. Students will develop their interpretive skills through a close reading of English-language primary sources from the wars of the independence to the guerrilla insurgencies of the late-20th century. The seminar begins with an exploration of the wars of independence (1810-1825). Students will then analyze the twentieth-century revolutions in Mexico (1910-1917), Cuba (1953-1959), and Nicaragua (1979). The course concludes with an exploration of the late-20th century guerrilla insurgencies of the Shining Path (Peru), FARC (Colombia), and Zapatistas (Mexico).

Miguel La Serna

Miguel La Serna is interested in exploring the contours of Latin American revolutions and counterinsurgencies. He is currently working on two projects about the political violence in 1980s and 1990s Peru. The first is a narrative history of Shining Path, and the second is a history of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

Fall 2022 HIST 62 001 Nations, Borders, and Identities TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Rally around the Flag! Leaders’ calls to action on behalf of the nation has led to common action against invasion, disaster, and disease. The same exhortation has preceded aggression, exclusion, and hostility. How have people defined their collective identities? What roles do borders have in separating–and creating–nations? What kinds of other identities motivate people, and why do we assume it is nationalism that dominates history? We will use a variety of historical sources to analyze the ways collective identities have defined the past.

Sarah Shields

Sarah Shields has been at UNC for decades, and both of her children have graduated wearing Tar Heel blue. She teaches courses on the modern Middle East, the conflict over Israel/Palestine, the history of Iraq, and a variety of courses on water in the Middle East. Her current research is on the Middle East and the establishment of borders after World War I. She has enjoyed teaching at UNC so much that she has even accompanied UNC students to programs in Turkey, England, and South Africa.

Fall 2022 HIST 84 001 Monsters, Murders, and Mayhem in Microhistorical Analysis: French Case Studies TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

French history has recently witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of microhistorical studies covering a range of phenomena from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. This course explores both the distinctive features of microhistorical approaches to the past and the attractions of microhistory for the practicing historian. Does the efflorescence of microhistory among French specialists signal the maturity of socio-cultural history as a branch of the discipline, or does it instead signal the field’s sad retreat from grand interpretation and synthesis? Does the new appeal of the small-scale express historians’ capitulation to post-modern attacks on “truth” or new commitments to finding the truth? What are the strengths and limitations inherent to the genre? Students will read a sampling of recent work (much of it featuring murder and mayhem) and also try their hand at writing and otherwise formulating their own microhistorical narratives.

Jay M. Smith

Jay M. Smith is a specialist of early-modern European history whose research focuses on old regime and revolutionary France. Author or editor of five books, his most recent book in French history is Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast (2011).

Fall 2022 HIST 89 001 History and the Meaning of Life MW 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

For thousands of years, people have grappled with fundamental questions about the meaning of their lives: How do we find our place in the world? How should we live? What should we strive for? What legacy can we hope to leave behind? The answers are hard to find, but we can search for them by looking to the past. History gives us innumerable examples of how different people have grappled with these questions in different ways. This seminar will look at a few of these people, both famous and obscure, and five major themes: macro and micro; family and everyday life; transformation and adventure; conflict and survival; and inheritance and memory. Using biographies, memoirs, oral histories, and historical narratives, we will explore what history can teach us about life’s biggest questions.

Michael Morgan

Michael Morgan specializes in international and global history. He first book, The Final Act, examines the origins and consequences of the Helsinki Accords, the most ambitious diplomatic undertaking of the Cold War. At UNC, he teaches courses on the Cold War, modern and contemporary international history, and the history of human rights. Before coming to UNC, he taught at the US Naval War College and the University of Toronto, where he was the inaugural holder of the Raymond Pryke Chair.

Fall 2022 HIST 89 002 Modern Afghanistan TTH 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

This course focuses on the history of modern Afghanistan over the past two hundred years. Its main methodological feature is an interplay between a main textbook and fictional and journalistic materials as well as primary sources.

Eren Tasar

Eren Tasar is a historian of Soviet Central Asia. Professor Tasar’s first book, Soviet and Muslim: the Institutionalization of Islam in Central Asia, focused on the consequences of the communist attempt to bureaucratize Islam in the USSR’s largest Muslim region after World War II. Professor Tasar’s current research focuses on atheism in Soviet Central Asia. Much of Tasar’s teaching focuses on the postcolonial Islamic world.

Fall 2022 HIST 89 003 Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

How do countries overcome histories of racial injustice, inequality, and violence? What role can history play in promoting reconciliation? In 1994, South Africa embarked upon an experiment to answer these questions. The centerpiece of South African efforts was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). From 1995-2002, TRC appointees did research and interviewed thousands of South Africans to uncover a hidden history of apartheid-era violence in the hope that truth would bring about reconciliation. South Africans still debate whether the TRC met its aims, but the model of the TRC has been emulated around the world since. This course will examine the significance of the TRC in the longer history of transitional justice from the end of World War II to the present. Students will conduct historical research, whether about South Africa or another country, in order to propose their own plans for a truth commission.

Lauren Jarvis

Lauren Jarvis is an Associate Professor of History. She grew up in Chapel Hill and earned her BA in History at that school down the road (rhymes with "fluke"). She then received her PhD in History at Stanford. Jarvis's research focuses on 19th and 20th century South Africa. At UNC, she teaches classes in South African, African, Global, and (most recently) Digital History. She is currently the Faculty Director of The LAUNCH, or The Lab at UNC History, a digital history and storytelling hub.

Fall 2022 JWST 56 001 GSLL 56-001 Germans, Jews, and the History of Anti-Semitism TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar offers first-year students an introduction to the German-Jewish experience and the history of anti-semitism in Germany, from early modernity to the present day. Students in this seminar will learn to analyze a variety of texts (both literary and philosophical), musical works, and films in relation to the history of Jews in German-speaking countries, and will be able to apply their knowledge to their analysis of present-day manifestations of antisemitism and xenophobia in Germany. The course has no requisites and presumes no prior knowledge of the subject matter.

Adi Nester

Adi Nester received her Ph.D. in German Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds additional degrees in Musicology and Piano Performance from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Southern California. She joined the department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at UNC in fall 2020. Adi’s research focuses on German-Jewish Studies and the intersection of literature, music, theology, and politics in the cultures and traditions of German-speaking countries.

Fall 2022 LING 70 001 Language in the U.S.A. TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The linguistic landscape of the United States in historical and contemporary perspective: American English dialects, language maintenance and shift among Native American and immigrant groups, language politics and policy.

Paul Roberge

Paul Roberge is professor of Germanic languages and joint professor of linguistics at UNC-CH. He also holds the title of professor extraordinary of general linguistics at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). He did his graduate work at the University of Michigan, where he concentrated in both Germanic and general linguistics. He received MA degrees in 1973 (Germanic languages) and 1975 (linguistics), and the PhD in 1980. He came to Chapel Hill in 1985 by way of Princeton University (1980-85; visiting associate professor, 1988). His research and teaching areas include older Germanic dialects (esp. Gothic, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Norse); comparative Germanic grammar; Afrikaans; pidgins and creoles; sociolinguistics; origin and evolution of human language.

Fall 2022 LING 89 001 How Reading Works: Language, Cognition, and Literacy MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

In many societies today, we live our lives surrounded by the written word. But did you ever stop to wonder how reading works? How do we go from looking at symbols on a page, sign, or screen to understanding the writer’s message? How do children learn to read, and what ways of teaching reading would best promote success for all students? We will explore these questions through hands-on analysis of language and writing-system structure, as well as discussion of the primary research literature. Your final course project will address a real-world question about reading, literacy, or reading education from the perspective of language and cognition.

Jennifer Smith

Jennifer Smith first encountered linguistics as a first-year college student looking for ways to combine a love of languages with an interest in science. Her research focuses on the cognitive representation of language sound systems: what kinds of consonants, vowels, and syllables do the languages of the world use, and why? How does the sound-structure system of a language interact with the structure of words or sentences? She has been invited to teach courses and give lectures around the US and abroad, and she was awarded the Chapman Family Fellowship for excellence in teaching at UNC Chapel Hill.

Fall 2022 MASC 52 001 Living with Our Oceans and Atmosphere TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the nature of the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, and describe the processes that lead to our weather patterns and global climate. Emphasis is placed on understanding how the oceans and atmosphere affect human population, how oceanic and atmospheric changes are linked to increasing human activity, and how these changes can affect you. Basic principles and modern theories of changing climate, severe weather events, oceanic hazards, and interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere will be studied. Examples of presently active research being conducted at UNC and at other institutions will be used to highlight how the above topics are investigated scientifically. Readings will be taken from introductory textbooks on meteorology, oceanography and environmental sciences; and modern articles in periodicals such as Scientific American, Nature, American Scientist, National Geographic, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and Weatherwise. Various websites, including those within the UNC Department of Marine Sciences, will be used.

John Bane

Born in his mother’s home town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, John Bane lived in several locations throughout the U.S and abroad with his military family (his father was an Air Force pilot). He returned to earn his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics at Western Michigan University before going on to Florida State University for a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography. Following a year at LSU where he studied coastal processes in the Gulf of Mexico, John joined the faculty at UNC. John conducts research on the dynamics of the Gulf Stream and coastal currents, ocean-atmosphere interaction processes, and marine renewable energy. This work focuses on mesoscale oceanic and atmospheric variability that occurs on daily and longer time scales. Past study regions include the Gulf Stream from the southeastern United States to the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, the coastal ocean and atmosphere off the U. S. west coast, from southern California to Oregon, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the shallow waters of the Bahama Banks. He has been involved in the promotion of marine alternative energy, from both wind and ocean current resources. Presently he is a member of two investigator groups funded through the National Science Foundation (Physical Oceanography Program) and the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program. These studies are ongoing in the Cape Hatteras region, offshore of the Carolinas and Virginia.

Fall 2022 MASC 59 001 Extreme Microorganisms: Pushing the Limits of Life on Earth and Beyond TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

We will expand our horizons in biology by learning about some of the most extreme microorganisms on the planet – microorganisms that thrive without oxygen in deep marine sediments and in the Earth’s crust, under high temperatures in boiling hot springs or in superheated deep-sea water under high pressure, and under chemical stress factors (high sulfide and heavy metal concentrations) that were once thought to be incompatible with life. Numerous extremophilic (extreme-loving) microorganisms of different metabolic types have been isolated in the laboratory as pure cultures; others have been observed in Nature but have so far resisted cultivation. Extremophiles provide opportunities to study the unusual and strange biochemistry that allows them to thrive in their unique habitats; they are also valuable model systems for potential life on other planets. We will get to know the unusual habitats where extremophiles are found, for example hot springs and volcanic areas on land (Yellowstone) and in the ocean (hydrothermal vents), and we will explore the earliest history of extremophiles as some of the most ancient microorganisms on Earth.

Andreas Teske

Andreas Teske is a biochemist by training, but became fascinated by the microbial world of the oceans and focused his Ph.D. research on the ecology and diversity of marine bacteria that catalyze the sulfur cycle. After completing his Ph.D. at Bremen University and the Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany in 1995, he spent his postdoc years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and stayed on as Assistant Scientist. Andreas Teske joined the UNC Marine Sciences faculty in 2002. His research interests include the microbiology of the deep marine subsurface, and microbial ecosystems of petroleum seeps and hydrothermal vents. In search of novel extreme marine microorganisms, he and his students are participating in a wide range of research cruises.

Fall 2022 MATH 231H 01F MATH 231H-620 Calculus of Functions of One Variable I TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Prerequisites, score of at least 32 on the ACT Math Test or Score of at least 700 on the SAT MATH 2 Subject Test or score of at least 4 on the AP Calculus AB Test or on the AB Subscore for the AP Calculus BC Test or Grade of A- or higher in MATH 130 at UNC-CH (or have the equivalent transfer credit). Students may not receive credit for both MATH 231 and MATH 241.

Math 231 is designed to provide a detailed introduction to the fundamental ideas of calculus. It does not assume any prior calculus knowledge, but the student is expected to be proficient working with functions and their graphs as well as manipulating variable expressions and solving equations using algebra.

This is the Honors section of Math 231. It offers a more demanding and deeper treatment than the regular sections as well as more involved applications. There will be more emphasis on understanding theory than in other sections, and students will be expected to understand and reproduce proofs of theorems and formulas. In addition, this section will cover extra topics, including the epsilon-delta definition of limit. Applications will be more involved and will sometimes involve real data. Homework will be more challenging, with more emphasis on creative problem solving and less emphasis on drill. Students will be expected to complete a final project.

Xuqiang Qin
Fall 2022 MATH 62H 001 Combinatorics TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

A leading expert in Modern Combinatorics wants to share his vision of the subject with the students. The seminar is a perfect background for future specialists in mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, economics, for those who are curious what statistical physics is about, what is cryptography, and how stock market works, and for everyone who likes mathematics.

The course will be organized around the following topics:

  • Puzzles: dimer covering, magic squares, 36 officers
  • Combinations: from coin tossing to dice and poker
  • Fibonacci numbers: rabbits, population growth, etc.
  • Arithmetic: designs, cyphers, intro to finite fields
  • Catalan numbers: from playing roulette to stock market

The students will learn about the history of Combinatorics, its connections with the theory of numbers, its fundamental role in the natural sciences and various applications.

It is an advanced research course; all students are expected to participate in projects under the supervision of I.Ch. and the Graduate Research Consultant (the GRC Program). This seminar is partially supported by Honors Carolina.

The grades will be based on the exam, bi-weekly home assignments and the participation in the projects. The course requires focus and effort, but, generally, the students are quite satisfied with the progress they make (and their grades too).

From the Course Evaluation: “A difficult but wholly worthwhile course: I feel more competent for having taken it”, “I would recommend this FYS to others ONLY if they have a VERY strong affinity for and ability in Algebra (I thought I did, but I was wrong)”.

Ivan Cherednik

Professor Cherednik is Austin H. Carr Distinguished Professor of Mathematics. Trained at the Steklov Mathematics Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and at Moscow State University, his areas of specialization are Representation Theory, Combinatorics, Number Theory, Harmonic Analysis, and Mathematical Physics. Cherednik's particular affection for Combinatorics is well known: he proved the celebrated Constant term conjecture in Combinatorics. His recent papers were in financial mathematics, on modeling epidemic spread, and on some aspects of AI.

Fall 2022 MUSC 51 001 PHYS 51-001 The Interplay of Music and Physics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music making from ancient times to the present day. Students will study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. Students who have never studied physics or music theory are welcome to enroll; there are no prerequisites. We will conduct four laboratory exercises (called etudes) in which students will work in small groups to investigate the acoustics of string, woodwind and brass instruments. Keyboards and percussion will also be considered, and students can pursue their areas of special interest in a research paper. The final project for each student will be a public performance of an original musical composition for an ensemble of instruments that the students have constructed themselves out of found objects. This class is taught in person and does not accommodate remote learners. This class meets in various locations according to a schedule listed on the class Sakai site.

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Brent Wissick

Brent Wissick has taught cello, chamber music and early music at UNC-CH since 1982; and performs across the US and abroad. But he has had a life-long interest in how instruments work and how sound is made. He loves encouraging musicians to understand some of these issues, and getting a broad range of science students involved in doing “musical” things. He thinks about physics when practicing the cello or viola da gamba, making CD recordings, rehearsing with ensembles, giving lessons and listening to music in a variety of spaces. He still wakes up every morning excited to make and study music with professional colleagues and undergraduates.

Fall 2022 MUSC 89 001 Sound Art TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course explores the primary concepts, techniques, and artists/works falling under the category of “sound art,” an interdisciplinary field that centers sound and listening in contexts outside of traditional musical performance. Examples of sound art include sound installations, soundwalks, performance art, conceptual music, music technology, and more. Artistic work at the intersections of visual art, sculpture, science, architecture, theater, poetry, and music will be discussed in a seminar-style class format. In addition to learning about the history and aesthetics of sound art, students will participate in the creation and performance of original sound art works.

Lee Weisert

Lee Weisert is a composer of instrumental and electronic music and a multimedia sound artist. He teaches courses in music technology, composition, musicianship, and digital media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Weisert’s recent music has incorporated increasingly disparate elements such as orchestral instruments, found sounds, field recordings, digital synthesis, and analog circuitry, in an attempt to find, “through experimentation, tinkering, and unconventional approaches, a ritualistic and deeply expressive world of sound.” His music is published by New Focus Recordings.

Fall 2022 MUSC 89 002 Genre and the Music Industry TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

What is a musical genre and why does it matter? Much more than a label, genres have the power to bring individuals together into communities of artists, critics, and fans, while at the same time putting artists and fans in a box defined by stereotypes. In this way, music genres both reflect and shape broader issues in society centered around race, gender, and class. Thus, a study of genre helps us understand why country music came to be connected primarily with white people, why some genres (R&B, soul, hip hop) are considered “Black music,” why some genres are associated with teenaged girls and others considered low class. This course seeks to answer these questions from an historical perspective. You will examine how genres have organized the production, consumption, and interpretation of popular music since the late-nineteenth century and the profound influence genres have today in shaping our aesthetics, values, and identities.

Aaron Harcus

Aaron Harcus received his Ph.D in Music Theory from CUNY Graduate Center (2017). Before joining the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he taught at Hunter College, CUNY, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research interests include questions of musical genre and the racialization of popular music in the United States, musical hermeneutics and phenomenology, the aesthetics and history of rap music. He has presented his research at national conferences of the Society for Music Theory, MTSMA, the Society for American Music, and the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.

Fall 2022 MUSC 120 01F Foundations in Music MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

If you are planning on majoring or minoring in music: this course is designed to open up the pathways in music at Carolina for you. It’s an introduction to the different approaches to thinking about and doing music–whether you’re an active performer, an electronic music fiend, a budding music researcher, an entrepreneurial arts administrator in the making…or more! Our classroom meetings expose students to a range of ways to “think about music,” emphasizing the breadth of routes music and sound take through human lives. As a foundational component of the music major and minor, the course emphasizes a range of genres of music making and fosters curious listening. Sometimes we’ll be challenged to think differently about very familiar sounds, sometimes challenged to connect to music very different from that we feel as ours. Expect to leave the semester with a new sense of what music can be for you at Carolina.

Andrea F. Bohlman

Andrea F. Bohlman (Associate Professor) studies music, sound, and politics. She has written about the history—and present—of music, protest movements, and political organizing. In these books and articles, she writes about symphonies, spoken poetry, electronic dance music, love ballads, and devotional music..along with chants, surveillance recordings, and more. Most of her research is on the social experience of sound and music in Eastern Europe, but she has also written about the United States and Germany in times of war. In her current research, she is writing about how sound recording fosters intimate social relationships, and how these relationships show listening to be a powerful way to navigate trust and recognized difference, especially in the context of gender, race, and ability.

Fall 2022 PHIL 85 001 Reason, Religion, and Reality in the Copernican Revolution TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The reasoning by which Galileo and his contemporaries defended the Copernican model of the solar system (the “heliocentric” model – that is, with the Earth orbiting the Sun rather than the Sun orbiting the Earth) can puzzle us even today. Here are a few of the questions that we could ask about the reasoning given by Copernicus, Galileo, and their contemporaries. Did Copernicus’s arguments support the heliocentric model strongly enough to justify believing it true? Or was it unjustified until Galileo amassed telescopic evidence for it? Or was it unjustified until even later – when Newtonian physics was developed? Or did it remain unjustified until even later – when various mechanical and optical discoveries were made in the nineteenth century? Was the Catholic Church justified at the time of Galileo in regarding Copernicus’s theory as just one among many fairly successful techniques for predicting the night sky’s appearance? Did Galileo bring his sentence (at his famous – and notorious – trial) on himself? Could Galileo argue persuasively for his telescope’s reliability? Could Galileo use mere “thought-experiments” (as opposed to actual experiments) to defend Copernicanism? In this course, we will grapple with these and related questions in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the logic by which scientific theories in general are tested and, ultimately, justified. We will also try to use this historical episode to understand better how political, social, and cultural factors can influence the reception of a scientific theory – even today! We will learn some of the means by which the biases and presuppositions introduced by these factors were overcome (eventually) in the Copernican Revolution, and we will apply some of these lessons to current science. At various points during our discussions, each student will submit in written form his or her own best reconstructions of some of the arguments that were given for or against the Copernican model. In other words, each student will offer his or her best advice regarding how a given scientist might have argued for or against Copernicanism, anticipating possible objections and responses. Students will occasionally form groups to examine and to critique one another’s proposals, with each group finally presenting its best thoughts orally to the rest of the class for further discussion. Students will, in effect, be putting Galileo on trial once again – not for heresy or for disobeying authority, but for having convincing or for having insufficient evidence for his Copernicanism. In all of these ways, students will learn how to appreciate sympathetically the competing astronomical theories from the perspective of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the truth was in some doubt. Along the way, students will wrestle with some of the puzzles and apparent paradoxes arising even from today’s best philosophical accounts of the logic of theory testing in science. No previous background in science will be assumed. Students will not need to purchase any books.

Marc Lange

Marc Lange is Theda Perdue Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in the philosophy of science and related areas of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mathematics, along with the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. He won UNC's 2016 Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction and a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. (For a brief sample of his teaching, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SKmqh5Eu4Y)

Fall 2022 PHIL 89 001 Personal Identity TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

You are different now from how you were ten years ago; but still you are one and the same person, who underwent those changes. (You weren’t replaced by an imposter.) What makes you the particular person you are, and the same person as the youth you used to be? What kind of thing is a person, that it can maintain its identity even through such changes? Are we identical to our life stories? Is the idea of a persisting self just an illusion? What would it take for a person to stop existing? Do you have an immortal soul that could survive the death of your human body? Or are you identical to your body? Might it be possible to survive the death of your body by having your brain, or the information in your brain, transplanted into a new body? or into a computer network? Might amnesia or dementia amount to one person’s ceasing and being replaced by another? Would teleportation like they use in Star Trek be a fast means for you to travel — or would that be another way for you to cease to exist and be replaced by a perfect copy? Why do we take special interest in our own continued existence as persons, moreso than the continued existence of people similar to us, or who will push forward our projects? Should we?

Jim Pryor

Jim Pryor joined the philosophy department in 2020. Before that, he spent time at NYU, Harvard, and Princeton. His research and teaching spans epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. Issues he has focused on include: perception, evidence, belief, and confidence; our knowledge of our own minds; persons, memory, and the nature of the self; mistaken identity; and issues at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and computer science.

Fall 2022 PHIL 89 002 Fun and Games, and Philosophy: An Inquiry into the Nature and Value of Games MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

A game is (perhaps by definition) an activity that lacks a serious point. Yet, we humans spend a lot of time and energy playing games, and we sometimes take them very seriously. How is this possible? Are games mere entertainment, or do they have some kind of deeper value?

We will use the tools of contemporary philosophy to examine questions about games, including: What makes a game a game? Is game-design an art form? To what extent are other (more ‘serious’) areas of life similar to games? Can this similarity be used to clarify those other areas of life? What ethical obligations we have when it comes to playing games, or designing them? Is the ‘gamification’ of real life possible? Would it be a good idea?

Students will collaborate in writing a philosophy research paper, and each student will do a final project in which they design a new game.

John T. Roberts

John T. Roberts majored in Physics at Georgia Tech before switching fields to Philosophy. He got his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999, and he has been teaching at Carolina ever since. He loves to dance, cook, play music, read science fiction, and play strategy games. His research focuses on the nature of scientific understanding, and in his work he sometimes uses games as a conceptual tool for clarifying the structure of language and thought.

Fall 2022 PHYS 51 001 MUSC 51-001 The Interplay of Music and Physics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music making from ancient times to the present day. Students will study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. Students who have never studied physics or music theory are welcome to enroll; there are no prerequisites. We will conduct four laboratory exercises (called etudes) in which students will work in small groups to investigate the acoustics of string, woodwind and brass instruments. Keyboards and percussion will also be considered, and students can pursue their areas of special interest in a research paper. The final project for each student will be a public performance of an original musical composition for an ensemble of instruments that the students have constructed themselves out of found objects. This class is taught in person and does not accommodate remote learners. This class meets in various locations according to a schedule listed on the class Sakai site.

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Brent Wissick

Brent Wissick has taught cello, chamber music and early music at UNC-CH since 1982; and performs across the US and abroad. But he has had a life-long interest in how instruments work and how sound is made. He loves encouraging musicians to understand some of these issues, and getting a broad range of science students involved in doing “musical” things. He thinks about physics when practicing the cello or viola da gamba, making CD recordings, rehearsing with ensembles, giving lessons and listening to music in a variety of spaces. He still wakes up every morning excited to make and study music with professional colleagues and undergraduates.

Fall 2022 PHYS 55 001 PHYS 55-401 and PHYS 55-402 Introduction to Mechatronics MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary synergy of STEM fields, specifically physics, engineering, electronics, and computer science. All students, regardless of their educational goals, will achieve critical introductory skills in numerical reasoning and analysis, model-building and prototyping, computer programming and electronics, and will demonstrate proficiency and knowledge about topics that increasingly impact society. The course focuses on four areas: Numeracy and Proportional Reasoning, Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing, Computer Technology (Programming and Electronics), and Current and Future technologies (aka, shall we welcome our new mechatronic overlords – robotics, AI, and quantum computing). The course goals are to prepare students for academic success at UNC, to help science students be more capable scientists, and to help ALL students be stronger and better-informed citizens of the world.

Stefan Jeglinski

In a previous 30-year private-sector career, Stefan Jeglinski designed and built instrumentation, learned to program from scratch, and performed R&D for large and small companies. For five years he was actually a rocket scientist, so when he says “this ain’t rocket science,” he knows what he’s talking about! He broke away from rockets to complete his PhD in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Utah, and then returned to industry where he spent over 15 years in all aspects of product development for electron microscopy. He landed at UNC in 2010 to share everything he’s learned and to study new disruptive technologies. In addition to his love of teaching physics, he brings a lifetime of real-world experience and stories about building, making, and engineering across disciplines.

Fall 2022 PHYS 118 01F PHYS 118-401 FY-Launch (35 seats); Stefan Jeglinski Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

Requisites: Prerequisite, MATH 231; Pre- or corequisite, MATH 232; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Yue Wu, Jianping Lu

In a previous 30-year career, Stefan Jeglinski designed and built instrumentation, learned to program from scratch, and performed R&D for large and small companies. For five years he was an actual rocket scientist, so when he says “this ain’t rocket science,” he knows what he’s talking about! He broke away from rockets to complete his PhD in experimental solid state physics at the University of Utah, and then returned to industry where he spent over 15 years in all aspects of product development for electron microscopy, before landing at UNC in 2010 to share everything he’s learned. In addition to his love of teaching physics, he brings a lifetime of real-world experience and stories about building, making, and engineering across disciplines.

Fall 2022 PHYS 118 02F PHYS 118-402 FY-Launch (35 seats); Daniel Young Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Requisites: Prerequisite, MATH 231; Pre- or corequisite, MATH 232; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Yue Wu, Jianping Lu

In a previous 30-year career, Stefan Jeglinski designed and built instrumentation, learned to program from scratch, and performed R&D for large and small companies. For five years he was an actual rocket scientist, so when he says “this ain’t rocket science,” he knows what he’s talking about! He broke away from rockets to complete his PhD in experimental solid state physics at the University of Utah, and then returned to industry where he spent over 15 years in all aspects of product development for electron microscopy, before landing at UNC in 2010 to share everything he’s learned. In addition to his love of teaching physics, he brings a lifetime of real-world experience and stories about building, making, and engineering across disciplines.

Fall 2022 PLCY 55 001 Higher Education, the College Experience, and Public Policy MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Higher education is undergoing rapid transformations that may dramatically change the undergraduate college experience. In this course, you will examine urgent questions facing American colleges and universities. For example, why is the cost of college rising and what implications does this shift have for who attends and graduates from college? How well is higher education preparing students for jobs of the future? How has new technology reshaped the college experience, both academically and socially? How should universities respond to student needs and desires? What role should athletics play in higher education? We’ll explore these and other topics through class discussion, position papers, oral presentations and debates, and interactions with UNC faculty and staff. By introducing you to the history, institutions, and culture of higher education, this course also will help you transition into and make the most of your college experience.

Anna Krome-Lukens

Anna Krome-Lukens is a Teaching Assisant Professor and Director of Experiential Education in Public Policy. She completed her PhD in U.S. History at UNC-Chapel Hill, with research focused on the history of social welfare and public health policies. She developed her interest in pressing issues in higher education while she was in graduate school, through involvement in UNC’s graduate branch of student government, work in Undergraduate Retention, and service on several university-wide committees. As a member of the faculty, she continues to be involved in (and fascinated by) policy-making within the university.

Fall 2022 PLCY 75 001 Debates in Public Policy and Racial Inequality TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course is designed to introduce students to debates about the impact of policies on inequalities in the United States. We will begin the class by reviewing work on inequalities more broadly. At the beginning of the semester, we will touch on topics like Black Lives Matter, historical oppression, systemic racism, and Whiteness. From there, we will move to investigate the use of education policy as a tool to maintain inequalities within the United States. We will tackle areas such as Indian boarding schools, the desegregation of schools, academic tracking, criminalization of Black and Brown students, and achievement testing.

In this class, students will review relevant research, policies, court cases, and projects that aim to either maintain or eliminate inequality. Students will also be expected to engage in thought-provoking conversations around disparities and will be encouraged to think critically about challenging topics. Additionally, students will work individually and in small groups on a series of assignments over the semester. Prerequisites are not required for this introductory course.

Cassandra Davis

Dr. Cassandra Davis is a Research Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Within the last four years, Dr. Davis has held the role of principal investigator on five research evaluations, with the most recent of these projects focused on the impacts of hurricanes on schools, educators, and students in low-income communities. Dr. Davis has also collaborated with school districts to assist them with improving graduation rates of underrepresented groups, supporting students with learning differences, identifying opportunity and achievement gaps amongst students, assessing the quality of professional development training for school personnel, and investigating ways to engage parents. Dr. Davis’ areas of interest include education policy, the impact of natural disaster on schools and communities, program evaluation, qualitative research methods, and the social and historical context in education. Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in Education from UNC Chapel Hill.

Fall 2022 PLCY 89 001 Education in a Multicultural Society TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar focuses on education in the multicultural society of the United States, and aims to help students develop new understandings of the role of schools and teaching. We will also work to construct alternative perspectives on and approaches to examining educational issues. Featuring opportunities for engaged learning, we will learn in the environment surrounding UNC, working to understand how local histories, cultures, and experiences have affected the opportunities that young people have– and have not– experienced in public schools. Moving into the policy space, we will evaluate and design for equity and justice in public schooling. We will also include work on portraiture, on seeing and learning about the experiences of race and racism in public schools, and the ways in which communities have advocated for experiences in ways that are strength- and asset-filled.

Simona Goldin

Dr. Simona Goldin is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy. Dr. Goldin has studied ways to transform the preparation of beginning teachers to teach in more racially just and equitable ways, and has elaborated the teaching practices that bridge children’s work in schools on academic content with their home and community-based experiences. Dr. Goldin holds a master’s degree in management and urban policy analysis from the New School University, and a Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Michigan.

Fall 2022 POLI 59 001 Revolution, America in 1776 and France in 1789 TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course is designed to throw students into New York City in 1775 and Paris in 1791 by recreating and engaging with the ideas and arguments of these times. The course will rely on the Reacting to the Past pedagogy. “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills. The course will be extremely hard work, but should also be intellectually engaging and, to put it simply, a good deal of fun. Click here to see a video of students discussing their experiences in the class.

Matthew Weidenfeld

Dr. Matthew Weidenfeld has a wide range of teaching interests and experience in the history of political theory and in American Politics. Recently, his courses have featured role-immersive, Reacting to the Past Simulations. These consist of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; though he advises and guides students throughout. The simulations seek to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills.

Fall 2022 POLI 63 001 Social Movements and Political Protest and Violence TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar focuses on explaining and understanding social movements and the collective political behaviors that they promote (e.g. demonstrations, protests, violence, and eco-terrorism). Our theoretical focus will be interdisciplinary, drawing on research in political behavior, social psychology, sociology, political theory, and the law. We will discuss when and why collective action occurs, who participates, what forms it takes, and how governments respond. Substantively, we will study a variety of movements including: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movement, the Environmental movement, the White Nationalist movement, COVID protests, and the January 6th Capitol protest. We will use a variety of approaches and resources: class discussions, films, online forum discussions, and texts. Grades will be based on class participation, forum participation, a writing project, and several group papers.

This class will be taught remotely with both asychronous and sychronous components.

Pamela Conover

Pamela Conover, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science, was educated at Emory University and received her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Professor Conover teaches courses dealing with political psychology, women and politics, and social movements and political protest. In the past, Professor Conover’s research has concerned the nature of political thinking and the politics of identity and citizenship. She also coauthored the book Feminism and the New Right. Her current research is focused on election aversion, religious freedom, and the effect of worldviews on political behavior. In her spare time, she enjoys cycling, yoga and being walked by her two golden retrievers, Sophie and Henry.

Fall 2022 POLI 66 001 The United States and the European Union: Partners or Rivals? TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The alliance between America and the European Union is one of the most important political relationships today.

Liesbet Hooghe

Liesbet Hooghe is the W.R. Kenan Professor of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill and Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Her research interests are in political behavior (elites, political parties, public opinion), multilevel governance and decentralization, European integration, international organization. In 2017 she received the Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award for Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations of the APSA. Hooghe’s recent co-authored books include The European Commission in the 21st Century (OUP, 2013); Measuring Regional Authority (OUP, 2016); Community, Scale and Regional Governance (OUP, 2016); and Measuring International Authority (OUP, 2017). Homepage: http://hooghe.web.unc.edu.

Fall 2022 POLI 89 001 Immigrants and Refugees in World Politics TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The movement of people across international borders is one of the most politically controversial issues in the world today. This class focuses on two different types of global migrants, immigrants and refugees, and explores why these two groups move out of their countries and how they are treated by receiving countries. Immigrants and refugees have traditionally been thought of as politically, legally and ethically different from each other and this class explores these differences, but it also explores the many ways that they are similar. Finally, the class explores a third type of global migrant that politicians and policy makers frequently promote, guest workers, and considers to what extent guest worker policies can effectively address the challenges and opportunities posed by the two other migrant groups. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Fall 2022 POLI 89 002 Global Politics of Climate Change TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the politics of climate change at multiple levels of policy making, from global efforts down to local communities. Throughout the course, climate policy is investigated as a result of the interplay of science and politics. At each level of politics – global, regional (EU), country (US), sub-national (US states), and local (regional and city) – students will have the opportunity to review existing policy approaches, explore official inter-governmental and governmental policies, and read social science analyses. In addition, at each level, a scientific expert and/or activist will visit class to interact on climate issues. Student participation is required, with the format for class meetings combining a mixture of lectures and discussions as well as expert and activist speakers, video resources, and group presentations.

Robert Jenkins

Dr. Robert Jenkins has a combined thirty years of teaching experience at UNC and Yale University. He regularly teaches courses on international organizations, Transatlantic security, ethnic conflict and international intervention in former Yugoslavia, crises and change in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the comparative political mobilization of race and ethnicity. He has led study abroad programs in the Balkans and Vienna, Brussels and London, and Cape Town, South Africa. Common themes of these experiential programs are the activities of international organizations and conflicts over race and ethnic identity. In the past three years, he has systematically incorporated climate change into his teaching on security and international organizations. Based on this understanding of the growing threat of climate change and the range of global efforts to develop climate policies, he will bring his enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning to this new course.

Fall 2022 POLI 100 01F American Democracy in Changing Times TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Why do Americans love democracy, but hate politics? Why are there only two political parties? Why do voters hate, yet respond to negative campaigning? This course will introduce students to politics in the United States, addressing these and many more questions about how American democracy works.

Marc J. Hetherington

Marc J. Hetherington is Raymond Dawson Distinguished Bicentennial Professor in the Department of Political Science. A scholar of public opinion, he specializes in the study of political trust and party polarization. Over the past year, Marc has devoted his research to the impact of politics and science colliding in the context of Covid-19. He’s authored a range of academic books and published articles in his discipline’s major journals. As for teaching, Marc regularly offers courses on American Government, Political Parties, Public Opinion, and Polarization.

Fall 2022 PSYC 101 01F General Psychology MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Fall 2022 PWAD 89 015 September 11: Origins, Consequences, and Where Do We Go From Here TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This first-year seminar will reflect upon the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, exploring how the terrorist attacks occurred and why the U.S. intelligence community and policymakers failed to anticipate and prevent them as well as the subsequent effects on the United States, the Middle East, and the world. The instructor, a former intelligence analyst, will lead students in discussions and in-class exercises to encourage critical analysis of the implications of terrorism, particularly on United States national security. A variety of assignments will require students to assess the causes and results of American national security decisions and alternative decisions that might have been made, supported with research and evidence.

Whitaker,Erinn Catherine

Erinn Whitaker, a former senior analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and US State Department, is a Professor of the Practice for the Peace, War and Defense Curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With nearly 15 years of experience overseas and in Washington, teaches courses such as “Writing and Briefing for Intelligence,” “Comparative Intelligence Regimes,” and “Cases in Counter Intelligence,” helping students interested in careers ranging from intelligence to public policy to journalism strengthen their written and oral communication skills. Whitaker earned a BA from Middlebury College, where she spent a year studying Russia in Siberia, and a MA from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. She speaks German and Russian.

Fall 2022 RELI 63 001 The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls MW 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been described as the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The first scrolls were discovered in 1947, in a cave near the site of Qumran by the Dead Sea. Eventually the remains of over 900 scrolls were found in 11 caves around Qumran. The scrolls date to the time of Jesus and include the earliest preserved copies of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). They were deposited in the caves by members of a Jewish sect called the Essenes who lived at Qumran. In this seminar, students explore the meaning and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls – and learn about broader issues such as how canons of sacred scripture developed among Jews and Christians – through classroom discussions, thought papers, and creative assignments.

Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism. Before coming to UNC–Chapel Hill in 2002, she taught at Tufts University for ten years. Professor Magness received her B.A. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. She has participated on numerous excavations in Israel and Greece, and currently directs excavations at Huqoq in Israel. Professor Magness’ publications include a book entitled The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2021 [second edition]).

Fall 2022 RELI 64 001 Reintroducing Islam TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Students learn about Islam as a global, historical religious tradition and the dynamic interaction between religious ideas, practices, and debates on one hand and a variety of geographical and historical contexts on the other. The course takes as its starting point the assumption that every first year student has already been exposed to ideas about Islam and Muslims, usually in the form of religious, cultural and racialized othering, which means that the course has to respond to such preconceived notions that have shaped their worldviews. Students are challenged to consider both similar and dramatically different ways of learning, knowing, and perceiving the world by Muslims in past and present, thereby exposing them to alternative ways of knowing and nurturing at the very least an appreciation of the value of difference and understanding of a perceived other.

Youssef Carter

Youssef Carter is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Kenan Rifai Fellow in Islamic Studies. His research focuses on religious empowerment Afro-descendant Muslims. His current book project illuminates how Sufi epistemologies that emerge out of Senegal shape Black religious identities in the broader Atlantic, particularly in the American South and in West Africa.

Fall 2022 RELI 65 001 Myth, Philosophy, and Science in the Ancient World TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This interdisciplinary course explores various, often conflicting ways of conceiving and shaping reality in the ancient world – religious, scientific, and philosophical. The course is organized around a series of case studies: (1) the formation and makeup of the cosmos; (2) the origin of mankind and its sexual differentiation; (3) the invention of the ‘self’; (4) the origin and nature of dreams; (5) foundations of law, justice, and morality. Short writing assignments, in-class discussions, oral presentations, and a term-paper will be used to introduce students into a complex intellectual network of natural scientists, philosophers, and oral story-tellers throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Readings include Near Eastern mythical narratives and Homeric poems and hymns; selections from the earliest Greek philosophers through Plato’s dialogues to Hellenistic and Roman philosophical schools; works from the famous Hippocratic corpus and Galen’s medical treatises; and various religious texts from ancient Greece and Rome, early Christianity, and late antiquity.

Zlatko Pleše

Zlatko Pleše received his PhD in Classics at Yale University, where he specialized in ancient philosophy and medicine, early Christianity, Hellenistic rhetoric and Coptic language. He taught at various universities in Europe and the US, including Yale and Wesleyan University, and is currently Professor of Ancient Mediterranean religions (Greco-Roman world, early Christianity and late antiquity) at Carolina. He has published monographs and articles on Platonist philosophers of the Roman imperial period, ancient Gnostic and Hermetic writings, apocryphal gospels, and early modern theories of nationhood in South-Eastern Europe.

Zlatko Ples?e

Zlatko Ples?e received his PhD in Classics at Yale University, where he specialized in ancient philosophy and medicine, early Christianity, Hellenistic rhetoric and Coptic language. He taught at various universities in Europe and the US, including Yale and Wesleyan University, and is currently Professor of Ancient Mediterranean religions (Greco-Roman world, early Christianity and late antiquity) at Carolina. He has published monographs and articles on Platonist philosophers of the Roman imperial period, ancient Gnostic and Hermetic writings, apocryphal gospels, and early modern theories of nationhood in South-Eastern Europe.

Fall 2022 RELI 67 001 Nature, Culture, and Self-Identity: Religion in the Construction of Social Life TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Beliefs about what a human being is—and isn’t—lie at the root of all religious traditions and also of secular ideologies. This course explores the ways that different religious and cultural communities have conceptualized human nature, and how those understandings are reflected in diverse forms of personal identity and ways of organizing public life. Readings will include historic and contemporary texts, and case studies from places including India, Nepal, and the USA. We will structure our inquiries around three thematic questions: (1) How do religious beliefs and practices shape the way that individuals and societies understand what it is to be human? (2) How do these beliefs manifest in seemingly unrelated areas of life such as personal aspirations, gender ideals, social structures, political institutions, and economic ideologies? (3) How do we know what we know about these things—i.e., what theories and methods do scholars use to understand other societies and also their own? This course also involves an experiential component that allows students to undertake original research.

Lauren Leve

Lauren Leve is an associate professor of Religious Studies. She has been living and working in Nepal since 1990; sometimes for a few weeks at a time, sometimes for a few years. Her research has also brought her to India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. She has published on topics including Buddhism, globalization, women’s empowerment, human rights, cultural heritage, and suffering. She is currently working on projects focused on Buddhist meditation and on gender, health, politics and the rise of Christianity in Nepal, and another that presents Himalayan Buddhism using virtual models and VR. Professor Leve is grateful to friends and strangers and around the world who have opened their lives to her and taught her to (try to) see things through their eyes. She reports that it can be disorienting at first, but that once you learn to learn from others’ perspectives, it’s both a super power and a source of joy!

Fall 2022 RELI 73H 001 From Dragons to Pokemon: Animals in Japanese Myth, Folklore, and Religion TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion. We will discuss various kinds of animals: those that occur in the natural world, those that are found in myths and folklore, and those that have appeared in popular media such as animation. We will explore how images of various animals were culturally constructed as tricksters, gods, monsters, or anthropomorphic companions; how animals were ritualized as divine, demonic, or sentient beings in Buddhism, Shinto, and folk religion; and how animals could serve as metaphors that embodied collective ideals or anxieties. Most of our readings will focus on primary and secondary texts from the Japanese tradition (in English), but we will also read theoretical texts on human-animal relationships and historical studies on animals in the larger Asian context. We will also view and analyze several Japanese films, both anime and documentaries, that deal with animals and environmental issues.

Barbara Ambros

Field of specialization: Religions of Asia. Research interests: Religions in early modern through contemporary Japan; gender studies; animal studies; place and space; and pilgrimage. Fun fact: she holds a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate and serves as the faculty advisor for the UNC Shotokan Club.

Fall 2022 ROML 55H 001 Writing with an Accent: Latino Literature and Culture TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar focuses on the literary production of Latinos living in the U.S. Using a variety of materials (essays, documentaries, films, music) and English-language texts (novels, short stories, plays, poetry) we will examine works by Chicano, Peruvian-American, Nuyorican, Central-American-American, Dominican, and Cuban-American writers. Topics to be discussed include: Latino or Hispanic? What’s in a Name?; The politics of Bilingualism; The search for Home in Migrant, Rural, and Urban Environments; The Many Faces of Machismo; Religion and Spirituality in Latino Communities; Forms of Prejudice and Discrimination; Music as a Cultural Bridge. All readings will be in English, though knowledge of Spanish is desirable.

Oswaldo Estrada

Oswaldo Estrada is a Peruvian-American writer and literary critic. He is a Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has authored or edited over a dozen books of literary and cultural criticism. He is the author of a children’s book, El secreto de los trenes (2018), and of three collections of short stories, Luces de emergencia (2019; International Latino Book Awards 2020), Las locas ilusiones y otros relatos de migración (2020; International Latino and Latin American Book Fair Prize 2020), and Las guerras perdidas (2021). He has recently edited the short-story collection Incurables: Relatos de dolencias y males (2020; International Latino Book Awards 2020).

Fall 2022 SOCI 71 001 The Pursuit of Happiness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Happiness is a fundamental goal in many societies, despite being elusive for many people. In recent years, social scientists have become increasingly interested in the subject of happiness and its causes and consequences. Sociologists, economists, political scientists, geographers, and psychologists have joined with philosophers in studying the nature of happiness and subjective well-being and its relationship to social life. This course will provide an overview of how these different disciplines study happiness. We will examine the interplay between individual and social happiness by considering the nature and meaning of happiness in the contemporary United States and in other countries. We will seek to answer questions such as: What is happiness? Can we measure happiness, and if so, how? Does happiness vary among diverse groups (racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, and social class groups)? How does happiness differ among cultures and nations? What is the relationship between biology and happiness? Between psychology and happiness? Does money buy happiness? What is (and should be) the role of happiness in formulating public policies? We will address these and other questions by reading books and articles; by class discussions and debates; by viewing films; by interviewing people; and by collecting information using the Internet and other sources.

Arne Kalleberg

Dr. Arne Kalleberg is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has Adjunct Professorships in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Department of Public Policy, and the Curriculum in Global Studies. He received his BA from Brooklyn College and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published extensively on topics related to the sociology of work, organizations, occupations and industries, labor markets, and social stratification. He served as Secretary of the American Sociological Association from 2001-2004 and as its President in 2007-2008. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Social Forces, an International Journal of Social Research.

Fall 2022 SOCI 89 001 College, Inequality, and Society TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Universities are experiencing significant change and are the focus of intense debates. Some see college as an important equalizer that helps students reach their full potential and live more rewarding lives. Others see colleges as reinforcing inequalities and favoring students who are already privileged. Meanwhile, significant changes are underway include rising costs, greater competition, growing diversity, new technologies, and calls for greater accountability and oversight. We will read and reflect broadly on college and how higher education is changing, and we will conduct sociological research on three major themes. First, we will consider the sorting process – what factors shape who goes to college and where they go to college. Second, we will examine the social dimension – how the college experience shapes learning, identities, and relationships. Third, we will focus on the institutional context – how college is shaped by public policy, the economy, the legal system, and popular culture.

Kenneth Andrews

Kenneth (Andy) Andrews is a faculty member and chair of the Sociology Department. His research and teaching focuses on social movements and politics, especially whether and how movements lead to changes in policy, elections, and popular culture.

Fall 2022 SOCM 89 001 Food Allergies in Everyday Life TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Sharing food is central to social life as well as to the formation of cultural identities. We can see this in how people come together over food, structure their days around it, and perform national or ethnic identities through it. At the same time, food allergies are on the rise and introduce many challenges to individuals, families, and organizations. The situation is complicated by the fact that public awareness, responses from schools and other organizations, and regulatory safety measures tend to lag behind. This course explores the topic of food allergies through several important lenses: biomedical, political, cultural, and social. The course’s goals are to understand how living with and managing food allergies can be challenging to individuals and families, as well as to query how potential therapies for food allergies should be regulated and how schools and business should accommodate for food allergies. The course critically engages concepts such as risk/benefit, medicalization, disability, and quality of life to better understand the social and cultural values that shape perceptions of and responses to food allergies.

Jill Fisher

Jill A. Fisher, Ph.D. is Professor of Social Medicine in the Center for Bioethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Medical Research for Hire: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials (Rutgers University Press, 2009) and Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals (New York University Press, 2020). She is currently conducting qualitative research on food allergy clinical trials to study the social and ethical issues that emerge from testing new medical therapies on children.

Fall 2022 STOR 120 03F STOR 120-408 Foundations of Statistics and Data Science MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

This course teaches critical concepts and skills in computer programming and statistical inference, in conjunction with hands-on analysis of real-world datasets, including economic data, document collections, geographical data, and social networks. It delves into social issues surrounding data analysis such as privacy and design.

Serhan Ziya

Serhan Ziya is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. His specialization area is using mathematical modeling and data science in problems that are directly motivated by practical contexts. He is particularly interested in problems that are related to healthcare and emergency operations, but he has also been involved in research projects that are related to operational improvements in various business settings.

Fall 2022 WGST 89H 001 Sexuality and Salvation TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In Christianity and Islam, bodies populate the afterlife. What those bodies look like, how they act, what they feel, and who they engage with are subjects of contentious and long-standing debates. The various answers offered in these debates deeply affect Christian and Muslim responses to the body, sexuality, race, and gender in this life. This course examines how these two religious traditions’ diversity of histories and ideas construct theories of identity. In each tradition, we will look at attempts to dictate a wide variety of sexual norms and at the creativity followers have employed in interpreting such regulations. We examine the many ways that Muslims and Christians have used sexual practices, language, and images to enhance their devotion and pose questions about living out religion. This means analyzing how the afterlife affects earthly life, including family structures, health care debates, legal choices, questions of feminist agency, and imagery of war.

Sarah J. Bloesch

Sarah J. Bloesch (she/her) is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches feminist and queer approaches to film, popular culture, and spirituality. Her research focuses on Christianity, gender, and race in the contemporary United States and how those aspects shape our understanding of sexuality, time, and relationships. She is the co-editor of the textbook Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods and loves spending time with her dog: a boxer mix, who is obviously the best puppy in the world.

Fall 2022 PLCY 85 001 Reforming America's Schools TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This seminar will examine the role of schools and other institutions play in determining life chances, which educational interventions work well for economically and academically disadvantaged students, and what to do when institutions cease to work well. Students will learn how to analyze complex educational public policy problems while exploring questions of effectiveness, inequality, resource management, and politics.

Douglas Lauen

Dr. Douglas Lauen’s work seeks to understand the effects of educational policies, school types, and school contextual factors on student outcomes. He focuses on areas that policymakers can control and that have high relevance to current educational policy debates, such as classroom poverty composition, educational accountability, performance incentives, and school choice.

Fall 2022 ANTH 89 002 Archaeology and Popular Culture MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Archaeology often captures the popular imagination through fantastic and farfetched portrayals of lost civilizations, aliens, and spectacular treasures. While these depictions of archaeology and the past may not be accurate, the story being told is nonetheless significant and reflects something about the culture that produced it.

This course explores how these films, televisions shows, books, and video games tell stories about the past, what stories are being told, and what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and society. We will critically analyze popular representations of archaeology, comparing how competing visions of fact and fiction operate in the public sphere.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Fall 2022 PSYC 58 001 The Psychology of Mental States and Language Use TTH 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

Like breathing, the human capacity for language is something we take for granted. How is it that we so effortlessly listen, understand, and make sense of the sounds and squiggles we are bombarded with from the moment we’re born? Language offers a window of insight into other people’s minds, allowing us to understand their thoughts, intentions, beliefs, desires, and knowledge. By the time we’re adults, humans carry information about tens of thousands of words, about what those words mean, how they’re spelled, how they sound, and how to join them up into sentences, paragraphs, and conversations. In short, human language allows us to put thoughts into other people’s heads, and to access the thoughts that are in other people’s heads. Topics explored in this course include how language develops in infants and children, how adults use language to understand the world, how the human brain supports language, and what happens to language when brain function is divergent.

Charles Davis

Charles Davis is a Canadian cognitive neuroscientist researching and teaching about how the human mind extracts meaning from a messy world, with a specific focus on how we understand meaning in language (for example, what happens in the mind that allows us to understand what a melon is, or what justice is?). When not in the lab or classroom, he is probably hanging with his dog, watching basketball (his favorite player was UNC alum Vince Carter), in the kitchen, or exploring the outdoors.

Spring 2023 AAAD 89 002 Afro-Latina/os in the U.S. TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What does it mean to be both racially Black and ethnically Latino in the U.S.? This course will look at the history, culture, experiences, political struggles, and social dilemmas of “Afro-Latinos”: African-descended peoples from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean who reside in the U.S. The erasure of these communities, along with their struggles for well-being, prosperity, belonging, and visibility, will be explored. This course provides an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade, ethno-nationalism, and U.S. foreign-policy, and their connection to contemporary issues of migration, inequality, and anti-blackness. In-depth conversations about the politics of “race” and “ethnicity” will trouble dominant U.S. paradigms of identity. In this discussion-oriented class, we will engage with a variety of sources, from academic books and scholarly articles to film. Students will synthesize their understanding through daily forum posts, a collaboratively-prepared presentation, an essay, and a group research project.

Maya Berry

Maya Berry is a sociocultural anthropologist who writes on topics related to race, gender, politics, and performance in Cuba, as well as black feminist approaches to ethnographic methods more broadly. She earned a PhD. in Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Prior to joining AAAD at UNC-Chapel Hill, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. A third-generation Afro-Cuban-American, she is practitioner and researcher of Afro-Cuban dance. For her teaching at UNC she has been awarded the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award in Engaged Teaching (2020) and the Johnston Teaching Excellence Award (2021).

Spring 2023 AAAD 89 003 Gender, Marriage, and Family in African American History TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

What can the study of the Black family in U.S. history and culture tell us about the past and about our present? This seminar examines the history of marriage and family from slavery to freedom. It is designed with the idea that there is no one singular representative experience, but rather a multitude of voices and perspectives that comprise this history. Readings will consider the historical processes and constraints shaping Black family life in the U.S. alongside themes of resistance, adaptability, and resilience. Over the course of the semester, we will explore historians’ responses to contemporary narratives about the pathology of the Black family after the Civil War.

Brandi Brimmer

Brandi C. Brimmer (She/Her) is the Morehead-Cain Alumni Associate Professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research recovers poor and working-class Black women’s battles for citizenship during the nineteenth century. She is the author of Claiming Union Widowhood: Race, Respectability, and Poverty in the Post-Emancipation South (Duke University Press, December 2020), which received Honorable Mention for the ABWH Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Award for the best book in African American Women’s History. Her scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of the Civil War Era. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC-CH, she was a residential fellow at the National Humanities Center and taught in the Department of History at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Spring 2023 AMST 51 001 Navigating America TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is designed to teach students how to navigate new intellectual terrain and process unfamiliar information from a variety of disciplinary perspectives with an emphasis on simulations, field study, reflections, and documentation. Each student will plan, implement, and document an individual short journey. This voyage of discovery on the campus or in the surrounding community will be chronicled with a documentary journal and presented to the class in a multi-media format that conveys the individual’s perspective, journey, and discoveries. Additionally, the class will collaboratively plan, implement, and document a common full day journey. This required field study will be a core aspect of the experiential education connection for the course.

Rachel Willis

Rachel A. Willis is a Professor of American Studies and Adjunct Professor of Economics at UNC. She has won numerous awards including the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, two Student Undergraduate Teaching Awards, and the Robert Sigmon Award for Service Learning. A three-time winner of the Chapman Award, she has been a Senior Fellow at the Global Research Institute and is a Thorp Faculty Engaged Scholar at the Carolina Center for Public Service. Her teaching methods incorporate innovative field study, collaborative assignments and experiential learning through events and programs outside of the classroom. A labor economist interested in global access to work, she has recently focused on the impact of climate change on port communities.

Spring 2023 AMST 54 001 ANTH 54-001 The Indians' New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 TTH 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

By AD 1200, most Southeastern Indians were farmers who lived in societies ruled by hereditary chiefs. After 1500, encounters between Indians and Europeans changed the lives of all concerned, but the changes took place in, and were shaped by, existing cultures. This seminar uses reading, discussion, and lecture to examine the lives of Southern Indians and to understand how encounters and interaction with European explorers and colonists changed the worlds in which the Indians lived. Students will learn how archaeologists and historians work, both separately and together, to study the past of Native societies. Students will study and analyze archaeological artifacts, Spanish accounts of Southeastern Indians, and other primary materials in class. These activities, along with various role-playing exercises, will directly involve the students in the study of Native people in the period between 1200 and 1800. Grades will be based on class participation, two short papers, participation in a group project, and a final paper related to the group project.

Margaret Scarry

Margaret Scarry’s fascination with Native American cultures began in high school, when she participated in an archaeological field school on Summer Island, Michigan. She pursued her interest through undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1986. Though her first archaeological experience was in the Midwest, she soon shifted her interest to the Southeast, where she investigates Native American foodways—the activities and ideas by which people acquire, distribute, prepare, present, consume, and think about food. Much of her research has focused on the Moundville chiefdom, which flourished in Alabama from about A.D. 1100 to 1500. After a number of years in Florida and Kentucky, Scarry joined the anthropology faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. Among other things, she teaches courses on archaeology, food and culture, and archaeobotany.

Spring 2023 AMST 75 001 Food and the Media TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

From “rage bakers” to tragic lobsters, from sushi chefs to pitmasters, and from Guy Fieri to M.F.K. Fisher, subjects in this seminar reveal the ways in which representations of food in the media shape discourse about modern American culture. Class readings combine media and cultural studies research with journalism, linguistics, history, literary analysis, gender studies, psychology, and folklore in order to explore the ways in which foods, including (but not limited to) General Tso’s chicken, industrially produced meat, and pumpkin pie have become part of the weft and weave of contemporary American social life. Class topics will center on the history of food advertising in America; the rise of the American cookbook industry; the uses and meanings of food on social media platforms; and the role of food in literature and on film. Ultimately, we analyze the ways in which representations of food and eating connect to and even drive social and political debates. The course emphasizes practical learning (short weekly writing prompts; film and textual analysis skills; and one final research-based project using primary and secondary sources).

Kelly Alexander

Kelly Alexander is an Assistant Professor and George B. Tindall Fellow in the American Studies Department. Her research focuses on questions of food politics and ethics, particularly on food as a form of care. She holds a doctorate in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University. She has worked as an editor at Saveur magazine, where she won a James Beard Journalism Award, and is co-author of a best-selling cookbook on barbecue with pitmaster Myron Mixon. She has written about the value of vintage relish trays; the enduring business model of Hooter's; the horticultural triumphs of Michigan cherries; and the cultural significance of Popeye's fried chicken sandwiches. Her latest research is on a network of people from chefs to policymakers engaging in grassroots efforts to recirculate food waste in Brussels, Belgium.

Spring 2023 AMST 89 002 Asian Americans in the U.S. South MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

In this seminar, we will study the history, cultures, and documentation of Asian Americans in the U.S. South, from the 19th century to present. Drawing on a range of sources, from oral histories and poetry to documentary film and short stories, we will examine how Asian Americans have grappled with identity, belonging and home in the South. In our studies together, we will consider how Asian Americans have navigated national and regional histories of slavery and segregation, immigration exclusion, and the shifting borderlands of the American South and the Global South. With a focus towards working with community and institutional archives, we will explore how to research, discuss, write, and create with the stories of Asian Americans throughout the region, and across time, towards a richer understanding of Asian American history and identity.

Kita Douglas

Kita Douglas is a scholar and teacher of Asian American studies. Her research focuses on Asian American art and writing, particularly graphic forms and how they are produced and circulated. She is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies and teaches courses on Asian American visual culture, Asian American political and social movements, and Asian American literature. Kita is committed to creating and supporting student-driven learning projects in both the university and broader community.

Spring 2023 AMST 65 001 North Carolina Black Feminisms TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The goal of this First-Year Seminar is to help students develop their own sense of Black feminist thought and practice through exploring the lives and works of several key Black feminist figures with ties to North Carolina. The figures are Harriet Jacobs, Anna Julia Cooper, Pauli Murray, Ella Baker, Nina Simone, Jaki Shelton Green, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Students will engage materials that put these figures in context of Black feminist thought and will do hands on activities that reflect Black feminist practices.

Antonia Randolph

Antonia Randolph is an assistant professor of American Studies at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is a graduate of Spelman College (BA in Sociology) and Northwestern University (PhD in Sociology). Her interests include diversity discourse in education, multicultural capital, non-normative Black masculinity, and the production of misogyny in hip-hop culture. Her book The Wrong Kind of Different: Challenging the Meaning of Diversity in American Classrooms (Teachers College 2012) examined the hierarchies elementary school teachers constructed among students of color. She has also published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and The Feminist Wire. Her current book project, That’s My Heart: Queering Intimacy in Hip-Hop Culture, examines portrayals of Black men’s intimate relationships in hip-hop culture.

Spring 2023 ANTH 54 001 AMST 54-001 The Indians' New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 TTH 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

By AD 1200, most Southeastern Indians were farmers who lived in societies ruled by hereditary chiefs. After 1500, encounters between Indians and Europeans changed the lives of all concerned, but the changes took place in, and were shaped by, existing cultures. This seminar uses reading, discussion, and lecture to examine the lives of Southern Indians and to understand how encounters and interaction with European explorers and colonists changed the worlds in which the Indians lived. Students will learn how archaeologists and historians work, both separately and together, to study the past of Native societies. Students will study and analyze archaeological artifacts, Spanish accounts of Southeastern Indians, and other primary materials in class. These activities, along with various role-playing exercises, will directly involve the students in the study of Native people in the period between 1200 and 1800. Grades will be based on class participation, two short papers, participation in a group project, and a final paper related to the group project.

Margaret Scarry

Margaret Scarry’s fascination with Native American cultures began in high school, when she participated in an archaeological field school on Summer Island, Michigan. She pursued her interest through undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1986. Though her first archaeological experience was in the Midwest, she soon shifted her interest to the Southeast, where she investigates Native American foodways—the activities and ideas by which people acquire, distribute, prepare, present, consume, and think about food. Much of her research has focused on the Moundville chiefdom, which flourished in Alabama from about A.D. 1100 to 1500. After a number of years in Florida and Kentucky, Scarry joined the anthropology faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. Among other things, she teaches courses on archaeology, food and culture, and archaeobotany.

Spring 2023 ANTH 70 001 By Persons Unknown: Race and Reckoning in North Carolina TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

“By persons unknown” is the phrase historically used across the white South to erase the identities of the killers responsible for lynchings. Though communities certainly knew who these murderers were, the press and the courts publicly denied this knowledge, offering the killers a cloak of anonymity. This research-intensive seminar explores this act of cloaking, addressing the legacy of race and racial terrorism in N.C. by using archival resources and community testimony. The class projects—focusing on a single county—will explore the public erasure of Black histories, the careful craftings of public memory, and the far-reaching impact of racist practices on the economic, educational, social, and political lives of communities. Our goal is not merely to “study” racist practice, but to actively confront it, working with community members to build public awareness of the legacies of racial violence, and assisting in efforts to create public memorials to that violence’s victims.

Glenn Hinson

By training and spirit, Glenn Hinson is a folklorist, one who works with communities to explore grassroots creativity and the many ways that it holds meaning. Though he is white, much of his work over the years has been with Black communities, whose members have repeatedly schooled him on the simple fact that any exploration of artistry must address the critical and all-encompassing context of racism. Their challenge directly contributed to the creation of this seminar, which explores the erasure and misrepresentation of more than 150 years of affirming and anti-racist Black artistry.

Spring 2023 ANTH 89 001 A History of the World in 12 Objects MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

How did we get here? What were the major transformations in human history that created our world? What impacts have these changes made on the natural world and on us? What can we learn from this long history? This class is about objects and social change: meaning that we will use human-made objects – artifacts – as a way to understand the long and complex history of our species. We use the concept of ‘object biography’ to do this – you will each get a chance to produce an object biography of your own and to think critically about how we understand and represent material culture in museum displays.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Spring 2023 ANTH 89 089 Taking up Space: Colonization, Resources, and Life Beyond Earth TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Our early human ancestors were great travelers moving across great distances over many generations and thousands of years. Our more recent human history is dominated by human colonization as new waves of people traversing the globe using technological innovations and paving a path of incomparable destruction and exploitation that continue to overshadow the lives of millions of people and our very planetary health to this day. In early 2020 Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX released their campaign to “Occupy Mars” by 2050, joining a long linage of human ventures that have considered places and peoples unknown to them up for grabs and consequently, ownership and exploitation. Fantastic research, technology, international cooperation, and human advancements have come out of space research. However, the idea that life and resources outside our planet or beyond our galaxy is tenacious and remains an influential factor. In this course, we will explore our human future beyond Earth through the lens of our past asking the question is colonization inevitable? Is it possible as described in Star Trek to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no [hu]man has gone before?” without contaminating, dominating, and destroying that which exists out there? Can we as a species learn from our human past and avoid colonial mistakes? Can we handle discovering new resources without depleting them? How might discoveries made beyond Earth influence the meaning, use, and ideas about our resources here at home? Applying an anthropological lens to understand the human experience of curiosity, travel, expansion, and colonization, this class, dares to dream big and ask hard questions. This discussion-based seminar will read research and popular publications of nonfiction and fiction including a SciFi novel and ethnographic book, view films and documentaries, and look for signs of space in everyday life on Earth. Through assessment activities such as “Taking up Space” students will learn to critically break down and research the role of cultural ideas and how they influence scientific research and discovery.

Caela O’Connell

Caela O'Connell is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program. Dr. O'Connell runs the Socio-Ecological Change Research Lab (SECR Lab) at UNC investigating different aspects of sustainability, agriculture, inequality, water, disasters, adaptation, crisis and environmental conservation and partnering with community organizations for engaged scholarship. Her work is primarily in the Caribbean and the Americas, and she’s currently working on a new project that considers human resource use and conceptions in research and development for outer space exploration. When not thinking about the future for farming and our global environment, she enjoys baking for friends, hiking (nothing too steep), taekwondo, tracking hurricanes, reading Sci-Fi and mysteries, and traveling with her family.

Spring 2023 APPL 110 01F Introduction to Design and Making: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Glenn Walters

I am a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. In this role, I am developing and teaching courses covering fundamentals of engineering in such areas as design, fluids, hydraulics, additive manufacturing, etc. My specialty is creating curriculum that focuses on experiential activities that develop student intuition as a pathway to learning theory and practice.

Spring 2023 APPL 89 001 Tree, Timber, Totem TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Trees, through their biology, meaning and uses, create an arc of understanding that spans what it means to be human. Ultimately, we will explore the meaning of trees and wood and why we seek happiness in nature, cherish wood and the creation of objects of wood. Tree: What is a tree from a biological perspective? How do they represent a complex community and play a vital role in life on the planet? Timber: What is the economy of wood internationally and in the state of NC? What are biophysical and material properties of trees that allow them to grow so large and be so useful to human society? Totem: Why do we respond emotionally to wood and choose it as a material in our lives and surroundings? How do we design and create objects of meaning from wood? We will walk in the woods, meet “wood people” from across the state and country and learn woodworking with projects of the students’ design and creation.

Richard Superfine

I am the son of a home builder, a first gen life-long student who is also a faculty member that has a passion for studying biology using the perspective and tools of physics. In my day job at UNC I build microscopes, materials and systems to study the wonders of the lung, the body’s immune system and biomedical diagnostic technologies – all in collaboration with brilliant scientists from across UNC and the world. I also have a woodworking shop in my basement where I make from wood furniture and gifts of meaning for family and friends.

Spring 2023 APPL 89 002 Convergent Research: Solving the Grand Engineering Challenges of the Future TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Convergence research focuses on addressing complex problems in science, engineering, and society. Today’s and tomorrow’s grand challenges will not be solved by one discipline, but by the integration of knowledge, methods, and expertise from across various disciplines.

This first-year seminar will introduce students to the new scientific language of convergence research. Through surveying the grand challenges of engineering, we will learn how through pursuing a common research challenge, experts from various fields intermix their knowledge, theories, methods, data, and research communities, enabling new discoveries to emerge. Students will participate in various in-class activities, group discussion and problem-solving coaching to enhance understanding of how chemistry, physics, materials science, biology, math, and computer sciences are applied to engineering.

Seminar will host guest lecturers with expertise on a particular topic, allowing the students to gain a true interdisciplinary view of the subject, instead of an isolated view of each.

Ronit Fraiman

My interdisciplinary expertise in chemistry, nanotechnology, material science, and computer science allows me to study problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single area of research practice. I truly believe that collaborations among scientists trained in different fields are essential for exploring and tackling complex problems. As such, I am both a participant and a leader of integrated research teams involving a vast network of interdependent researchers. I develop breakthrough biologically inspired technologies to advance healthcare. My work has led to major advances in tissue engineering, nanobiotechnology, and diagnostics, and key innovations are being translated into commercial products

Spring 2023 ARTH 54H 001 Art, War, and Revolution TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course explores the complex relationship between art, war, and conflict.  We will consider the tensions between glorifying war and violence and memorializing their victims, between political justification and moral outrage, between political programs (many of the works being commissioned to legitimate a particular view of war) and the malleability of meaning.  In most weeks, we focus on single or small groups of works, mostly from Europe and the U.S.,  in a variety of media: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and graphic arts, taking the opportunity to study them in depth while also gaining exposure to a range of interpretive methods and the richness of the historical context. We also look at the ways works of art themselves become the trophies or stakes of conflict.

Daniel Sherman

Daniel Sherman received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his Ph.D. from Yale. He came to UNC in 2008 having taught previously at Rice University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was also Director of the Center for 21st Century Studies. A specialist in modern art and French cultural history, he has written and edited several books on art museums, the commemoration of World War I in France, and the fascination with so-called primitive cultures in France after World War II; he is now working on the history of archaeology. As a historian who has taught French studies, art history, and general humanities courses, he is committed to discussion and debate across traditional disciplinary boundaries. He enjoys travel, photography, baking, and hanging out with his cats.

Spring 2023 ARTH 64 001 Picturing Nature MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Whether it’s cute animal cams or frightening visualizations of climate change, pictures of nature are both ubiquitous and powerful. This seminar explores the ways in which nature has been collected, displayed, and represented in art, science, and popular culture from the Renaissance to the present. We will explore nature’s many meanings: as curiosity and resource, as playground and lab, and as preserve and wasteland. How have portrayals of nature shaped ideas in the arts and sciences? What is the place of nature imagery now in a time of environmental crisis? Students can expect to experience nature in addition to reading and writing about it. For final projects, students will research and write an op-ed article about picturing nature during uncertain times.

Maggie Cao

Maggie Cao is an art historian who studies the eighteenth and nineteenth century United States. She is an associate professor educated at Harvard. She published one book about American landscape painting and its nineteenth-century demise and has just finished another about painting and imperialism. She has long been interested in historical connections between art and science, the subject of this course. She also happens to be an avid hiker and backpacker in North Carolina and beyond.

Spring 2023 ARTS 59 001 Time, A Doorway to Visual Expression TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Alice Walker wrote “Time moves slowly, but passes quickly”. Tennessee Williams wrote, “Time is the longest distance between two places”. Throughout history, time has captivated and inspired artists, writers and musicians. From subtle movements to clearly defined sequences of change, artists will manipulate the element of time to enhance their ideas. “Time, A Doorway to Visual Expression”, considers the concept of time from a variety of perspectives and provides a path to investigate your own notions of time. As a group, we examine this mystifying topic through readings and discussions of Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams and Leonard Shlain’s Art and Physics. We also watch films, analyze videos and listen to music as we express our personal views through the art making process. As a first-year seminar, the course presumes no previous art experience and students may carry out their projects through a medium of their chossing (e.g., drawing, photography, painting, video, sound, performance and/or sculpture). We will immerse ourselves in the subject of time and create works of art inspired by our personal experiences and increased understanding of Time.

Jim Hirschfield

Jim Hirschfield is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History who began contemplating the experience of time during his travels through the deserts of the southwest in his VW Microbus. He still treasures the experience of travel and travels for inspiration and for adventure. Jim has received a number of art commissions from cities across the country: From Anchorage, Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and from San Diego, California to Orono, Maine. He has also received numerous awards for his art installations, which he describes as explorations in meditative and ethereal environments that expand our perceptions of time.

Spring 2023 ASIA 57 001 Dis-Orienting the Orient MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Examines how the East is constructed as the Orient in different historical periods: 19th-century European colonialism, 1950s to 1960s Hollywood films, contemporary Japanese animation, and the current global war on terrorism.

Dwayne Dixon

Dwayne Dixon’s ethnographic research is focused on several intersecting issues within a broadly imagined Asia: youth culture, city spaces and urban life, media, and body experiences. These various interests coalesce in his work on Japanese young people situated in Tokyo, especially the lives and practices of skateboarders. As an anthropologist, he emphasizes fieldwork methods of extended engagement with his subjects, including the use of ethnographic video to produce visual documents that coincide with the use of video cameras by the young people themselves. His ongoing research into Asian skateboard culture involves studying the global incorporation of young skateboarders into the Olympic structure in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games where skateboarding will be included for the first time. Additionally, he is doing research on guns as a prosthetic; investigating the ways training and imagination construct an embodied relationship between the physical perception of perpetual threat as it relates to the immediate environment and the unknown. This research is informed by changes in small arms use and the narratives around them since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reshaped the global arms trade and the specific American experience of conflict in Western Asia.

Spring 2023 ASIA 61 001 India through the Lens of Master Filmmakers TTH 3:30 PM - 4:45 PM and M, 5:45 PM – 8:15 PM (film screenings)

In this course, we watch art films by filmmakers working in various languages and regions of India. Our cinematic journey will touch on important themes in South Asian culture and history over the past 200 years. It will also introduce students to some of the formal elements of filmmaking to help them better “read” and appreciate the text of film. There will be weekly readings on Indian cinema, culture, and film theory. The Monday class is for weekly film screenings, although the Monday class will not meet if the assigned film is available streaming (about half the time).

Pamela Lothspeich

Professor Lothspeich (she/her) teaches courses on Indian literature and culture in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and enjoys working with and mentoring students at Carolina. Her research focuses on modern adaptations of the Mahabharata and Ramayana in literature, theatre, and film. Her books include Epic Nation: Reimagining the Mahabharata in the Age of Empire (OUP 2009), and the co-edited volume, Mimetic Desires: Impersonation and Guising across South Asia (University of Hawai‘i Press 2022). Her current book project is on a modern Hindi epic known as The Radheshyam Ramayana and a style of theater called Ramlila which enacts the story of the Ramayana in an annual festival.

Spring 2023 ASIA 74 001 Imagining Palestine TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course explores the idea of Palestine as it is presented in Palestinian writings, films, and other creative works. We will study what Palestine is for the Palestinians, none of whom have lived in a Palestinian state and many of whom have spent more time in exile than in the land that has been known historically as Palestine; how Palestinian relationships to and expectations of Palestine may have changed over time; and how Palestinian portrayals of their dreamed-of homeland have affected our own perceptions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Arab world generally. How have Palestinian art, film, and literature helped to shape Palestinian identities and aspirations in different ways over the course of modern Palestinian history? In what ways have art, film, and literature intersected with Palestinian politics and a sense of political and personal agency?

Nadia Yaqub

Nadia Yaqub’s research has treated Arab cultural texts ranging from medieval literature and contemporary oral poetry to modern prose fiction and visual culture. Most recently she has focused on Palestinian literature and visual culture. Her current work has focused on two distinct areas: 1) Palestinian cinema and 2) women and transgression in the Arab World. Her most recent books are Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution (2018, University of Texas Press) and Bad Girls of the Arab World (2017, University of Texas Press), a collection she coedited with Dr. Rula Quawas from the University of Jordan.

Spring 2023 BIOL 103 01F How Cells Function TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Requisite: Prerequisite, BIOL 101. This class is designed for first- or second-year students beginning their study of biological sciences. The course will cover both biological concepts and scientific competencies necessary for a foundational mastery of genetics, molecular biology, and cellular biology. For biology majors, this is one of the three mandatory fundamentals courses required before taking relevant 200-level core classes and upper-level electives.

Laura Ott

Dr. Laura Ott is a teaching assistant professor in the Department of Biology. She has a B.S. in microbiology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in immunology from North Carolina State University. She is broadly trained as a cell and molecular biologist and teaches BIOL 101, BIOL 103, BIOL 202, BIOL 252, BIOL 295, BIOL 395, and BIOL 448. For the past 8 years, her research has focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning, where she investigates innovative curricular and co-curricular activities to promote the success of diverse students in STEM.

Spring 2023 BIOL 104 01F Biodiversity MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Requisites: Prerequisites, BIOL 101 and 101L. The biological diversity we see on Earth today encompasses a variety of genetic, species, and ecosystem level variation. This course will focus on the biological principles that push biologists to understand what produces and sustains the biodiversity of life on Earth. This class will address key questions about how we identify and measure biological diversity, how it changes over time, and why biological diversity matters as our planet continues to change.

Mara Evans
Spring 2023 BIOL 53 001 Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Foods to the Sequence of the Human Genome TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

A good life depends on access to adequate food and medical care. Advances in biotechnology have made possible both agriculture and medicine, and further advances may allow us to feed and keep healthy a burgeoning population in both developed and undeveloped countries. This seminar will examine the science behind a number of striking recent advances in biology, including animal cloning, genetic engineering of crop plants, development of new therapeutic drugs, development of embryonic stem cells, and deciphering of the complete human genome sequence. Students will debate how specific technological advances force us to confront new social and ethical choices, such as whether you want your own genome to be sequenced. We will also consider how new technologies are actually implemented, especially in regard to recent public health challenges such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The seminar should bring together the humanistic and technical impulses in students, and is open to students planning careers in scientific or humanities fields.

Jill Dowen

Jill Dowen, PhD, is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Integrative Program in Biological and Genome Sciences, and is an Associate Professor in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department and the Biology Department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Dowen's lab investigates the function of DNA loops that connect genes and their regulatory elements. Projects in her lab address how chromosome structure impacts the expression of genes in different cell types during development and how disruptions in these mechanisms lead to human diseases such as cancers and developmental syndromes.

Spring 2023 BIOL 89 001 Biodiversity and Citizen Science TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this course you will learn about the biodiversity around us, and the discipline of citizen science as a means to understanding more about that biodiversity. Citizen science is the public generation of scientific knowledge, and in this era of mobile technology and artificial intelligence, non-expert members of the public are providing millions of biodiversity observations each year. We will learn about the promise of citizen science for answering important questions in biodiversity science, we will contribute our own observations to citizen science databases, and we will learn how to make and interpret graphs and figures using citizen science data.

Allen Hurlbert

My research seeks to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying broad-scale patterns of distribution, abundance and diversity across the globe, and how that biodiversity is expected to respond to ongoing environmental change. I enjoy observing the natural world (especially birds and bugs), but also figuring out how to best analyze data to yield the most important insights. I hope my students grow in both of those areas!

Spring 2023 CHEM 89 001 Polymers: How Plastic Changed Our World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

From milk bottles and grocery bags to contact lenses and diapers, polymers influence nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Through hands-on activities, readings, and interactive lessons, we will examine the role polymers have played, both positive and negative, on our society and world. The course will start with a general chemistry background in chemical structure. Then we will examine the impact of common plastics before exploring how polymers have influenced specific fields, including parts fabrication (e.g. 3D printing), dentistry, and electronics. During the course, students will have the opportunity to create their own biodegradable plastic as well as practice science communication through two separate projects: creating a stop-motion animation video and a 30-min group presentation.

Danielle Zurcher

Dr. Danielle Zurcher is a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC in the chemistry department. Her training has been at the intersection of polymer and organic chemistry to design and improve novel materials for sensing toxic water contaminants. Her current interests lie in implementing effective teaching methods that promote student engagement and develop their critical thinking skills in large introductory courses. Dr. Zurcher is continually searching for new ways to connect students with chemistry and the new ways in which polymers are being used in our lives offer many great examples.

Spring 2023 PLAN 59 001 World's Fairs TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course introduces students to World’s Fairs in the US between 1893 and 1965 (1884 World Cotton Centennial, New Orleans; 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago; 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis; 1939 New York World’s Fair; 1962 Seattle World’s Fair; 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair). We will look at how ideas about cities and world’s fairs changed over time. We will also look at the role World’s Fairs played in: (1) promoting a city’s place in the US and the world, (2) addressing social issues, and (3) disseminating ideas about progress. We will learn about world’s fairs through documentaries (video/audio), texts, as well as examine memorabilia from each of the Fairs. Students will be responsible for participating in weekly discussions on readings and biweekly journal responses. Students will work on a group project on a world’s fair and present at the end of the semester. This project can use traditional means of presentations–such as PowerPoint and posters, or it could be a podcast (5 minutes), video, or some other media.

Alainna Thomas

Dr. Allie Thomas looks at how technology can be used to address both environmental sustainability and social equity within the transportation sector. She relies upon qualitative methods to investigate the phenomenon of how and why technologies are accepted or rejected She sometimes embeds herself in the planning context to learn where the process succeeds or breaks down. Her work has looked bus rapid transit adaption in China, electric bikes in San Francisco, and the use of ridehailing services across Generation X and millennials in the Southeastern US. She is currently working on understanding how transit agencies adapt cashless fare technologies.

Spring 2023 CLAS 67 001 Helen of Troy: From Homer to Hollywood TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Helen of Troy is said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world, yet we have no evidence of what she really looked like. This missing piece has worked in her favor, as authors and artists have tried to “fill in the blank” ever since. For over two millennia, her story has inspired countless creative responses, from Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood’s Troy. Helen makes us think about issues that still resonate today: how do we define beauty? what is worth fighting for? how far should one go for love? In this course, we will study the story of Helen in multiple retellings, asking questions about the value of beauty, the risks of desire, and the consequences for society when individuals place love above all else. Students will read ancient and modern sources, analyze and debate them, and write about the issues. The course requires no prior knowledge of the material.

Patricia Rosenmeyer

Professor Patricia Rosenmeyer has degrees in Classics from Harvard (B.A.), Cambridge (M.A.), and Princeton (Ph.D.). She taught at Michigan, Yale, and Wisconsin, before accepting the Paddison Chair of Classics at UNC-Chapel Hill in fall 2017. Prof. Rosenmeyer pursues a range of scholarly interests in ancient Greek literature, and has published four books and one edited volume. She has received fellowships from ACLS, NEH, the Mellon Foundation, and the Loeb Library. Her current research focuses on Homer, Sappho, reception studies, and translation strategies in early 20th-century Europe. She is eager to share her fascination with Helen of Troy with interested students.

Spring 2023 COMM 82 001 Food Politics from an Organizational Communication Perspective TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The globalization of food systems is both a hotly contested subject and a central part of contemporary life. This course provides an applied introduction to key debates by adopting a critical organizational communication lens on our globalized food system. Drawing on readings, popular media texts, discussions, and experiential activities, we will explore food system labor practices, the role of multinational companies and global commodity chains, the status of hunger and food deserts, the role of food marketing and consumption practices, and the growth of local and sustainable movements devoted to food justice. Throughout, we investigate how our global food system is shaped by different types of organizations operating within particular locales, such as North Carolina, USA.

This is an APPLES-designated service-learning course that requires service hours. In addition to experiential field activities and visits, our course is organized around group-based engaged research projects. Your success will depend upon your ability to work independently and practice collective leadership. This project will increase your research and writing skills, sharpen your leadership and collaborative skills, and provide you with applied insight into the themes of the course.

Sarah Dempsey

Sarah Dempsey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research focuses on critical theories of work and professional life and the politics of voice, representation, and accountability in social change efforts. Her most recent research examines cultural discourses about work and labor in the context of the food industry. She is currently engaged in a book length project drawing on archival research, critical analysis of popular discourses and corporate practices, and interviews with contemporary food service workers, organizers, and living wage and fair wage advocates and business owners.

Spring 2023 COMM 89 001 Communication, Culture, and Social Justice MW 5:45 PM – 7:00 PM

This course introduces students to several primary areas of focus for social justice-oriented scholarship and activism. These areas include racial justice, labor and economic justice, gender and sexual justice, and environmental justice. The course will also introduce students to ways that these issues are studied in the Department of Communication at UNC, by paying particular attention to popular culture and public engagement as sites of struggles for social justice.

Michael Palm

Michael Palm’s teaching focuses on the history of everyday technology and the politics and economics of popular culture. He’s writing a book about the contemporary economy for vinyl records. Informed by research visits to pressing plants and (lots) of record stores, the book connects vinyl's niche popularity to issues including ecological sustainability, gentrification, and independent cultural production in a digital media landscape. Palm’s book Technologies of Consumer Labor: A History of Self-Service (Routledge, 2017) documents and analyzes the history of telephone interface—from the rotary dial to the keypad to the touch screen—as self-service technology.

Spring 2023 COMM 89 002 Researching Society and Culture TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Qualitative research offers an exciting way to discover the world. There are so many unknowns about why people do the things they do, what is meaningful in people’s lives, how conflicts arise or are resolved, how technologies shape possibilities, how symbols acquire meaning, and how social change occurs. Whereas we all have ready-made “frames” that provide us with hunches about why things are the way they are, the task of the researcher is to ask good questions and then seek answers, all the while being open to—and eagerly pursuing—surprises. This intellectual posture of genuine curiosity is what animates some of the best research. This is the kind of research you will learn about and will conduct yourself in this course.

Torin Monahan

I am an interdisciplinary scholar who thoroughly enjoys conducting empirical research. I’ve studied hospitals, schools, Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism centers, and most recently digital platform companies (e.g., Uber, Airbnb). I also have wide experience in evaluating research proposals for funding agencies such as the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council, the European Science Foundation, and many more. I routinely draw upon this background to mentor students and help them maximize the success of their research projects. My specialty area is in media and technology studies.

Spring 2023 DRAM 83 001 Spectacle in the Theatre TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Spring 2023 DRAM 87 001 Style: A Mode of Expression TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar studies the elements of design in their pure form and in context, surveys a history of period styles and theatre, and identifies their causes. Consider Oscar Wilde’s statement from The Decay of Living 1889:

“Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. This results not merely from Life’s imitative instincts, but from the fact that the self conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize that energy…”

Do you agree or disagree?

Art and design have frequently shown the inner life of humankind throughout history better than political, intellectual or social history. While a period’s style is seldom defined by the everyday choices of everyday people and is most often recorded in the works of artists, writers and intellectuals we must recognize the “times” as a major motivator for all stylistic choices. Even minor arts reflect major events.

We will study the elements of design as they exist in their pure form; a “tool box” of elements available to artists and practice the principles to which design is bound.
We will survey a history of period styles, period theatre and identify their causes.
We will explore one period’s style as a foundation for the next and dispel the Star Trek premise that future styles will only reflect the future.

McKay Coble

McKay Coble teaches design, both scenic and costume for the theatre and the history of material culture. She fell in love with the power of choice as far as visuals are concerned early in her career as a Carolina student and have never turned back. She is a professor in the Department of Dramatic Art and is a resident designer for PlayMakers Repertory Company. Dr. Coble uses the many and varied artistic venues on campus as co-instructors and the class will be visiting them during the course of the semester. Students will likely join her on a design journey as she created the scenery for a production for PRC. Students will have the opportunity to see the process and product.

Spring 2023 ECON 101H 01F ECON 101H-601 Introduction to Economics TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Introduction to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, inflation, and the determination of prices.

Sergio Parreiras

Professor Parreiras has broad research interests in economics of information and game theory. His most recent research has concentrated on auctions and mechanism design. His recent publications include papers in the Journal of Economic Theory and Games and Economic Behavior.

Spring 2023 ECON 58H 001 Researching the Tools for Success in College TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE), we will study the barriers and tools for success in college. Students will develop a measure of success and identify a focal barrier to success in collaboration with classmates and drawing on existing research. Students will synthesize existing evidence in the related literature, collect their own data and create their own evidence on the topic.

Jane Cooley Fruehwirth

Jane Cooley Fruehwirth is an economist with research interests in the determinants of social, economic and racial inequality. A central theme to her research is the role of social context in shaping disadvantage, particularly in the context of schools and friendships. She studies education policies that are aimed at improving disadvantaged students' outcomes, such as teaching practice, accountability and grade retention. More recently, her research delves into the determinants of mental health in adolescence. She is now teaming up with undergraduate researchers to help tackle the mental health crisis on college campuses.

Spring 2023 MASC 53 001 The Ends of the Earth: Polar Oceanography and Exploration TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What explains the ‘pull of the Poles’? What motivated early explorers to undergo great hardships to investigate the Arctic and Antarctic, and what did they discover about these regions? What have we discovered in the intervening decades, and what do we still not understand about polar regions? Why do the Arctic and Antarctic play such a critical role in global climate? This seminar will combine scientific and historical perspectives to investigate the ‘ends of the earth’, the Arctic and Antarctica. We will begin by surveying the geography and oceanography of these regions, and then step back into the past and follow in the footsteps of some of the early polar explorers through their own accounts of their explorations. Modern accounts will help us compare and contrast these early explorations. The seminar will also include readings and discussions about current questions and problems of the polar regions, in particular human impacts and potential effects of global warming. A ‘Makerspace’ component is an important feature of the class – students will be supplied with materials to work on a design/build challenge, testing, revising, discussing, and consulting with one another to improve their efforts through the course of the semester. This ‘making’ experience is highly relevant to the experiences of early polar explorers as well as modern oceanographers, who often have to improvise and fix or build or create things on the spot, with materials at hand, in order to solve specific problems. Note that no experience in Makerspace, and no design or build experience, is assumed, expected, or required for this seminar. There are no prerequisites for this seminar.

Carol Arnosti

Carol Arnosti grew up in Wisconsin, where she developed an early appreciation for snow and ice. As an undergraduate at Lawrence University, she majored in chemistry, studied history, and played intercollegiate basketball. After completing a Ph.D. in oceanography at M.I.T. and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she went to the Max-Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany, where she rapidly became involved in a new project investigating microbial life at low temperatures. Continued involvement in this project since moving to Chapel Hill in 1995 has led to repeated research work in the Arctic as well as a trip to Antarctica, and a permanent case of ‘Polar Fever’.

Spring 2023 CMPL 55 001 Comics as Literature TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Is it possible that people across generations and geographies see differently? What if what we see is related to who we are and our cultural beliefs? These are among the questions we will explore in this class on visual literacy and comics (in the form of adult graphic novels). We will question how meaning is made through the juxtaposition and framing of images as well as the relationship between words and images. In the process of comparing images, visual patterns emerge that enable the reader to identify artistic techniques and strategies that attempt to convey meaning where words might fail. We will work to sharpen our critical thinking (and reading) skills and reflect on how seeing is a socially and culturally circumscribed phenomenon. Creating a graphic narrative and a podcast about graphic novels are two projects we will undertake.

Elyse Crystall

Dr. Elyse Crystall has been teaching courses on visual literacy – including graphic novels, comics, and film – and topics such as racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia; (im)migration and borders; race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, and nationality; memory and trauma; and conquest, imperialism, colonialism, and empire for 25 years. Her role as the coordinator of social justice concentration for the English undergraduate major links to her commitment to social justice issues; her understanding of the critical importance of historical context; and her belief that race, ethnicity, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, among others, are both identity categories and social locations that shape how we see the world — and how the world sees us. Nothing is more gratifying to Dr. Crystall than when a group of students, an instructor, the texts assigned in the course, and the world outside the classroom work together to create meaning — new possibilities, new questions, and new ways of seeing.

Spring 2023 ENGL 57H 001 Future Perfect: Science Fictions and Social Form TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

What will our world look like in ten years? Fifty? One hundred? Will the future be a utopian paradise or a dystopian wasteland? Through a wide-ranging survey of popular science writing, novels, and films, this first year seminar will examine fictional and nonfictional attempts to imagine the future from the nineteenth century to the present. We will explore everything from futurology and transhumanism to warnings of imminent environmental collapse. Our focus will be less on assessing the accuracy of these predictions and more on determining what they tell us about the hopes and fears of the times in which they were made. The course will culminate in a short research paper on a future-oriented topic of your choosing.

Matthew Taylor

Matthew Taylor’s research focuses on the intersections among environmental humanities, critical theory (including posthumanism, biopolitics, science and technology studies, and critical race theory), and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature. His first book, Universes without Us: Posthuman Cosmologies in American Literature (Univ. of Minnesota Press), examines cosmologies that challenge the utopianism of both past and present attempts at fusing self and environment.

Spring 2023 ENGL 70 001 Courtly Love, Then and Now TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

How have ideas about courtship changed between the twelfth century and today? Just what was “courtly love”? And how has it influenced our own views of romance? Our readings will include literature that defined this influential concept, from medieval Arthurian romances to Renaissance sonnets and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We will trace the influence of these traditions on twentieth-century films such as The Philadelphia Story, and on our popular culture now. In the process, we will explore the history of Western thought about gender relations, and the political and economic implications of our ideas about beauty, sex, and love.

David Baker

David J. Baker is Peter G. Phialas Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Between Nations: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell and the Question of Britain (1997) and On Demand: Writing for the Market in Early Modern England (2010). With Willy Maley, he is the co-editor of British Identity and English Renaissance Literature (2002) and, with Patricia Palmer, Early Modern Criticism in a Time of Crisis (2022). In 2021, he was a Fulbright fellow in Ireland.

Spring 2023 ENGL 71H 001 Doctors and Patients MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

When medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman writes that “illness has meaning,” he reminds us that the human experience of being sick involves more than bodily symptoms. Moreover, the effects of illness and disability are rarely confined to one person. In this course, we will analyze a diverse collection of writers who have taken as their topic the human struggle to make sense of suffering and debility through a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, graphic memoir, podcasts, and oral histories. Divided into five units, the course will allow us to explore not just the medical, but also the personal, ethical, cultural, and political facets of illness from the perspectives of patients, healers, and families. Central texts will include works by Abby Norman, Damon Tweedy, Brian Fies, and Lulu Wang. Additionally, students will explore a set of oral histories from the Stories to Save Lives project to learn more about the experiences of patients, healers, and families from across North Carolina.

Kym Weed

Kym Weed is a Teaching Assistant Professor in English & Comparative Literature and the Co-Director of the HHIVE Lab and Associate Director of graduate programs in Literature, Medicine, and Culture. She earned her PhD from UNC and returned to Chapel Hill after a year in Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. Her research focuses on the intersection of science and literature in late-nineteenth-century American literature and culture as well as contemporary understandings of illness, health, disability, and embodiment. Her most recent project examines narratives around anti-microbial resistance. She teaches courses in health humanities, disability studies, American literature, and writing.

Spring 2023 ENGL 89 001 The Rhetoric of Wellness (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Scan any bookstore shelf and you’d think the human psyche is hanging on by a thread. From fighting anxiety to seeking happiness to putting an end to procrastination, the titles compete for the opportunity to fix our problems with the promise of self-improvement. But are we really in worse psychological shape than those who have come before us? And how would we begin to study the status of our wellness? This first-year seminar will offer one approach to exploring these and related questions: studying the rhetoric of self-help. Rhetoric provides a lens for thinking about the ways people talk about self-help. This lens will drive the organization of the course. Studying the language in online self-help discourse, for instance, will enable extensive research activities. Students will learn to collect a corpus of Tweet data, and then use grounded theory and qualitative approaches to study the conversation. Using mixed methods, they will then quantify interpretations and develop visuals to recognize patterns. In addition to working with contemporary online discourse, students will explore texts with historical instantiations of self-help rhetoric—from classical instruction linked with civics and oration to medieval meditations to 1960s and 70s self-actualization to modern mindfulness. Rhetorical study will also facilitate the production of knowledge as students translate their understanding into communication to be shared publicly. The class activities will feature the creation of texts in a range of media. Students will produce print reports, visual memes, and PSA video projects. Students will also explore oral communication through the creation of podcasts. The combination of mixed methods research and public communication will drive the class. Teaching methods will tap into this dynamic by augmenting lecture and discussion with hands-on activities, collaboration, and the drafting and revision of projects.

Daniel Anderson

Daniel Anderson is a Professor in the Department of English & Comparative Literature. He is the Director of the University Writing Program. He is also Director the Digital Innovation Lab, where he leads campus digital humanities initiatives. He studies digital rhetoric, digital humanities, humanities data studies, teaching with technology, and alternative approaches to scholarship. His books include Video Scholarship and Screen Composing, Write Now, Connections: A Guide to Online Writing, Writing About Literature in the Media Age, and Beyond Words: Reading and Writing in a Digital Age. He also creates new media performance art and scholarship using the computer screen as a composing space. More information can be found at https://iamdan.org.

Spring 2023 ENGL 89H 001 The Machine Mistake from Frankenstein to the Smartphone  MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

There is the assumption that science fiction propagandizes for the gleaming gadgetry that it depicts. It’s true that science fiction often endorses the scientific endeavor and worldview. It’s further true that the science fictionists of the 1940s and 1950s tended to pine for the space age that began in 1969. But even at its giddiest and wonkiest, science fiction remembers the lesson of Frankenstein. It remembers that our monsters develop ideas of their own; that they wind up haunting us and even hunting us; that our innovations—however seemingly benign—however fenced and fail-safe—threaten to escape our control and our comprehension. This course traces the genealogy of this machine anxiety. Our guiding questions will be: What are machines? Does the artificially intelligent “machine” cease to be a machine? Are machines “natural” or “unnatural”? Are they heretical? Are their dangers inherent? How do they change us?

Our course epigraph might paraphrase Winston Churchill: We shape our machines; thereafter they shape us.

David Ross

David A. Ross is a graduate of Yale and Oxford. He has been a member of the Department of English & Comparative Literature at UNC–Chapel Hill since 2002. He is the author of A Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats (2009) and the co-editor/co-translator of The Search for the Avant-Garde, 1946–1969 (2012), the descriptive catalogue of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. A collector and amateur scholar of traditional Chinese paintings and Japanese woodblock prints, he has served as president of Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and as both editor and book review editor of the Southeast Review of Asian Studies.

Spring 2023 ENEC 201 01F ENEC 201-735 or ENEC 201-736 Introduction to Environment and Society MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Human-environment interactions are examined through analytical methods from the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. The focus is on the role of social, political, and economic factors in controlling interactions between society and the environment in historical and cultural contexts. Three lecture hours and one recitation hour a week.

Gregory Gangi

In his teaching, Greg Gangi conveys a complex understanding of environmental challenges and explores innovative solutions. His teaching extends beyond the classroom as he leads students to many countries to learn firsthand about global change and innovation. He organized several educational trips to Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic nations. Given the role that South Korea and China play in shaping the future of technology, he plans to guide students in learning from these two nations during the summer of 2019.

Gangi received various awards at UNC and a national award for his advising and mentoring of students. In 2014, he was awarded the NACADA Award for Outstanding Faculty Advisor. He received the Tanner Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010 and the University recognized him with the Massey Award for Outstanding Service in 2018.

In addition to his teaching, Gangi works to create networks in North Carolina between industry, academia, and government to help strengthen innovation. He also seeks to foster international networks that connect companies in the Clean Tech sector with North Carolina. He defines clean technology broadly to include companies in clean energy, smart cities, water technologies, innovations to make transportation more sustainable, building technologies and solutions that improve food security and agricultural sustainability. He is the lead organizer of the annual UNC Clean Tech Summit, which represents the largest event of its kind in the southeastern region of the United States.

Spring 2023 ENEC 89 001 How Green are We? Examining Sustainability at UNC TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

How sustainable is our university? Cities around the world face issues of environmental degradation, congested traffic, poor water supplies, sanitation concerns, poor energy delivery and waste management. A research university is analogous to a small city, where we can both investigate and more easily implement sustainable technologies and practices. In this class we will examine the sustainability concerns of the modern university, going “back of the house” around UNC—how green is our energy? Our food? Our water? How do we handle waste across these inputs? We will examine how sustainability is measured and improved, comparing our institution’s progress to other similar schools, and ask ourselves both where we can do better and how we can convince the system to make it happen.

Amy Cooke

Amy Cooke is fascinated by the intersection of environmental science and everyday life. This fascination led her to wander around the world asking people about their food, water supplies, clothing and shelter, from the Galapagos Islands to the Serengeti Plains. Here at UNC, she has worked closely with both Edible Campus and the sustainable food purchasing project in the dining halls and loves to take students 'backstage' around campus.

Spring 2023 EXSS 175 02F Human Anatomy TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The study of the structure of the human body with special emphasis on the musculoskeletal, articular, and nervous systems. Prosected cadaver materials are utilized to study the skeletal muscles and body viscera.

Benjamin Goerger
Spring 2023 EXSS 55 001 Sport Engineering and Human Performance MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

This first year seminar designed to discuss the limits of human performance and equipment that is engineered to enhance performance. How fast is it possible to run or swim? Will Olympic records continue to be broken? When do we reach our full athletic potential? This course is designed to challenge your thinking about performance using the science that governs biomechanics and human physiology as well as exploring the data that drives equipment development.

Meredith Petschauer

Meredith Petschauer received her PhD from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in Biomechanics, Master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Athletic Training and bachelor’s degree from The College of Wooster. She teaches Biomechanics, Advanced Orthopedic Assessment and Functional Anatomy. She is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula and serves as the Athletic Trainer for the Women’s Volleyball team. Her clinical focus is what lead her into biomechanics and human performance. Her research interest includes emergency care of the equipment laden athlete. She and her husband, Greg have two children, Madison and Grant.

Spring 2023 GEOG 130 01F Development and Inequality: Global Perspectives MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

An introduction to historical and contemporary ideas about practices and meanings of development. Students will explore “development” in a global landscape of poverty, power, and struggles over inequality.

Jonathan Lepofsky
Spring 2023 GEOG 62 001 The Culture of Technology TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This seminar uses the lens of culture to explore the codes of meaning and values, and relations of social power, that are ‘hard-wired’ in our technologies. Focusing on reflections of technology in film, art, literature, media, and built environments, while introducing students to interdisciplinary cultural studies of technology and human geography perspectives, the course encourages critical thinking and writing about the place of technology in past, present, and future worlds.

Scott Kirsch

Scott Kirsch is a cultural, historical, and political geographer in the Geography Department at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he has been teaching since the start of the third millennium. He writes about social and political implications of technology; 19th & 20th century US science; history of scientific exploration and cartography; nuclear landscapes; US geopolitics, especially in Philippines and Asia/Pacific; and geographies of war and peace.

Spring 2023 GEOG 67 001 Politics of Everyday Life MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

This seminar examines the ways that politics, especially contests over territory, are part of our day-to-day life. We will explore a range of cases, from immigration policy and rhetoric in the US, to popular representations of geopolitics in film, to the politics of family planning in India. How do questions of love, friendship, family and youth identity tie into the international and national political stories that we see on the news? What does national identity have to do with our individual sense of self? We will also explore alternative ways that international politics have been studied, as feminist geopolitics or anti-geopolitics and questions of citizenship. Work for the seminar will involve original research on intersections of international politics and students’ daily life, as well as exploring representations of geopolitical issues in the media, film and fiction.

Sara Smith

Sara Smith is a political geographer with a South Asia focus, specializing in feminist political geography and political geographies of youth and the future. She has been involved in non-profit work and research in India since 1999. Her Ph.D. is in geography, and she has been teaching in UNC’s Department of Geography since 2009. Professor Smith’s current research in the Ladakh region of India’s Jammu and Kashmir State addresses the ways that individuals’ personal lives (especially their decisions about love and babies) are entangled in territorial struggle. Smith is developing a new project about how marginalized young people from India’s remote mountain regions experience university life in major Indian cities and how this shapes their politics. If you are curious, you can find out more about this work on her faculty website: https://sarasmith.web.unc.edu/.

Spring 2023 GEOG 89 001 Freshwaters in the Anthropocene TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Freshwaters sustain myriad ecosystem services by providing drinking water, irrigation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreational opportunities, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. At the same time, both water quality and quantity are impacted by land use, water abstraction, damming, contamination, and climate change. This seminar will focus (1) on understanding how these anthropogenic pressures affect freshwater ecosystems differently across ecoregions, and (2) how management, legislative, and social initiatives have adapted or developed solutions. We will focus mainly on the United States but consider case studies from around the world. Students should be prepared to read and discuss three materials per week. These reading materials will include a range of popular media including podcasts, newspaper articles, and book chapters, as well as scientific articles and overviews. We will also spend some time exploring and talking about streams accessible to the UNC campus. Class will culminate with research projects in which students get to explore a topic of their choice and presenting findings to their peers.

Amanda DelVecchia

I am a physical geographer focusing on freshwater ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves connecting various spatial and temporal scales, and biotic and abiotic factors, within groundwater, lakes, wetlands, rivers, and their watersheds. In particular, I ask how connectivity between different parts of the landscape (including those we cannot see!), and over time, affect functions like carbon and nutrient cycling, food webs, and greenhouse gas dynamics. By understanding these connections, we can better predict how freshwaters react to climate change and anthropogenic alteration, so that we may better protect freshwater biodiversity and function. I use a mix of empirical and data science, and work across the U.S. and internationally. You can learn more about my research by visiting my website at amandadelvecchia.weebly.com, by emailing me, or by visiting during my office hours, in which case I can promise you a warm reception and an offer for tea.

Spring 2023 GSLL 59 001 Moscow 1937: Dictatorships and Their Defenders TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar deals in the broadest possible context with two critical issues that dominated the 20th century: the rise of fascism out of the carnage of World War I and the Bolshevik revolution to which the war and Czarist Russia’s involvement in it helped contribute. As the semester unfolds, drawing on a variety of historical and documentary films, and literature (memoirs, novels), we will take a comparative look at singular personalities like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler and examine the role played by such key figures in historical events of this magnitude. Towards the end of the semester, we will glance briefly at the situation created in Western and Eastern Europe by the defeat of fascism and contemplate the origins and evolution of the cold war. We will conclude the seminar with a consideration of the dissolution and democratization of Eastern European countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, against the tragic background of the past, the general prognosis for democracy in the future.

David Pike

David Pike received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1978 in German Studies with a minor in Russian and has taught at UNC–CH since 1980. He is the author of three books, The Politics of Culture in Soviet -Occupied Germany, 1945-1949 (1993), Lukács and Brecht (1985), and German Writers in Soviet Exile, 1933-1945 (1982). His research takes him regularly to Berlin and Moscow.

Spring 2023 GLBL 221 01F The Migratory Experience TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course presents a critical analysis of the migrant experience in North America and Europe. In addition to examining theoretical explanations for migration, this course will ensure that students develop a deep, personal, and practical appreciation of migration rooted in a social justice framework. To do so, we will utilize storytelling, documentaries, and my own firsthand lived experiences as a Latina immigrant. By the end of the course, students will:
• Develop a clear understanding of the theories driving migration and the various motivations (forced or voluntary) of individuals embarking in this journey.
• Become familiarized with the policies implemented by sending and receiving countries.
• Understand the reception and backlash migrants face.
• Assess whether media portrayals of immigrants via shows such as TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé accurately represent the empirical reality of the migratory experience.

Carmen Huerta-Bapat

Dr. Huerta-Bapat holds a PhD in sociology from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MA in sociology from UNC–Chapel Hill, and an MA in political science from Rice University. She has proudly “sampled” multiple Ph.D programs before settling as a sociologist and consequently her understanding of the world and how she conceptualized knowledge is multi-foci. Her research agenda takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how institutions such as universities, schools and police bureaucracies are working to incorporate underrepresented racial and ethnic groups with a particular interest in immigrant communities. Her research ranges from exploring police behavior toward new Latino immigrants in North Carolina, the social and health impact associated with persecutory immigration policies, the negative impact of micro-aggressions on first-generation college students, and parental involvement amongst Latino families in public education. Her recent work with the School of Public Health draws on her social science training, lived experiences as a Latina immigrant to ensure that health interventions with marginalized communities are not prescriptive, paternalistic and overbearing, but instead they are grounded on respect, mutual understanding and enduring social relations to yield change for all parties involved. In addition to her research work she owns Borderless Equity- a consulting firm specializing in help organizations improve their internal cohesiveness, morale and productivity. Some of her clients include the Department of Health and Human Services in NC, The Airforce Research Lab, and various Care Management Organizations in New Jersey.

Spring 2023 HIST 53 001 Traveling to European Cities: American Writers/Cultural Identities, 1830-2000 TTH 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

This seminar examines two key themes in modern cultural and intellectual history: the importance of travel in the lives and cultural identities of American writers and the important role of European cities in the evolution of modern American cultural identities. We shall focus on a historical era in which American writers were especially drawn to Europe as an alternative to the social and cultural life in the United States; and we’ll discuss how the encounter with Europe influenced these writers as they defined their national identities as well as their views of politics, social relations, gender identities, literature, art and European cultural traditions. The seminar explores how travel has become one of the most influential personal experiences in modern times; and we’ll conclude the course with discussions of how travel remained important for American writers at the end of the twentieth century. Our overall goal is to analyze the connection between travel, writing, and personal identities. This is a class for people who like to read about personal experiences and are intrigued by foreign travel. The assigned texts include works by women and men such as Margaret Fuller, David Dorr, Mark Twain, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller James Baldwin, Elizabeth Spencer, and David Sedaris; and we’ll focus on works that convey how writers have interpreted American experiences in European cities such as Paris, London, Rome, and Athens.

Lloyd Kramer

Lloyd Kramer’s interests focus on Modern European History with an emphasis on nineteenth-century France and French-American cultural relations. He is particularly interested in historical processes that shape personal and collective identities, including the experiences of cross-cultural exchange and the emergence of modern nationalism. Other research and teaching interests deal with the roles of intellectuals in modern societies and the theoretical foundations of historical knowledge. His teaching stresses the pleasures of reading, discussing and writing about influential books in various eras of European and world history.

Spring 2023 HIST 63H 001 Water, Conflict, and Connection: the Middle East and Ottoman Lands (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) MWF 3:35 PM – 5:00 PM

Despite its centrality for the lives and the livelihoods of people in the Middle East, water has seldom been examined in its own right as a contributing factor to its history. This new First Year Seminar will explore the many ways in which water has shaped the history of the region, and the effects it currently has on life in the Middle East.

Along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts as well as the Red Sea and Arab/Persian Gulf, seafaring and fishing played important roles in the economy; in the Gulf, pearl-diving became an important local industry as well. Agricultural innovations allowed permanent settlement in areas with little rainfall. Rivers and seas were essential for transportation, connecting populations of far-flung parts of the Middle East with each other, facilitating commerce and pilgrimage. The availability of clean water has become an increasing problem as industrialization and consumerism soil beaches and sully the region’s drinking supplies. Water and conflict have been indivisible in the region, since water is one of the crucial and rare resources in the Middle East. Some have argued, for example, that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can only be resolved by taking water resources into account; others have pointed to recent drought in Syria as a major factor contributing to the uprising that began in 2011. This course will focus in turn on the historical, cultural, and contemporary issues surrounding the presence and absence of water in the Middle East.

Sarah Shields

Sarah Shields has been at UNC for decades, and both of her children have graduated wearing Tar Heel blue. She teaches courses on the modern Middle East, the conflict over Israel/Palestine, the history of Iraq, and a variety of courses on water in the Middle East. Her current research is on the Middle East and the establishment of borders after World War I. She has enjoyed teaching at UNC so much that she has even accompanied UNC students to programs in Turkey, England, and South Africa.

Spring 2023 HIST 72 001 Women's Voices: 20th-Century European History in Female Memory TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The seminar examines twentieth century European history through the lens of women’s autobiographical writings. It explores women’s voices from different generational, social and national backgrounds. We will read and discuss autobiographical texts by six women, who grew up in middle class families in Austria, Britain, France and Germany and wrote about their lives in the first half of the twentieth century. They all tried to make a difference in society and politics: Emmeline Pankhurst (1958-1928), a leader of the militant British suffragette movement; Alice Salomon (1872-1948), a liberal Jewish-German social reformer and activist of the German middle class women’s movement; Vera Brittain (1893-1970), a British volunteer nurse during World War I, who became after the war a peace activist and writer; Toni Sender (1888-1964), a German-Jewish socialist and one of the first female parliamentarians in Weimar Germany, who like Salomon after the Nazi’s takeover in 1933 had to flee Germany; Genevieve De Gaulle-Anthonioz (1920-2002), a French resistance fighter during World War II and a survivor of the women’s concentration camp Ravensbrück; and Ruth Klüger (1931-2020), an Austrian-Jewish student who survived Auschwitz and became a professor in the U.S. The overarching theme of the seminar is the struggle of women for equal economic, social and political rights. We will explore what effects social and political changes, revolutions and wars as well as the Holocaust had on this struggle and the lives of women in Europe more general. Through intensive discussions of the reading in class, group work and the opportunity to do research on an autobiography written by a European women born between the 1850s and 1920s of their own choice, the seminar offers students a unique approach to twentieth century European history, will introduce them to research and writing, and the resources UNC-Chapel Hill offers.

Karen Hagemann

Karen Hagemann is the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense. She published widely in Modern German, European and Transatlantic history combing political, social, cultural and military history with women’s and gender history. Her most recent English books are: Revisiting Prussia’s Wars against Napoleon: History, Culture, and Memory (Cambridge University Press, 2015); Gendering Post-1945 German History: Entanglements, ed. with Donna Harsch, and Friederike Brühöfener (Berghahn Books, 2019); and Oxford Handbook on Gender, War and the Western World since 1600, ed. with Stefan Dudink and Sonya O. Rose (Oxford University Press, 2020) (http://history.unc.edu/people/faculty/karenhagemann) and (https://hagemann.web.unc.edu/).

Spring 2023 HIST 89 001 Global History of Food TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

What does it mean to study food history, and how do we approach it from a global perspective? The world of food (and the food of the world) is a huge subject, and the focus in this class will be on historical texts and topics (as opposed to contemporary food issues), and on global examples (with an emphasis on non-Western regions, including Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East). Class topics will center on three major themes: Food as Identity (Nation, Gender, Memory, Diaspora), Food as Value (Taste, Commodity, Feasting, Famine); Food in its Modern Forms (Industrialization, Consumption, Globalization). The course emphasis will be on giving students the opportunity to practice fundamental skills of historical methodology (written primary and secondary source analysis), and using what they have learned for a creative final project presentation, based on an oral history interview.

Michelle King

Michelle King is an Associate Professor of History, specializing in modern Chinese gender and food history. She is the editor of Culinary Nationalism in Asia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and a special issue on Chinese culinary regionalism in Global Food History (Summer 2020). Her latest research project focuses on the career of Taiwan’s beloved cooking celebrity, Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004), for which she was awarded a NEH Public Scholars Fellowship. She had the best bowl of noodles in her life twenty-five years ago at a nameless farmstead in rural Hunan province and has been seeking its equal ever since.

Spring 2023 HNRS 89 001 Narrative and Medicine: Writing COVID/Writing Us M 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM

A workshop in autobiographical and creative short story, focusing on the complex connections between story-telling, interpretive skill, and the practice of medicine. Students will write and distribute autobiographical and and creative short stories about illness and medical care; the seminar will meet weekly to discuss these stories, attempting to identify and articulate the key issues each story expresses about what it means to be sick, what it might mean to take care of others in their illness. The writing and (especially) interpretive skills acquired in this workshop are directly valuable to anyone contemplating a career in medicine, but are equally valuable to anyone who might at some point encounter (in themselves or in someone they care for) the trauma of illness. In addition to the weekly workshop, participants will have one-on-one conferences with the instructor (himself an MD with an international reputation as a writer). The capstone project will be a public reading (via webinar, allowing participants to invite an audience from anywhere on the globe) of participants’ work, which may (at student option) be in the form of a film composed under guidance of experts at the University’s Media Resources Center illustrating images and themes from the written work.

Terrence Holt

Terrence Holt (M.F.A., Ph.D. Cornell University; M.D. UNC), has held a faculty position at the School of Medicine since completing his residency (internal medicine) in 2003. He teaches topics ranging from health care finance to medical ethics to narrative medicine. For ten years a contributing editor to Men's Health, he publishes and speaks widely on a range of topics related to ethical and experiential questions of medical practice. His short story collections (In the Valley of the Kings, Internal Medicine) have appeared on numerous "best of" lists, including the New York Times bestsellers, and have been reprinted, translated, and anthologized in the US, Europe, and Asia. He thinks of this course as his central contribution to his teaching at Carolina, one that combines the multiple disciplinary strands of his career into a unified experience for learners at a range of levels.

Spring 2023 MATH 130 01F Precalculus Mathematics TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Requisites: Prerequisite, MATH 110; a grade of C- or better is required. Covers the basic mathematical skills needed for learning calculus. Topics are calculating and working with functions and data, introduction to trigonometry, parametric equations, and the conic sections. A student may not receive credit for this course after receiving credit for MATH 231.

Emily Burkhead

My field of study is discrete dynamical systems and ergodic theory, wherein we study the behavior of systems that change over time. The underlying question for a particular system is how predictable or chaotic the behavior is and that can be classified in terms of either topological properties or probabilistic ones. Early work of mine developed a topological classification of a particular type of function called cellular automata that operates on a symbolic space: points in this space consist of an assignment of a state from a finite set to each integer lattice point in n-space. Cellular automata are functions that update each state simultaneously at each time step according to a single rule. Recent work has focused on modeling using stochastic cellular automata, related objects that are not deterministic maps but ones that select from a finite list of rules to apply at each location and at each time step. With Donna Molinek, Davidson College, and Jane Hawkins, UNC CH Emerita, I have analyzed a model for HIV within the lymph nodes, developed and analyzed a model for Ebola within an organ. Currently, my professional focus is on mathematics education and best practices in teaching.

Spring 2023 MATH 231H 01F MATH 231H-617 Calculus of Functions of One Variable I MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Requisites: Prerequisites, MATH 110 and 130; Requires a grade of C- or better in MATH 130 or placement by the department. Limits, derivatives, and integrals of functions of one variable. Students may not receive credit for both MATH 231 and MATH 241.

Math 231 is designed to provide a detailed introduction to the fundamental ideas of calculus. It does not assume any prior calculus knowledge, but the student is expected to be proficient working with functions and their graphs as well as manipulating variable expressions and solving equations using algebra.

This is the Honors section of Math 231. It offers a more demanding and deeper treatment than the regular sections as well as more involved applications. There will be more emphasis on understanding theory than in other sections, and students will be expected to understand and reproduce proofs of theorems and formulas. In addition, this section will cover extra topics, including the epsilon-delta definition of limit. Applications will be more involved and will sometimes involve real data. Homework will be more challenging, with more emphasis on creative problem solving and less emphasis on drill. Students will be expected to complete a final project.

Spring 2023 MUSC 89 001 Music and Women's Rights MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

This seminar is about the protest songs and history of the First and Second Waves of American feminism, from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 – where women declared their equality with men and called for women’s right to vote – to the passage of Roe v. Wade and the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Issues for discussion include the intersectionality of women’s rights and civil rights movements.

Anne MacNeil

Anne MacNeil holds a PhD in the History & Theory of Music from the University of Chicago and a Master's Degree from the Eastman School of Music. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the Authority of Record at the Library of Congress on the Renaissance commedia dell'arte actress Isabella Andreini. Prof. MacNeil is also a founding directory of IDEA: Isabella d'Este Archive, an international research consortium that studies the music and culture of Renaissance Italy through the lens of the marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539).

Spring 2023 PHIL 55 001 Paradoxes TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Philosophy is bursting with paradoxes: Zeno’s paradoxes of motion, the Liar Paradox, the Sorites Paradox, and also modern puzzles like the Trolley Problem. This class will explore the most exciting and influential paradoxes in the field, starting with ancient puzzles about infinity and ending with modern moral dilemmas.

Daniel Muñoz

Daniel Muñoz is an assistant professor in Philosophy and core faculty in Philosophy, Politics, and Economis. He completed his PhD at MIT in 2019. He is writing two books in moral philosophy: What We Owe to Ourselves (Oxford University Press) and 50 Paradoxes, Puzzles, and Thought Experiments in Ethical Theory (Routledge, with Sarah Stroud).

Spring 2023 PHIL 63 001 Mind, Brain, and Consciousness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Many features of human consciousness are puzzling. Why are people so ready to believe extraordinary claims on the basis of virtually no evidence whatsoever, but unwilling to accept the reality of well-documented phenomena? Why are people repulsed by some very ordinary biological phenomena but not by others? Why is it that some commonplace events can make some people anxious, while even near-fatal events can leave them unruffled? Why are we so much more willing to eat some things than others? This course will examine psychodynamic theories that attempt to explain these phenomena.

Ram Neta

Ram Neta is Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in epistemology and is currently at work on a book on knowledge, rationality, and consciousness.

Spring 2023 PHIL 80 001 Short Stories and Contemporary Social Problems MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

What is the point of learning about ethics? An ethics course should teach you how to recognize a moral issue when it stares you in the face. You should learn to appreciate its intricacies, to reason your way through it, and to discuss it with your peers. This will raise your skills of critical reflection and your moral sensitivities. And if you can translate what you gained into action, dare I say it, then it will make you into a better person as well. Short stories—much more so than the classics or contemporary journals of professional philosophy—are a great tool for this purpose. In this course, we will explore contemporary social, political and moral issues through short stories in world literature connect these stories with research papers in the social sciences and the humanities, blogs, and newspaper articles.

Luc Bovens

Professor Bovens is Professor of Philosophy and Core Faculty in UNC’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program. His philosophical interests are broad and include paradoxes of rationality, issues in formal epistemology, philosophy of economics, political science, moral psychology, and bioethics.

Spring 2023 PHYS 118H 01F PHYS 118H-401 (this studio lab operates as the FY Launch) Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity LEC: MWF, 8:00 AM - 8:50 AM LAB: MW, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM

Requisites: Prerequisite, MATH 231; Pre- or corequisite, MATH 232; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Wei Zhang

Dr. Wei Zhang received his B.S. in Physics from Peking University, China (2008) and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Washington – Seattle (2013). He did his postdoc work at Argonne National Laboratory (2013 – 16). He served in the Physics department of the Oakland University in Michigan until 2022 when he moved to UNC Chapel Hill. His scientific research is focused on the fundamental excitations of magnetically ordered materials and how they interact with other excitations, such as microwave photons, light, and phonons. His work encompasses essential aspects of these magnetic phenomena and their potential applications. He was the recipient of the IEEE Magnetic Society Early Career Award (2016) and NSF CAREER award (2020).

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Spring 2023 PHYS 119 01F PHYS 119-401 (this studio lab operates as the FY Launch) Introductory Calculus-based Electromagnetism and Quanta LEC: MWF, 9:05 AM - 9:55 AM LAB: MW, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM

Requisites: Prerequisite, PHYS 118; Pre- or corequisite, MATH 233; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites. Unification of the laws of electricity and magnetism; electromagnetic waves; the particle-wave duality; fundamental principles and applications of quantum mechanics. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 119 in addition to PHYS 105, 115, or 117.

Julieta Gruszko

Julieta is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. She arrived at UNC Chapel Hill in January 2020 after spending 2 years as a Pappalardo Fellow at MIT, working with Lindley Winslow and Joe Formaggio. She completed her PhD as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Jason Detwiler’s group at the University of Washington, where she studied neutrinoless double-beta decay with the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, and received her BS in physics and BA in mathematics from University of Rochester.

Jennifer Weinberg-Wolf

I grew up in the Chicago-land area (Northern suburbia), moved to Cambridge for college and then down to Chapel Hill for graduate school. Loved the area (and had a new baby) after graduating, so we stayed. Now I’ve got two wonderful daughters who are NC natives. I’m currently a teaching assistant professor at UNC and am passionate about teaching and outreach. When I’m not with students, I can be found watching my girls competitive jumprope (Go Aerotrix!), trying out a new recipe or curling up with a book (mysteries are my favorite!)

Spring 2023 PHYS 54 001 Physics of Movies TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this seminar, we will analyze physics concepts by watching scenes from popular movies. The overall goal is to disentangle the complicated interplay of physics ideas in real-life situations and thereby to improve significantly our problem-solving skills. Emphasis is placed on group work rather than on traditional teaching. We will be addressing questions such as: Which scenes from movies are unphysical and which are realistic? How are physicists portrayed in movies? How does physics research influence society? Ultimately, we will gain a more fundamental understanding for physical concepts and how these concepts shape our world view. No prerequisite is required.

Christian Iliadis

Christian Iliadis is a Greek who was born and raised in Germany. He obtained his diploma in physics from the University of Muenster/Germany and then moved to Notre Dame where he received his Ph.D. He spent three years in Vancouver, working in Canada’s largest nuclear physics laboratory. Since 1996, he has been Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UNC–CH, teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. His research specialty is nuclear astrophysics, which is the science of how stars generate energy and produce the elements in the Universe via nuclear fusion reactions. He also wrote a recently published textbook on this subject. His favorite hobby is soccer (or football, as it is called in the rest of the world).

Spring 2023 POLI 130 01F Introduction to Comparative Politics MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available.

Ashley Anderson

Ashley Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Government from Harvard University, and also holds a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University. Most recently, she served as a post-doc in the UNC Political Science department with funding from the Carolina Post-Doctoral Program for Faculty Diversity. A specialist in comparative politics, her research interests include contentious politics, authoritarian regimes, and political institutions.

Currently, Ashley is working on a book project on variation in union responses to political movements in authoritarian regimes, with a particular emphasis on how varied strategies of labor incorporation in North African regimes lead to divergent patterns interest articulation, organizational development and anti-regime contention among union federations. In addition to this work, newer research projects examine the dynamics of opposition movements in authoritarian regimes more broadly, with applications to state-mobilized contention and Islamist party success.

Spring 2023 POLI 63 001 Social Movements and Political Protest and Violence TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar focuses on explaining and understanding social movements and the collective political behaviors that they promote (e.g. demonstrations, protests, violence, and eco-terrorism). Our theoretical focus will be interdisciplinary, drawing on research in political behavior, social psychology, sociology, political theory, and the law. We will discuss when and why collective action occurs, who participates, what forms it takes, and how governments respond. Substantively, we will study a variety of movements including: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movement, the Environmental movement, the White Nationalist movement, COVID protests, and the January 6th Capitol protest. We will use a variety of approaches and resources: class discussions, films, online forum discussions, and texts. Grades will be based on class participation, forum participation, a writing project, and several group papers.

This class will be taught remotely with both asychronous and sychronous components.

Pamela Conover

Pamela Conover, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science, was educated at Emory University and received her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Professor Conover teaches courses dealing with political psychology, women and politics, and social movements and political protest. In the past, Professor Conover’s research has concerned the nature of political thinking and the politics of identity and citizenship. She also coauthored the book Feminism and the New Right. Her current research is focused on election aversion, religious freedom, and the effect of worldviews on political behavior. In her spare time, she enjoys cycling, yoga and being walked by her two golden retrievers, Sophie and Henry.

Spring 2023 POLI 70 001 Political Conflict in the European Union and the United States (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is concerned with politics and political conflict in the European Union and the United States. In part one you will learn about how democracy works (or doesn’t work) in liberal democracies. Why did socialism fail in the United States? What difference does the electoral system make? What are the reasons for the rise of nationalism and populism in Europe and the United States? How have these societies struggled with the challenge of the Coronavirus?

Gary Marks

Gary Marks is Burton Craige Professor of Political Science and Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. He served as the director and co-founder the UNC Center for European Studies and EU Center of Excellence. In 2017 he received the Daniel Elazar Distinguished Federalism Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association and has received the Humboldt Prize for his contributions to political science. Professor Marks has written more than a dozen books and is one of the most cited scholars worldwide in political science.

Spring 2023 POLI 75 001 Thinking about Law MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Are you interested in being a lawyer or public official? Do you know what it means to “think like a lawyer?” Have you considered why people mostly honor the law? Where do you find “the law?” How do judges decide difficult cases? This seminar will explore the notion of a rule of law, formal and customary law, legal analysis, judicial interpretation and the realities of the adversarial system and law practice. We will consider what makes law seem legitimate and how to assess whether it promotes liberty and justice. This seminar will challenge students to be reflective and critical about their own perspectives and to explore personal responsibility for promoting a rule of law. Students will be engaged in analytical thinking and expression through required participation in teacher-led dialogues based on assigned readings and with research and writing assignments. Reading materials include selections from court cases and other sources that provide an introduction to the notion of a rule of law, the sources of law that govern us and protect our individual rights, the nature of legal analysis, the different methods of judicial interpretation, and the realities of law practice and the adversarial system.

Charles Szypszak

Charles Szypszak is Albert Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government. He has been with the School of Government since 2005. Prior to that, he was an attorney and director of a general practice firm in New Hampshire. He provides legal counsel to state, national and international institutions, organizations and public officials and teaches Law for Public Administration in the graduate program in public administration. He has taught and worked on law reforms in Poland and Russia. He is the recipient of the University’s J. Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award and the School of Government’s Coates Distinguished Professorship for Teaching Excellence.

Spring 2023 POLI 76 001 The Obama Presidency TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course examines the presidency of Barack Obama, the first African American to serve in the nation’s highest office. The course is broken down into four parts. The first part studies Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson, two black people who ran for President prior to Obama. The second part examines Obama prior to running for office, reading a book that he authored. The third part of the class examines Obama’s presidency, both how he reached office and a look back at what he achieved while in office. The last part of the class considers American politics post-Obama, with a particular focus on race/ethnicity.

Christopher Clark

Christopher J. Clark’s research focuses on black electoral representation and its influence on political processes. Clark earned his Ph.D. in Political Science in 2010 from the University of Iowa, and he has been on faculty at UNC since July 2012. Chris is a huge sports fan, with his favorite team being the Kansas City Chiefs. He is married to Tiana and is father of Kaya, Cadence, and Kinlee; they all bring him great joy. Chris enjoys reading, cooking, playing sports, and he is active in his church community.

Spring 2023 POLI 87 001 What Does it Mean to be a Good Citizen? MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

What, if any, responsibilities accompany democratic citizenship? Voting? Active participation in political meetings? Obeying laws? Volunteering in one’s community? Preserving natural resources for future generations? Adhering to certain values? Protesting unjust laws? This course offers an overview of the different ways in which Americans have answered these questions.

Nora Hanagan

Professor Nora Hanagan studies political ideas. She is particularly interested in the ideas that have animated American politics and history. She also researches different approaches to environmental and food politics. Her book, Democratic Responsibility: The Politics of Many Hands in America, examines whether individuals bear responsibility for harms that are caused by social institutions and processes. When she isn’t chasing her young children around, she likes gardening and hiking.

Spring 2023 POLI 89 001 Introduction to Constitutional Conflicts TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the issues, arguments, history, impact, and reasoning arising from or in conflicts between presidents and Congress. The constitutional conflicts that are the focus of the course involve presidents and Congress fighting for primacy in areas in which they have shared constitutional powers.

Michael Gerhardt

Michael Gerhardt is the Burton Craig Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina Law School. He is the author of seven books, including The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy, which the Financial Times named as one of the best non-fiction books of 2013, and over 100 articles on constitutional law. He has testified more than 20 times before the House or Senate, has been special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the confirmation proceedings for seven of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court, and served as special counsel to the Presiding Officer in Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate.

Spring 2023 PSYC 101 01F General Psychology TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Spring 2023 PSYC 58H 001 The Psychology of Mental States and Language Use TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

As adults we constantly make judgments about other people’s beliefs, desires, goals, knowledge, and intentions from evidence like eye gaze and inferences from their words and actions. These judgments together can be called mindreading, or theory of mind (where “theory” refers to the theory someone might hold about another’s mental state, not a scientific theory). This information is known to guide some aspects of language use — for example, you wouldn’t ask someone to hand you “that book” if they don’t know it exists. But sometimes you might ignore what someone else does or does not know – for instance asking someone for “the red book” when that person is sitting in front of two red books. This course examines how children, adults, and individuals with autism infer other people’s mental states, and how they use it to guide decisions during speaking and understanding. A major focus of this course is on research methods, and how to investigate questions of mental state and language processing empirically. The course culminates in students conducting an original research project and reporting it in both spoken and written formats.

Jennifer Arnold

Dr. Jennifer Arnold is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She studies the ways that our minds handle the jobs of speaking and understanding. How do speakers choose words and produce them? How do listeners pick out the speaker’s meaning? Her research is guided by questions about how people represent the thoughts, intentions, and mental activities of other people, and how this information influences specific linguistic processes.

Spring 2023 PLCY 51 001 The Global Environment in the 21st Century TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Explores linkages among nations, global environmental institutions, and the environmental problems they cause and seek to rectify. Introduces pressing challenges of the global environment, particularly around energy use and climate change, and potential solutions. Discusses perspectives of nations, NGOs, and the international community involved in crafting policy solutions. This class does not have any prerequisites.

Elizabeth Sasser

Elizabeth Sasser is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Public Policy with extensive experience in federal and state government. Prior to joining UNC, she served as policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she worked with U.S. and Chinese government leadership on strategies to advance U.S. interests on environmental and energy issues. She was also a policy advisor to two North Carolina governors on energy and education issues. She has a B.A. and an M.P.P. from Duke University and has studied at Peking University in Beijing, China, where she developed a fluency in Mandarin.

Spring 2023 PLCY 61H 001 Policy Entrepreneurship and Public/Private/Non-Profit Partnerships MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

This seminar will define a policy entrepreneur and examine strategies used by policy entrepreneurs to achieve policy change or innovation in the policy making process. This course also aims to explore ways that public, private, and non-profit sectors collaborate to address problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. There is growing recognition that sustainable solutions to some of the most complex challenges confronting our communities can benefit from these collaborative or “intersector” approaches.

Daniel Gitterman

Daniel Gitterman is Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill. He also serves as Director of the Honors Seminar in Public Policy and Global Affairs (Washington, DC).

Spring 2023 RELI 70 001 Jesus in Scholarship and Film TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will examine how historians have reconstructed the life, teachings and death of the historical Jesus. We will look at the Gospels of the New Testament, as well as references to Jesus in other writings (Roman and Jewish sources, as well as Gospels that did not make it into the New Testament). In addition, we will explore how Jesus has been portrayed in modern film, including such Biblical “epics” as The Greatest Story Ever Told, such “period pieces” as Jesus Christ Superstar, such brilliant retellings as Jesus of Montreal and such controversial films as The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion of the Christ. The ultimate goals of the seminar are to see what we can say about the historical man Jesus himself and how Jesus came to be portrayed in both ancient sources and modern imagination.

Bart Ehrman

Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies. He has taught at Carolina since 1988. He is author or editor of thirty books and is widely regarded as a leading expert on the New Testament and the history of the early Christian church. He is also a well-known teacher on campus, having won the Undergraduate Students Teaching Award, the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the John William Pope Center Spirit of Inquiry Teaching Award.

Spring 2023 RELI 71 001 Ethics and the Spirit of the New Capitalism TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

In 1905 the sociologist Max Weber famously proclaimed that capitalism has a “spirit.” Beyond just determining how we make money and circulate goods, Weber argued, capitalism is deeply entangled with religious ways of life. Both religious and economic systems work together to determine what we aspire to, how we organize communities and how we define our self-worth. Beginning from this insight, this freshman seminar examines the intersection of capitalism and religion through a series of key terms, including “vocation,” “aspiration,” “commodity,” “celebrity,” and more.

Eden Consenstein

Eden Consenstein is a scholar of religion, media, and capitalism in the United States. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies and English from the University of Toronto, an M.A in Religious Studies from New York University, and a Ph.D.in the Religious Studies from Princeton University, where she also completed a certificate from the program in Media and Modernity.

She is currently working on two book projects. The first, Religion at Time Inc.: From the Beginning of Time to the End of Life, is a religious history of the major media corporation best known for Time, Life and Fortune magazines. From 1923 to 1964, Time Inc. (sometimes called the Time-Life Corporation) was run by Henry R. Luce, a self-styled theologian and leading Presbyterian layman who insisted that the press should promote high moral standards rather than aim for objectivity. Through extensive research in Time Inc.’s recently publicized corporate archives and close readings of the magazines Luce edited, Religion at Time Inc. describes how the editor’s political-theological convictions shaped Time Inc.’s media. Her second project, Pyramids of Plenty: Christianity and Multi-level Marketing, will be the first work to trace the historical entanglement of U.S. Christianity, new media, and the multi-level marketing industry.

Eden’s teaching and research interests include religion and media, consumerism and material culture, new religious movements, secularism studies, reality television, and histories of capitalism. Her work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Eisenhower Foundation, The New-York Historical Society and Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion.

Spring 2023 ITAL 51 001 Contagion and Culture: Lessons from Italy TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Set in plague-stricken Florence of 1348, Boccaccio’s Decameron begins with a portrait of social unravelling and civic collapse that is uncannily familiar in our jarring new pandemic reality. What can medieval literature and philosophy tell us about how to live when our knowledge, institutions, and laws falter? Who is at fault when catastrophe strikes? What is the role of art in responding to trauma, in rebuilding society? How does communal suffering compare to private suffering? How are power and privilege revealed, increased, or challenged in a pandemic? How do the narratives we tell about different maladies shape our lives and communities? This course explores Italian responses over the course of seven centuries to these questions, and reflects on how the Italian story continues to shape North American culture.

Maggie Fritz-Morkin

Maggie Fritz-Morkin studies the literature and culture of medieval Italy. She has published numerous essays on the ethics of visceral language, and is finishing a book on obscenity in the literary works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Her current research interests include the obsession with fraud in late medieval Italy, conflicting theories of debt and obligation, and medieval women's voices in the articulation of justice.

Spring 2023 ROML 89 001 Déjà vu: Medicine and Narration across Time and Space MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Hallucinations, depression, hysteria, paranoia, anxiety, neurosis, body dysmorphic disorder, obsession, and pain are only some of the symptoms that will be reflected in the narratives of this course. The authors featured in this seminar are familiar with the medical knowledge of their time and are often patients themselves suffering from the medical conditions they describe. Throughout the semester, we will examine the practices of authors – such as Maupassant, Montaigne, Selzer, Sembène, or Meruane – who not only borrow heavily from medicine in composing their works but also conceive of writing itself as something medical, that is, as having a therapeutic function for both writer and reader. Accordingly, we will study a group of writers and artists across time and space who explore, adapt, and converse with contemporaneous medical learning in their creative works.

Dorothea Heitsch

Dorothea Heitsch is Teaching Professor in French & Francophone Studies in the Department of Romance Studies. In addition to the language sequence, she teaches French grammar & composition, culture courses about France and French-speaking regions, and topics courses across the centuries, inviting students to explore Honors Theses, the Ackland Museum’s visuals, and UNC’s numerous special collections. Her research and teaching include medical, political, and religious issues, and she particularly enjoys pointing students to questions of rhetoric, translation, and linguistic practice. She is the author of two monographs and numerous articles on early modern topics and the co-editor of two collections.

Spring 2023 SOCI 100 01F Sociological Perspective Through Documentary Film TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Introduction to sociology as a discipline through documentary film that includes study of differences and equality, social structure and institutions, culture, social change, individuals and populations, and social psychology.

Neal Caren
Spring 2023 SOCI 53 001 The Consequences of Welfare Reform and Prospects for the Future TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

President Bill Clinton ended “welfare as we know it” in 1996 when he signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law. This significant and historical welfare reform fundamentally changed the federal safety net in the United States and abolished guaranteed aid for those in poverty. In this first-year seminar, we will use a sociological lens to investigate the causes and consequences of welfare reform, as well as the subsequent expansion of other antipoverty programs designed to help the working poor. We will consider a range of viewpoints that inform current policy debates. Topics will include the conceptualization and measurement of poverty, causes of poverty, public and political attitudes toward welfare and the role of the government, and the implementation and efficacy of antipoverty policies.

Jessica Su

Dr. Jessica Houston Su is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow in the Carolina Population Center. Her research focuses on social inequality in American family life. At first glance, family formation may seem very individualized; decisions about whom we marry, when we have children, and how we raise them are personal. Her work investigates how social inequality contributes to patterns of family formation at the population level, and subsequently affects the development and well-being of parents and children. Her research appears in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Demography, the Journal of Marriage and Family, and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University and her B.A. in Sociology from Dartmouth College.

Spring 2023 SOCI 57H 001 Rationalization and the Changing Nature of Social Life in 21st-Century America TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Today, fast food restaurants have become a model for everyday life. Some scholars have even talked about the “McDonaldization” of the nation and the world. By that, scholars mean a drive toward greater efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control by non-human technologies in modern organizations. This drive has shaped many features of American life, including health care, law, and education. Such forces have even affected personal relationships. Sociologists have a term for this process: “rationalization.” We will explore “rationalization” through a process called “active learning” in which you will have opportunities to explore online resources, engage in peer-to-peer discussions, and work with me to develop a research project in which you explore the impact of rationalization on an occupation that might be a destination for you. We will spend one class period, every other week, working on the term paper in class. We will have four or five guests, sharing their expertise on how rationalization has affected their work. You will be assessed based on your contributions to blog posts, class discussion, short answer written assignments, and a research project culminating in a term paper (15-20 pages). You will then build an Adobe Spark page that explains, to the world, what you have learned. We will have no traditional examinations or quizzes.

Visit https://howardaldrich.org to view samples of prior term papers. Click on “Rationalization” in the top ribbon to see the beautifully illustrated term projects.

Howard Aldrich

Howard E. Aldrich is Kenan Professor of Sociology. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and mentoring: Favorite Professor Award from the senior class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; graduate students’ Award for Best Teaching, Department of Sociology, several times; and the J Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award from the University of Carolina Chapel Hill. His two sons and his daughters-in-law graduated from Carolina. Alas, his grandchildren have gone elsewhere. His main research interests are entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial team formation, gender and entrepreneurship, and evolutionary theory. He enjoys foreign travel and he fly fishes year-round in the mountains of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee and wherever else his travels may take him. Photos of his catches may be viewed on his homepage, as well as samples of students’ work in prior semesters. Look for “Rationalization.”

Spring 2023 SOCI 89 001 Discrimination in the Labor Market TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

There are many forms of inequality in the U.S. labor market and in workplaces, including, for example, inequality across gender, race/ethnicity, social class, immigration status, sexual orientation, and parental status; and across dimensions and outcomes including pay, hiring opportunities, job authority, performance evaluations, and promotion decisions. This first-year seminar provides a deep dive into labor market inequality and specifically focuses on the causes, consequences, and opportunities to change inequalities arising from discrimination. We will consider questions such as: What are the causes of inequality and discrimination? How have causes and patterns of inequality changed in recent history? How do legal, academic, and other institutions understand discrimination, and how do these understandings differ from the lived experiences of people who may face discrimination? What forms of information would offer convincing evidence of discrimination? What are the consequences of labor market inequalities and how do experiences of discrimination shape future opportunities? Finally, we will consider what organizations and individuals can do differently to evaluate labor market or workplace inequality, develop solutions to reduce these forms of inequality, and implement sustainable changes.

Kate Weisshaar

Dr. Kate Weisshaar is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at UNC-Chapel Hill and a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center. She received her PhD in 2016 from Stanford University. Her research focuses on inequality in the labor market, and she studies topics relating to gender, race, work and family, and ways that organizations and individuals can change levels of inequality.

Spring 2023 WGST 68 001 Assumed Identities: Performance in Photography TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Our day to day lives are filled with selfies and social media images. This course asks students to re-examine these images through feminist analysis. Students will make self-portraits that reflect the multiple and changing aspects of their identity and contemporary society. Thru role-playing, performance, and documentation we work to understand the construction of identity and the ways in which photography can help us control our own narratives.

We begin the semester with a close look at the ethics and issues of representation throughout the history of photography. Using visual analysis, we explore how photographers have historically used assumed identities and theatrical aspects of photography to push the boundaries of their realities and challenge society’s stereotypes. Students will complete the semester with a stronger set of visual literacy skills and a better understanding of how our identities are shaped by society and how we shape our identities and society in return.

There are no specific camera requirements. Phone cameras are the perfect tool for this course.

Susan Harbage Page

Susan Harbage Page is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. Harbage Page is a visual artist with a background in photography and lens-based work that explores immigration, race, and gender. She is well-known for her work on the U.S. – Mexico Border which explores bodies and belonging through photography, the creation of an "Anti-Archive" of objects left-behind on the border and site-specific art interventions which involve performative actions in the space of a border.

Spring 2023 INLS 73 001 Smart Cities TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

A smart city is one where the needs of a populace meet the needs of environmental sustainability. The balance between the social and environmental issues is governed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that power a smart city infrastructure. In this course, we learn about the influence of urban networks, smart city urban planning, energy as a catalyst of sustainable development, smart city infrastructure, sustainable transportation, flow of information and communications, smart grids, digital infrastructure and the role of data and information technology. We will discuss criteria for measuring the smartness of a city, including quality of life, citizen governance, and discuss issues that go towards the making of a future smart city. Several case studies will be presented with guest lecturers invited to present on critical thinking and practices in smart city development. Students will be involved in group projects to assess smartness of cities.

Arcot Rajasekar

Arcot Rajasekar is a Professor in the School of Library and Information Sciences, a Chief Scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and co-Director of Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A leading proponent of policy-oriented large-scale data management, Rajasekar has several research projects funded by the NSF, NARA, NIH and other funding agencies. Rajasekar has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park and has more than 100 publications in the areas of data grids, digital library, persistent archives, logic programming and artificial intelligence. His latest projects include the Datanet Federation Consortium and the Data Bridge that is building a social network platform for scientific data.

Spring 2023 ROML 63 001 Forging Alliances: Religion, War and Cultural Transference on the Camino de Santiago MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

This course explores the role the Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) played in the construction of a distinctive Spanish identity in the medieval period of Europe. We will approach this issue from a variety of perspectives. From the religious point of view, we will discuss the transformation of the man into a legend and eventually a myth, as well as the growth of the pilgrimage to Santiago. From the political and economic perspectives, we will examine the role of the Camino in the strengthening of the first Christian Kingdoms in the North of Spain, the creation of the first Spanish knight orders and their fight against Islam. We will also discuss the cultural transference that took place along the Camino by analyzing the art, architecture, music and literature that developed in the cities and villages along the pilgrimage routes.

Hélène de Fays

Hélène de Fays is a Senior Lecturer in the Romance Studies Department. She has earned undergraduate degrees in Finances and International Relations, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature. Her educational and professional backgrounds, as well as her personal multidisciplinary interests, have guided her research and teaching. Dr. de Fays has taught a number of successful cultures courses and has published articles on the concepts of utopia and dystopia in Spanish American Science Fiction and ecofeminism in Central American narrative. She has also co-authored a web-based textbook on the cultural history of the Hispanic world.

Spring 2023 RELI 80 001 Religion and Writing in the Ancient World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Few technological innovations have more profoundly shaped the course of human civilization than the invention of writing. This course explores the role of writing in the development of ancient religious traditions, covering the wide chronological period from the beginnings of writing in Mesopotamia and Egypt (approximately 3200 BCE) to the advent of Islam. We will begin by considering the nature of writing both as a technology and as a symbolic system, giving attention to insights coming out of modern linguistic research. Then we will examine a series of case studies of the relationship between religion and writing drawn from the ancient world (especially the ancient Near East), in order to illustrate the diversity and complexity of these interactions between technology and society. Specific topics to be addressed include: religion and the early alphabet, magical and mystical uses of writing, religion and literacy, scribal culture, and the development of “scriptural” texts such as the Bible and the Qur’an.

Joseph Lam

Joseph Lam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies. He received his Ph.D. (with Honors) from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on ancient Near Eastern religious texts and practices, with an emphasis on the diverse written traditions of the Levant (Syria-Palestine) in 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, including the Hebrew Bible. At Carolina, he has taught courses on Classical Hebrew language, Hebrew Bible, ancient Near Eastern culture, and the place of metaphor in religious language.

Fall 2023 AAAD 54 001 African Migrations, Boundaries, Displacements, and Belonging TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Boundary making, migration, and population displacement have been significant dimensions of the contemporary African experience. How has boundary making, broadly defined (inclusive of national borders, rural-urban distinctions, and ethnic and racial groupings, for example), shaped contemporary Africa? What types of and through what processes were boundaries were created? How did the African people respond to these processes? What population displacements unfolded in the context of this boundary making? And how did the people of Africa make sense of and understand boundary making, migration, and displacement? These are some of the questions we will be examining in this interactive and discussion oriented class. We will build our examination of these issues around six novels written by African authors. These novels will provide insight into the ways by which boundaries, migration, and displacement impacted the everyday lives of the African people.

Michael Lambert

Michael Lambert is an Associate Professor of African Studies and Anthropology. His research has principally been in francophone West Africa with a focus on issues related to migration. He has lived for over five years in Senegal and the neighboring nation of Mauritania, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer, and he has travelled extensively throughout the continent. His first book, Longing for Exile: Migration and the Making of a Translocal Community in Senegal (West Africa) (Heinemann, 2002), explores the cultural and social history of urban migration in a Senegalese community. His most recent book (co-authored), Up from These Hills: Memories of Cherokee Boyhood (Nebraska [Bison Books], 2011), explores American Indian experience in the mid-20th century.

Fall 2023 AAAD 89 001 Afro-Latinxs in the U.S. TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

What does it mean to be both racially Black and ethnically Latino in the U.S.? This discussion-based course will look at the history, culture, experiences, political struggles, and social dilemmas of “Afro-Latina/o/xs”: African-descended peoples from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean who reside in the U.S. The erasure of these communities, along with their struggles for well-being, prosperity, belonging, and visibility, will be explored. The class provides an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade, ethno-nationalism, and U.S. foreign-policy, and their connection to contemporary issues of migration, sexism, inequality, and anti-blackness. In-depth conversations about the politics of “race” and “ethnicity” will trouble dominant U.S. paradigms of identity. We will engage with a variety of sources, from academic books and scholarly articles to film. Students will synthesize their understanding through daily forum posts, a collaboratively-prepared presentation, an essay, and a group research project.

Maya Berry

Maya Berry is a sociocultural anthropologist who writes on topics related to race, gender, politics, and performance in Cuba, as well as black feminist approaches to ethnographic methods more broadly. She earned a PhD. in Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Prior to joining AAAD at UNC-Chapel Hill, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. A third-generation Afro-Cuban-American, she is practitioner and researcher of Afro-Cuban dance. For her teaching at UNC she has been awarded the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award in Engaged Teaching (2020) and the Johnston Teaching Excellence Award (2021).

Fall 2023 AAAD 89 002 History of African Americans at UNC-CH T 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM

This course will explore the history of African Americans on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus from earliest times to the present. Campus tours, interesting reading and in depth exploration of the lives and times of African Americans associated with UNC-CH will feature prominently.

Robert Porter

Robert Porter has taught in his department for 36 years, during which time he has taught some 16 different AAAD courses. He has won numerous teaching awards and gets consistently high evaluations from students. His popularity is reflected in the fact that a quarter of the students enrolled in his last FYS in 2023 are still enrolled in various courses he teaches, definitely including people who had no plans to take an additional AAAD course after their FYS.

Fall 2023 AMST 55H 001 Birth and Death in the United States TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course explores birth and death as common human rites of passage impacted by changing American historical and cultural contexts. Since both are defining life events that remain beyond experiential recall, studying them in interdisciplinary ways opens powerful insights into how culture mediates the construction of bodies, social identities, and philosophical meanings. Readings and assignments are designed to examine changing anthropological rituals, medical procedures, scientific technologies, and ethical quandaries. We will also explore a variety of representations of birth and death in literary expression, film, and material culture as well as in hospitals, funeral homes, and cemeteries.

Timothy Marr

Timothy Marr is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies, where since 2000 he has taught courses on mating and marriage, cultural memory, and tobacco. His research interests include the life and works of Herman Melville and American approaches to Islam and Muslims.

Fall 2023 ANTH 53H 037 Darwin's Dangerous Idea TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to one of the most profound revolutions in the history of thought, generating stunning insights but also some misunderstanding and tragic abuse. This seminar aims to provide a clear understanding of how natural selection works, and how it doesn’t. We will examine objections to the theory; how the environmental and health problems we face today reflect processes of natural selection; and recent attempts to understand why we get sick, how we respond to disease, why we get old, why we choose mates the way we do, and more. Class sessions will feature a mix of lecture and discussion of concepts and issues. Students will also engage in small group projects—cooperative explorations of problems raised in class or in the readings and/or designing mini research projects.

Paul Leslie

Paul Leslie’s professional interests focus on human ecology, and he has pursued this primarily through research among nomadic peoples in East Africa. His most recent project entails studying (while nursing an aged Land Rover across the African savanna) human-environment interactions in northern Tanzania, especially how the changing land use and livelihood patterns of the Maasai people living there affect and are affected by wildlife and conservation efforts. When not teaching or practicing anthropology, he enjoys bicycling, motorcycling, woodworking, and jazz.

Fall 2023 ANTH 62 001 Indian Country Today MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

With the United States as our geographic focus, this seminar explores a range of 20th- and early-21st-century American Indian topics and current issues. We look at Indian casinos, tribal colleges, identity, gender, tribal courts, sports, and other topics. An exploration of the history of American Indians before and after the arrival of Europeans, a history with which we begin the seminar, provides essential background for looking at the present and recent past. This seminar will help students better understand the challenges facing American Indian communities both internally and externally and the creative solutions being forged to address these challenges. It will also help students further develop skills in reading, writing, critical analysis, and public speaking.

Valerie Lambert

Valerie Lambert is professor of anthropology and an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and has won awards for undergraduate teaching and for each of her two single-authored books. Her first book is about her Tribe; her second one is about American Indian and Alaska Native workers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She has twice been elected president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. She is the mother of two daughters, both of whom are in their twenties.

Fall 2023 ANTH 89 001 Archaeology and Popular Culture TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Archaeology often captures the popular imagination through fantastic and farfetched portrayals of lost civilizations, aliens, and spectacular treasures. While these depictions of archaeology and the past may not be accurate, the story being told is nonetheless significant and reflects something about the culture that produced it.

This course explores how these films, televisions shows, books, and video games tell stories about the past, what stories are being told, and what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and society. We will critically analyze popular representations of archaeology, comparing how competing visions of fact and fiction operate in the public sphere.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Fall 2023 APPL 110 03F Introduction to Design and Making: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Glenn Walters

I am a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. In this role, I am developing and teaching courses covering fundamentals of engineering in such areas as design, fluids, hydraulics, additive manufacturing, etc. My specialty is creating curriculum that focuses on experiential activities that develop student intuition as a pathway to learning theory and practice.

Fall 2023 ARTH 55H 001 Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What did it mean to be a man or to be a woman in the Renaissance? This seminar will explore the ways in which constructions of gender are critical to understandings of the visual arts in the early modern period (c. 1400-1650). We will discuss and analyze a focused group of representations of men and women: portraits, mythological and biblical paintings and sculptures, and even turn our attention to the buildings these men and women inhabited. We will study the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Holbein, and Rubens, amongst others, to find ways of understanding how masculinity and femininity were central concerns in early modern society and in the art produced in this period.

Tania String

Dr. Tania String is an art historian specializing in the art of the Tudor period in England, and the Renaissance more broadly. She is the author of numerous books and articles on the portraits of Henry VIII. Before coming to UNC in 2010 she taught in England at the University of Bristol.

Fall 2023 ARTH 61 001 African American Art of the Carolinas MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Focusing on the Carolinas, this seminar explores the many ways African Americans have used art to define themselves and their communities. We will ask how art has been used to maintain cultural traditions, shape American culture and build political solidarity from the era of colonialism and slavery to the present. We will study the cultivation of artistic practices from Africa; African American painters, sculptors and craftsmen who earned national reputations for the quality of their work; artists who re-imagined and redefined African American identity through art; and artists throughout the 20th century who represented the daily lives and hardships of rural and working-class blacks. Students will visit campus museums and archives and conduct original research using regional sources. Persistent questions throughout the semester will include, How does the art of African Americans in the Carolinas provoke us to question our own identities and roles within the region, and what is the contemporary role of art in shaping public discourse?

John Bowles

John Bowles received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002 and is a graduate of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He is an historian of African American art, who works from the assumption that art plays an important role in determining how we see ourselves as morally responsible individuals. In his research and teaching, he attempts to convey the urgency of art by addressing moral and political dilemmas we would often rather ignore. He has published articles and art criticism in various journals and has recently completed a book that examines the work of artist Adrian Piper. He is currently writing a book that explores how African American artists have engaged simultaneously with modernism, globalization and diaspora from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s until today.

Fall 2023 BIOL 101 01F Principles of Biology MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

This course is the prerequisite to most higher courses in biology. An introduction to the fundamental principles of biology, including cell structure, chemistry, and function; genetics; evolution; adaptation; and ecology. (See department concerning Advanced Placement credit.) Three lecture hours a week.

Jordan Claytor

Jordan Claytor is originally from Maryland and received his undergraduate degree in biology from Elon University. As an undergraduate, he did research investigating how anthropogenic noises impacted the behavior of bottlenose dolphins. His interest in dinosaurs and paleontology developed during an internship at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History studying landscape ecology using micro-vertebrate fossils. He was featured in the NOVA program, Dinosaur Apocalypse: The Last Day on PBS. His current research is on the evolution and ecology of early mammals using morphology independent methods to infer diet.

Fall 2023 BIOL 62H 001 Mountains Beyond Mountains: Infectious Disease in the Developing World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The global pandemic has refocused the attention of the world on the importance of using science to address pathogens in a global way, and on the inequities in our health care system in the US and globally. In this course we will examine the challenges of treating infectious disease in the developing world, and explore the root causes of global health care inequity. We will use HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis as examples, and the nation of Haiti as a case study, as we explore viral and bacterial pathogens, how they affect our bodies, and how we can use this information to develop better treatments. We’ll also explore innovative ways to bring health care to resource-poor nations.

Mark Peifer

Mark Peifer is the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor of Biology at UNC, where he and his lab study how the animal body is assembled during embryonic development, using genetic and cell biological tools. He was raised in Minnesota and is a first generation college student. He knows diversity, equity and inclusion are core American values and hopes we once again live up to them. His interest in global public health was stimulated by a desire to help students take a closer look at the world around them, and by the experiences he has had with the people of Haiti. He and his spouse live in the woods west of town, and his two daughters are both UNC grads, one a social worker and one a student teacher in second grade.

Fall 2023 BIOL 66 001 Evolution and the Science of Life MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

This interdisciplinary first-year seminar examines the roots, ideas, questions and applications of evolutionary biology. What is evolution, how does it work, and how do we study it? How did modern scientific theories of evolution emerge from the traditions of natural philosophy and natural history? How do we use evolution to understand fundamental questions ranging from adaptation, biological diversity and human origins to the evolution of disease, aging, sex and culture? We will learn about the central concepts of evolution, the scientific tools used to study evolution and the history of life, and apply these concepts and tools to understand how evolution occurs in the past, present and future.

Aimee Deconinck

Aimee Deconinck is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She obtained her B.S. in Marine Biology from California State University, Long Beach, then taught public high school for 7 years before returning to graduate school. Aimee is a first generation college graduate and first generation graduate student whose research explores mitochondrial and nuclear genome communication in organisms experiencing environmental stress.

Fall 2023 BIOL 89 001 Unsolved Problems in the Genomic Age TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

We are living in times of a genetic revolution. We have sequenced the human genome and are in a position to transform medical treatment in the world. In spite of the advances in DNA sequencing, there remain mysteries in terms of how the cell accesses genetic information and how our genomes are transmitted to progeny cells with such high fidelity. The principles governing chromosome organization have been discovered through advances in biology, physics, statistics and computational sciences. This class will explore advances from the diverse disciplines and discuss the successes and limitations of the different approaches.

Kerry Bloom

Dr. Kerry Bloom has a long-standing interest in chromosomes. How does the cell pack 2 meters of DNA into a tiny (10 micron) cell. We use a combination of tools including genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, polymer physics, computer simulations and molecular modeling to understand basic mechanisms of chromosome organization and segregation.

Fall 2023 CHEM 102 01F General Descriptive Chemistry II MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

The course is the second in a two-semester sequence. See also CHEM 101. This course considers reaction rates; equilibrium and its applications; spontaneity and Gibbs energy; bulk properties of solids; thermochemistry; and electrochemistry.

Anna Curtis

Dr. Anna Curtis is a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC in the department of chemistry. She has training in electronic dynamics in semiconductor nanomaterials with applications in solar cell technology as well as promoting students’ ability to think scientifically in the general chemistry classroom. Her current interests lie in constantly improving her knowledge of current research and best practices in chemical education as well as incorporating this knowledge into her teaching. Her interest in chemical education is driven by her belief that, with the right attitude and environment, all students are capable of learning chemistry.

Fall 2023 CHEM 102 02F General Descriptive Chemistry II MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

The course is the second in a two-semester sequence. See also CHEM 101. This course considers reaction rates; equilibrium and its applications; spontaneity and Gibbs energy; bulk properties of solids; thermochemistry; and electrochemistry.

Danielle Zurcher

Dr. Danielle Zurcher is a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC in the chemistry department. Her training has been at the intersection of polymer and organic chemistry to design and improve novel materials for sensing toxic water contaminants. Her current interests lie in implementing effective teaching methods that promote student engagement and develop their critical thinking skills in large introductory courses. Dr. Zurcher is continually searching for new ways to connect students with chemistry and the new ways in which polymers are being used in our lives offer many great examples.

Fall 2023 CHEM 75 001 Bread from Air? The Chemistry of Fertilizers MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

Fear of a global famine inspired chemist Fritz Haber’s research into the production of ammonia from nitrogen in the air. Following a breakthrough laboratory discovery, engineer Carl Bosch led the development of a large-scale industrial process to produce ammonia… and together they changed the world. This First Year Seminar will introduce concepts of scientific inquiry and interdisciplinary collaboration in the context of the humankind’s utilization of fertilizers. Weaving together elements of plant biology, chemical synthesis and catalysis, environmental science, and technoeconomic analysis, the course will critically examine the past, present, and future of fertilizers.

Alexander Miller

Professor Alexander Miller is fascinated by the ability to control chemical reactivity by altering molecular structures based on transition metal ions. He gets to work with an incredible group of chemists to help apply chemical principles to grand challenges in alternative energy and sustainability, including projects that can underpin the development of light-driven fuel production and sustainable ammonia synthesis. Prof. Miller is an enthusiastic teacher who believes in the power of student-driven discovery. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and was (when he was younger) included in Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list in the Energy category.

Fall 2023 CLAR 50 001 Art in the Ancient City TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The course is a comparative study of the archaeology of Ancient Egypt and the Bronze Age Aegean, ca. 3000-1100 B.C., exploring the public art produced by two Mediterranean state-level societies: the Aegean Bronze Age palace centers of Crete and Mainland Greece (Minoans and Mycenaeans); the territorial state and empire of ancient Egypt. These interrelated cultures produced very different forms of public art and architecture reflecting unique cultural developments, and forms of urbanization. We examine the form, style, context, and media of production, consumption and display of art in the public sphere, exploring the definition of art; art as material culture; and art as an expression of social values and projection of dominant sociopolitical ideologies. While these ancient civilizations on opposite sides of the Mediterranean were in contact with each other, borrowing or sharing certain cultural traits, they ultimately produced very different forms of complex society. The goal of the course is to compare and contrast the method, media, and subject matter of public art toward a contextual and archaeological understanding of these differences and similarities, and ultimately the cultures that formed them.

Donald Haggis

Donald Haggis is Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Classics and Adjunct Professor in the Curriculum in Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a field archaeologist who has been conducting archaeological excavations and surveys in Greece for the past 36 years, working particularly on the island of Crete in the Greek Aegean. His main research interests include early state formation and the origins and emergence of early cities in the Aegean during the Bronze Age (ca. 2000 B.C.) and Early Iron Age (ca. 1000-700 B.C.). He is currently the director of excavations of an early Greek city at the site of Azoria in eastern Crete (https://azoria.unc.edu/).

Fall 2023 CLAS 57H 001 Dead and Deadly Women: Around the World with Greek Tragic Heroines TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this course, we will study the great tragic heroines of ancient Greek drama, focusing on Clytemnestra, Medea, Alcestis, Phaedra, the Trojan Women, Antigone. We will also read a contemporary novel that engages many of these mythic women. We will study the Greek tragedies intensively, along with their global reception in later art, from paintings to poems, stage productions to sculptures, operas to ballets—these plays have been adapted and engaged in virtually every part of the world. Our questions will include: why does Greek tragedy focus so intensely on women? Are the playwrights misogynists or do they express some sympathy for women? What about these female characters grabbed the imaginations not only of ancient Greek playwrights but of later writers, painters, composers, not to mention readers? How do these characters appeal to artists and audiences from Alaska to Asia, from Latin America to Eastern Europe? How are their stories relevant to the 21st century? Did the ancient Athenians know something we don’t?

Sharon James

Professor Sharon James specializes in Roman comedy, Latin poetry, and women in ancient Greece and Rome. She has published many articles on these subjects, as well as a book on Roman love elegy (published in 2003); she is currently preparing a large-scale book on women in Greek and Roman New Comedy (the plays of Menander, Plautus, and Terence). She is also the co-editor of Blackwell’s Companion to Women in the Ancient World (published 2012). Professor James regularly teaches all these subjects at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her lecture courses, CLAS/WMST 240/240H (Women in Ancient Greece) and CLAS/WMST 241/241H (Women in Ancient Rome) are cross-listed between Classics and Women’s Studies. In summer 2012 she co-directed an NEH Institute on the performance of Roman comedy. In 2013, she won the University’s William C. Friday/Class of 1986 Award for Excellence in Inspirational Teaching; in 2021, she won the Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Fall 2023 CLAS 62 001 Bandits, Barbarians, and Rebels in the Ancient Mediterranean MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

A study of Greek and Roman depictions of marginalized and peripheral peoples in both literary and visual sources, with consideration of the origin, development, and social roles ascribed to these groups.

Jennifer Gates-Foster

Jennifer Gates-Foster is Associate Professor in the Department of Classics and Curriculum in Archaeology at UNC Chapel Hill. She received her PhD at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2005 and has been at Carolina since 2013. Her primary research interest is in the archaeology of the Hellenistic and early Roman Eastern Mediterranean, especially Egypt, with a focus on the construction of identity in border regions.

Fall 2023 CLAS 89 001 Ancient Medicine from Hippocrates to Asclepius TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

What is health? What does it mean to be ill? How would doctors, patients, and ordinary people who lived more than two thousand years ago in the ancient Mediterranean have answered these questions? Ancient Greek medicine is often claimed as an ancestor of modern Western biomedicine – but what is the nature of this relationship? In this course we learn about ancient Greek concepts of disease and therapy as they were developed and appropriated through cross-cultural conversations with Egyptian, Roman, Christian, Arabic, and Enlightenment cultures. Our sources include ancient medical writings, literary texts, and archaeological evidence for therapeutic practice, including votive offerings, surgical tools, and visual images. Thematic units on medical ethics, physiological models, gendered bodies, concepts of disability, and the relationship between religion and science help students gain an understanding of how cultural attitudes to the body inform scientific approaches, and of the relationship between medicine and the humanities.

Janet Downie

Dr. Janet Downie teaches courses in ancient Greek language, literature, culture, and thought in the Department of Classics. Her research focuses on Greek literary culture in the multi-ethnic and multi-religious context of the Roman Empire. She is most interested in the "end" of antiquity: what happened as the classical world became Christian? And how does that distant time continue to shape our thinking today?

Fall 2023 DRAM 120 01F Play Analysis TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Development of the skill to analyze plays for academic and production purposes through the intensive study of representative plays. DRAM 120 is the first course in the major and the minor in dramatic art.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2023 DRAM 80 001 Psychology of Clothes: Motivations for Dressing Up and Dressing Down TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The course seeks to help students find ways to articulate their own motivations for dress and then apply the ideas they have discovered to the ways in which individuality as well as group attitudes are expressed through clothing.

Pamela Bond

Pamela Bond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art. Pamela has taught at Hampton University and North Carolina Central University. Her recent work includes costume design for The Bus Stop featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has performed professionally at the National Black Theatre Festival and featured apparel designs in Charlotte Fashion Week and Winston Salem Fashion Week. Pamela believes that in order for students to experience the full scope as theatre practitioners they must be willing to explore diverse ethnic and cultural backdrops, as well as their own. So what does your clothing say about you? What messages are you trying to send with what you put on today? Let’s explore your closet and see who you are.

Fall 2023 DRAM 83 001 Spectacle in the Theatre TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Fall 2023 DRAM 85 001 Documentary Theatre TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This course explores the political and social ramifications of documentary theatre in the United States. Students will investigate a local community of their choosing and create an interview-based performance. Honors version available.

Aubrey Snowden
Fall 2023 EMES 101 01F Planet Earth TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course will introduce geological concepts through the lens of U.S. national parks and a plate tectonic framework. The course will take a small-group approach to in-class work where developing collaboration and communication skills will be a focus. Students will apply their talents, skills, knowledge, and creativity to investigate related topics of interest as they manifest in a specific U.S. National Park to examine the interconnectedness of the geologic sciences and other fields of study. They will present their work in a manner appropriate to their project. Because this course is geared toward students newer to the university environment, the course will also discuss adjacent issues relevant to first-year students such as studying approaches, professionalism, as well as usefulness of meta-cognition, self-reflection, and feedback. Students will practice employing these ideas and approaches though individual and small-group work. Optional laboratory: GEOL 101L.

Michelle Haskin

Michelle Haskin is an Assistant Teaching Professor who strives to facilitate undergraduate learning through equitable pedagogical practices and collaborative learning. She has an interest in metacognition and applying learning strategies to help students discover new ways to approach and reframe their learning. She has taught over 2300 UNC students and looks forward to teaching many more.

Fall 2023 EMES 52 001 Living with Our Oceans and Atmosphere TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the nature of the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, and describe the processes that lead to our weather patterns and global climate. Emphasis is placed on understanding how the oceans and atmosphere affect human population, how oceanic and atmospheric changes are linked to increasing human activity, and how these changes can affect you. Basic principles and modern theories of changing climate, severe weather events, oceanic hazards, and interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere will be studied. Examples of presently active research being conducted at UNC and at other institutions will be used to highlight how the above topics are investigated scientifically. Readings will be taken from introductory textbooks on meteorology, oceanography and environmental sciences; and modern articles in periodicals such as Scientific American, Nature, American Scientist, National Geographic, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and Weatherwise. Various websites, including those within the UNC Department of Marine Sciences, will be used. Classroom presentations, seminars, and group discussions and debates will be utilized.

Wei Mei

Wei Mei is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. He holds a Ph.D. in Earth System Science from the University of California at Irvine, and a Master of Science in Meteorology and a Bachelor of Science in Atmospheric Sciences from Nanjing University (China). Dr. Mei is the instructor of “Environmental Systems Modeling” (MASC/ENEC/GEOL 415) and “Living with Our Oceans and Atmosphere” (MASC 52) at UNC. He was a guest lecturer for several undergraduate and graduate courses on atmosphere, oceans and climate prior to coming to UNC. Dr. Mei’s current research interests lie in extreme weather and climate events (including hurricanes and atmospheric rivers) and their effects on coastal hazards (e.g., storm surge, flooding, and high winds). His work has contributed to the recognition of the effect of ocean temperature on hurricane intensity and to the understanding of the link between hurricanes and climate.

Fall 2023 EMES 72H 001 Field Geology of Eastern California TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Have you ever wanted to stand on a volcano, see a glacier, trace out an earthquake fault, or see the Earth’s oldest living things? This seminar is designed around a one-week field trip to eastern California, where students will study geologic features including active volcanoes, earthquake-producing faults, and evidence for recent glaciation and extreme climate change. Before the field trip (which will take place the week of Fall Break and be based at a research station near Bishop, California), the class will meet twice a week to learn basic geologic principles and to work on developing field research topics. During the field trip students will work on field exercises (e.g. mapping, measuring, and describing an active fault; observing and recording glacial features) and collect data for the research projects. After the field trip, students will obtain laboratory data from samples collected during the trip and test research hypotheses using field and laboratory data. Grading will be based on presentation of group research projects, and on a variety of small projects during the trip (notebook descriptions, mapping projects, etc.). Students may be required to pay some of the costs of the trip (a maximum of about $500.) This course will require missing three days of classes. The course is designed to teach basic geology “on the rocks”, so there are no prerequisites. Link to Yosemite Nature Notes video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5RQp77uVPA

Drew Coleman

Drew Coleman’s research focuses on understanding how the Earth works by determining the rates of processes (mountain building, extinction, volcanism, etc.) that occurred in the past. To accomplish this he and his students date rocks. His teaching is inquiry based and he is most happy when he is teaching “hands on” in the field or lab.

Fall 2023 ENGL 57 001 Future Perfect: Science Fictions and Social Form TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

What will our world look like in ten years? Fifty? One hundred? Will the future be a utopian paradise or a dystopian wasteland? Through a wide-ranging survey of popular science writing, novels, and films, this first year seminar will examine fictional and nonfictional attempts to imagine the future from the nineteenth century to the present. We will explore everything from futurology and transhumanism to warnings of imminent environmental collapse. Our focus will be less on assessing the accuracy of these predictions and more on determining what they tell us about the hopes and fears of the times in which they were made. The course will culminate in a short research paper on a future-oriented topic of your choosing.

Matthew Taylor

Matthew Taylor’s research focuses on the intersections among environmental humanities, critical theory (including posthumanism, biopolitics, science and technology studies, and critical race theory), and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature. His first book, Universes without Us: Posthuman Cosmologies in American Literature (Univ. of Minnesota Press), examines cosmologies that challenge the utopianism of both past and present attempts at fusing self and environment.

Fall 2023 ENGL 66 001 Blake 2.0: William Blake in Popular Culture TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

William Blake, the visionary poet, artist and printmaker of the British Romantic period, has had enormous influence on modern art and popular culture. His illuminated poetry integrated word and image anticipating graphic novels and influencing many modern musicians, poets, writers (including Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy, Bono, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison). Using the Blake Archive, a hypertext of Blake’s poetry and art, we will study key Blake works as well as the digital medium that enables us to study these works in new ways. We will also explore the Web for performances and adaptations of the works we study and for works by musicians, painters, poets, writers, actors, playwrights, performers, dancers and film and video makers who were or are inspired or influenced by Blake. Students will share their discoveries with the class and produce critical or creative responses to a work by Blake or by an influenced artist.

Joseph Viscomi

Joseph Viscomi, the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English Literature, directs and co-edits the William Blake Archive (blakearchive.org). His special interests are British Romantic literature, art, and printmaking and digital humanities. He has co-edited 9 illuminated works for The William Blake Trust and over 172 digital editions of Blake's literary and art works for the Blake Archive. He is the author of Prints by Blake and his Followers, Blake and the Idea of the Book, and Blake’s Printed Paintings: Methods, Origins, Meanings. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation, Getty Foundation, and the National Humanities Center.

Fall 2023 ENGL 89 001 One Long Book That's Worth It TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course guides students slowly and carefully through one extraordinary long book that is well worth the time and effort. Texts vary year to year. Required text: one book you’ll never want to sell back.

H.M. Cushman

H.M. Cushman is a scholar of early British literature.

Fall 2023 ENGL 89 002 Human Rights and Literature TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this class we will investigate the history of human rights from the perspective of literature. We will explore how rights are represented and narrated in novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and how founding declarations—famously, the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—rely on fictional structures. While attending to some of the more politically contentious issues involved with human rights, such as the claim that universal rights lack political and legal enforcement, we will also consider the following questions: how does fiction help articulate and represent claims to human rights? Why might a political philosopher or legal scholar turn to a work of fiction from the eighteenth century or present day in order to make an argument about human rights? Alongside theoretical and historical writings about human rights we will read authors such as Hannah Arendt, Edmund Burke, Behrouz Boochani, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Hobbes, Mohsin Hamid, Thomas Paine, Mary Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Stephanie DeGooyer

Stephanie Degooyer’s research examines intersections between law and literature, with interests in immigration, migration, history of disease and global health, and human rights and humanitarianism. She teaches classes on law and literature, transatlantic and colonial literature, Medical Humanities, and theories and history of the novel. Stephanie Degooyer’s forthcoming book, Acts of Naturalization, (JHUP, 2022) looks to the legal process of naturalization in the long eighteenth century to argue for a new fictional conception of nationality in early modernity. She is currently working on two projects: Asylum Nation: Refugees and the Founding of America, which traces the colonial history of legal concepts such as “asylum” and “refugees” in British common law and early American legal and literary history, and a book project on the history and social function of unidentified bodily remains. She is co-author of The Right to Have Rights (Verso Books, 2018), and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Novel (forthcoming 2023). She has written on a variety of topics – immigration, borders, vaccines, disease, and literature – for The Nation, Guardian, Dissent, Boston Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, Humanity, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books.

Fall 2023 ENGL 89 003 American Poetry in Motion TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course focuses on the creative processes involved in writing poetry. We will look at poets’ revisions of their work, their statements about poetry, their letters to and from other writers, and the publication and reception of their poems in their own time. We will concentrate on specific case studies: the manuscripts and letter-poems of the reclusive writer Emily Dickinson; the notebooks, letters, and poems of Walt Whitman that he wrote while tending the wounded in the Civil War hospitals; the poems, manuscripts, and letters of George Moses Horton, who taught himself to read and write and published two books of poetry while enslaved in North Carolina; and the drafts, revisions, and animal drawings of twentieth-century modernist Marianne Moore. The course seeks to develop close reading skills that are crucial for interpreting poetry; to explore how social and cultural conditions both limit and enable poetic expression, and how poets analyze and criticize those conditions; to strengthen writing and oral communication skills; and to develop research skills.

Eliza Richards

Eliza Richards is a Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. She teaches American literature before 1900 and American poetry. She has written about Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, the poetry of the US Civil War, and popular women’s poetry. Professor Richards has won awards for teaching on both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Fall 2023 ENGL 89H 001 The Machine Mistake from Frankenstein to the Smartphone MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

There is the assumption that science fiction propagandizes for the gleaming gadgetry that it depicts. It’s true that science fiction often endorses the scientific endeavor and worldview. It’s further true that the science fictionists of the 1940s and 1950s tended to pine for the space age that began in 1969. But even at its giddiest and wonkiest, science fiction remembers the lesson of Frankenstein. It remembers that our monsters develop ideas of their own; that they wind up haunting us and even hunting us; that our innovations—however seemingly benign—however fenced and fail-safe—threaten to escape our control and our comprehension. This course traces the genealogy of this machine anxiety. Our guiding questions will be: What are machines? Does the artificially intelligent “machine” cease to be a machine? Are machines “natural” or “unnatural”? Are they heretical? Are their dangers inherent? How do they change us?

Our course epigraph might paraphrase Winston Churchill: We shape our machines; thereafter they shape us.

David Ross

David A. Ross is a graduate of Yale and Oxford. He has been a member of the Department of English & Comparative Literature at UNC–Chapel Hill since 2002. He is the author of A Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats (2009) and the co-editor/co-translator of The Search for the Avant-Garde, 1946–1969 (2012), the descriptive catalogue of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. A collector and amateur scholar of traditional Chinese paintings and Japanese woodblock prints, he has served as president of Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and as both editor and book review editor of the Southeast Review of Asian Studies.

Fall 2023 ENVR 89 002 Environment-ECUIPP Lab: Connecting with Communities through Environmental Research for Public Health TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is an entry into an undergraduate learning community organized by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. The ECUIPP Lab (Environmentally-Engaged Communities and Undergraduate students Investigating for Public health Protection) is a creative community of students, faculty members and practice partners. Students in ENVR 89-001 will become members of the Environment-ECUIPP Lab. Over the course of the semester they will design and conduct research that addresses a pressing environmental health issue in a local community. Students will work with the local community partner to develop a research question and use the resources of the ECUIPP Lab and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering to answer the question through the research process. The course is a hands-on undergraduate research experience

Amanda Northcross

Professor Amanda Northcross likes to build things and enjoys working together with students and communities to explore environmental health concerns, design field campaigns, and build and deploy networks of sensors to answer environmental health questions. With BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical and environmental engineering she is passionate about health equity. Dr. Northcross has conducted environmental health and engineering research in Guatemala, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. She will work together with faculty from UNC’s Water Institute to conduct community-engaged environmental research with first year students.

Fall 2023 GEOG 52 001 Political Ecology of Health and Disease TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course examines the ecology of infectious diseases including environmental and anthropogenic drivers of those diseases. During the semester we will focus on several case studies of diseases including COVID-19, malaria, cholera, and HIV/AIDS. The biophysical and evolutionary drivers of diseases will be examined as well as the political, economic, social, and environmental systems that shape health and disease across spatial and temporal scales. A political ecological framework is used to examine such topics as how political forces and economic interests helped shape the HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics in Africa and beyond. We will also examine how emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19 diffuse through populations and how public health efforts and geographical and epidemiological modelling and analyses can be used to predict and limit their spread.

Michael Emch

Michael Emch is W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Geography and Epidemiology at UNC. His expertise is in infectious disease ecology, spatial epidemiology, neighborhood determinants of health, and geographic information science applications of public health. He leads the Spatial Health Research Group which conducts research that explores spatio-temporal patterns of disease, primarily infectious diseases of the developing world. His research group focuses on diverse topics such as the role of population-environment drivers in pathogen evolution, how social connectivity contributes to disease incidence, and using environmental indicators to predict disease outbreaks. For more information see the Spatial Health Research Group website at spatialhealth.web.unc.edu/.

Fall 2023 GEOG 56 001 Local Places in a Globalizing World MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Globalization is a word we hear every day, but what does it mean for us in local places? Specifically, what can an understanding of globalization tell us about Carolina and nearby places? This seminar weaves together perspectives on globalization with hands-on exploration of Carolina and its place in today’s global “knowledge economy,” and the University’s founding in relation to the globalizing forces of that day. Our focus will shift back and forth between the global and the local, even to the microscale of our campus. We will learn through a variety of experiences and approaches, including fieldwork, old documents, and some introductory GIS (geographic information systems) exercises in addition to readings, class discussion, and group work. By the end of the seminar, students will not only have an understanding of globalization and the very real connections between the global and the local, but also a unique perspective on our university.

Altha Cravey

Altha Cravey became a geographer because she loves to travel and see new things. Her research focuses on globalization, labor, and gender issues in contemporary Mexico. She is beginning to publish on globalization in the US South as well. Cravey was born and raised in Illinois and Indiana and worked as a construction electrician for eleven years before finishing her undergraduate education. Her dissertation at the University of Iowa was supported by a four-year Iowa Fellowship and was published as Women and Work in Mexico’s Maquiladoras (Rowman and Littlefield, 1998). Cravey loves to bicycle around campus and Chapel Hill.

Fall 2023 GEOG 89 001 Freshwaters in the Anthropocene MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

Freshwaters sustain myriad ecosystem services by providing drinking water, irrigation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreational opportunities, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. At the same time, both water quality and quantity are impacted by land use, water abstraction, damming, contamination, and climate change. This seminar will focus (1) on understanding how these anthropogenic pressures affect freshwater ecosystems differently across ecoregions, and (2) how management, legislative, and social initiatives have adapted or developed solutions. We will focus mainly on the United States but consider case studies from around the world. Students should be prepared to read and discuss three materials per week. These reading materials will include a range of popular media including podcasts, newspaper articles, and book chapters, as well as scientific articles and overviews. We will also spend some time exploring and talking about streams accessible to the UNC campus. Class will culminate with research projects in which students get to explore a topic of their choice and presenting findings to their peers.

Amanda DelVecchia

I am a physical geographer focusing on freshwater ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves connecting various spatial and temporal scales, and biotic and abiotic factors, within groundwater, lakes, wetlands, rivers, and their watersheds. In particular, I ask how connectivity between different parts of the landscape (including those we cannot see!), and over time, affect functions like carbon and nutrient cycling, food webs, and greenhouse gas dynamics. By understanding these connections, we can better predict how freshwaters react to climate change and anthropogenic alteration, so that we may better protect freshwater biodiversity and function. I use a mix of empirical and data science, and work across the U.S. and internationally. You can learn more about my research by visiting my website at amandadelvecchia.weebly.com, by emailing me, or by visiting during my office hours, in which case I can promise you a warm reception and an offer for tea.

Fall 2023 GLBL 221 01F The Migratory Experience TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The course will critically analyze the migrant experience in North America and Europe with a focus on the experience of migrants from Mexico. Although the popular media often portrays migrants as agentless individuals making haphazard decisions, migration is a calculated decision that individuals, families, and groups make to improve their living conditions. We will explore the motivation of migrants, the nature of the migrant journey to their destination states, and their integration and adaptation into their new host societies. Through historical readings, selected works of literature, documentaries and my own firsthand lived experiences as a Latina immigrant, we will examine what motivates and drives their choices, what guides their actions, and what keeps them grounded during their perilous journey.

By the end of the course, students will:
• Develop a clear understanding of the theories driving migration and the various motivations (forced or voluntary) of individuals embarking in this journey.
• Become familiarized with the policies implemented by sending and receiving countries.
• Understand the reception and backlash migrants face.

Carmen Huerta-Bapat

Dr. Huerta-Bapat holds a PhD in sociology from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MA in sociology from UNC–Chapel Hill, and an MA in political science from Rice University. She has proudly “sampled” multiple Ph.D programs before settling as a sociologist and consequently her understanding of the world and how she conceptualized knowledge is multi-foci. Her research agenda takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how institutions such as universities, schools and police bureaucracies are working to incorporate underrepresented racial and ethnic groups with a particular interest in immigrant communities. Her research ranges from exploring police behavior toward new Latino immigrants in North Carolina, the social and health impact associated with persecutory immigration policies, the negative impact of micro-aggressions on first-generation college students, and parental involvement amongst Latino families in public education. Her recent work with the School of Public Health draws on her social science training, lived experiences as a Latina immigrant to ensure that health interventions with marginalized communities are not prescriptive, paternalistic and overbearing, but instead they are grounded on respect, mutual understanding and enduring social relations to yield change for all parties involved. In addition to her research work she owns Borderless Equity- a consulting firm specializing in help organizations improve their internal cohesiveness, morale and productivity. Some of her clients include the Department of Health and Human Services in NC, The Airforce Research Lab, and various Care Management Organizations in New Jersey.

Fall 2023 GSLL 51 001 Stalin and Hitler: Historical Issues in Cultural and Other Perspectives TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course deals with critical issues, in the broadest possible context, that dominated the twentieth century: the rise of fascism out of the carnage of World War One and the Bolshevik revolution to which the war and Czarist Russia’s involvement in it helped contribute. As the semester unfolds, drawing on a variety of historical and documentary films, and literature (memoirs, novels), we will take a comparative look at singular personalities like Lenin, Stalin and Hitler and examine the role played by such key figures in historical events of this magnitude. More towards the end of the semester, we glance briefly at the situation created in Western and Eastern Europe by the defeat of fascism and contemplate the origins and evolution of the cold war. We conclude with a consideration of the dissolution and democratization of Eastern European countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, against the tragic background of the past, the recent reemergence of conflict between Russia and the “West.”

David Pike

David Pike received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1978 in German Studies with a minor in Russian and has taught at UNC–CH since 1980. He is the author of three books, The Politics of Culture in Soviet -Occupied Germany, 1945-1949 (1993), Lukács and Brecht (1985), and German Writers in Soviet Exile, 1933-1945 (1982). His research takes him regularly to Berlin and Moscow.

Fall 2023 GSLL 76 001 Uncharted Territory: Underworlds in Literature and the Visual Arts TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course examines concepts and representations of underworlds in literature and the visual arts from the ancient world to modernity. Our journey will take us to the realms of the afterlife as well as into the abyss of the human psyche and the shady areas of criminal activities. We will explore how the desire to know the beyond has triggered people’s imagination, inspired literary and artistic traditions and influenced new forms of knowledge, moral values and social realities. Readings include short stories by E.A. Poe and Franz Kafka, and excerpts from works such as Plato’s Republic, the Bible, Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, Primo Levi’s Auschwitz memoirs, Don de Lillo’s Underworld, and Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. We will watch movies and TV shows such as Apocalypse Now and Breaking Bad. We will visit the museum and a theater performance. Through reading responses, papers, and an oral presentation students develop and practice skills of critical thinking, persuasive written and oral communication and they use creativity effectively.

Aleksandra Prica

Aleksandra Prica is a professor of German literature. She was born and raised in Switzerland and studied at the University of Zürich. So far, her life has involved a lot of traveling, and she has lived in different countries and cities such as Berlin, Amsterdam, Chicago and a small village in Columbia, South America. She joined the faculty at the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures in 2016. In her research she focuses on literature of the Middle Ages and contemporary adaptations of the medieval world in literature, art and film.

Fall 2023 HIST 53 001 Traveling to European Cities: American Writers/Cultural Identities, 1830-2000 TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar examines two key themes in modern cultural and intellectual history: the importance of travel in the lives and cultural identities of American writers and the important role of European cities in the evolution of modern American cultural identities. We shall focus on a historical era in which American writers were especially drawn to Europe as an alternative to the social and cultural life in the United States; and we’ll discuss how the encounter with Europe influenced these writers as they defined their national identities as well as their views of politics, social relations, gender identities, literature, art and European cultural traditions. The seminar explores how travel has become one of the most influential personal experiences in modern times; and we’ll conclude the course with discussions of how travel remained important for American writers at the end of the twentieth century. Our overall goal is to analyze the connection between travel, writing, and personal identities. This is a class for people who like to read about personal experiences and are intrigued by foreign travel. The assigned texts include works by women and men such as Margaret Fuller, David Dorr, Mark Twain, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller James Baldwin, Elizabeth Spencer, and David Sedaris; and we’ll focus on works that convey how writers have interpreted American experiences in European cities such as Paris, London, Rome, and Athens.

Lloyd Kramer

Lloyd Kramer’s interests focus on Modern European History with an emphasis on nineteenth-century France and French-American cultural relations. He is particularly interested in historical processes that shape personal and collective identities, including the experiences of cross-cultural exchange and the emergence of modern nationalism. Other research and teaching interests deal with the roles of intellectuals in modern societies and the theoretical foundations of historical knowledge. His teaching stresses the pleasures of reading, discussing and writing about influential books in various eras of European and world history.

Fall 2023 HIST 59 001 Rebuilding the American South: Work and Identity in Modern History TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

“Class” has been the subject of more mystification, misunderstanding, and ill-informed political disagreement than perhaps any other social category. Especially in the American South, the notion of fundamental class differences may seem antithetical to the aspirations, or even claims, for a class-less society. Yet differences in occupation, income, wealth, the habits of everyday life, and definitions of the “good life” clearly remain. This course examines how class experiences and debates over the meaning of work have shaped the postbellum Southern United States. Technological innovation, the emergence of a consumer economy, and the evolution of popular culture all have made and remade class identities and influenced ideas about the South as a region as well as the racial, gender, and sexual identities of its people. Students in this course will develop new perspectives on the South in American history. They will also cultivate skills (oral and written), using history as a way of learning to analyze the past and inform the present.

Erik Gellman

Dr. Erik Gellman is Associate Professor of History. He researches and teaches about working-class and urban life, visual culture, and comparative social movements in modern American history. He’s the author of Death Blow to Jim Crow: The National Negro Congress and the Rise of Militant Civil Rights (UNC Press, 2012) and The Gospel of the Working Class: Labor’s Southern Prophets in New Deal America (IL Press, 2011, coauthor Jarod Roll). He’s co-directed NEH and Terra Foundation programs on the Black Chicago Renaissance. His latest book is Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles through the Lens of Art Shay (University of Chicago Press, December 2020).

Fall 2023 HIST 70 001 Seeing History in Everyday Places: Chapel Hill as a Case Study T 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM

This first-year seminar is an invitation to explore new ways of seeing the world around us. Our homes, our workplaces, our towns, our natural areas, our transportation networks—all are products of history, shaped by people, rich with meaning and full of surprises. The course explores the concept of cultural landscapes as a way of studying history and its legacies. Through a combination of field work, historical research and analysis, we will use maps, photographs, GIS resources and archival documents to understand how–and why–people in the past shaped our surroundings today.

John Sweet

John Sweet is an American historian with wide-ranging interests. His research has focused on the colonial encounters of Africans, Native peoples, and Europeans–and how their interactions shaped the emergence of the American nation. He has also worked with other historians and literary scholars on the Jamestown colony and biographical approaches to the Black Atlantic. His current project explores the history of sex, dating, and the law in the early years of the American Republic; it is called Ruined: A Story of Rape and Retribution in Old New York.

Fall 2023 HIST 81 001 Diaries, Memoirs, and Testimonies of the Holocaust TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In ghettos and hiding places during the Holocaust, European Jews and other victims of Nazism recorded their experiences in diaries and other chronicles. Efforts to preserve individual histories continued after the war as survivors wrote memoirs and gave oral testimonies beginning in the earliest postwar years. In this course, students will read diaries, memoirs and literature as well as listen to oral histories to understand the history of the Holocaust through life narratives and to explore tensions between history and memory.

Karen Auerbach

Professor Karen Auerbach is assistant professor of history and Stuart E. Eizenstat Fellow in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. She is the author of The House at Ujazdowskie 16: Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust (2013) and editor of Aftermath: Genocide, Memory and History (2015). Prior to arriving at UNC, she taught at universities in Australia and England as well as at Virginia Tech and Brown University. She has lived for extended periods in Poland, where she was based at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw

Fall 2023 HIST 84 001 Monsters, Murders, and Mayhem in Microhistorical Analysis: French Case Studies TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

French history has recently witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of microhistorical studies covering a range of phenomena from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. This course explores both the distinctive features of microhistorical approaches to the past and the attractions of microhistory for the practicing historian. Does the efflorescence of microhistory among French specialists signal the maturity of socio-cultural history as a branch of the discipline, or does it instead signal the field’s sad retreat from grand interpretation and synthesis? Does the new appeal of the small-scale express historians’ capitulation to post-modern attacks on “truth” or new commitments to finding the truth? What are the strengths and limitations inherent to the genre? Students will read a sampling of recent work (much of it featuring murder and mayhem) and also try their hand at writing and otherwise formulating their own microhistorical narratives.

Jay M. Smith

Jay M. Smith is a specialist of early-modern European history whose research focuses on old regime and revolutionary France. Author or editor of five books, his most recent book in French history is Monsters of the Gévaudan: The Making of a Beast (2011).

Fall 2023 MATH 130 01F Precalculus Mathematics TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Covers the basic mathematical skills needed for learning calculus. Topics are calculating and working with functions and data, introduction to trigonometry, parametric equations, and the conic sections. A student may not receive credit for this course after receiving credit for MATH 231.

Linda Green

Linda Green is a teaching faculty member in mathematics. In her early career, she did research in 3-dimensional topology and developed mathematical models of breast cancer for a health care research start-up. Since joining the UNC faculty in 2013, she has taught every class in the Precalculus-Calculus sequence, designed two first year seminars, recorded over 300 instructional videos, and hosted math enrichment programs for K - 12 students. She was a 2018 recipient of the UNC Math Department’s Teaching Award and a 2022 recipient of a University Teaching Award.

Fall 2023 MATH 231H 01F MATH 231H-620 Calculus of Functions of One Variable I MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Math 231 is designed to provide a detailed introduction to the fundamental ideas of calculus. It does not assume any prior calculus knowledge, but the student is expected to be proficient working with functions and their graphs as well as manipulating variable expressions and solving equations using algebra. Students may not receive credit for both MATH 231 and MATH 241.

This is the Honors section of Math 231. It offers a more demanding and deeper treatment than the regular sections as well as more involved applications. There will be more emphasis on understanding theory than in other sections, and students will be expected to understand and reproduce proofs of theorems and formulas. In addition, this section will cover extra topics. Applications will be more involved and will sometimes involve real data. Homework will be more challenging, with more emphasis on creative problem solving and less emphasis on drill. Students will be expected to complete a final project.

Ivan Cherednik

Professor Cherednik is Austin H. Carr Distinguished Professor of Mathematics. Trained at the Steklov Mathematics Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and at Moscow State University, his areas of specialization are Representation Theory, Combinatorics, Number Theory, Harmonic Analysis, and Mathematical Physics. Cherednik's particular affection for Combinatorics is well known: he proved the celebrated Constant term conjecture in Combinatorics. His recent papers were in financial mathematics, on modeling epidemic spread, and on some aspects of AI.

Fall 2023 MUSC 120 01F Foundations in Music MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

If you are planning on majoring or minoring in music: this course is designed to open up the pathways in music at Carolina for you. It’s an introduction to the different approaches to thinking about and doing music–whether you’re an active performer, an electronic music fiend, a budding music researcher, an entrepreneurial arts administrator in the making…or more! Our classroom meetings expose students to a range of ways to “think about music,” emphasizing the breadth of routes music and sound take through human lives. As a foundational component of the music major and minor, the course emphasizes a range of genres of music making and fosters curious listening. Sometimes we’ll be challenged to think differently about very familiar sounds, sometimes challenged to connect to music very different from that we feel as ours. Expect to leave the semester with a new sense of what music can be for you at Carolina.

Naomi André

Dr. Naomi André (David G. Frey Distinguished Professor) received her B.A. in music from Barnard College and M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University. She was previously a professor at the University of Michigan in the Departments of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College.

Dr. André's research focuses on opera and issues surrounding gender, voice, and race. Her publications include topics on Italian opera, Schoenberg, women composers, and teaching opera in prisons. Her books, including, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (2006) and Blackness in Opera (2012, co-edited collection) focus on opera from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and explore constructions of gender, race and identity. African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021, co-edited collection) focuses on how performance and the arts shape the narratives of cultural history and politics on the African continent. Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (2018) is a monograph on staging race and history in opera today in the United States and South Africa. She has served on the Graduate Alumni Council for Harvard University's Graduate School of Art and Sciences, the Executive Committee for the Criminal Justice Program at the American Friends Service Committee (Ann Arbor, MI), and has served as an evaluator for the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.

In 2019, Dr. André was named the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera which has continued to the present. In her role, she advises Seattle Opera staff and leadership on matters of race and gender in opera; consults in artistic planning as it relates to representation of race and gender; and participates in company panel discussions, podcast recordings, and contributes essays to opera programs. She has continued to work with major and regional opera companies through panels, short residencies, and program essays.

In addition, Dr. André has worked with every major opera company in the United States and many regional opera companies and festivals. This summer she is a scholar-in-residence for the Des Moines Metro Opera. She has written program essays for recordings of Blue (CD, Tesori and Thompson, 2022) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (DVD Blanchard and Lemmons 2022). On February 4, 2022 she testified before the Committee on the Judiciary as a Witness for House Resolution 301 hearing (Examining the History and Importance of Lift Every Voice and Sing to become a National Hymn (sponsored by Congressman James E. Clyburn, South Carolina).

Fall 2023 MUSC 51 001 PHYS 51-001 The Interplay of Music and Physics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

This seminar is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music making from ancient times to the present day. Students will study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. Students who have never studied physics or music theory are welcome to enroll; there are no prerequisites. We will conduct four laboratory exercises (called etudes) in which students will work in small groups to investigate the acoustics of string, woodwind and brass instruments. Keyboards and percussion will also be considered, and students can pursue their areas of special interest in a research paper. The final project for each student will be a public performance of an original musical composition for an ensemble of instruments that the students have constructed themselves out of found objects. This class is taught in person and does not accommodate remote learners. This class meets in various locations according to a schedule listed on the class Sakai site.

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Brent Wissick

Brent Wissick has taught cello, chamber music and early music at UNC-CH since 1982; and performs across the US and abroad. But he has had a life-long interest in how instruments work and how sound is made. He loves encouraging musicians to understand some of these issues, and getting a broad range of science students involved in doing “musical” things. He thinks about physics when practicing the cello or viola da gamba, making CD recordings, rehearsing with ensembles, giving lessons and listening to music in a variety of spaces. He still wakes up every morning excited to make and study music with professional colleagues and undergraduates.

Fall 2023 MUSC 89 001 Music and Women's Rights TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is about the protest songs and history of the First and Second Waves of American feminism, from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 – where women declared their equality with men and called for women’s right to vote – to the passage of Roe v. Wade and the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Issues for discussion include the intersectionality of women’s rights and civil rights movements.

Anne MacNeil

Anne MacNeil holds a PhD in the History & Theory of Music from the University of Chicago and a Master's Degree from the Eastman School of Music. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the Authority of Record at the Library of Congress on the Renaissance commedia dell'arte actress Isabella Andreini. Prof. MacNeil is also a founding directory of IDEA: Isabella d'Este Archive, an international research consortium that studies the music and culture of Renaissance Italy through the lens of the marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539).

Fall 2023 NSCI 175 01F Introduction to Neuroscience MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

Neuroscience is a field that seeks to understand the structure and function of the nervous system and the brain. In this course, we will explore fundamental principles of neuroscience, involving molecular, cellular, behavioral, and computational mechanisms of the brain.

Monica Gaudier-Diaz

As a college student at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, Professor Gaudier-Diaz became interested in understanding the biological basis of behavior, which is why she decided to pursue a career in neuroscience. Since completing her PhD at the Ohio State University, she strives to promote successful learning by incorporating activities that strengthen the retention of core concepts and creating an inclusive environment in the classroom.

Fall 2023 NSCI 175 02F Introduction to Neuroscience MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Neuroscience is a field that seeks to understand the structure and function of the nervous system and the brain. In this course, we will explore fundamental principles of neuroscience, involving molecular, cellular, behavioral, and computational mechanisms of the brain.

Monica Gaudier-Diaz

As a college student at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, Professor Gaudier-Diaz became interested in understanding the biological basis of behavior, which is why she decided to pursue a career in neuroscience. Since completing her PhD at the Ohio State University, she strives to promote successful learning by incorporating activities that strengthen the retention of core concepts and creating an inclusive environment in the classroom.

Fall 2023 NSCI 61 001 Drug Addiction: Fact and Fiction MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Illicit and legal drugs make the user feel good but also promote the development of dependence and long-lasting changes in brain physiology. In this biological psychology seminar, we will take a multi-disciplinary approach to learn about the neurobiology of drug addiction with a focus on the following questions: How do we define addiction? What are the beneficial and harmful psychological effects of abused drugs? What has scientific research revealed about the neurobiology of the “brain on drugs”? Do most users become addicts? How is drug addiction treated? We will tackle these and other questions through classroom discussions/debates, lectures, movies, reading and writing assignments, and an optional tour of a residential substance abuse recovery program. In this communication intensive seminar, critical analysis of information about the neurobiology of addiction will be used to separate fact from fiction.

Kathryn Reissner

Kathryn (Kate) Reissner received her PhD from the University of California, where she performed research on the neurobiology of learning and memory. Dr. Reissner went on to perform postdoctoral research at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she studied the role of glutamate transport in the development of cocaine addiction. She joined the Department of Psychology at UNC-CH as an Assistant Professor in 2013. Research in the Reissner lab is focused on the long lasting changes in the brain’s reward circuitry induced by cocaine abuse which mediate enduring vulnerability to relapse, with emphasis on neuron-astrocyte interactions.

Fall 2023 PHIL 61 001 The Self: Aspiration and Transformation TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This class critically examines the idea of aspiration and transformation. Readings will be drawn from philosophy, fiction, and literary criticism. The first goal of this course is to allow you to reflect on the nature of transformation and aspiration. By the end of this course, you will have developed a clearer understanding of these ideas and have developed your own perspective on them. The second goal of this course is to introduce you to philosophical methods of thinking and writing that will allow you to approach the topic of this course critically and rigorously. Finally, I hope that this course will empower you to get the most out of your college education. By the end of this course, you will be able to articulate a vision of your educational trajectory that aligns with your current values and with those of who you want to become.

Shanna Slank

Shanna Slank is a Research Fellow at the Kenan Institute of Ethics at Duke University and a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Professor Slank likes to think about the nature of morality, about what it is to live well, and how we can know these things. Professor Slank is interested in how answers to these questions shape and are shaped by various kinds of social injustices.

Fall 2023 PHIL 78 001 Death as a Problem for Philosophy: Metaphysical and Ethical TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course explores both old and new questions regarding death. It will examine the presuppositions and cogency of the classical religious-philosophical conception of death.

Thomas Hofweber

Thomas Hofweber is a professor of philosophy at UNC and the director of the AI Project. He works in metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mathematics, with a particular emphasis on ontology and on the role of conceptual and linguistic representation in metaphysics. He regularly teaches a class entitled “AI and the Future of Humanity”.

Fall 2023 PHIL 85 001 Reason, Religion, and Reality in the Copernican Revolution TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The reasoning by which Galileo and his contemporaries defended the Copernican model of the solar system (the “heliocentric” model – that is, with the Earth orbiting the Sun rather than the Sun orbiting the Earth) can puzzle us even today. Here are a few of the questions that we could ask about the reasoning given by Copernicus, Galileo, and their contemporaries. Did Copernicus’s arguments support the heliocentric model strongly enough to justify believing it true? Or was it unjustified until Galileo amassed telescopic evidence for it? Or was it unjustified until even later – when Newtonian physics was developed? Or did it remain unjustified until even later – when various mechanical and optical discoveries were made in the nineteenth century? Was the Catholic Church justified at the time of Galileo in regarding Copernicus’s theory as just one among many fairly successful techniques for predicting the night sky’s appearance? Did Galileo bring his sentence (at his famous – and notorious – trial) on himself? Could Galileo argue persuasively for his telescope’s reliability? Could Galileo use mere “thought-experiments” (as opposed to actual experiments) to defend Copernicanism? In this course, we will grapple with these and related questions in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the logic by which scientific theories in general are tested and, ultimately, justified. We will also try to use this historical episode to understand better how political, social, and cultural factors can influence the reception of a scientific theory – even today! We will learn some of the means by which the biases and presuppositions introduced by these factors were overcome (eventually) in the Copernican Revolution, and we will apply some of these lessons to current science. At various points during our discussions, each student will submit in written form his or her own best reconstructions of some of the arguments that were given for or against the Copernican model. In other words, each student will offer his or her best advice regarding how a given scientist might have argued for or against Copernicanism, anticipating possible objections and responses. Students will occasionally form groups to examine and to critique one another’s proposals, with each group finally presenting its best thoughts orally to the rest of the class for further discussion. Students will, in effect, be putting Galileo on trial once again – not for heresy or for disobeying authority, but for having convincing or for having insufficient evidence for his Copernicanism. In all of these ways, students will learn how to appreciate sympathetically the competing astronomical theories from the perspective of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the truth was in some doubt. Along the way, students will wrestle with some of the puzzles and apparent paradoxes arising even from today’s best philosophical accounts of the logic of theory testing in science. No previous background in science will be assumed. Students will not need to purchase any books.

Marc Lange

Marc Lange is Theda Perdue Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in the philosophy of science and related areas of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mathematics, along with the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. He won UNC's 2016 Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction and a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. (For a brief sample of his teaching, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SKmqh5Eu4Y)

Fall 2023 PHYS 118 02F PHYS 118-401, MW, 10:10 AM - 12:00 PM (this studio lab operates as the FY Launch) Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

The lecture (PHYS 118-02F; meeting MWF, 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM; taught by Reyco Henning) is a large class shared with other lecture sections of PHYS 118. The studio lab (PHYS 118-401; meeting MW, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM; taught by Yue Wu) is the First-Year Launch section.

Yue Wu

Yue WU was born in Beijing, November 1959. He began his undergraduate education at Peking University in 1978 and in 1979, he moved to Belgium to study at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) majoring in physics and received his B.S. degree in July of 1983. He then went on to obtain a Ph.D. degree in physics in December of 1987 at KU Leuven under the supervision of Professor Andre Stesmans. Between 1988 and 1991, he was a postdoctoral research associate with Professor Alex Pines at the Department of Chemistry of the University of California, Berkeley. In 1991, Yue Wu started as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was promoted in 1998 to associate professor, and then professor in 2003. He is currently a Kenan Distinguished Professor at UNC. Yue Wu is a member of APS, MRS, and AAAS and is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society.

Fall 2023 PHYS 118H 02F PHYS 118H-402 (this studio lab operates as the FY Launch) Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

PHYS 118 is a calculus-based introduction to Classical Mechanics. The course covers motion and kinematics in one and two dimensions, forces and Newton’s laws of motion, work-energy and conservation laws, frames of reference and Einstein’s theory of special relativity, rigid-body rotations, rolling, static equilibrium, and oscillations and waves.

The lecture (PHYS 118H-02F; meeting MWF, 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM; taught by Reyco Henning) is a large class shared with other lecture sections of PHYS 118. The studio lab (PHYS 118H-402; meeting TTH, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM; taught by Amy Oldenburg) is the honors First-Year Launch section. The honors version of this course is differentiated by requiring a final project and presentation. Early in the semester, each honors student will identify a project of interest and submit the idea to the instructor, who will evaluate and discuss changes or other details with the student to finalize the curriculum for the semester. Suitable project choices will integrate multiple topics covered in the course and will require a detailed description and a brief literature review of relevant papers. A computational aspect is highly encouraged.

Amy Oldenburg

Dr. Oldenburg is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy and directs the Coherence Imaging Laboratory at UNC. Her federally-funded research program involves the development of novel optical biomedical imaging technologies and nanoparticle probes for elucidating tissue mechanical and nanoscopic properties.

Fall 2023 PHYS 51 001 MUSC 51-001 The Interplay of Music and Physics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music making from ancient times to the present day. Students will study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. Students who have never studied physics or music theory are welcome to enroll; there are no prerequisites. We will conduct four laboratory exercises (called etudes) in which students will work in small groups to investigate the acoustics of string, woodwind and brass instruments. Keyboards and percussion will also be considered, and students can pursue their areas of special interest in a research paper. The final project for each student will be a public performance of an original musical composition for an ensemble of instruments that the students have constructed themselves out of found objects. This class is taught in person and does not accommodate remote learners. This class meets in various locations according to a schedule listed on the class Sakai site.

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Brent Wissick

Brent Wissick has taught cello, chamber music and early music at UNC-CH since 1982; and performs across the US and abroad. But he has had a life-long interest in how instruments work and how sound is made. He loves encouraging musicians to understand some of these issues, and getting a broad range of science students involved in doing “musical” things. He thinks about physics when practicing the cello or viola da gamba, making CD recordings, rehearsing with ensembles, giving lessons and listening to music in a variety of spaces. He still wakes up every morning excited to make and study music with professional colleagues and undergraduates.

Fall 2023 PHYS 55 001 PHYS 55-401 or PHYS 55-402 Introduction to Mechatronics MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary synergy of STEM fields, specifically physics, engineering, electronics, and computer science. All students, regardless of their educational goals, will achieve critical introductory skills in numerical reasoning and analysis, model-building and prototyping, computer programming and electronics, and will demonstrate proficiency and knowledge about topics that increasingly impact society. The course focuses on four areas: Numeracy and Proportional Reasoning, Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing, Computer Technology (Programming and Electronics), and Current and Future technologies (aka, shall we welcome our new mechatronic overlords – robotics, AI, quantum computing, with a new emphasis on disruptive technologies such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion). The course goals are to prepare students for academic success at UNC, to help science students be more capable scientists, and to help ALL students be stronger and better-informed citizens of the world.

Stefan Jeglinski

In a previous 30-year private-sector career, Stefan Jeglinski designed and built instrumentation, learned to program from scratch, and performed R&D for large and small companies. For five years he was actually a rocket scientist, so when he says “this ain’t rocket science,” he knows what he’s talking about! He broke away from rockets to complete his PhD in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Utah, and then returned to industry where he spent over 15 years in all aspects of product development for electron microscopy. He landed at UNC in 2010 to share everything he’s learned and to study new disruptive technologies. In addition to his love of teaching physics, he brings a lifetime of real-world experience and stories about building, making, and engineering across disciplines.

Fall 2023 PLCY 76H 001 Global Health Policy TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Global health policy impacts the health and well being of individuals and peoples throughout the world. Many determinants of health operate at a global level, and many national policies, social practices, and individual health behaviors are structured by global forces. Concern for the spread of infectious diseases, increasing rates of chronic diseases and the effectiveness of health systems to provide quality care are among the daunting challenges to health policy makers.
With profound social, political and economic changes rapidly challenging global health, the aim of this course in Global Health Policy is to provide students with a variety of opportunities to understand the epidemiologic trends in world health, the institutions of global health governance, and the effects of globalization on global and national health policy.
This course provides an introduction to the relationship between international relations, global health policy and public health outcomes. The focus of this course will be on public policy approaches to global health, employing interdisciplinary methodologies to understand selected public health policies, programs, and interventions. Providing a foundation for responding to global health harms, this course will teach students how to apply policy analysis to a wide range of critical issues in global health determinants, interventions, and impacts.

Benjamin Meier

Professor Benjamin Meier's interdisciplinary research—at the intersection of international law, public policy, and global health—examines the human rights norms that underlie global health policy. In teaching UNC courses in Justice in Public Policy, Health & Human Rights, and Global Health Policy, Professor Meier has been awarded the 2011 William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2013 James M. Johnston Teaching Excellence Award, the 2015 Zachary Taylor Smith Distinguished Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching, and six straight annual awards for Best Teacher in Public Policy. He received his Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University, his J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Cornell Law School, and his B.A. in Biochemistry from Cornell University.

Fall 2023 PLCY 87 001 Education in a Multicultural Society TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course focuses on education in the multicultural society of the United States. Diversity has been at the center of the American educational story, as society has continued to struggle with competing goals of assimilation and diversity, opportunity, and competition. The American dream that promises a better life through education has played out unevenly for different groups. This course aims to help students develop new understandings of the role and nature of schools and teaching, as well as to construct alternative perspectives on and approaches to examining educational issues. It will study inequality in public education in a way that is place-based, featuring extended opportunities for engaged learning in and around UNC.

Simona Goldin

Dr. Simona Goldin is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy. Dr. Goldin has studied ways to transform the preparation of beginning teachers to teach in more racially just and equitable ways, and has elaborated the teaching practices that bridge children’s work in schools on academic content with their home and community-based experiences. Dr. Goldin holds a master’s degree in management and urban policy analysis from the New School University, and a Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Michigan.

Fall 2023 PLCY 89 003 Ethics and Food Policy TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

If you eat, you are impacted by federal, state, and local food policies. These policies are, in turn, shaped by values. Over the course of the semester, we examine the values that underpin different approaches to food policy, including food labeling, nutrition assistance, agricultural subsidies, and responses to food deserts.

Nora Hanagan

Professor Nora Hanagan studies political ideas. She is particularly interested in the ideas that have animated American politics and history. She also researches different approaches to environmental and food politics. Her book, Democratic Responsibility: The Politics of Many Hands in America, examines whether individuals bear responsibility for harms that are caused by social institutions and processes. When she isn’t chasing her young children around, she likes gardening and hiking.

Fall 2023 POLI 100 01F American Democracy in Changing Times TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Why do Americans love democracy, but hate politics? Why are there only two political parties? Why do voters hate, yet respond to negative campaigning? This course will introduce students to politics in the United States, addressing these and many more questions about how American democracy works.

Marc J. Hetherington

Marc J. Hetherington is Raymond Dawson Distinguished Bicentennial Professor in the Department of Political Science. A scholar of public opinion, he specializes in the study of political trust and party polarization. Over the past year, Marc has devoted his research to the impact of politics and science colliding in the context of Covid-19. He’s authored a range of academic books and published articles in his discipline’s major journals. As for teaching, Marc regularly offers courses on American Government, Political Parties, Public Opinion, and Polarization.

Fall 2023 POLI 57 001 Democratic Governance in Contemporary Latin America TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Over the past forty years, Latin America has experienced the most prolonged and extensive period of democratic politics in its history. State power today is accessed through reasonably competitive and fair elections in many countries in the region, in contrast to past patterns of openly authoritarian rule. This democratic shift, though, has often been challenged by serious problems with political representation and the effective inclusion of citizens, and in some cases with more serious setbacks. The way power is practiced by those in power reflects historical continuities and new forms of corruption or other types of abuses of state resources, as well as various forms of populism. With important variations across the region, countries have struggled to respond effectively to the Covid-19 pandemic, and more broadly to provide citizen security, economic development and social inclusion.
In this course, we will explore these issues of democratic governance through a combination of readings, videos, discussion, occasional short lectures, and team-based analyses of selected countries. The course has no pre-requisites and assumes no prior knowledge of Latin America.

Jonathan Hartlyn

Jonathan Hartlyn is the Kenneth J. Reckford Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up in Latin America, in Cuba, Mexico and Peru. He received his B.A. from Clark University, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His research and teaching interests focus on the comparative politics of Latin America. He spent several months in Argentina in fall 2017 advancing on his current research on democratic governance in the region. He also has on-going research on constitutional change in Latin America and on the dynamics of executive approval. He has authored or co-authored dozens of articles and chapters on democratic transitions, gender and politics, migration and political parties, public opinion and institutional trust, and elections and electoral governance. His books include: The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia; The Struggle for Democratic Politics in the Dominican Republic; and the co-authored Latin America in the Twenty First Century: Toward a New Socio-Political Matrix. His publications have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German and Persian. He has served as an international election observer in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Venezuela.

Fall 2023 POLI 63 001 Social Movements and Political Protest and Violence TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar focuses on explaining and understanding social movements and the collective political behaviors that they promote (e.g. demonstrations, protests, violence, and eco-terrorism). Our theoretical focus will be interdisciplinary, drawing on research in political behavior, social psychology, sociology, political theory, and the law. We will discuss when and why collective action occurs, who participates, what forms it takes, and how governments respond. Substantively, we will study a variety of movements including: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movement, the Environmental movement, the White Nationalist movement, COVID protests, and the January 6th Capitol protest. We will use a variety of approaches and resources: class discussions, films, online forum discussions, and texts. Grades will be based on class participation, forum participation, a writing project, and several group papers.

Pamela Conover

Pamela Conover, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science, was educated at Emory University and received her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Professor Conover teaches courses dealing with political psychology, women and politics, and social movements and political protest. In the past, Professor Conover’s research has concerned the nature of political thinking and the politics of identity and citizenship. She also coauthored the book Feminism and the New Right. Her current research is focused on election aversion, religious freedom, and the effect of worldviews on political behavior. In her spare time, she enjoys cycling, yoga and being walked by her two golden retrievers, Sophie and Henry.

Fall 2023 POLI 76 001 The Obama Presidency TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course examines the presidency of Barack Obama, the first African American to serve in the nation’s highest office. The course is broken down into four parts. The first part studies Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson, two black people who ran for President prior to Obama. The second part examines Obama prior to running for office, reading a book that he authored. The third part of the class examines Obama’s presidency, both how he reached office and a look back at what he achieved while in office. The last part of the class considers American politics post-Obama, with a particular focus on race/ethnicity.

Christopher Clark

Christopher J. Clark’s research focuses on black electoral representation and its influence on political processes. Clark earned his Ph.D. in Political Science in 2010 from the University of Iowa, and he has been on faculty at UNC since July 2012. Chris is a huge sports fan, with his favorite team being the Kansas City Chiefs. He is married to Tiana and is father of Kaya, Cadence, and Kinlee; they all bring him great joy. Chris enjoys reading, cooking, playing sports, and he is active in his church community.

Fall 2023 POLI 77 001 Immigrants and Refugees in World Politics TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The movement of people across international borders is one of the most politically controversial issues in the world today. This class focuses on two different types of global migrants, immigrants and refugees, and explores why these two groups move out of their countries and how they are treated by receiving countries. Immigrants and refugees have traditionally been thought of as politically, legally and ethically different from each other and this class explores these differences, but it also explores the many ways that they are similar. Finally, the class explores a third type of global migrant that politicians and policy makers frequently promote, guest workers, and considers to what extent guest worker policies can effectively address the challenges and opportunities posed by the two other migrant groups. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Fall 2023 PSYC 58H 001 The Psychology of Mental States and Language Use TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

As adults we constantly make judgments about other people’s beliefs, desires, goals, knowledge, and intentions from evidence like eye gaze and inferences from their words and actions. These judgments together can be called mindreading, or theory of mind (where “theory” refers to the theory someone might hold about another’s mental state, not a scientific theory). This information is known to guide some aspects of language use — for example, you wouldn’t ask someone to hand you “that book” if they don’t know it exists. But sometimes you might ignore what someone else does or does not know – for instance asking someone for “the red book” when that person is sitting in front of two red books. This course examines how children, adults, and individuals with autism infer other people’s mental states, and how they use it to guide decisions during speaking and understanding. A major focus of this course is on research methods, and how to investigate questions of mental state and language processing empirically. The course culminates in students conducting an original research project and reporting it in both spoken and written formats.

Jennifer Arnold

Dr. Jennifer Arnold is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She studies the ways that our minds handle the jobs of speaking and understanding. How do speakers choose words and produce them? How do listeners pick out the speaker’s meaning? Her research is guided by questions about how people represent the thoughts, intentions, and mental activities of other people, and how this information influences specific linguistic processes.

Fall 2023 PWAD 89 015 September 11: Origins, Consequences, and Where Do We Go From Here TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This first-year seminar will reflect upon the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, exploring how the terrorist attacks occurred and why the U.S. intelligence community and policymakers failed to anticipate and prevent them as well as the subsequent effects on the United States, the Middle East, and the world. The instructor, a former intelligence analyst, will lead students in discussions and in-class exercises to encourage critical analysis of the implications of terrorism, particularly on United States national security. A variety of assignments will require students to assess the causes and results of American national security decisions and alternative decisions that might have been made, supported with research and evidence.

Erinn Whitaker

Erinn Whitaker, a former senior analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and US State Department, is a Professor of the Practice for the Peace, War and Defense Curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With nearly 15 years of experience overseas and in Washington, teaches courses such as “Writing and Briefing for Intelligence,” “Comparative Intelligence Regimes,” and “Cases in Counter Intelligence,” helping students interested in careers ranging from intelligence to public policy to journalism strengthen their written and oral communication skills. Whitaker earned a BA from Middlebury College, where she spent a year studying Russia in Siberia, and a MA from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. She speaks German and Russian.

Fall 2023 RELI 63 001 The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls MW 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been described as the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The first scrolls were discovered in 1947, in a cave near the site of Qumran by the Dead Sea. Eventually the remains of over 900 scrolls were found in 11 caves around Qumran. The scrolls date to the time of Jesus and include the earliest preserved copies of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). They were deposited in the caves by members of a Jewish sect called the Essenes who lived at Qumran. In this seminar, students explore the meaning and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls – and learn about broader issues such as how canons of sacred scripture developed among Jews and Christians – through classroom discussions, thought papers, and creative assignments.

Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism. Before coming to UNC–Chapel Hill in 2002, she taught at Tufts University for ten years. Professor Magness received her B.A. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. She has participated on numerous excavations in Israel and Greece, and currently directs excavations at Huqoq in Israel. Professor Magness’ publications include a book entitled The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2021 [second edition]).

Fall 2023 RELI 67 001 Nature/Culture/Self-Identity: Religion in the Construction of Social Life TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Beliefs about what a human being is—and isn’t—lie at the root of all religious traditions and also of secular ideologies. This course explores the ways that different religious and cultural communities have conceptualized human nature, and how those understandings are reflected in diverse forms of personal identity and ways of organizing public life. Readings will include historic and contemporary texts, and case studies from places including India, Nepal, and the USA. We will structure our inquiries around three thematic questions: (1) How do religious beliefs and practices shape the way that individuals and societies understand what it is to be human? (2) How do these beliefs manifest in seemingly unrelated areas of life such as personal aspirations, gender ideals, social structures, political institutions, and economic ideologies? (3) How do we know what we know about these things—i.e., what theories and methods do scholars use to understand other societies and also their own? This course also involves an experiential component that allows students to undertake original research.

Lauren Leve

Lauren Leve is an associate professor of Religious Studies. She has been living and working in Nepal since 1990; sometimes for a few weeks at a time, sometimes for a few years. Her research has also brought her to India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. She has published on topics including Buddhism, globalization, women’s empowerment, human rights, cultural heritage, and suffering. She is currently working on projects focused on Buddhist meditation and on gender, health, politics and the rise of Christianity in Nepal, and another that presents Himalayan Buddhism using virtual models and VR. Professor Leve is grateful to friends and strangers and around the world who have opened their lives to her and taught her to (try to) see things through their eyes. She reports that it can be disorienting at first, but that once you learn to learn from others’ perspectives, it’s both a super power and a source of joy!

Fall 2023 RELI 70 001 Jesus in Scholarship and Film TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar will examine how historians have reconstructed the life, teachings and death of the historical Jesus. We will look at the Gospels of the New Testament, as well as references to Jesus in other writings (Roman and Jewish sources, as well as Gospels that did not make it into the New Testament). In addition, we will explore how Jesus has been portrayed in modern film, including such Biblical “epics” as The Greatest Story Ever Told, such “period pieces” as Jesus Christ Superstar, such brilliant retellings as Jesus of Montreal and such controversial films as The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion of the Christ. The ultimate goals of the seminar are to see what we can say about the historical man Jesus himself and how Jesus came to be portrayed in both ancient sources and modern imagination.

Bart Ehrman

Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies. He has taught at Carolina since 1988. He is author or editor of thirty books and is widely regarded as a leading expert on the New Testament and the history of the early Christian church. He is also a well-known teacher on campus, having won the Undergraduate Students Teaching Award, the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the John William Pope Center Spirit of Inquiry Teaching Award.

Fall 2023 RELI 72 001 Apocalypse Now? Messianic Movements in America TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course explores the messianic idea in America as well as the messianic movements that have been active in the nation’s history and their interaction with American society and culture.

Yaakov Ariel

Much of Yaakov Ariel’s research has focused on Protestantism, especially Evangelical Christianity, and its attitudes towards the Jewish people and the Holy Land; on Christian-Jewish relations in the late modern era; and on the Jewish reaction to modernity and postmodernity. He has published numerous articles and three books on these subjects. One of these books, Evangelizing the Chosen People, was awarded the Albert C. Outler prize by the American Society of Church History. His latest book, An Unusual Relationship: Evangelical Christians and Jews, was published in 2013 by New York University Press. His current project looks at the religious aspects in the life and career of poet Allen Ginsberg who was, in significant ways, a pioneer and prophet to many of his generation.

Fall 2023 RELI 78 001 Reading the Bible: Now and Then TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

An introduction to the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. We will look at the biblical text as modern interpreters and through the eyes of the Bible’s earliest Jewish and Christian interpreters with special attention to changing assumptions about how to read the Bible and the nature of Scripture itself.

David Lambert

David Lambert is interested in the Hebrew Bible as a textual object whose interpretation stands to tell us as much about its readers and their communities as it does about ancient Israelite origins. In that vein, he looks to bring historical critical approaches to the Hebrew Bible into closer conversation with the history of biblical interpretation.This theme comes to the fore in his forthcoming book, How Repentance Became Biblical: Judaism, Christianity, and the Interpretation of Scripture. It considers the development of repentance as a concept around the turn of the Common Era and how it came to be naturalized as an essential component of religion through a series of reading practices that allowed nascent Jewish and Christian communities to locate repentance in Scripture. He works with a wide range of literature, and this project involves texts from throughout the corpus of the Hebrew Bible, as well as late Second Temple Judaism (Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and Dead Sea Scrolls), Hellenistic Judaism, the New Testament, and Rabbinic literature. He is now focusing on a series of studies that aim to assess more broadly how modern Western notions of the subject have shaped biblical interpretation and, especially, translation practices.

Fall 2023 ROML 55H 001 Writing with an Accent: Latino Literature and Culture TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar focuses on the literary production of Latinos living in the U.S. Using a variety of materials (essays, documentaries, films, music) and English-language texts (novels, short stories, plays, poetry) we will examine works by Chicano, Peruvian-American, Nuyorican, Central-American-American, Dominican, and Cuban-American writers. Topics to be discussed include: Latino or Hispanic? What’s in a Name?; The politics of Bilingualism; The search for Home in Migrant, Rural, and Urban Environments; The Many Faces of Machismo; Religion and Spirituality in Latino Communities; Forms of Prejudice and Discrimination; Music as a Cultural Bridge. All readings will be in English, though knowledge of Spanish is desirable.

Oswaldo Estrada

Oswaldo Estrada is a Peruvian-American writer and literary critic. He is a Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has authored or edited over a dozen books of literary and cultural criticism. He is the author of a children’s book, El secreto de los trenes (2018), and of three collections of short stories, Luces de emergencia (2019; International Latino Book Awards 2020), Las locas ilusiones y otros relatos de migración (2020; International Latino and Latin American Book Fair Prize 2020), and Las guerras perdidas (2021). He has recently edited the short-story collection Incurables: Relatos de dolencias y males (2020; International Latino Book Awards 2020).

Fall 2023 ROML 89 001 Iberian Identities MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, numerous Iberian intellectuals promoted the idea that Portugal and Spain could combine efforts to overcome the crises that plagued the Peninsula. The Iberian intelligentsia came up with theories whose aim was to bring Portugal, Spain, and their ex-colonies closer together. In this course, students will become familiar with the contemporary histories of Portugal and Spain and with Iberian literature. Students will study culture from perspectives that may inspire them to reflect upon concepts such as decadence and identity. Furthermore, we will discuss the connections between the end of the Iberian colonial adventure in America and the crises that led the elites of both countries to meditate on the necessity of rediscovering new lifestyles. We will address the following questions: Why is it utopian to think that Portugal and Spain could become a single country? What does it mean to be Portuguese, Spanish, and European?

Paulo Rodrigues Ferreira

Paulo Rodrigues Ferreira is a Lecturer of Portuguese. He received his Ph. D. in Contemporary History from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He specializes in Iberian studies. In his doctoral thesis, he analyzed the cultural relations between Portugal and Spain, and focused on the evolution of the concept of Iberism – or the utopian dream that Portugal and Spain could form a unified country. Aside from publishing articles on the Iberian relations, he has been doing research on topics related to Portuguese literature. He is also a writer of fiction and has published three collections of short stories and a novel.

Fall 2023 ROML 89 002 What Makes Language Funny? An Exploration of Language Through Humor MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

This course provides an introduction to the study of language (the science of Linguistics) through an exploration of how humor uses structural and discourse properties of human language for comedic effect. Students will examine how different features of spoken and written language, as well as contextualized communication are put to the service of jokes, comedy skits, cartoons, and other kinds of wordplay. We will use both instructor-contributed and student contributed clips, anecdotes, jokes, tiktoks, etc., in order to illuminate why we find them funny (or not!), what can we learn about language from our reactions (or lack thereof!), and just plain have fun in the process.

Bruno Estigarribia

Bruno Estigarribia trained in Linguistics at the Université Paris V-René Descartes-Sorbonne and Stanford University. His 2007 dissertation explained children’s acquisition of English questions. From 2007 to 2011, he was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Faculty in UNC’s Psychology Department, working on the language development of children with neurodevelopment disabilities and teaching Cognitive Science. Now he is a Professor of Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Romance Studies, where he investigates the structure of Argentinian Spanish and of indigenous languages of the Amazon. He has recently published "A Grammar of Paraguayan Guarani" (UCL Press, Open Access Online).

Fall 2023 STOR 120 03F STOR 120-408 Foundations of Statistics and Data Science MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

This course teaches critical concepts and skills in computer programming and statistical inference, in conjunction with hands-on analysis of real-world datasets, including economic data, document collections, geographical data, and social networks. It delves into social issues surrounding data analysis such as privacy and design.

Serhan Ziya

Serhan Ziya is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Operations Research. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. His specialization area is using mathematical modeling and data science in problems that are directly motivated by practical contexts. He is particularly interested in problems that are related to healthcare and emergency operations, but he has also been involved in research projects that are related to operational improvements in various business settings.

Fall 2023 WGST 68 001 Assumed Identities: Performance in Photography TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Our day to day lives are filled with selfies and social media images. This course asks students to re-examine these images through feminist analysis. Students will make self-portraits that reflect the multiple and changing aspects of their identity and contemporary society. Thru role-playing, performance, and documentation we work to understand the construction of identity and the ways in which photography can help us control our own narratives.

We begin the semester with a close look at the ethics and issues of representation throughout the history of photography. Using visual analysis, we explore how photographers have historically used assumed identities and theatrical aspects of photography to push the boundaries of their realities and challenge society’s stereotypes. Students will complete the semester with a stronger set of visual literacy skills and a better understanding of how our identities are shaped by society and how we shape our identities and society in return.

There are no specific camera requirements. Phone cameras are the perfect tool for this course.

Susan Harbage Page

Susan Harbage Page is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. Harbage Page is a visual artist with a background in photography and lens-based work that explores immigration, race, and gender. She is well-known for her work on the U.S. – Mexico Border which explores bodies and belonging through photography, the creation of an "Anti-Archive" of objects left-behind on the border and site-specific art interventions which involve performative actions in the space of a border.

Fall 2023 WGST 67H 001 Sexuality and Salvation MW 12:20 PM – 1:35 PM

In Christianity and Islam, bodies populate the afterlife. What those bodies look like, how they act, what they feel, and who they engage with are subjects of contentious and long-standing debates. The various answers offered in these debates deeply affect Christian and Muslim responses to the body, sexuality, race, and gender in this life. This course examines how these two religious traditions’ diversity of histories and ideas construct theories of identity. In each tradition, we will look at attempts to dictate a wide variety of sexual norms and at the creativity followers have employed in interpreting such regulations. We examine the many ways that Muslims and Christians have used sexual practices, language, and images to enhance their devotion and pose questions about living out religion. This means analyzing how the afterlife affects earthly life, including family structures, health care debates, legal choices, questions of feminist agency, and imagery of war.

Sarah J. Bloesch

Sarah J. Bloesch (she/her) is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches feminist and queer approaches to film, popular culture, and spirituality. Her research focuses on Christianity, gender, and race in the contemporary United States and how those aspects shape our understanding of sexuality, time, and relationships. She is the co-editor of the textbook Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods and loves spending time with her dog: a boxer mix, who is obviously the best puppy in the world.

Fall 2023 JWST 89 001 Jewish Spain: History and Culture Across the Hispanic World TTH 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

This seminar explores the history and culture of Jews in the Golden Age of medieval Spain, as well as how modern Hispanic cultures have interpreted and reimagined this historical past. We will explore how this fascination with Hispanic Jews overlaps with a variety of topics such as national identity, anti-Semitism, liberal democracy, colonialism, exile, and Holocaust memory, among others. Throughout this journey across time and space, we will think about the relevance of Jewish Spain, to our present by working with a diverse group of cultural products that includes poetry, paintings, film, memoirs, and novels. The texts we will study come from numerous Hispanic cultures: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Cuba. No knowledge of Spanish or Jewish history is required.

Adam Cohn

Adam Cohn specializes in modern Spanish literature, with a focus on the nexus of race, diaspora, and Judaism in early twentieth-century Spain. His current research project analyzes the relationship between liberal philosephardic thought and (anti-)colonialism in the Spanish novel. He is also interested in contemporary Jewish culture in Spain, Federico García Lorca, and Spanish Civil War literature. Adam holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and joined Carolina in fall 2023.

Fall 2023 ENGL 89 004 Shakespeare's Hamlet: A Tragedy for a Modern Age in Crisis TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This first-year seminar provides a multi-faceted, in-depth, and unique exploration of William Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece, Hamlet. A play as oft misunderstood as it is celebrated, Hamlet occupies a strange place in our cultural landscape, being a work with which many of us become acquainted early on – be it through The Lion King, parodies, or compulsory high school reading – while at the same time remaining a kind of distant, difficult, and marble-encased “classic” that seems to evade our attempts to appreciate or even understand it. Put more simply, Hamlet is an artistic masterpiece – though an extremely difficult one – that we have been told we “should” know and love, but that for many students remains a frustrating, even confounding, mystery.

As a lifelong lover of this play, one of my goals as a professor is thus to share that passion with students and help make this centuries-old work “come alive.” In particular, I will argue that Hamlet, for all its complexity, is a play about political, moral, and personal crisis that continues to resonate strongly with our own vexed present-day moment. Shakespeare’s plays, and especially Hamlet, remain relevant – via their humor, their vivacity, their pathos, their insight – through their remarkable ability to portray, critique, and question human nature and to prompt us as readers to reconsider our assumptions about the world around us, a world that Hamlet both reflects and makes new each time we revisit it.

In order to arrive at this deeper understanding of Hamlet’s relation to our own modern-day experience, the course will introduce various key contexts of the play that are essential to understanding it. Like the play itself, the course will follow a basic five-act structure:

• ACT 1 – Introducing (1) Hamlet’s 400-year legacy, (2) Shakespeare’s life and career, and (3) the practices of the Elizabethan theater in which he worked and created what we now know as Hamlet.

• ACT 2 – Reading the standard, full text of Hamlet (Q2) with an eye toward comprehension of Shakespeare’s early modern language as well as key literary themes and philosophical concepts at the heart of the play.

• ACT 3 – Understanding some of the key intertextual sources that Shakespeare used and referenced when writing Hamlet, from the Scandinavian legend of Amleth to Virgil’s epic Aeneid, in order to appreciate the way in which any “classic” text is informed by and based on other, earlier texts. Hamlet is a play about storytelling, and its references to other stories is key to that project.

• ACT 4 – To investigate the various early printed texts of Hamlet – including the notorious First Quarto (Q1) and the missing Ur-Hamlet – in order to appreciate how even the most classic works are created out of innumerable contingent and minute editorial decisions.

• ACT 5 – To survey some of the key moments in the past 400 years of Hamlet performance and criticism, from the earliest Elizabethans’ sense of the play, to the Romantics and Victorians, to modernist critics like T.S. Eliot, on to more global reinterpretations by various artists and scholars from Japan to the Soviet Union.

Michael Gadaleto

Professor Gadaleto is a scholar of Shakespeare, Milton, and English Renaissance literature, whose work has been published in several of the top journals in his field. In the seventh grade he stumbled upon a film version of ‘Hamlet’ and has never looked back. He is also an avid fan of sci-fi, horror literature, and video games, and in recent years he's begun writing and teaching screenwriting. He has some amazing ideas for TV series about Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’ that he'll be more than happy to tell you about (it’s just the writing part that’s hard…).

Fall 2023 APPL 89 001 Tree, Timber, Totem TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 PM

Trees, through their biology, meaning and uses, create an arc of understanding that spans what it means to be human. Ultimately, we will explore the meaning of trees and wood and why we seek happiness in nature, cherish wood and the creation of objects of wood. Tree: What is a tree from a biological perspective? How do they represent a complex community and play a vital role in life on the planet? Timber: What is the economy of wood internationally and in the state of NC? What are biophysical and material properties of trees that allow them to grow so large and be so useful to human society? Totem: Why do we respond emotionally to wood and choose it as a material in our lives and surroundings? How do we design and create objects of meaning from wood? We will walk in the woods, meet “wood people” from across the state and country and learn woodworking with projects of the students’ design and creation.

Richard Superfine

I am the son of a home builder, a first gen life-long student who is also a faculty member that has a passion for studying biology using the perspective and tools of physics. In my day job at UNC I build microscopes, materials and systems to study the wonders of the lung, the body’s immune system and biomedical diagnostic technologies – all in collaboration with brilliant scientists from across UNC and the world. I also have a woodworking shop in my basement where I make from wood furniture and gifts of meaning for family and friends.

Fall 2023 PLCY 85 001 Reforming America's Schools MW 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

This seminar will examine the role of schools and other institutions play in determining life chances, which educational interventions work well for economically and academically disadvantaged students, and what to do when institutions cease to work well. Students will learn how to analyze complex educational public policy problems while exploring questions of effectiveness, inequality, resource management, and politics.

Douglas Lauen

Dr. Douglas Lauen’s work seeks to understand the effects of educational policies, school types, and school contextual factors on student outcomes. He focuses on areas that policymakers can control and that have high relevance to current educational policy debates, such as classroom poverty composition, educational accountability, performance incentives, and school choice.

Fall 2023 IDST 89 001 "Says Who?" Climate Research and the Pursuit of Truth TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 PM

From battles in the courtroom to disputes in the comments section, scientific authority and its role in policy and practice are under increasing scrutiny. In 2021, more than 20% of adults in the United States were estimated to have little or no confidence in scientists and medical doctors. While distrust of research and academic institutions may seem like a uniquely modern issue, it is rooted in a broader history of anti-intellectualism, the “generalized suspicion and mistrust of intellectuals and experts”. In fact, debates over the nature of truth and whose “truth” is considered fact have persisted since antiquity. This course will introduce students to different theories of knowledge (e.g., positivism, constructivism, critical theory) and examine how each impacts what types of questions are asked, how data are gathered and analyzed, and the ways by which evidence is appraised. We will apply these systems of knowledge production to ongoing debates about climate change and its impacts on health and well-being. Teachings will focus on the validity of the scientific process while critically reviewing its shortcomings, from embedded power imbalances to the proclamation of value-free research. Students will also engage in discussions and exercises focused on ways to improve upon the status quo, including identification of innovative scientific research methods that promote equity, sustainability, and inclusivity.

Rebecca Patterson-Marcowitz

Rebecca Patterson-Marcowitz is a feminist health geographer with an interest in embodiment as it relates to trauma, justice and healing. After completing an MA in Geography at the University of Arizona focused on the paths to justice and healing created by Guatemalan women survivors of sexualized political violence, her doctoral work takes up those same themes in the context of the US, looking at how healing frameworks are being integrated into movements for social justice and abolition. Rebecca’s research is informed by her background as a victim's advocate, dance teacher, and training in somatics.

Joshua Miller

Joshua (Josh) Miller is a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition. He uses a biocultural approach to understand how social and environmental factors influence health and development throughout the life course. His current research explores how food and water insecurity experiences during early life impact subsequent physical, psychosocial, and nutritional well-being.

Hunter Hughes

Hunter Hughes is a Ph.D. Candidate and Royster Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Science. Hunter’s research is centered on coral reefs and climate change. Specifically, how can the chemistry of coral skeletons tell us about past tropical ocean conditions? Prior to becoming a Tar Heel, Hunter completed his master’s at the University of Maryland where he showed how small changes in seawater chemistry could have large impacts on coral-derived ocean temperatures. In keeping with his love of research, Hunter is passionate about educating the next generation of scholars in both marine and geosciences.

Aurora Yu

Aurora Yu is a third-year graduate student with interests primarily in Early Modern Philosophy, Ancient Greek Philosophy, Moral Theory, and 20th century Continental Philosophy. She holds a BA in Philosophy and Classics from the University of Rochester, and an MAPH from the University of Chicago.

Fall 2023 PHYS 53 001 Handcrafting in the Nanoworld: Building Models and Manipulating Molecules TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar provides a general introduction to nanoscience and nanotechnology, focusing on recent advances in molecular electronics, nanomaterials, and biomedical research. Course activities include group model-building projects, presentations, and discussions of reading material.

Otto Zhou
Fall 2023 INLS 73 001 Smart Cities TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

A smart city is one where the needs of a populace meet the needs of environmental sustainability. The balance between the social and environmental issues is governed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that power a smart city infrastructure. In this course, we learn about the influence of urban networks, smart city urban planning, energy as a catalyst of sustainable development, smart city infrastructure, sustainable transportation, flow of information and communications, smart grids, digital infrastructure and the role of data and information technology. We will discuss criteria for measuring the smartness of a city, including quality of life, citizen governance, and discuss issues that go towards the making of a future smart city. Several case studies will be presented with guest lecturers invited to present on critical thinking and practices in smart city development. Students will be involved in group projects to assess smartness of cities.

Arcot Rajasekar

Arcot Rajasekar is a Professor in the School of Library and Information Sciences, a Chief Scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and co-Director of Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A leading proponent of policy-oriented large-scale data management, Rajasekar has several research projects funded by the NSF, NARA, NIH and other funding agencies. Rajasekar has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park and has more than 100 publications in the areas of data grids, digital library, persistent archives, logic programming and artificial intelligence. His latest projects include the Datanet Federation Consortium and the Data Bridge that is building a social network platform for scientific data.

Fall 2023 AMST 54 001 ANTH 54-001 The Indians' New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

By AD 1200, most Southeastern Indians were farmers who lived in societies ruled by hereditary chiefs. After 1500, encounters between Indians and Europeans changed the lives of all concerned, but the changes took place in, and were shaped by, existing cultures. This seminar uses reading, discussion, and lecture to examine the lives of Southern Indians and to understand how encounters and interaction with European explorers and colonists changed the worlds in which the Indians lived. Students will learn how archaeologists and historians work, both separately and together, to study the past of Native societies. Students will study and analyze archaeological artifacts, Spanish accounts of Southeastern Indians, and other primary materials in class. These activities, along with various role-playing exercises, will directly involve the students in the study of Native people in the period between 1200 and 1800. Grades will be based on class participation, two short papers, participation in a group project, and a final paper related to the group project.

Margaret Scarry

Margaret Scarry’s fascination with Native American cultures began in high school, when she participated in an archaeological field school on Summer Island, Michigan. She pursued her interest through undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1986. Though her first archaeological experience was in the Midwest, she soon shifted her interest to the Southeast, where she investigates Native American foodways—the activities and ideas by which people acquire, distribute, prepare, present, consume, and think about food. Much of her research has focused on the Moundville chiefdom, which flourished in Alabama from about A.D. 1100 to 1500. After a number of years in Florida and Kentucky, Scarry joined the anthropology faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. Among other things, she teaches courses on archaeology, food and culture, and archaeobotany.

Fall 2023 ANTH 54 001 AMST 54-001 The Indians' New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

By AD 1200, most Southeastern Indians were farmers who lived in societies ruled by hereditary chiefs. After 1500, encounters between Indians and Europeans changed the lives of all concerned, but the changes took place in, and were shaped by, existing cultures. This seminar uses reading, discussion, and lecture to examine the lives of Southern Indians and to understand how encounters and interaction with European explorers and colonists changed the worlds in which the Indians lived. Students will learn how archaeologists and historians work, both separately and together, to study the past of Native societies. Students will study and analyze archaeological artifacts, Spanish accounts of Southeastern Indians, and other primary materials in class. These activities, along with various role-playing exercises, will directly involve the students in the study of Native people in the period between 1200 and 1800. Grades will be based on class participation, two short papers, participation in a group project, and a final paper related to the group project.

Margaret Scarry

Margaret Scarry’s fascination with Native American cultures began in high school, when she participated in an archaeological field school on Summer Island, Michigan. She pursued her interest through undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1986. Though her first archaeological experience was in the Midwest, she soon shifted her interest to the Southeast, where she investigates Native American foodways—the activities and ideas by which people acquire, distribute, prepare, present, consume, and think about food. Much of her research has focused on the Moundville chiefdom, which flourished in Alabama from about A.D. 1100 to 1500. After a number of years in Florida and Kentucky, Scarry joined the anthropology faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1995. Among other things, she teaches courses on archaeology, food and culture, and archaeobotany.

Fall 2023 APPL 89 002 Convergent Research: Solving the Grand Engineering Challenges of the Future TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Convergence research focuses on addressing complex problems in science, engineering, and society. Today’s and tomorrow’s grand challenges will not be solved by one discipline, but by the integration of knowledge, methods, and expertise from across various disciplines.

This first-year seminar will introduce students to the new scientific language of convergence research. Through surveying the grand challenges of engineering, we will learn how through pursuing a common research challenge, experts from various fields intermix their knowledge, theories, methods, data, and research communities, enabling new discoveries to emerge. Students will participate in various in-class activities, group discussion and problem-solving coaching to enhance understanding of how chemistry, physics, materials science, biology, math, and computer sciences are applied to engineering.

Seminar will host guest lecturers with expertise on a particular topic, allowing the students to gain a true interdisciplinary view of the subject, instead of an isolated view of each.

Ronit Fraiman

My interdisciplinary expertise in chemistry, nanotechnology, material science, and computer science allows me to study problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single area of research practice. I truly believe that collaborations among scientists trained in different fields are essential for exploring and tackling complex problems. As such, I am both a participant and a leader of integrated research teams involving a vast network of interdependent researchers. I develop breakthrough biologically inspired technologies to advance healthcare. My work has led to major advances in tissue engineering, nanobiotechnology, and diagnostics, and key innovations are being translated into commercial products

Fall 2023 ENEC 201 01F ENEC 201-735 or ENEC 201-736 Introduction to Environment and Society MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Human-environment interactions are examined through analytical methods from the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. The focus is on the role of social, political, and economic factors in controlling interactions between society and the environment in historical and cultural contexts. Three lecture hours and one recitation hour a week.

Gregory Gangi

In his teaching, Greg Gangi conveys a complex understanding of environmental challenges and explores innovative solutions. His teaching extends beyond the classroom as he leads students to many countries to learn firsthand about global change and innovation. He organized several educational trips to Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic nations. Given the role that South Korea and China play in shaping the future of technology, he plans to guide students in learning from these two nations during the summer of 2019.

Gangi received various awards at UNC and a national award for his advising and mentoring of students. In 2014, he was awarded the NACADA Award for Outstanding Faculty Advisor. He received the Tanner Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010 and the University recognized him with the Massey Award for Outstanding Service in 2018.

In addition to his teaching, Gangi works to create networks in North Carolina between industry, academia, and government to help strengthen innovation. He also seeks to foster international networks that connect companies in the Clean Tech sector with North Carolina. He defines clean technology broadly to include companies in clean energy, smart cities, water technologies, innovations to make transportation more sustainable, building technologies and solutions that improve food security and agricultural sustainability. He is the lead organizer of the annual UNC Clean Tech Summit, which represents the largest event of its kind in the southeastern region of the United States.

Fall 2023 GSLL 68 001 Intensity, Vitality, Ecstasy: Affects in Literature, Film, and Philosophy TTH 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM

What cultural and intellectual resources do we have to increase the intensity of our inner lives, to feel more vitally plugged into the world, and to be attracted to extraordinary modes of perception? We will read texts by famous philosophers, mystics, and poets in order to help us answer these questions. Assignments will explore creative and alternative forms of writing (rather than the standard academic essay): dialogues, narratives, letters, and free writing, among others. Authors include: Plato, Sappho, Marcus Aurelius, Hildegard von Bingen, Mechthild von Magdeburg, Meister Eckhart, Descartes, Pascal, Goethe, Kafka, Musil, Deleuze, and Rilke, among others. (Course taught in English. No prerequisites.)

Gabriel Trop

Gabriel Trop has intellectual interests in philosophy from antiquity to the present focusing on theories of art (aesthetics), science, and literature, with a special emphasis on German and French literature in the long nineteenth century. In his teaching, he tends to explore resonances between literature, film, politics, and philosophical existentialism; Dr. Trop has taught previous courses on Freedom and Terror in German Philosophy, and on the films of Christopher Nolan and German Romanticism, for example. As a classical musician (cellist), he is also interested in the aesthetics of music.

Fall 2023 PHIL 51 001 Who Was Socrates? TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

No one would deny that Socrates, a 5th century BC Greek philosopher, was quite strange. He is perhaps the foundational philosopher of the West, yet he did not write a single word and claimed to know nothing; he was accused of corrupting the youth and undermining political institutions, yet is seen as one of history’s most important moral thinkers; he is infamous for his irony and playfulness, yet saw himself on a divine mission to convert people to the ‘examined life’; he cared little for his personal affairs or hygiene, yet believed that the only important thing in life is the improvement of one’s soul. In this course, we will seek to understand Socrates’ strangeness: what Socrates represented and continues to represent for so many, why he has had so much influence, and what we might learn from him, even 2,500 years later. We will read ancient authors who knew Socrates himself, (e.g., Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon) as well as modern thinkers who are inspired by Socrates (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., Hannah Arendt).

Rory Hanlon

Rory Hanlon is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Program for Public Discourse and the Department of Philosophy. Rory’s interests center on Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially how the Greek and Roman philosophers thought about the mind, soul, life, and personhood (and this all relates to contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science). He also loves film, and so the philosophy of film, film theory, and the presentation of philosophy through film.

Fall 2023 PHIL 51 002 Who Was Socrates? TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

No one would deny that Socrates, a 5th century BC Greek philosopher, was quite strange. He is perhaps the foundational philosopher of the West, yet he did not write a single word and claimed to know nothing; he was accused of corrupting the youth and undermining political institutions, yet is seen as one of history’s most important moral thinkers; he is infamous for his irony and playfulness, yet saw himself on a divine mission to convert people to the ‘examined life’; he cared little for his personal affairs or hygiene, yet believed that the only important thing in life is the improvement of one’s soul. In this course, we will seek to understand Socrates’ strangeness: what Socrates represented and continues to represent for so many, why he has had so much influence, and what we might learn from him, even 2,500 years later. We will read ancient authors who knew Socrates himself, (e.g., Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon) as well as modern thinkers who are inspired by Socrates (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., Hannah Arendt).

Rory Hanlon

Rory Hanlon is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Program for Public Discourse and the Department of Philosophy. Rory’s interests center on Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially how the Greek and Roman philosophers thought about the mind, soul, life, and personhood (and this all relates to contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science). He also loves film, and so the philosophy of film, film theory, and the presentation of philosophy through film.

Fall 2023 HIST 89 001 The Environment in American History TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

In this course, students will analyze the ways in which Americans have both shaped and been shaped by their natural environment. Together, we will trace a selected history of interactions between humans and nature in America, focusing on the often-fraught intersection between political, economic, social, and religious understandings of nature. As we do so, we will examine the various answers that Americans have given to a set of slippery core questions: What responsibilities do humans have to the broader natural world? Are humans a part of nature, or outside of it? What, ultimately, is the nature of nature?

This will be a dynamic course that requires students to connect the lessons of history to the world they inhabit today. In addition to learning from texts and primary historical sources, students will engage with podcasts, popular journalism, literature, and more. As a class, they will visit sites like the Coker Arboretum, the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, and the Carolina Community Garden to explore how the environmental history they are studying has shaped even their most immediate on-campus surroundings. Students will also each have the opportunity to dive into a research projects on a contemporary environmental issue of their choosing.

Joanna Smith

Dr. Joanna Sierks Smith has a PhD in American Religion. Her research focuses on nature, foodways, and environmental philosophy, and her most recent project on the history of the meat industry took her to slaughterhouses and farms around North Carolina. In addition to teaching, Dr. Smith serves as the Associate Director for State Outreach at Carolina Public Humanities, where she works with partners at community colleges, libraries, and historic sites around the state to organize public conversations about some of today’s most pressing issues – including environmental issues.

Fall 2023 PLCY 54 001 U.S. Immigration TTH 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

This seminar provides students with an opportunity to discuss current topics in United States immigration. Students will explore theories of migration, acculturation and assimilation, and the ways in which policies influence the well-being of immigrants.

Joaquín Rubalcaba

Joaquín Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Rubalcaba received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New Mexico and is an alumnus of the RWJF doctoral fellows program. His areas of interests broadly include health and labor economics. Specifically, he has explored the health and labor market outcomes among underrepresented and disadvantaged communities, while developing new empirical techniques to investigate the economic mechanisms and public policies driving these outcomes.

Currently, Dr. Rubalcaba’s research addresses the role of public policy in the overall socioeconomic wellbeing of immigrant communities. In this line of research, he investigates how policies such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the Real ID Act have impacted labor supply behavior and health insurance coverage. In another line of research, Dr. Rubalcaba is exploring new empirical techniques to estimate economic values. This particular research has demonstrated an empirically tractable method to assign economic value to health conditions, such as diabetes, ultimately increasing the economic tools used to inform policy decisions.

Fall 2023 AMST 89 001 America's Threatened Languages MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the rich tapestry of minority languages spoken in this country began a widespread shift toward English. This has led many indigenous languages to the brink of extinction, and to the loss of the heritage languages of many immigrant communities. This course examines the social and historical motivations for this trend, and explores critical thinking skills for analyzing the phenomenon of language shift.

Benjamin Frey

Dr. Frey is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and has worked toward Cherokee language reclamation since 2003. His research focuses on the connection between social network structure and language behavior.

Fall 2023 AMST 89 002 What is Critical Race Theory? MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

One of the most misunderstood terms to enter the public consciousness in recent years is “critical race theory.” It is a term that, by now, we have all heard, have at least some vague concept of what it is about, and have some inclination – depending on our political leanings – to either defend or reject it.

But what is it really? Where did it come from? How it is used? Why has it become part of the public consciousness? Is it really something that I want to defend or reject depending on my political leanings? What happens when we bridge the gap between the empty signifier that is bandied about on cable news channels and the scholarship that started, continues to fuel, and critiques this movement?

This class offers a real grounding in what is too often an empty term in the public discourse. We will examine critical race theory’s history, big ideas, important thinkers, and serious critiques. We will openly, honestly, and respectfully engage with an important, misunderstood, and politically fraught movements in American law and society.

Keith Richotte

In addition to teaching at UNC, Keith Richotte is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, an Associate Justice on the Turtle Mountain Tribal Court of Appeals, and the Chief Justice on the Spirit Lake Tribal Court of Appeals. He has a J.D. and LL.M. in addition to his Ph.D. and his scholarship focuses on federal Indian law, tribal law, constitutionalism, and governance.

Fall 2023 ASIA 65 001 Philosophy on Bamboo: Rethinking Early Chinese Thought TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Over the last few decades a large number of bamboo manuscripts of hitherto unknown texts dating to the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE have been excavated from various sites in China. This wealth of new material has led many scholars to rethink longstanding assumptions about early Chinese thought. In order to enable students to engage directly with the recently discovered texts and cutting-edge research on them, this course will briefly introduce students to the received classics of the pre-Qin period, such as the Analects, the Mozi, the Mencius, the Xunzi, the Daodejing, the Zhuangzi and the Hanfeizi. Rather than merely providing an introduction to these traditional texts, we will study how recently discovered texts challenge traditional readings of pre-Qin works and lead us to question traditional classifications of pre-Qin works into “schools of thought” or isms such as Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, etc.

Uffe Bergeton

Uffe Bergeton is a historian of early China with a focus on pre-Qin (i.e. pre-221 BCE) culture, history and thought. Originally from Denmark, he has lived and studied in France, Taiwan and China. His research projects include early Chinese theories of epistemology and the politics of reclusion, as well as comparisons between pre-Qin China and ancient Greece.

Fall 2023 DRAM 83 002 Spectacle in the Theatre TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 PM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Spring 2024 APPL 110 01F Introduction to Design and Making: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Glenn Walters

I am a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. In this role, I am developing and teaching courses covering fundamentals of engineering in such areas as design, fluids, hydraulics, additive manufacturing, etc. My specialty is creating curriculum that focuses on experiential activities that develop student intuition as a pathway to learning theory and practice.

Spring 2024 BIOL 104 01F Biodiversity MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Requisites: Prerequisites, BIOL 101 and 101L. The biological diversity we see on Earth today encompasses a variety of genetic, species, and ecosystem level variation. This course will focus on the biological principles that push biologists to understand what produces and sustains the biodiversity of life on Earth. This class will address key questions about how we identify and measure biological diversity, how it changes over time, and why biological diversity matters as our planet continues to change.

Mara Evans
Spring 2024 COMM 120 01F MNGT 120-01F Introduction to Interpersonal and Organizational Communication TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

An introduction to communication theory, research, and practice in a variety of interpersonal and organizational contexts. This course examines the role of communication in both personal and professional relationships.

Katie Striley

Dr. Striley researches social rejection and risk communication. Through a critical/interpretive lens, she explores the discursive construction of exclusive realities and systems of privilege, the myriad ways communication enables, constrains, resists, and transforms our sense of the possible, and the transformative potential of communication to make better social worlds. She tends to explore subjects such as stigma, ostracism, bullying, social rejection, conflict management, dialogue, and deliberation. Her research often takes her to realms of ethics, morality, identity, and social belonging, particularly in the contexts of interpersonal and health communication. She recently finished a book, Ostracism in the Age of Alienation, which presents a theoretical model of ostracism’s forms, functions, and processes. Data presented in the book is a culmination of more than a decade of work exploring ostracism in adolescence, young adulthood, healthcare, and the workplace.
Dr. Striley has created two theories about interconnections of social belonging, identity, and morality, with her colleague Dr. Kim Field-Springer. Risk orders theory (ROT) explains how risk discourses inadvertently construct social, moral, and identity threats by constraining imaginative potential, agency, and definitions of self. Her ROT publications have received numerous awards and appeared in journals such as Health Communication and Health, Risk, & Society. Also co-authored with Dr. Kim Field-Springer, managing meanings of embodied experiences (MMEE) theory describes the potential to direct interpersonal and societal health transformations through being (identity), doing (practice), and directed becoming (transformation) as individuals mindfully manage meanings of experiences as bodied beings. MMEE theory publications appear in Health Communication and Journal of Applied Communication Research. While ROT focuses on the constraining aspects of health discourses, MMEE theory offers ways of becoming unstuck from societal constraints about health identities and practices.

Spring 2024 ECON 101H 01F ECON 101H-601 Introduction to Economics TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Introduction to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, inflation, and the determination of prices.

Sergio Parreiras

Professor Parreiras has broad research interests in economics of information and game theory. His most recent research has concentrated on auctions and mechanism design. His recent publications include papers in the Journal of Economic Theory and Games and Economic Behavior.

Spring 2024 EXSS 155 01F Human Anatomy and Physiology I MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

This course is targeted to students enrolled in Department of Exercise and Sport Science majors as well as other students with interest in medical professions. This course involves a systematic approach to human anatomy and physiology with an emphasis on the musculoskeletal, articular and nervous systems as well as anatomical terminology and homeostasis. No prerequisites are required.

Benjamin Goerger
Spring 2024 GEOG 130 01F Development and Inequality: Global Perspectives MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

An introduction to historical and contemporary ideas about practices and meanings of development. Students will explore “development” in a global landscape of poverty, power, and struggles over inequality.

Adrian Drummond-Cole
Spring 2024 MATH 233H 01F MATH 233H-617 Calculus of Functions of Several Variables TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is the third in the calculus sequence, extending the body of knowledge developed in MATH 231 and 232, Calculus of Functions of a Single Variable, to functions of several input variables and/or vector-valued functions whose output is several variables. Topics include vector algebra, curves and surfaces in space, partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and line integrals.

Jiuzu Hong

I’m currently an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Unniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I got my Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University in 2012 under the supervision of Joseph Bernstein. I was a Gibbs assistant professor at Yale University during 2012-2015.
Research interests: Representation theory, Algebraic geometry
My recent research is related to affine Grassmannian, Schubert varieties, conformal blocks, affine Demazure modules, parahoric group schemes, moduli of G-bundles, etc.

Spring 2024 MNGT 120 01F COMM 120-01F Introduction to Interpersonal and Organizational Communication TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

An introduction to communication theory, research, and practice in a variety of interpersonal and organizational contexts. This course examines the role of communication in both personal and professional relationships.

Katie Striley

Dr. Striley researches social rejection and risk communication. Through a critical/interpretive lens, she explores the discursive construction of exclusive realities and systems of privilege, the myriad ways communication enables, constrains, resists, and transforms our sense of the possible, and the transformative potential of communication to make better social worlds. She tends to explore subjects such as stigma, ostracism, bullying, social rejection, conflict management, dialogue, and deliberation. Her research often takes her to realms of ethics, morality, identity, and social belonging, particularly in the contexts of interpersonal and health communication. She recently finished a book, Ostracism in the Age of Alienation, which presents a theoretical model of ostracism’s forms, functions, and processes. Data presented in the book is a culmination of more than a decade of work exploring ostracism in adolescence, young adulthood, healthcare, and the workplace.
Dr. Striley has created two theories about interconnections of social belonging, identity, and morality, with her colleague Dr. Kim Field-Springer. Risk orders theory (ROT) explains how risk discourses inadvertently construct social, moral, and identity threats by constraining imaginative potential, agency, and definitions of self. Her ROT publications have received numerous awards and appeared in journals such as Health Communication and Health, Risk, & Society. Also co-authored with Dr. Kim Field-Springer, managing meanings of embodied experiences (MMEE) theory describes the potential to direct interpersonal and societal health transformations through being (identity), doing (practice), and directed becoming (transformation) as individuals mindfully manage meanings of experiences as bodied beings. MMEE theory publications appear in Health Communication and Journal of Applied Communication Research. While ROT focuses on the constraining aspects of health discourses, MMEE theory offers ways of becoming unstuck from societal constraints about health identities and practices.

Spring 2024 PHYS 118 01F PHYS 118-401. Note: The PHYS 118-01F lecture will be combined with other PHYS 118 lecture sections, and it will be taught as a large survey class. PHYS 118-401, the studio section associated with this class, is the FY Launch section; Wei Zhang is the instructor of record for the studio section. Please be sure to enroll in the lecture, PHYS 118-01F, and the corresponding studio, PHYS 118-401, to fulfill the FY-LAUNCH requirement. Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Wei Zhang

Dr. Wei Zhang received his B.S. in Physics from Peking University, China (2008) and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Washington – Seattle (2013). He did his postdoc work at Argonne National Laboratory (2013 – 16). He served in the Physics department of the Oakland University in Michigan until 2022 when he moved to UNC Chapel Hill. His scientific research is focused on the fundamental excitations of magnetically ordered materials and how they interact with other excitations, such as microwave photons, light, and phonons. His work encompasses essential aspects of these magnetic phenomena and their potential applications. He was the recipient of the IEEE Magnetic Society Early Career Award (2016) and NSF CAREER award (2020).

Spring 2024 POLI 130 01F Introduction to Comparative Politics MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available.

Ashley Anderson

Ashley Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Government from Harvard University, and also holds a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University. Most recently, she served as a post-doc in the UNC Political Science department with funding from the Carolina Post-Doctoral Program for Faculty Diversity. A specialist in comparative politics, her research interests include contentious politics, authoritarian regimes, and political institutions.

Currently, Ashley is working on a book project on variation in union responses to political movements in authoritarian regimes, with a particular emphasis on how varied strategies of labor incorporation in North African regimes lead to divergent patterns interest articulation, organizational development and anti-regime contention among union federations. In addition to this work, newer research projects examine the dynamics of opposition movements in authoritarian regimes more broadly, with applications to state-mobilized contention and Islamist party success.

Spring 2024 PSYC 101 01F General Psychology TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Spring 2024 PSYC 101 02F General Psychology TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Spring 2024 AAAD 51 001 Masquerades of Blackness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar is designed to investigate how the concept of race has been represented in cinema historically, with a particular focus on representations of race when blackness is masqueraded. Its intent is to launch an investigative inquiry into how African Americans are represented on screen in various time periods, how we as spectators are manipulated by these cinematic constructions of race, and how race is marked or coded other than through visual representation. Students will view films that deal with “passing” from the various historical periods and will utilize theoretical concepts introduced in class to read these visual representations. Films selected for viewing include the pre-World War II Era, the Civil Rights Era, and the “Post-Racial” era. Students will be required to write three papers that reflect their ability to apply theoretical concepts to reading racialized representations on screen in these three historical periods to demonstrate their understanding of how racial masquerades have evolved over time and continue to persist in contemporary culture.

Charlene Regester

Charlene Regester is an Associate Professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies and Affiliate Faculty for the Global Cinema Minor. She received her BA, MA, Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960 (which was nominated by the press to the NAACP Image Awards). She is the 2011 recipient of the Trailblazer Award Hayti Heritage Film Festival and 2007 Oscar Micheaux Book and Film Award from the Oscar Micheaux Film Festival, South Dakota. She has appeared on North Carolina Bookwatch with UNC-TV 2011; WUNC-FM Radio “The State of Things;” and Turner Movie Classics. Documentaries in which she has appeared include: Movies of Color: Black Southern Cinema (2003, Tom Thurman director), Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), Madison Davis Lacy director), and Birth of a Movement (2017, Bestor Cram and Susan Gray directors).

Spring 2024 AAAD 53 001 Experimentalism in Global Black Music and Performance Arts MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

This course centers on artists who are known for their radically experimental approach to music-making and performance, pushing at established boundaries of genre, form, and affect, while taking inspiration from black identity, history, and culture. Geographically, this course is not limited to the United States, but also examines avant-garde artistry in Africa, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. The focus is mainly on music, with excursions into avant-garde jazz, Brazilian tropicália, Jamaican dub, and electronic music. But we do additionally discuss experimental dance and theatre. The special challenges faced by black artists in establishing themselves in artistic fields marked as modernist, given the historical domination of discourses and institutions of modernism/modernity by whites, are explored. Students have the option to either write a traditional research paper on a topic of their choice, or create their own experimental artistic project.

David Pier

Professor David Pier is an ethnomusicologist who researches music in Africa and the United States. His book, Ugandan Music in the Marketing Era: The Branded Arena is a ethnographic study of the commercialization of folk music and dance heritage in Uganda. He is currently working on a book on a Ugandan guitar genre known as kadongo kamu. Having started out as a jazz pianist, he is keenly interested in both the processes and underlying ideas of musical experimentalism, especially in global Black historical contexts.

Spring 2024 AAAD 89 001 Caribbean Feminist and Queer Life Writing TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

From Audre Lorde’s “Your silence will not protect you” to June Jordan’s “We are the one we have been waiting for,” Caribbean feminist and queer writers have generated some of our most iconic and inspiring visions of justice, community-building, and collective empowerment. Many of these prolific thinkers write from their lived experiences, detailing how their intimate encounters with historical, social, and political phenomena shape their political visions. In this seminar, we will read a wide range of essays, speeches, memoirs, interviews, and letters by Afro-Caribbean feminist and queer writers in order to explore the importance of life writing as a vital genre of personal and collective transformation in the African diaspora and beyond. We will ask: What role has Caribbean feminist and queer life writing played in documenting and shaping struggles to dismantle systems of oppression? What strategies do these writers use to theorize their live experiences?

Petal Samuel

Petal Samuel specializes in twentieth-century Afro-Caribbean literature and Caribbean anticolonial thought, politics, and aesthetics. Samuel’s current project examines how the management of the soundscape—through noise abatement laws and public discourses condemning noise—has served as a crucial avenue of racial and colonial governance in both the pre- and post-colonial Caribbean and throughout the Caribbean diaspora. The manuscript highlights the work of Afro-Caribbean women writers who embrace forms of “noisemaking” against the grain of these laws and public discourses, reclaiming them as subversive grammars that are integral to decolonization. From 2016-18, Samuel held a position as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. Her work is published in Anthurium, The Black Scholar, and small axe salon.

Spring 2024 AMST 89 001 Asian Americans in the U.S. South TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this seminar, we will study the history, cultures, and documentation of Asian Americans in the U.S. South, from the 19th century to present. Drawing on a range of sources, from oral histories and poetry to documentary film and short stories, we will examine how Asian Americans have grappled with identity, belonging and home in the South. In our studies together, we will consider how Asian Americans have navigated national and regional histories of slavery and segregation, immigration exclusion, and the shifting borderlands of the American South and the Global South. With a focus towards working with community and institutional archives, we will explore how to research, discuss, write, and create with the stories of Asian Americans throughout the region, and across time, towards a richer understanding of Asian American history and identity.

Kita Douglas

Kita Douglas is a scholar and teacher of Asian American studies. Her research focuses on Asian American art and writing, particularly graphic forms and how they are produced and circulated. She is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies and teaches courses on Asian American visual culture, Asian American political and social movements, and Asian American literature. Kita is committed to creating and supporting student-driven learning projects in both the university and broader community.

Spring 2024 ANTH 60 001 Crisis & Resilience: Past and Future of Human Societies TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this FYS, we take a long view of human societies by examining response to crises engendered by political, economic, and environmental factors over the past 10,000 years. We critically examine and discuss studies of societal change—both apocalyptic and transformational–that span the Pleistocene through current times. We focus particularly on the idea of the Anthropocene—the current geological epoch in which climate change and species extinctions are driven by humanly produced conditions. We also examine concepts of resilience and sustainability. You will gain familiarity with evaluating archaeological, historical, and environmental information that is pertinent to understanding change. The seminar includes fun and meaningful discussion matched by an opportunity to research and present on a topic of your choosing that is relevant to crisis and resilience. The aim of the seminar is to foster critical thinking and the ability to evaluate narratives (in both scholarly and popular media) about societal crises and human resilience.

Patricia A. McAnany

Patricia A. McAnany is Kenan Eminent Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. A Maya archaeologist, she serves as co-principal investigator of Proyecto Arqueológico Colaborativo del Oriente de Yucatán and as Executive Director of InHerit: Indigenous Heritage Passed to Present (www.in-herit.org). She is the author/co-editor of several books, most recently Maya Cultural Heritage: How Archaeologists and Indigenous Communities engage the Past; Ancestral Maya Economies in Archaeological Perspective (2010); and Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire (2009). The book, Questioning Collapse, challenges the views of Jared Diamond on how societies persevere through time--a prominent topic of this Freshman Seminar. Recently (2022), she was awarded the Alfred V. Kidder Award for eminence in the field of American Archaeology. Currently, she works collaboratively with rural communities in Yucatán on issues of archaeology and cultural heritage.

Spring 2024 ANTH 89 001 A History of the World in 12 Objects MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

How did we get here? What were the major transformations in human history that created our world? What impacts have these changes made on the natural world and on us? What can we learn from this long history? This class is about objects and social change: meaning that we will use human-made objects – artifacts – as a way to understand the long and complex history of our species. We use the concept of ‘object biography’ to do this – you will each get a chance to produce an object biography of your own and to think critically about how we understand and represent material culture in museum displays.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Spring 2024 ANTH 89 047 Canine Cultures TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Dogs are humanity’s oldest companion species. This class will use the tools of sociocultural anthropology—its concepts, approaches, and methods—to examine human-dog relations, focusing on those least familiar to us, in class and through research projects. While our main experience of dogs is as pets, this is a new development in our long relationship. Most dogs around the world still have only a loose affiliation with human communities and households, and we will address how such dogs relate to humans and how humans shape their lives and deaths. We will chew over the various services dogs perform for humans, both old (hunting, shepherding, guarding), and new (policing, de-mining), and learn what has led to the spread of Euro-American dog-keeping practices. We will analyze representations of dogs in art, films, and monuments. We will also talk about the dogs we live with, examining changes in the roles they play in American households and some economic and environmental consequences of their popularity. Throughout, we will ponder what it might mean to experience the world from “the dog’s point of view.”

Margaret Wiener

Margaret Wiener is a cultural anthropologist. Her interest in dogs and their people was piqued when she met her first Balinese dog, Morris, whose humans picked up that exotic American name from TV. She was in Bali researching her first prize-winning book about Balinese ideas of power. Wiener has recently finished a book on the role the idea of magic has played in establishing differences between "the West and the rest," while beginning to work on relations between humans and other species. Recently dog-less, she has made many dog friends in her neighborhood and has a grand-dog named Bailey.

Spring 2024 ANTH 89 064 Walking in the World: The Anthropology of Moving, Knowing, and Creating TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

We learn about the world as we move through it. In moving, we change the world around us and we are transformed by our experiences. However, we are not free to move wherever we wish. We live with boundaries, some only dimly understood. And yet, sometimes we come together to challenge these boundaries and struggle to create something new.

In this class, students will learn how anthropologists create research projects to explore these questions. While our focus will be on cultural anthropology, students will be exposed to the ways in which artists, historians, geographers, novelists, philosophers, outdoor athletes, soldiers, and activists approach similar problems.

Beyond readings and small-group discussions, students will step out of the classroom to design and carry out short research projects. They will share their result in journals entries and critical essays, and I will mentor each student as they develop their ideas.

Christopher Nelson

Christopher Nelson is a cultural anthropologist. His research interests include the relationship between history and memory; the critical study of everyday life; storytelling, ritual and performance; value, exchange and sacrifice. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in Japan for nearly three decades, and recently completed book about the relationship between workers, artists, anthropologists, political activists, shaman and the dead in Okinawa. Nelson has been a Marine infantry officer, a truck driver, a factory worker, an editor of the journal Cultural Anthropology, and has taught at Carolina for the past twenty years. He is also an enthusiastic walker and hiker.

Spring 2024 ARTH 51 001 Cathedrals, Abbeys, Castles: Gothic Art and Architecture (c. 1130-1450) MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

This course explores Gothic church and secular architecture in France and Europe between 1130 and ca 1450. We will focus not only on the formal and constructive progresses in architecture during this period, but also on the social, political, and economic aspects of medieval society that affected all these developments. Case studies will integrate the churches full array of stained glass windows, as well as the plethora of sculptures embellishing the colossal portals of these buildings.

Christoph Brachmann

Professor Christoph Brachmann graduated from Technical University Berlin, Germany, in 1994 with a Ph.D. thesis on 13th century French gothic architecture. In 2004 he presented his “Habilitationsschrift”, his second book, on Lorraine Court art in the late 15th, early16th centuries, published in 2006.

Spring 2024 ARTS 59 001 Time, A Doorway to Visual Expression TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This class will closely examine and investigate the often-forgotten design element of time. Students examine the philosophical and scientific descriptions of time, as well as the physical, psychological and emotional properties of time. Students immerse themselves in the subject and create original works of art motivated and inspired by their personal but enhanced understanding of time.

Jim Hirschfield

Jim Hirschfield is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History who began contemplating the experience of time during his travels through the deserts of the southwest in his VW Microbus. He still treasures the experience of travel and travels for inspiration and for adventure. Jim has received a number of art commissions from cities across the country: From Anchorage, Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and from San Diego, California to Orono, Maine. He has also received numerous awards for his art installations, which he describes as explorations in meditative and ethereal environments that expand our perceptions of time.

Spring 2024 ASIA 69 001 PWAD 69-001 Wars and Veterans: Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In this course, we will explore the various ways that wars and conflicts, particularly Iran-Iraq, U.S.-Iraq, and U.S.-Afghanistan wars, have been portrayed in literature, film, and photography. We will attempt to deepen and enrich our understanding of war experienced by both veterans and civilians of each country. We will examine the impact of war on the human psyche in regards to violence. We will read books by American war veterans and Middle East authors contemplating the wars and their consequences. We will look at each writer’s perspective on war and their interpretation of it comparatively. All readings will be in English. The class will be conducted in the form of a combination of lectures, discussion, and experimentations.
This course is designed for Equity in Teaching. During this course we will be implementing an innovative and interactive learning method—Collaborative Online International Learning, or COIL. During this course we will engage in class discussions and lectures and a final presentation assignment with Dr. Amir Hossein Vafa and students from the Shiraz University in Iran for approximately five class session (asynchronous and synchronous options available). These activities will enhance your learning of the course content, and your participation in the COIL activities is required. COIL activities will provide you with exposure to new cultural contexts, knowledge, and perspectives on the course material. By participating in the COIL activities, you will develop and enhance cross-cultural communication skills and gain experience working in multicultural teams. As part of your grade and COIL activities, in groups with Iranian students, you will sketch, design, and create a war-related artifact using the campus MakerSpace (BeAM) facilities.

Claudia Yaghoobi

Claudia Yaghoobi is a Roshan Associate Professor and the Inaugural Director of Persian Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of Temporary Marriage in Iran: Gender and Body Politics in Modern Iranian Literature and Film (Cambridge UP, 2020) and Subjectivity in ‘Attar, Persian Sufism, and European Mysticism (Purdue UP, 2017). She is also the co-editor (with Janet Afary) of a book series titled, Sex, Marriage, and Family in the Middle East for Bloomsbury Press.

Spring 2024 ASIA 75 001 Love in China TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This course is designed for Equity in Teaching. During this course we will be implementing an innovative and interactive learning method—Collaborative Online International Learning, or COIL. During this course we will engage in class discussions and lectures and a final presentation assignment with Dr. Amir Hossein Vafa and students from the Shiraz University in Iran for approximately five class session (asynchronous and synchronous options available). These activities will enhance your learning of the course content, and your participation in the COIL activities is required. COIL activities will provide you with exposure to new cultural contexts, knowledge, and perspectives on the course material. By participating in the COIL activities, you will develop and enhance cross-cultural communication skills and gain experience working in multicultural teams. As part of your grade and COIL activities, in groups with Iranian students, you will sketch, design, and create a war-related artifact using the campus MakerSpace (BeAM) facilities.

Keren He

Keren He specializes in modern Chinese literature, media, and popular culture. Her research focuses on how aging and suicide negotiated “the politics of life” in the Chinese-speaking world. She is also interested in posthumanism, queer theory, and game studies in China and Sinophone regions. She had lived in Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong before receiving her Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Spring 2024 ASIA 89 001 The Samurai: Gender and Power in Japanese History and Culture MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

This course examines the history of the samurai, the hereditary, elite warrior population that emerged as a new social and political force in Japan in the 12th century and which ruled, largely unchallenged, until the Meiji Restoration of 1868. In the modern era, frequent reinventions situated the samurai as core to understanding “traditional” Japan, as well as vague and aphoristic notions of the Japanese spirit and Japanese masculinity. More recently, the samurai has emerged as a global icon in Japanese popular culture, and has become a figure in the comics, animation, and video games that make Japan a powerhouse on the stage of our interconnected consumer culture. Using historical methods, cultural studies theories, and gender studies theories, we will interrogate the historical and cultural figure of the samurai as a contested and contingent symbol.

Morgan Pitelka

I am a historian of premodern Japan who focuses on material culture, samurai society, and more recently, urban and environmental history. I have written three books and coauthored, edited, or coedited an additional four books. I also serve as the coeditor of the Journal of Japanese Studies, the flagship journal of my field. I am the son of a potter and grew up in a movie theater. I first became interested in the samurai from watching the films of Kurosawa Akira as a child.

Spring 2024 ASIA 89 002 Women and Performance in Transnational Asia TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course will examine various performances (live performance, media performance, dance, singing and other forms of art making) produced by women (broadly defined) in transnational Asia. The Asia imagined in this class is global and diasporic, thus, trans-national. These women’s performances speak of their feminist, post-colonial, and anti-hegemonic agenda; reveal various nations’ struggle to globalize; and reflect how the category of “Asian,” intersected with gender, continues to evolve. This course will engage with these performance deeply and creatively and respond to these strong voices of the artists with our critical analysis.

Yurika Tamura

I received my Ph.D. in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. My scholarship focuses on Indigeneity, media and performance arts, minority formations under Japan’s imperialism, and corpo-materialist ethics of sound and sensation. My forthcoming book, Vibration of Others: Resonation and Corporeal Ethics of Transnational Indigenous Soundscapes (Wesleyan University Press, 2024) studies how Ainu artists curate transnational Indigenous soundscapes to address racism and environmental crises in post-Fukushima Japan and beyond.

Spring 2024 BIOL 53 001 Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Foods to the Sequence of the Human Genome TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

A good life depends on access to adequate food and medical care. Advances in biotechnology have made possible both agriculture and medicine, and further advances may allow us to feed and keep healthy a burgeoning population in both developed and undeveloped countries. This seminar will examine the science behind a number of striking recent advances in biology, including animal cloning, genetic engineering of crop plants, development of new therapeutic drugs, development of embryonic stem cells, and deciphering of the complete human genome sequence. Students will debate how specific technological advances force us to confront new social and ethical choices, such as whether you want your own genome to be sequenced. We will also consider how new technologies are actually implemented, especially in regard to recent public health challenges such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The seminar should bring together the humanistic and technical impulses in students, and is open to students planning careers in scientific or humanities fields.

Jill Dowen

Jill Dowen, PhD, is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Integrative Program in Biological and Genome Sciences, and is an Associate Professor in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department and the Biology Department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Dowen's lab investigates the function of DNA loops that connect genes and their regulatory elements. Projects in her lab address how chromosome structure impacts the expression of genes in different cell types during development and how disruptions in these mechanisms lead to human diseases such as cancers and developmental syndromes.

Spring 2024 CHEM 70 001 You Don't Have to Be a Rocket Scientist TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Science as presented in the mass media is often shallow and misleading. Critical evaluation of news reports and claims by politicians, although daunting for the non-scientist, is not difficult if a few basic principles are applied. The underlying theme of this seminar is the development of the basic tools for critically examining information from, or flaws in, news reports and popular science writing. Additional readings by and about scientists are designed to present scientists and science in a more intimate context. The assigned books may include: Cantor’s dilemma by Carl Djerassi; “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman”: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman; and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values by Robert Pirsig.

Gary Glish

Professor Gary Glish is an analytical chemist. He cherishes that title because most people do not know what analytical chemistry is so he can do all kinds of different research and call it analytical chemistry. His general field of research is in mass spectrometry, a technique that also spans many different disciplines. His lab is involved in areas from development of new instrumentation to characterizing the chemical content of tobacco and e-cigarette aerosols and detecting leukemia peptide antigens. In his free time Prof. Glish plays basketball, soccer, tennis and bikes. He needs to keep active because he also likes to cook (and eat).

Spring 2024 CHEM 73H 001 From Atomic Bombs to Cancer Treatments: The Broad Scope of Nuclear Chemistry MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM; students should have no other classes scheduled between 2:40 PM and 5:00 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays to allow for the required field trips.

Nuclear chemistry is a broad field which we all are affected by almost daily in some way, shape or form. In this course we’ll explore many aspects of nuclear chemistry in an attempt to better understand the historical development, the present technology and the future of the field. A general chemistry background in atomic history and theory will first be reviewed, followed by a survey of the applications and research topics of nuclear chemistry today. Many topics discussed in the course are surrounded by controversy. In each of these cases, students will research and discuss the various sides of each argument to better understand the topics. Field trips, guest speakers, and student research presentations will make up an integral part of the course.

Additional Information
Students should have credit for CHEM 101 before enrolling in this course. Also, students should have no other classes scheduled between 2:40 PM and 5:00 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays to allow for the required field trips.

Todd Austell

Todd Austell is a Teaching Professor and currently serves as the Associate Director of U’grad Studies for the Department of Chemistry. He serves as an academic advisor for STEM and pre-health science majors in UNC Academic Advising. Prof. Austell received his BS in Chemistry in 1987 and his PhD in Chemistry in 1996, both at UNC. He spent one year working in the pharmaceutical industry prior to graduate school and another year as an Assistant Professor at the United States Air Force Academy prior to returning to his current position in 1998. As an undergraduate, he participated in the Department of Energy and American Chemistry Society’s Summer School in Nuclear Chemistry. Topical studies in nuclear chemistry have been a hobby of his since that time. His graduate research involved separation science, and he is currently involved in both curriculum development within the chemistry department and in a long-term study of how middle school and secondary math education/preparation affects student performances in college general chemistry. His hobbies include hiking, camping, disc golf and gardening as well as following all UNC athletics. He has two young daughters whom he says are “his greatest accomplishment” and a wife who works as a physical therapist.

Spring 2024 PLAN 59 001 World's Fairs TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course introduces students to World’s Fairs in the US between 1893 and 1965 (1884 World Cotton Centennial, New Orleans; 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago; 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis; 1939 New York World’s Fair; 1962 Seattle World’s Fair; 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair). We will look at how ideas about cities and world’s fairs changed over time. We will also look at the role World’s Fairs played in: (1) promoting a city’s place in the US and the world, (2) addressing social issues, and (3) disseminating ideas about progress. We will learn about world’s fairs through documentaries (video/audio), texts, as well as examine memorabilia from each of the Fairs. Students will be responsible for participating in weekly discussions on readings and biweekly journal responses. Students will work on a group project on a world’s fair and present at the end of the semester. This project can use traditional means of presentations–such as PowerPoint and posters, or it could be a podcast (5 minutes), video, or some other media.

Alainna Thomas

Dr. Allie Thomas looks at how technology can be used to address both environmental sustainability and social equity within the transportation sector. She relies upon qualitative methods to investigate the phenomenon of how and why technologies are accepted or rejected She sometimes embeds herself in the planning context to learn where the process succeeds or breaks down. Her work has looked bus rapid transit adaption in China, electric bikes in San Francisco, and the use of ridehailing services across Generation X and millennials in the Southeastern US. She is currently working on understanding how transit agencies adapt cashless fare technologies.

Spring 2024 PLAN 89 001 The Hood is Not For Sale TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course delves into the multifaceted dynamics of gentrification, exploring its historical roots, and its far-reaching implications for cities and communities from the 1960s to today. This class conceives of gentrification as a complex process that is distinctly different from redevelopment. It changes the makeup of neighborhoods and fuels political and policy conflicts while exacerbating inequality and destabilizing the tenure of longstanding communities. Throughout the course, we will examine the interplay between urban development, social change, and political power, while exploring the challenges and strategies for combating the negative impacts of gentrification.

Ashley Hernandez

My name is Ashley Hernandez, and I am Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. I am a qualitative researcher, and my research areas include urban change and inequality as it relates to gentrification, urban social movements, affordable housing, and community engagement. I am deeply committed to community-based research and equitable policy, particularly that which centers the experiences and voices of underrepresented communities and their struggles against displacement.

Spring 2024 CLAS 55 001 Three Greek and Roman Epics MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

The course will involve a close reading of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Vergil’s Aeneid, and as a transition from Homer to Vergil, we will also read several tragedies of Sophocles from fifth-century Athens. Epic and tragedy wrestled with topics central to Graeco-Roman civilization and provided (for good or bad) influential models of heroism and human values for later ages—along with raising fundamental questions about the individual’s relationship to society. We will analyze, discuss, and write about these works both as individual pieces of literature in a historical context, and in terms of how they position themselves in the poetic tradition; after reading the Iliad and Odyssey, we’ll see how heroic myth gets reworked for democratic Athens, and then how Vergil combines Homer, tragedy and other traditions to make a new poem for his time. We will look at aspects of structure and technique, questions of overall interpretation and values, and the interplay of genre and historical setting. Requirements: discussion, short online readings in addition to the primary texts, several short papers during the term, and a 6-10-page term paper.

James O’Hara

Professor James O’Hara received his A.B. in Classics from the College of the Holy Cross in 1981, and his Ph.D. in Classical Studies from the University of Michigan in 1986. From 1986 to 2001, he taught at Wesleyan University; since 2001 he has been the George. L. Paddison Professor of Latin at UNC, where he has also been department chair. His research and teaching interests are in Greek and Latin poetry, with special interests in Homer, Vergil, and the literature written during the reign of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus; other interests include Roman Civilization, Hellenistic poetry, didactic poetry, and satire.

Spring 2024 COMM 63 001 The Creative Process in Performance TTH 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM

Students in this seminar will attend and study the production process of multimedia, music, dance and theater performances on campus and on-line. The Process Series of the Performance Studies program in the Department of Communication Studies, Playmakers, Carolina Performing Arts, and others across campus and additional on-line performance. We will discuss how performance as it was experienced (pre-Covid) and as it currently experienced. We will examine performance through multiple lenses, from Aristotle’s Poetics, Peter Brooks’s Empty Space, up to current writing from Performance Studies scholars. We will explore the ways that performances engage us, communicating powerful ideas and emotions through their various media of expression. Students will research performance pieces, interview the performers, attend rehearsals and performances, and write essays that combine their own experiences of the performances with class readings. Students will also create their own performance pieces as they observe the relationship of preparation and practice to the spontaneity and surprise of performance.

Joseph Megel

Joseph Megel has spent the last 20 years focusing on the direction and development of new works, for theatre, film and video. Mr. Megel is a member of SSDC (Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers), Co-Artistic Director of StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and an Associate Artist for The Working Theatre in New York. He holds the M.F.A. degree from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California, a Master of Arts from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and a B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University. He served for six years as Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, a new play development theatre, and continues to serve as Co-Executive Producer of Harland’s Creek Productions, producer of New York premieres of new plays, developmental producer of screenplays, readings and films.

Spring 2024 COMM 89 001 Communication, Culture, and Society MW 5:45 PM – 7:00 PM

This course introduces students to several primary areas of focus for social justice-oriented scholarship and activism. These areas include racial justice, labor and economic justice, gender and sexual justice, and environmental justice. The course will also introduce students to ways that these issues are studied in the Department of Communication at UNC, by paying particular attention to popular culture and public engagement as sites of struggles for social justice.

Michael Palm

Michael Palm’s teaching focuses on the history of everyday technology and the politics and economics of popular culture. He’s writing a book about the contemporary economy for vinyl records. Informed by research visits to pressing plants and (lots) of record stores, the book connects vinyl's niche popularity to issues including ecological sustainability, gentrification, and independent cultural production in a digital media landscape. Palm’s book Technologies of Consumer Labor: A History of Self-Service (Routledge, 2017) documents and analyzes the history of telephone interface—from the rotary dial to the keypad to the touch screen—as self-service technology.

Spring 2024 COMM 89 002 What is Cultural Studies? TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

More information forthcoming

Kumarini Silva

Dr. Kumarini Silva’s research is at the intersections of feminism, identity and Identification, post-colonial studies and popular culture. Her work has appeared in Social Identities, South Asian Popular Culture and Cultural Studies. She is the author of Brown Threat: Identification in the Security State (Fall 2016, University of Minnesota Press) and co-editor of Feminist Erasures: Challenging Backlash Culture (2015, Palgrave UK). Her current book project focuses on the political and social relationships that are produced through romance culture and its global circulation. Silva has also published book chapters on race, global media and film.

Spring 2024 COMM 89 003 Paying Attention: The Art of Documentary TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Paying attention to the world around us is foundational to our understanding of the people, behaviors, environments, and living species that co-exist alongside us. Attention fuels our curiosity, deepens our empathy, and invites us to step outside of ourselves. Representing what we pay attention to–what we see and hear–is the art and practice of documentary. At its essence, documentary is a “document” of what we observe and what we record. In this course, we will use video and sound recording along with the written word to document and then re-present what we are paying attention to. Throughout the course, students will strengthen their attention-paying capacities and learn how to refine their chosen methods of documentation. Class discussion, readings, film screenings, journaling, site visits, and in-class exercises will provide an opportunity to experiment, ask questions, and collaborate with peers. We will consider obstacles to paying attention as well as its “darker side,” including the role of social media, surveillance, and the attention economy more broadly. The course will culminate in a final documentary project done in small groups on student-chosen topics that will be presented to the class.

Julia Haslett

Julia Haslett is an award-winning filmmaker whose expressionistic documentaries include Pushed up the Mountain (2020) and An Encounter with Simone Weil (2010), which was a New York Magazine's Critics Pick. Before joining the faculty at UNC, she worked in public and cable television, and as a Filmmaker-in-Residence at Stanford University's Center for Biomedical Ethics. Her current research interests include environmental filmmaking, mental health, and the ethics of attention. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Professor Haslett very much appreciates how easy it is to access the natural world in and around Chapel Hill.

Spring 2024 COMM 89 006 Social Life of Things TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This first-year seminar invites students to learn about the world through objects. After all, we’re surrounded by them. Our homes, offices, stores, and public spaces are chock full of things, but we rarely pay those things much mind. Some things are commodities, meaning that they can be bought and sold on a market; others are gifts, meaning that their value is determined socially rather than economically. Some things are mass-produced; others are handmade. Some we only use once; others we hold onto our entire lives. What stories can these things tell us about the culture, economy, and politics of the societies that produce and consume them? What can we learn about ourselves by studying objects and their histories? Through a range of case studies, students will learn about how the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of things structures and animates the world we live in.

Aaron Shapiro

Aaron Shapiro is Assistant Professor of Technology Studies in the Department of Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Spring 2024 COMM 89 007 Fostering Civil Discourse: How to Reason Together Toward Common Good TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

People across the political spectrum are finding it increasingly difficult to hold reasonable conversations with anyone outside their ideological echo chambers. Must that be the case? This course is founded on the belief that we can promote democratic values by fostering robust discursive practices guided by the promise of shared reasoning. The course will empower students to deliberate across a wide range of challenging issues, equipped with tools and perspectives rooted in the rhetorical tradition.

Kevin Marinelli

Kevin Marinelli is a rhetorical scholar whose work focuses on public argument. In addition to teaching rhetoric in the Communication Department, Professor Marinelli serves as Executive Director of the Program for Public Discourse. He has published essays on a variety of topics, including civic education and the rhetoric of social protest. He is especially proud to sponsor the Agora Fellows, a yearly cohort of undergraduate students committed to the study, practice, and facilitation of civic discourse on campus and throughout the community.

Spring 2024 COMP 89 084 RELI 89-001 Lux Libertas: On the Understanding and Handling of Light TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Light has figured centrally in human explanations and manipulations of the natural world: from creation narratives, to the Copernican Revolution, to the theory of relativity, to harvesting energy from sunlight, to shaping light inside phones and screens for the capture and display of images. The goal of this course is to bring students into an intellectual encounter with light, one that will provide a history of human understandings of light, experimental encounters with light in the laboratory, and orientations to theoretical paradigms that have resulted from the human manipulation of light. At its most broad, the course aims to introduce first year students to knowledge and matter-energy as things that we study, handle, and transform.

Todd Ochoa

Todd Ramón Ochoa is a cultural anthropologist who does fieldwork with religious communities in Cuba. He is a scholar of religion specializing in how communities tell stories to create unique understandings of the world. In this co-taught course, he will focus on the way light figures in creation stories, and also how philosophy can help us grapple with the distinction between light and dark.

Montek Singh

Montek Singh is a computer scientist who is interested in the design of digital hardware systems, focusing on ways to make them run faster, consume less energy, and need less effort to design. His recent work has focused on designing new types of camera sensors, called event sensors, which capture changes in the scene only where and when they are considered interesting by the application. In this course, he will focus on the foundational scientific discoveries related to light (from Newtonian optics to Einstein's relativity), and the way light has been recorded in imagery (from tile mosaics to paintings to digital media), manipulated, and displayed.

Spring 2024 COMP 89 099 Technology of Today and Tomorrow TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Do you want to be a future leader in our society? Perhaps an influencer or a CEO or even President? If yes, you’ll be more successful if you effectively use technology. And you’ll be a more effective user of technology if you better understand how the technology works under the hood. Each week, we’ll consider a recent news headline and delve into the relevant technology behind the headline, from the use of ChatGPT, to self-driving cars, to a new blockbuster movie’s special effects, to a social media platform’s new feature. We’ll explore how the technology works via interactive experiences, discussions, and presentations. The goal is for future leaders and conscientious citizens to gain useful intuition about how societally-relevant computing technologies work at a high level, without requiring any previous computer science background. The instructor explicitly encourages students from all majors to enroll.

Ron Alterovitz

Professor Ron Alterovitz does research and teaches about robots and other technologies. His research focuses on enabling robots to act intelligently and autonomously in hospitals and homes. He earned his B.S. from Caltech and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He co-invented multiple technology patents, won the Computer Science Department Teaching Award (twice), and won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the US Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their careers. Professor Ron loves talking about technology with everyone, from toddlers to grandparents.

Spring 2024 DRAM 81H 001 Staging America: The American Drama TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar examines our national drama from its colonial origins to the present. Participants read plays and criticism, screen videos, engage in critical writing, and consider performance as related means of exploring the visions and revisions constituting American dramatic history. We will approach American drama as both a literary and commercial art form, and look to its history to provide a context for current American theater practice. Readings are chosen for their intrinsic merit and historical importance, but also for their treatment of key issues and events in American life. Our focus throughout will be on the forces that shaped the American drama as well as, in turn, that drama’s ability to shed light on the national experience.

Gregory Kable

Gregory Kable is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art, where he teaches dramatic literature, theatre history, and performance courses and serves as an Associate Dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company. He also teaches seminars on Modern British Drama and American Musicals for the Honors program. He has directed dozens of productions at UNC and throughout the local community, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Spring 2024 EMES 52 001 Living with Our Oceans and Atmosphere TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the nature of the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, and describe the processes that lead to our weather patterns and global climate. Emphasis is placed on understanding how the oceans and atmosphere affect human population, how oceanic and atmospheric changes are linked to increasing human activity, and how these changes can affect you. Basic principles and modern theories of changing climate, severe weather events, oceanic hazards, and interactions between the oceans and the atmosphere will be studied. Examples of presently active research being conducted at UNC and at other institutions will be used to highlight how the above topics are investigated scientifically. Readings will be taken from introductory textbooks on meteorology, oceanography and environmental sciences; and modern articles in periodicals such as Scientific American, Nature, American Scientist, National Geographic, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and Weatherwise. Various websites, including those within the UNC Department of Marine Sciences, will be used.

John Bane

Born in his mother’s home town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, John Bane lived in several locations throughout the U.S and abroad with his military family (his father was an Air Force pilot). He returned to earn his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics at Western Michigan University before going on to Florida State University for a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography. Following a year at LSU where he studied coastal processes in the Gulf of Mexico, John joined the faculty at UNC. John conducts research on the dynamics of the Gulf Stream and coastal currents, ocean-atmosphere interaction processes, and marine renewable energy. This work focuses on mesoscale oceanic and atmospheric variability that occurs on daily and longer time scales. Past study regions include the Gulf Stream from the southeastern United States to the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, the coastal ocean and atmosphere off the U. S. west coast, from southern California to Oregon, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and the shallow waters of the Bahama Banks. He has been involved in the promotion of marine alternative energy, from both wind and ocean current resources. Presently he is a member of two investigator groups funded through the National Science Foundation (Physical Oceanography Program) and the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program. These studies are ongoing in the Cape Hatteras region, offshore of the Carolinas and Virginia.

Spring 2024 EMES 53 001 The Ends of the Earth: Polar Oceanography and Exploration TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What explains the ‘pull of the Poles’? What motivated early explorers to undergo great hardships to investigate the Arctic and Antarctic, and what did they discover about these regions? What have we discovered in the intervening decades, and what do we still not understand about polar regions? Why do the Arctic and Antarctic play such a critical role in global climate? This seminar will combine scientific and historical perspectives to investigate the ‘ends of the earth’, the Arctic and Antarctica. We will begin by surveying the geography and oceanography of these regions, and then step back into the past and follow in the footsteps of some of the early polar explorers through their own accounts of their explorations. Modern accounts will help us compare and contrast these early explorations. The seminar will also include readings and discussions about current questions and problems of the polar regions, in particular human impacts and potential effects of global warming. A ‘Makerspace’ component is an important feature of the class – students will be supplied with materials to work on a design/build challenge, testing, revising, discussing, and consulting with one another to improve their efforts through the course of the semester. This ‘making’ experience is highly relevant to the experiences of early polar explorers as well as modern oceanographers, who often have to improvise and fix or build or create things on the spot, with materials at hand, in order to solve specific problems. Note that no experience in Makerspace, and no design or build experience, is assumed, expected, or required for this seminar. There are no prerequisites for this seminar.

Carol Arnosti

Carol Arnosti grew up in Wisconsin, where she developed an early appreciation for snow and ice. As an undergraduate at Lawrence University, she majored in chemistry, studied history, and played intercollegiate basketball. After completing a Ph.D. in oceanography at M.I.T. and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she went to the Max-Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany, where she rapidly became involved in a new project investigating microbial life at low temperatures. Continued involvement in this project since moving to Chapel Hill in 1995 has led to repeated research work in the Arctic as well as a trip to Antarctica, and a permanent case of ‘Polar Fever’.

Spring 2024 EMES 55 001 Change in the Coastal Ocean TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar provides students with opportunities to explore recent changes in marine environments caused by the interactions of fascinating oceanographic processes. Class presentations and discussions focus on the work of active marine scientists who combine their traditional disciplinary research with knowledge and skills from other fields as needed to understand new environmental challenges. This cross-cutting scientific approach prepares class members to recognize important connections between traditional disciplines to discover interdisciplinary research areas that they might wish to further explore during their undergraduate careers at Carolina. Each week we read a series of cutting-edge, non-technical research papers focused largely on recent changes in marine ecosystems in preparation for in-class discussions, laboratory demonstrations, and “video- and photo-trip” visits to field sites. We use information from those papers, other course materials and current research at Carolina, to investigate how biological, geological, physical, and geochemical processes interact to influence coastal, open-ocean, and tropical environments. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions during classes, in demonstrations using state-of-the art instrumentation in MASC laboratories, and in “hands on” mini-field experiments (as weather allows) designed to emphasize the importance of the scientific question rather than just the technology involved. Please note that this seminar has no prerequisites.

Christopher S. Martens

Christopher S. Martens earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from Florida State University in 1972, then moved to Yale to complete two years of postdoctoral study before joining the faculty at UNC in 1974. His current research focuses on how biological processes affect the chemistry of coastal and deep-sea environments, including the expanding role of sponges in coral reef ecosystems, the impacts of recently discovered natural gas seeps found off the North Carolina coast and the fate of the huge volume of hydrocarbons released to the deep sea during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He publishes widely, has twice been co-recipient of the international Geochemical Society’s Best Paper award in Organic Geochemistry and received the Ketchum Award for Leadership in Coastal Oceanography from the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is an experienced SCUBA, hard helmet, saturation and submersible diver and an underwater videographer. He has received a “Favorite Faculty” award for recognized excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Spring 2024 CMPL 55 001 Comics as Literature TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Is it possible that people across generations and geographies see differently? What if what we see is related to who we are and our cultural beliefs? These are among the questions we will explore in this class on visual literacy and comics (in the form of adult graphic novels). We will question how meaning is made through the juxtaposition and framing of images as well as the relationship between words and images. In the process of comparing images, visual patterns emerge that enable the reader to identify artistic techniques and strategies that attempt to convey meaning where words might fail. We will work to sharpen our critical thinking (and reading) skills and reflect on how seeing is a socially and culturally circumscribed phenomenon. Creating a graphic narrative and a podcast about graphic novels are two projects we will undertake.

Elyse Crystall

Dr. Elyse Crystall has been teaching courses on visual literacy – including graphic novels, comics, and film – and topics such as racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia; (im)migration and borders; race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, and nationality; memory and trauma; and conquest, imperialism, colonialism, and empire for 25 years. Her role as the coordinator of social justice concentration for the English undergraduate major links to her commitment to social justice issues; her understanding of the critical importance of historical context; and her belief that race, ethnicity, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, among others, are both identity categories and social locations that shape how we see the world — and how the world sees us. Nothing is more gratifying to Dr. Crystall than when a group of students, an instructor, the texts assigned in the course, and the world outside the classroom work together to create meaning — new possibilities, new questions, and new ways of seeing.

Spring 2024 ENGL 53 001 Slavery and Freedom in African American Literature and Film MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

The seminar’s purpose is to explore the African American slave narrative tradition from its 19th-century origins in autobiography to its present manifestations in prize-winning fiction and film.

Danielle Christmas

Danielle Christmas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC. She holds a B.A. in English from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in English from University of Illinois at Chicago. Her current manuscript, “Auschwitz and the Plantation: Labor, Sex, and Death in American Holocaust and Slavery Fiction,” concerns how representations of slavery and the Holocaust contribute to American socioeconomic discourses. She has received a number of national awards to support this research, including a Cummings Foundation Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a Mellon / ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Deeply interested in comparative frameworks, Danielle co-convened an international conference through Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia in July 2014 entitled, “The Future of the Past: Representing the Holocaust, Genocide, and Mass Trauma in the 21st Century” and she is proud to have been included in the USHMM’s interdisciplinary symposium of scholars working on genocide and literature. Most recently, her articles have appeared in Twentieth-Century Literature (2015) and Aftermath: Genocide, Memory, and History (Monash University, 2015). When she’s not working, Danielle’s taking a Nia class, drinking wine, playing a board game, or attempting to knit. You can find out more about Danielle’s work at her website, www.daniellechristmas.com.

Spring 2024 ENGL 57H 001 Future Perfect: Science Fictions and Social Form TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

What will our world look like in ten years? Fifty? One hundred? Will the future be a utopian paradise or a dystopian wasteland? Through a wide-ranging survey of popular science writing, novels, and films, this first year seminar will examine fictional and nonfictional attempts to imagine the future from the nineteenth century to the present. We will explore everything from futurology and transhumanism to warnings of imminent environmental collapse. Our focus will be less on assessing the accuracy of these predictions and more on determining what they tell us about the hopes and fears of the times in which they were made. The course will culminate in a short research paper on a future-oriented topic of your choosing.

Matthew Taylor

Matthew Taylor’s research focuses on the intersections among environmental humanities, critical theory (including posthumanism, biopolitics, science and technology studies, and critical race theory), and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature. His first book, Universes without Us: Posthuman Cosmologies in American Literature (Univ. of Minnesota Press), examines cosmologies that challenge the utopianism of both past and present attempts at fusing self and environment.

Spring 2024 ENGL 71H 001 Healers and Patients MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

When medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman writes that “illness has meaning,” he reminds us that the human experience of being sick involves more than bodily symptoms. Moreover, the effects of illness and disability are rarely confined to one person. In this course, we will analyze a diverse collection of writers who work to make sense of illness and disability through a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, graphic memoir, podcasts, and oral histories.

Divided into five units, the course will allow us to explore not just the medical, but also the personal, ethical, cultural, and political facets of illness from the perspectives of patients, healthcare providers, and families. Central texts will include /Ask Me About My Uterus/ by Abby Norman, /Black Man in a White Coat/ by Damon Tweedy, /Mom’s Cancer/ by Brian Fies and /The Farewell/ directed by Lulu Wang. Additionally, students will explore a set of oral histories to learn more about the experiences of patients, healthcare providers, and families from across North Carolina.

Kym Weed

Kym Weed is a Teaching Assistant Professor in English & Comparative Literature and the Co-Director of the HHIVE Lab and Associate Director of graduate programs in Literature, Medicine, and Culture. She earned her PhD from UNC and returned to Chapel Hill after a year in Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. Her research focuses on the intersection of science and literature in late-nineteenth-century American literature and culture as well as contemporary understandings of illness, health, disability, and embodiment. Her most recent project examines narratives around anti-microbial resistance. She teaches courses in health humanities, disability studies, American literature, and writing.

Spring 2024 ENEC 89 001 Investigating the Biodiversity Crisis: A Hands-On Approach TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

A global biodiversity crisis is unfolding: species are going extinct at an alarming rate and many species are experiencing population declines that will soon put them at risk of extinction. In this class, we will investigate the nature of the on-going biodiversity crisis, its causes, and its place in life’s evolutionary history. Students will gain hands-on experience identifying biodiversity and working with biodiversity data. Students will also discuss and evaluate alternative solutions to biodiversity loss from ethical, religious, economic, social, and scientific perspectives.

Karin Pfennig

Karin Pfennig is a Professor in the Biology Department and Environment, Ecology and Energy Program. She studies the role of behavior in the origins and distribution of biodiversity. In her research, she works with two species of desert frogs that provide on-going insights into the remarkable ways that animals adapt to challenging environments. She loves to be outside with her family enjoying the natural world.

Spring 2024 ENEC 89 002 A View from Above: Using Drones to Solve Environmental Problems MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

Students in this course will explore the ways scientists are using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, aka “drones”) to view, record, and map our world for managing natural resources and solving environmental problems by gaining hands-on experience with this exciting new technology.

Geoffrey Bell

I am a Teaching Professor and Academic Advisor in the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program (E3P). I started working at Carolina in 2009 after completing my PhD in Marine Science at NC State University. I specialize in marine and restoration ecology and have been fortunate to work in some amazing ecosystems including coral reefs in the Bahamas and Australia, mangroves in the Florida Keys, saltmarshes in New Jersey and Delaware, estuaries in North Carolina, and restored forests in Appalachia. I am a big fan of experiential learning and offer practical field courses in coastal conservation where we travel to Tampa Bay, restoration ecology where students do research for local clients, drone remote sensing where students get to fly and collect environmental data, and a study abroad program to Australia where students assist conservation organizations. I have a wife, Meredith who is a meteorologist and three young children: Brandon, Hadley, and Noah. My hobbies include woodworking, doing house renovations, fly drones, competing in CrossFit and Spartan races, and riding my motorcycle.

Spring 2024 EXSS 55 001 Sport Engineering and Human Performance MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

This first year seminar designed to discuss the limits of human performance and equipment that is engineered to enhance performance. How fast is it possible to run or swim? Will Olympic records continue to be broken? When do we reach our full athletic potential? This course is designed to challenge your thinking about performance using the science that governs biomechanics and human physiology as well as exploring the data that drives equipment development.

Meredith Petschauer

Meredith Petschauer received her PhD from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in Biomechanics, Master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Athletic Training and bachelor’s degree from The College of Wooster. She teaches Biomechanics, Advanced Orthopedic Assessment and Functional Anatomy. She is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curricula and serves as the Athletic Trainer for the Women’s Volleyball team. Her clinical focus is what lead her into biomechanics and human performance. Her research interest includes emergency care of the equipment laden athlete. She and her husband, Greg have two children, Madison and Grant.

Spring 2024 GEOG 56 001 Local Places in a Globalizing World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Globalization is a word we hear every day, but what does it mean for us in local places? Specifically, what can an understanding of globalization tell us about Carolina and nearby places? This seminar weaves together perspectives on globalization with hands-on exploration of Carolina and its place in today’s global “knowledge economy,” and the University’s founding in relation to the globalizing forces of that day. Our focus will shift back and forth between the global and the local, even to the microscale of our campus. We will learn through a variety of experiences and approaches, including fieldwork, old documents, and some introductory GIS (geographic information systems) exercises in addition to readings, class discussion, and group work. By the end of the seminar, students will not only have an understanding of globalization and the very real connections between the global and the local, but also a unique perspective on our university.

Ruth Matamoros Mercado

I am an Indigenous Geographer specializing in indigenous research methods, decolonial indigenous and feminist geographies and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). My research interests center on Indigenous Peoples' land relations with a focus on Central America. My current research examines the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of land dispossession for the lives of Indigenous peoples in Nicaragua and Honduras. I completed a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and I also have a degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, UNAN-León.

Spring 2024 GEOG 68 001 Freshwaters in the Anthropocene TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Freshwaters sustain myriad ecosystem services by providing drinking water, irrigation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreational opportunities, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. At the same time, both water quality and quantity are impacted by land use, water abstraction, damming, contamination, and climate change. This seminar will focus (1) on understanding how these anthropogenic pressures affect freshwater ecosystems differently across ecoregions, and (2) how management, legislative, and social initiatives have adapted or developed solutions. We will focus mainly on the United States but consider case studies from around the world. Students should be prepared to read and discuss three materials per week. These reading materials will include a range of popular media including podcasts, newspaper articles, and book chapters, as well as scientific articles and overviews. We will also spend some time exploring and talking about streams accessible to the UNC campus. Class will culminate with research projects in which students get to explore a topic of their choice and presenting findings to their peers.

Amanda DelVecchia

I am a physical geographer focusing on freshwater ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves connecting various spatial and temporal scales, and biotic and abiotic factors, within groundwater, lakes, wetlands, rivers, and their watersheds. In particular, I ask how connectivity between different parts of the landscape (including those we cannot see!), and over time, affect functions like carbon and nutrient cycling, food webs, and greenhouse gas dynamics. By understanding these connections, we can better predict how freshwaters react to climate change and anthropogenic alteration, so that we may better protect freshwater biodiversity and function. I use a mix of empirical and data science, and work across the U.S. and internationally. You can learn more about my research by visiting my website at amandadelvecchia.weebly.com, by emailing me, or by visiting during my office hours, in which case I can promise you a warm reception and an offer for tea.

Spring 2024 GEOG 89 002 Forests and People TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Through collective exploration, students will deepen their understanding of the far-reaching impacts of forests on virtually every facet of our daily lives. By delving into how we are shaped by trees and how trees shape us, students in this course will learn about the diverse ways in which we use, value, and depend on forests. We cover global and domestic perspectives, art about trees, as well as the iconic trees that make our campus unique.

Shorna Allred

Shorna Allred is a Professor of Geography and Environment at UNC Chapel Hill. She has worked in forests all over the world to partner with local communities on conservation challenges and spans from upstate New York to the island of Borneo. Her work in the U.S. centers on environmental justice and bringing equity into forestland stewardship. Dr. Allred is a third-generation Texan and first-generation college student, and her passion for sustainable development and environmental justice was sparked at Penn State, where she was one of the first African-American women to earn a graduate degree from the School of Forest Resources.

Spring 2024 GSLL 54 001 Once upon a Fairy Tale: Fairy Tales and Childhood, Then and Now TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

We will study fairy tales in the broader context of the history of childhood and practices of education and socialization. While we will concentrate on the German context and the Brothers Grimm, we will also consider fairy tales from several different national traditions and historical periods, including the American present. Varying interpretive approaches will be explored, including those that place fairy tales against the backdrop of folklore; literature; psychoanalysis; and the socializing forces directed at children. We will investigate issues such as the varying historical conceptions of the child, and the role of adults — parents and other pedagogues — in the shaping of fairy tales for the instruction of children; the evolution of specific tale types and their ‘medial’ history from oral traditions through print to film; the gender roles at play in fairy tales; and potential strategies for the reinterpretation and rewriting of fairy tales.

Eric Downing

My graduate studies were in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, with a primary emphasis in German, classical Greek, and Latin literatures. I began my teaching career at Harvard, where I offered courses in both German and Comparative Literature and served as the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities. Here at Carolina, I hold a joint appointment in German and English & Comparative Literature, as well as an adjunct position in the Department of Classical Studies. My courses in Comparative Literature include classes in literary theory, the history of poetics, eighteenth and nineteenth-century fiction, aestheticism, and several on ancient-modern relations. My teaching in German has concentrated on narrative fiction from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century but includes courses on Nietzsche, Freud, and Walter Benjamin. In 2004, I was presented with the Johnson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2015 with the Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction and Mentoring. I have also served for various stretches of time as both Director of Comparative Literature and as co-Director of the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies.
My research has spanned the fields of classical literary theory, Greek drama, Roman elegy, and ancient/ modern relations, as well as German nineteenth-century realism and twentieth-century modernism. My most recent interest has been in the afterlife of ancient practices of divinatory reading in the literature and thought of the German nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Spring 2024 GSLL 59 001 Moscow 1937: Dictatorships and Their Defenders TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar deals in the broadest possible context with two critical issues that dominated the 20th century: the rise of fascism out of the carnage of World War I and the Bolshevik revolution to which the war and Czarist Russia’s involvement in it helped contribute. As the semester unfolds, drawing on a variety of historical and documentary films, and literature (memoirs, novels), we will take a comparative look at singular personalities like Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler and examine the role played by such key figures in historical events of this magnitude. Towards the end of the semester, we will glance briefly at the situation created in Western and Eastern Europe by the defeat of fascism and contemplate the origins and evolution of the cold war. We will conclude the seminar with a consideration of the dissolution and democratization of Eastern European countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, against the tragic background of the past, the general prognosis for democracy in the future.

David Pike

David Pike received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1978 in German Studies with a minor in Russian and has taught at UNC–CH since 1980. He is the author of three books, The Politics of Culture in Soviet -Occupied Germany, 1945-1949 (1993), Lukács and Brecht (1985), and German Writers in Soviet Exile, 1933-1945 (1982). His research takes him regularly to Berlin and Moscow.

Spring 2024 GSLL 80 001 Not Just Dogs: Animals in Russian Literature TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This seminar explores the “question of the animal” in the works of major Russian writers (Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov) and introduces students to the main theoretical texts on the animal/human relationship (Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, Irigaray). Among the topics to be discussed are the animal as the other, animal and human natures, dominance and submission, ethics of the human/animal relations, and the theme of “talking” animals.

Radislav Lapushin

Radislav Lapushin, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His primary research interests are Chekhov; interrelationship between prose and poetry; and Russian literature on stage and screen. His well-received book, Dew on the Grass: The Poetics of Inbetweenness in Chekhov, focuses on the poetic dimensions of Anton Chekhov’s prose and drama. An author of several volumes of Russian poetry, his most recent collection, Dog Poetry (Boston, 2016), dovetails nicely with the topic of this seminar.

Spring 2024 GSLL 89 001 Language, Migration, Identity MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

This course focuses on connections between language, histories of migration, and processes of identity formation as presented in literature, films, and artworks by authors/filmmakers/artists in Germany who have backgrounds in other cultures. Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe, but it has long struggled with the question of how to define its postwar identity. In addition to readings by authors with Japanese, Eastern-European, Jewish, Turkish, and African backgrounds in Germany, we will also learn about community engagement with immigrant and refugee communities here at home through the Town of Chapel Hill’s Language Access Program and the New Roots Oral History Project at UNC Chapel Hill. Ultimately, this course offers students the chance to grapple with the question of how members of a modern, diverse society define their identities.

Jocelyn Aksin

Jocelyn Aksin’s research is based in Turkish-German Studies with a focus on shared memory cultures between Turkey and Germany. Current projects include articles in preparation on Feridun Zaimoglu’s and Günter Senkel’s play, Schwarze Jungfrauen (Black Virgins, 2006) and on Turkish author Zülfü Livaneli’s popular novel, Serenad (Serenade for Nadia, 2011), as well as an investigation into the history and reception of translations of Heinrich Heine’s works into Turkish. After spending nearly eight years in Istanbul, where she wrote her dissertation and worked as a language teacher, Jocelyn is excited to join the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages and Literatures at Chapel Hill.

Spring 2024 HIST 58 001 History and the Meaning of Life MW 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

For thousands of years, people have grappled with fundamental questions about their lives and their place in the world: How should we live? What should we strive for? Where can we find meaning? What do we inherit from our forebears, and what should we bequeath to our descendants? The answers are hard to find, but we can search for them by looking to the past. History gives us innumerable examples of how different people have grappled with these questions in different ways. Using biographies, memoirs, oral histories, and historical narratives, this seminar will look at a few of these people, both famous and obscure, in order to explore what history can teach us about life’s biggest questions.

Michael Morgan

Michael Morgan specializes in international and global history. He first book, The Final Act, examines the origins and consequences of the Helsinki Accords, the most ambitious diplomatic undertaking of the Cold War. At UNC, he teaches courses on the Cold War, modern and contemporary international history, and the history of human rights. Before coming to UNC, he taught at the US Naval War College and the University of Toronto, where he was the inaugural holder of the Raymond Pryke Chair.

Spring 2024 HIST 89 001 Global Food History TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

What does it mean to study food history, and how do we approach it from a global perspective? The world of food (and the food of the world) is a huge subject, and the focus in this class will be on historical texts and topics (as opposed to contemporary food issues), and on global examples (with an emphasis on non-Western regions, including Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East). Class topics will center on three major themes: Food as Identity (Nation, Gender, Memory, Diaspora), Food as Value (Taste, Commodity, Feasting, Famine); Food in its Modern Forms (Industrialization, Consumption, Globalization). The course emphasis will be on giving students the opportunity to practice fundamental skills of historical methodology (written primary and secondary source analysis), and using what they have learned for a creative final project presentation.

Michelle King

Michelle King is an Associate Professor of History, specializing in modern Chinese gender and food history. She is the editor of Culinary Nationalism in Asia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and a special issue on Chinese culinary regionalism in Global Food History (Summer 2020). Her latest research project focuses on the career of Taiwan’s beloved cooking celebrity, Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004), for which she was awarded a NEH Public Scholars Fellowship. She had the best bowl of noodles in her life twenty-five years ago at a nameless farmstead in rural Hunan province and has been seeking its equal ever since.

Spring 2024 HIST 89 002 Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa MW 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM

How do countries overcome histories of racial injustice, inequality, and violence? What role can history play in promoting reconciliation? In 1994, South Africa embarked upon an experiment to answer these questions. The centerpiece of South African efforts was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). From 1995-2002, TRC appointees did research and interviewed thousands of South Africans to uncover a hidden history of apartheid-era violence in the hope that truth would bring about reconciliation. South Africans still debate whether the TRC met its aims, but the model of the TRC has been emulated around the world since. This course will examine the significance of the TRC in the longer history of transitional justice from the end of World War II to the present. Students will conduct historical research, whether about South Africa or another country, in order to propose their own plans for a truth commission.

Lauren Jarvis

Lauren Jarvis is an Associate Professor of History. She grew up in Chapel Hill and earned her BA in History at that school down the road (rhymes with "fluke"). She then received her PhD in History at Stanford. Jarvis's research focuses on 19th and 20th century South Africa. At UNC, she teaches classes in South African, African, Global, and (most recently) Digital History. She is currently the Faculty Director of The LAUNCH, or The Lab at UNC History, a digital history and storytelling hub.

Spring 2024 HIST 89H 001 Witchcraft and Magic in the Early Modern World TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Witches, witchcraft, and magic have inspired folk legends, literary works, films, and artistic creations for centuries. Ideas and beliefs about these topics have also fueled deadly persecutions of groups and individuals. Witchcraft and magic raise questions about gendered norms and expectations, about human beliefs, fear, and responses to that fear. This First Year Seminar explores early modern witchcraft and magic to introduce students to the ways in which historians think about questions of gender, power, and belief in historical perspective. The Seminar will focus on how historians pose problems, collect evidence, and evaluate knowledge about how witchcraft and magic reveal broader tensions in the early modern world. The Seminar also draws connections to the present by emphasizing the lasting impact of beliefs and ideas about witchcraft and magic in culture and politics.

Ana María Silva Campo

Ana María Silva Campo is a historian of race, gender, religion, and the law in colonial Latin America. Her current research explores the relationship between witchcraft trials and wealth distribution along gender and racialized lines in Cartagena de Indias, a port for the trade in African captives, during the seventeenth century. Professor Silva Campo grew up in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds B.A.s from Universidad de Los Andes and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan.

Spring 2024 HNRS 89 001 Narrative and Medicine: Writing COVID/Writing Us W 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM

This first-year seminar is a workshop in autobiographical and creative short story, focusing on the complex connections between story-telling, interpretive skill, the experience of illness, and the practice of medicine. The only prerequisite is some experience (and enjoyment in) reading stories. Students will write and distribute autobiographical and and creative short stories about illness and caregiving; the seminar will meet weekly to discuss these stories, as well as published works by doctors and other writers, seeking out the key issues each story expresses about what it means to be sick, and what it might mean to take care of others. This is a highly collaborative course. Each week, the entire class works as a group to build an understanding of:

  • how meaning arises in the stories composed and presented by members of the class;
  • the role form plays in our ability to shape and understand a narrative (and our lives);
  • the extent to which the creative process draws on both intellectual and emotional processes;
  • how often those processes are not immediately apparent to either the writer or the reader (in other words, in writing we often say more than we consciously intend, and our understanding of what we read takes work; in this class that understanding is an iterative process in which repeated readings and the collaboration of others is essential toward arriving at a full understanding of what each story is trying to tell us).

In addition to writing for the workshop, participants will keep a journal over the course of the semester, charting not day-to-day events but vignettes of remembered experience, daydreams, sketches, which taken together address, one way or another, what it has been like for you to experience the Great Pandemic of 2020-2X. It is difficult to imagine writing, either autobiographical or imaginative, that does not, under our current conditions, somehow address the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not to say that everything we write should consciously, overtly, or explicitly be about COVID 19, but simply that the reality of the pandemic shapes much of what we think these days, especially concerning illness. Whether we choose to live in the world as if the pandemic were over, or if we are still aware of its ongoing ravages both at home and abroad, we still inhabit a world utterly changed by the fear of contagion, and all the different ways we choose to respond to both that contagion and that fear. As an omnipresent and yet unvoiced anxiety, as a deeply facilitated pathway in our limbic cortices, as an occult force in our individual and social lives, COVID continues to provide an ideal topic as we attempt to understand how our stories draw on memories and emotions of which we may not (wish to) be aware. This journal is to be the foundation for the capstone project. This project need not be “written.” It can take the form of a video or audio recording, an animation, or of images strung together as a slide show while you read a narrative composition. Or it can simply be a story, autobiographical or imaginative, about you and COVID 19.

The writing and (especially) interpretive skills acquired in this workshop are directly valuable to anyone contemplating a career in medicine, but are equally valuable in a wide range of humanities disciplines, as well as to anyone who might at some point encounter (in themselves or in someone they care for) the trauma of illness. In addition to the weekly workshop, participants will have one-on-one conferences with the instructor (himself an MD with an international reputation as a writer). Both in the writing of your stories, and in the discussion of your classmates’ stories, you will find in this course both the tools for a greater understanding of yourself and a greater appreciation of how much you share with those around you. This course offers a personal, meaningful approach to questions many of us share, but rarely have a chance to put into words.

Terrence Holt

Terrence Holt (M.F.A., Ph.D. Cornell University; M.D. UNC), has held a faculty position at the School of Medicine since completing his residency (internal medicine) in 2003. He teaches topics ranging from health care finance to medical ethics to narrative medicine. For ten years a contributing editor to Men's Health, he publishes and speaks widely on a range of topics related to ethical and experiential questions of medical practice. His short story collections (In the Valley of the Kings, Internal Medicine) have appeared on numerous "best of" lists, including the New York Times bestsellers, and have been reprinted, translated, and anthologized in the US, Europe, and Asia. He thinks of this course as his central contribution to his teaching at Carolina, one that combines the multiple disciplinary strands of his career into a unified experience for learners at a range of levels.

Spring 2024 LING 60 001 How Reading Works: Language, Cognition, and Literacy TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In many societies today, we live our lives surrounded by the written word. But did you ever stop to wonder how reading works? How do we go from looking at symbols on a page, sign, or screen to understanding the writer’s message? How do children learn to read, and what ways of teaching reading would best promote success for all students? We will explore these questions through hands-on analysis of language and writing-system structure, as well as discussion of the primary research literature. Your final course project will address a real-world question about reading, literacy, or reading education from the perspective of language and cognition.

Jennifer Smith

Jennifer Smith first encountered linguistics as a first-year college student looking for ways to combine a love of languages with an interest in science. Her research focuses on the cognitive representation of language sound systems: what kinds of consonants, vowels, and syllables do the languages of the world use, and why? How does the sound-structure system of a language interact with the structure of words or sentences? She has been invited to teach courses and give lectures around the US and abroad, and she was awarded the Chapman Family Fellowship for excellence in teaching at UNC Chapel Hill.

Spring 2024 MATH 62H 001 Combinatorics TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

A leading expert in Modern Combinatorics wants to share his vision of the subject with the students. The seminar is a perfect background for future specialists in mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, economics, for those who are curious what statistical physics is about, what is cryptography, and how stock market works, and for everyone who likes mathematics.

The course will be organized around the following topics:

Puzzles: dimer covering, magic squares, 36 officers
Combinations: from coin tossing to dice and poker
Fibonacci numbers: rabbits, population growth, etc.
Arithmetic: designs, cyphers, intro to finite fields
Catalan numbers: from playing roulette to stock market

The students will learn about the history of Combinatorics, its connections with the theory of numbers, its fundamental role in the natural sciences and various applications.

It is an advanced research course; all students are expected to participate in projects under the supervision of I.Ch. and the Graduate Research Consultant (the GRC Program). This seminar is partially supported by Honors Carolina.

The grades will be based on the exam, bi-weekly home assignments and the participation in the projects. The course requires focus and effort, but, generally, the students are quite satisfied with the progress they make (and their grades too).

From the Course Evaluation: “A difficult but wholly worthwhile course: I feel more competent for having taken it”, “I would recommend this FYS to others ONLY if they have a VERY strong affinity for and ability in Algebra (I thought I did, but I was wrong)”.

Ivan Cherednik

Professor Cherednik is Austin H. Carr Distinguished Professor of Mathematics. Trained at the Steklov Mathematics Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and at Moscow State University, his areas of specialization are Representation Theory, Combinatorics, Number Theory, Harmonic Analysis, and Mathematical Physics. Cherednik's particular affection for Combinatorics is well known: he proved the celebrated Constant term conjecture in Combinatorics. His recent papers were in financial mathematics, on modeling epidemic spread, and on some aspects of AI.

Spring 2024 MATH 89 001 Knot Theory TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Knots are everywhere around us, from the twists in our shoelaces to the tangled cords of electronic devices and even the structure of DNA. In this seminar, we will take a hands-on approach to learning how mathematicians describe and study knots and related concepts from the mathematical area of topology. This course will also serve as an informal introduction to the process of research mathematics: we will see how mathematicians formulate and refine conjectures, establish new theorems, classify mathematical objects, and about the utility of mathematical invariants. We will also discuss some real-word applications of the course material both practical (useful knots for climbing, sailing, and even for properly tying your shoes!) and scientific (applications in biology and chemistry). Whether you’re a budding mathematician or simply curious about the hidden beauty of knots, this seminar will provide a solid foundation in knot theory, valuable problem-solving skills, and a fresh perspective on mathematical thinking.

David Rose

Prof. Rose is a mathematician with interests in topology and representations theory, which is a fancy way of saying that he uses modern algebraic tools to study qualitative properties of geometric spaces. His current research (for which he was recently awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER award) focuses on homological invariants of knots and their relation to topological quantum field theory. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, listening to vinyl, and rock climbing (wherein knot theory meets practice).

Spring 2024 MUSC 63 001 Music on Stage and Screen TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar is designed to offer students the tools and techniques for understanding multi-media, staged musical works like opera, musical theater, and film. The goal of the seminar is to develop students’ analytical skills in verbal and non-verbal media and to encourage their visualization of the potential and implications of artistic forms and structures. No ability to read music is required. We will discuss musical, visual, and textual narratives, source materials, and the various means by which such multi-media artworks are transmitted to modern audiences.

Anne MacNeil

Anne MacNeil holds a PhD in the History & Theory of Music from the University of Chicago and a Master's Degree from the Eastman School of Music. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the Authority of Record at the Library of Congress on the Renaissance commedia dell'arte actress Isabella Andreini. Prof. MacNeil is also a founding directory of IDEA: Isabella d'Este Archive, an international research consortium that studies the music and culture of Renaissance Italy through the lens of the marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539).

Spring 2024 PWAD 69 001 ASIA 69-001 Wars and Veterans: Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In this course, we will explore the various ways that wars and conflicts, particularly Iran-Iraq, U.S.-Iraq, and U.S.-Afghanistan wars, have been portrayed in literature, film, and photography. We will attempt to deepen and enrich our understanding of war experienced by both veterans and civilians of each country. We will examine the impact of war on the human psyche in regards to violence. We will read books by American war veterans and Middle East authors contemplating the wars and their consequences. We will look at each writer’s perspective on war and their interpretation of it comparatively. All readings will be in English. The class will be conducted in the form of a combination of lectures, discussion, and experimentations.
This course is designed for Equity in Teaching. During this course we will be implementing an innovative and interactive learning method—Collaborative Online International Learning, or COIL. During this course we will engage in class discussions and lectures and a final presentation assignment with Dr. Amir Hossein Vafa and students from the Shiraz University in Iran for approximately five class session (asynchronous and synchronous options available). These activities will enhance your learning of the course content, and your participation in the COIL activities is required. COIL activities will provide you with exposure to new cultural contexts, knowledge, and perspectives on the course material. By participating in the COIL activities, you will develop and enhance cross-cultural communication skills and gain experience working in multicultural teams. As part of your grade and COIL activities, in groups with Iranian students, you will sketch, design, and create a war-related artifact using the campus MakerSpace (BeAM) facilities.

Claudia Yaghoobi

Claudia Yaghoobi is a Roshan Associate Professor and the Inaugural Director of Persian Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of Temporary Marriage in Iran: Gender and Body Politics in Modern Iranian Literature and Film (Cambridge UP, 2020) and Subjectivity in ‘Attar, Persian Sufism, and European Mysticism (Purdue UP, 2017). She is also the co-editor (with Janet Afary) of a book series titled, Sex, Marriage, and Family in the Middle East for Bloomsbury Press.

Spring 2024 PHIL 59H 001 Proofs of the Existence of God TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The first third of the course will be devoted to proofs of the existence or nonexistence of God. What are these arguments aiming to show? Who is the intended audience? Next, we will examine the nature of religious life and the role of theism in religion. This will include an examination of whether God is necessary for morality. Then we will consider the problem of evil, the role of faith, and the nature of miracles. The course will conclude by asking whether God is necessary for religion and with reflections on death and the afterlife.

This course has two goals: The first is to sharpen your ability to analyze, evaluate, and produce philosophical arguments; the second is to introduce you to some of the main topics in the philosophy of religion. We will draw primarily on works in philosophy but will also examine these issues in works of literature and film.

Additional Information
This course will be conducted as a seminar. It is restricted to honors students. There are no prerequisites.

Douglas MacLean

Douglas MacLean’s current research focuses on practical ethics and issues in moral and political theory that are particularly relevant to practical concerns. Most of his recent writing examines how values do and ought to influence decisions, both personal decisions and government policies.

Spring 2024 PHIL 63 001 Mind, Brain, and Consciousness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

When we talk about consciousness, what phenomenon are we referring to? Can conscious phenomena fit in an otherwise materialistic world? What is the relationship between the brain and the conscious mind? What is a philosophical zombie? Can AI be conscious? In this course, we will explore different answers the these and other related questions.

Students will be introduced to philosophy and its methods, and will develop their critical thinking, writing, and presentation skills, as well as their abilities to reason with others and communicate effectively.

Carla Merino-Rajme

Carla Merino-Rajme is an assistant professor in philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to Chapel Hill, she was an assistant professor of philosophy at Arizona State University and a Bersoff Fellow at New York University. She works mainly in philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

Spring 2024 PHIL 80 001 Short Stories and Contemporary Social Problems TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

What is the point of learning about ethics? An ethics course should teach you how to recognize a moral issue when it stares you in the face. You should learn to appreciate its intricacies, to reason your way through it, and to discuss it with your peers. This will raise your skills of critical reflection and your moral sensitivities. And if you can translate what you gained into action, dare I say it, then it will make you into a better person as well. Short stories—much more so than the classics or contemporary journals of professional philosophy—are a great tool for this purpose. In this course, we will explore contemporary social, political and moral issues through short stories in world literature connect these stories with research papers in the social sciences and the humanities, blogs, and newspaper articles.

Luc Bovens

Professor Bovens is Professor of Philosophy and Core Faculty in UNC’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program. His philosophical interests are broad and include paradoxes of rationality, issues in formal epistemology, philosophy of economics, political science, moral psychology, and bioethics.

Spring 2024 PHYS 54 001 Physics of Movies TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this seminar, we will analyze physics concepts by watching scenes from popular movies. The overall goal is to disentangle the complicated interplay of physics ideas in real-life situations and thereby to improve significantly our problem-solving skills. Emphasis is placed on group work rather than on traditional teaching. We will be addressing questions such as: Which scenes from movies are unphysical and which are realistic? How are physicists portrayed in movies? How does physics research influence society? Ultimately, we will gain a more fundamental understanding for physical concepts and how these concepts shape our world view. No prerequisite is required.

Christian Iliadis

Christian Iliadis is a Greek who was born and raised in Germany. He obtained his diploma in physics from the University of Muenster/Germany and then moved to Notre Dame where he received his Ph.D. He spent three years in Vancouver, working in Canada’s largest nuclear physics laboratory. Since 1996, he has been Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UNC–CH, teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. His research specialty is nuclear astrophysics, which is the science of how stars generate energy and produce the elements in the Universe via nuclear fusion reactions. He also wrote a recently published textbook on this subject. His favorite hobby is soccer (or football, as it is called in the rest of the world).

Spring 2024 POLI 57 001 Democratic Governance in Contemporary Latin America (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Over the past forty years, Latin America has experienced the most prolonged and extensive period of democratic politics in its history. State power today is accessed through reasonably competitive and fair elections in many countries in the region, in contrast to past patterns of openly authoritarian rule. This democratic shift, though, has often been challenged by serious problems with political representation and the effective inclusion of citizens, and in some cases with more serious setbacks. The way power is practiced by those in power reflects historical continuities and new forms of corruption or other types of abuses of state resources, as well as various forms of populism. With important variations across the region, countries have struggled to respond effectively to the Covid-19 pandemic, and more broadly to provide citizen security, economic development and social inclusion.
In this course, we will explore these issues of democratic governance through a combination of readings, videos, discussion, occasional short lectures, and team-based analyses of selected countries. The course has no pre-requisites and assumes no prior knowledge of Latin America.

Jonathan Hartlyn

Jonathan Hartlyn is the Kenneth J. Reckford Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up in Latin America, in Cuba, Mexico and Peru. He received his B.A. from Clark University, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His research and teaching interests focus on the comparative politics of Latin America. He spent several months in Argentina in fall 2017 advancing on his current research on democratic governance in the region. He also has on-going research on constitutional change in Latin America and on the dynamics of executive approval. He has authored or co-authored dozens of articles and chapters on democratic transitions, gender and politics, migration and political parties, public opinion and institutional trust, and elections and electoral governance. His books include: The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia; The Struggle for Democratic Politics in the Dominican Republic; and the co-authored Latin America in the Twenty First Century: Toward a New Socio-Political Matrix. His publications have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German and Persian. He has served as an international election observer in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Venezuela.

Spring 2024 POLI 59 001 Revolution, America in 1776 and France in 1789 TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course is designed to throw students into New York City in 1775 and Paris in 1791 by recreating and engaging with the ideas and arguments of these times. The course will rely on the Reacting to the Past pedagogy. “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills. The course will be extremely hard work, but should also be intellectually engaging and, to put it simply, a good deal of fun. Click the following link to see a video of students discussing their experiences in the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUq6IU6NGOs&t=1s

Matthew Weidenfeld

Dr. Matthew Weidenfeld has a wide range of teaching interests and experience in the history of political theory and in American Politics. Recently, his courses have featured role-immersive, Reacting to the Past Simulations. These consist of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; though he advises and guides students throughout. The simulations seek to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills.

Spring 2024 POLI 63 001 Social Movements and Political Protest and Violence TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar focuses on explaining and understanding social movements and the collective political behaviors that they promote (e.g. demonstrations, protests, violence, and eco-terrorism). Our theoretical focus will be interdisciplinary, drawing on research in political behavior, social psychology, sociology, political theory, and the law. We will discuss when and why collective action occurs, who participates, what forms it takes, and how governments respond. Substantively, we will study a variety of movements including: Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movement, the Environmental movement, the White Nationalist movement, COVID protests, and the January 6th Capitol protest. We will use a variety of approaches and resources: class discussions, films, online forum discussions, and texts. Grades will be based on class participation, forum participation, a writing project, and several group papers.

Pamela Conover

Pamela Conover, Burton Craige Professor of Political Science, was educated at Emory University and received her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Professor Conover teaches courses dealing with political psychology, women and politics, and social movements and political protest. In the past, Professor Conover’s research has concerned the nature of political thinking and the politics of identity and citizenship. She also coauthored the book Feminism and the New Right. Her current research is focused on election aversion, religious freedom, and the effect of worldviews on political behavior. In her spare time, she enjoys cycling, yoga and being walked by her two golden retrievers, Sophie and Henry.

Spring 2024 POLI 75 001 Thinking about Law MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Are you interested in being a lawyer or public official? Do you know what it means to “think like a lawyer?” Have you considered why people mostly honor the law? Where do you find “the law?” How do judges decide difficult cases? This seminar will explore the notion of a rule of law, formal and customary law, legal analysis, judicial interpretation and the realities of the adversarial system and law practice. We will consider what makes law seem legitimate and how to assess whether it promotes liberty and justice. This seminar will challenge students to be reflective and critical about their own perspectives and to explore personal responsibility for promoting a rule of law. Students will be engaged in analytical thinking and expression through required participation in teacher-led dialogues based on assigned readings and with research and writing assignments. Reading materials include selections from court cases and other sources that provide an introduction to the notion of a rule of law, the sources of law that govern us and protect our individual rights, the nature of legal analysis, the different methods of judicial interpretation, and the realities of law practice and the adversarial system.

Charles Szypszak

Charles Szypszak is Albert Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government. He has been with the School of Government since 2005. Prior to that, he was an attorney and director of a general practice firm in New Hampshire. He provides legal counsel to state, national and international institutions, organizations and public officials and teaches Law for Public Administration in the graduate program in public administration. He has taught and worked on law reforms in Poland and Russia. He is the recipient of the University’s J. Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award and the School of Government’s Coates Distinguished Professorship for Teaching Excellence.

Spring 2024 POLI 77 001 Immigrants and Refugees in World Politics TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The movement of people across international borders is one of the most politically controversial issues in the world today. This class focuses on two different types of global migrants, immigrants and refugees, and explores why these two groups move out of their countries and how they are treated by receiving countries. Immigrants and refugees have traditionally been thought of as politically, legally and ethically different from each other and this class explores these differences, but it also explores the many ways that they are similar. Finally, the class explores a third type of global migrant that politicians and policy makers frequently promote, guest workers, and considers to what extent guest worker policies can effectively address the challenges and opportunities posed by the two other migrant groups. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Spring 2024 POLI 89 001 Global Politics of Climate Change MW 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the politics of climate change at multiple levels of policy making, from global efforts down to local communities. Throughout the course, climate policy is investigated as a result of the interplay of science and politics. At each level of politics – global, regional (EU), country (US), sub-national (US states), and local (regional and city) – students will have the opportunity to review existing policy approaches, explore official inter-governmental and governmental policies, and read social science analyses. In addition, at each level, a scientific expert and/or activist will visit class to interact on climate issues. Student participation is required, with the format for class meetings combining a mixture of lectures and discussions as well as expert and activist speakers, video resources, and group presentations.

Robert Jenkins

Dr. Robert Jenkins has a combined thirty years of teaching experience at UNC and Yale University. He regularly teaches courses on international organizations, Transatlantic security, ethnic conflict and international intervention in former Yugoslavia, crises and change in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the comparative political mobilization of race and ethnicity. He has led study abroad programs in the Balkans and Vienna, Brussels and London, and Cape Town, South Africa. Common themes of these experiential programs are the activities of international organizations and conflicts over race and ethnic identity. In the past three years, he has systematically incorporated climate change into his teaching on security and international organizations. Based on this understanding of the growing threat of climate change and the range of global efforts to develop climate policies, he will bring his enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning to this new course.

Spring 2024 POLI 89 002 Introduction to Constitutional Conflicts (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the issues, arguments, history, impact, and reasoning arising from or in conflicts between presidents and Congress. The constitutional conflicts that are the focus of the course involve presidents and Congress fighting for primacy in areas in which they have shared constitutional powers.

Michael Gerhardt

Michael Gerhardt is the Burton Craig Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina Law School. He is the author of seven books, including The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy, which the Financial Times named as one of the best non-fiction books of 2013, and over 100 articles on constitutional law. He has testified more than 20 times before the House or Senate, has been special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the confirmation proceedings for seven of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court, and served as special counsel to the Presiding Officer in Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate.

Spring 2024 PSYC 54 001 Families and Children TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The goal of this first-year seminar course is to familiarize students with a range of topics associated with contemporary families, with a specific focus on familial influences on child and adolescent development. Also, given the increasing diversity among families in contemporary society, this course will increase knowledge of the various domains of diversity (i.e., developmental stage, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity) as well as help students be attuned to pertinent issues faced by these families. Select course topics include 1) demographic trends of families; 2) parenting and development; 3) sibling relationships; 4) cultural contexts of parenting and families; 5) media and technology; 6) neighborhood and community influences; and 7) youth civic engagement.

Shauna Cooper

Dr. Shauna M. Cooper is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on how social contexts and experiences shape development. Much of her research examines the family, school, and community contexts of development and youth well-being as well as how culture may shape parenting and family processes. Her research lab is the Strengths, Assets, and Resilience (StAR) Lab at UNC: thestarlab.org.

Spring 2024 PLCY 51 001 The Global Environment in the 21st Century TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Explores linkages among nations, global environmental institutions, and the environmental problems they cause and seek to rectify. Introduces pressing challenges of the global environment, particularly around energy use and climate change, and potential solutions. Discusses perspectives of nations, NGOs, and the international community involved in crafting policy solutions. This class does not have any prerequisites.

Elizabeth Sasser

Elizabeth Sasser is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Public Policy with extensive experience in federal and state government. Prior to joining UNC, she served as policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she worked with U.S. and Chinese government leadership on strategies to advance U.S. interests on environmental and energy issues. She was also a policy advisor to two North Carolina governors on energy and education issues. She has a B.A. and an M.P.P. from Duke University and has studied at Peking University in Beijing, China, where she developed a fluency in Mandarin.

Spring 2024 PLCY 89 001 Ethics and Food Policy TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

If you eat, you are impacted by federal, state, and local food policies. These policies are, in turn, shaped by values. Over the course of the semester, we examine the values that underpin different approaches to food policy, including food labeling, nutrition assistance, agricultural subsidies, and responses to food deserts.

Nora Hanagan

Professor Nora Hanagan studies political ideas. She is particularly interested in the ideas that have animated American politics and history. She also researches different approaches to environmental and food politics. Her book, Democratic Responsibility: The Politics of Many Hands in America, examines whether individuals bear responsibility for harms that are caused by social institutions and processes. When she isn’t chasing her young children around, she likes gardening and hiking.

Spring 2024 RELI 65 001 Myth, Philosophy, and Science in the Ancient World TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This interdisciplinary course explores various, often conflicting ways of conceiving and shaping reality in the ancient world – religious, scientific, and philosophical. The course is organized around a series of case studies: (1) the formation and makeup of the cosmos; (2) the origin of mankind and its sexual differentiation; (3) the invention of the ‘self’; (4) the origin and nature of dreams; (5) foundations of law, justice, and morality. Short writing assignments, in-class discussions, oral presentations, and a term-paper will be used to introduce students into a complex intellectual network of natural scientists, philosophers, and oral story-tellers throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Readings include Near Eastern mythical narratives and Homeric poems and hymns; selections from the earliest Greek philosophers through Plato’s dialogues to Hellenistic and Roman philosophical schools; works from the famous Hippocratic corpus and Galen’s medical treatises; and various religious texts from ancient Greece and Rome, early Christianity, and late antiquity.

Zlatko Pleše

Zlatko Pleše received his PhD in Classics at Yale University, where he specialized in ancient philosophy and medicine, early Christianity, Hellenistic rhetoric and Coptic language. He taught at various universities in Europe and the US, including Yale and Wesleyan University, and is currently Professor of Ancient Mediterranean religions (Greco-Roman world, early Christianity and late antiquity) at Carolina. He has published monographs and articles on Platonist philosophers of the Roman imperial period, ancient Gnostic and Hermetic writings, apocryphal gospels, and early modern theories of nationhood in South-Eastern Europe.

Zlatko Ples?e

Zlatko Ples?e received his PhD in Classics at Yale University, where he specialized in ancient philosophy and medicine, early Christianity, Hellenistic rhetoric and Coptic language. He taught at various universities in Europe and the US, including Yale and Wesleyan University, and is currently Professor of Ancient Mediterranean religions (Greco-Roman world, early Christianity and late antiquity) at Carolina. He has published monographs and articles on Platonist philosophers of the Roman imperial period, ancient Gnostic and Hermetic writings, apocryphal gospels, and early modern theories of nationhood in South-Eastern Europe.

Spring 2024 RELI 71 001 The Spirit of Capitalism TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

In 1905 the sociologist Max Weber famously proclaimed that capitalism has a “spirit.” Beyond just determining how we make money and circulate goods, Weber argued, capitalism is deeply entangled with religious ways of life. Both religious and economic systems work together to determine what we aspire to, how we organize communities and how we define our self-worth. Beginning from this insight, this freshman seminar examines the intersection of capitalism and religion through a series of key terms, including “vocation,” “aspiration,” “commodity,” “celebrity,” and more.

Eden Consenstein

Eden Consenstein is a scholar of religion, media, and capitalism in the United States. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies and English from the University of Toronto, an M.A in Religious Studies from New York University, and a Ph.D.in the Religious Studies from Princeton University, where she also completed a certificate from the program in Media and Modernity.

She is currently working on two book projects. The first, Religion at Time Inc.: From the Beginning of Time to the End of Life, is a religious history of the major media corporation best known for Time, Life and Fortune magazines. From 1923 to 1964, Time Inc. (sometimes called the Time-Life Corporation) was run by Henry R. Luce, a self-styled theologian and leading Presbyterian layman who insisted that the press should promote high moral standards rather than aim for objectivity. Through extensive research in Time Inc.’s recently publicized corporate archives and close readings of the magazines Luce edited, Religion at Time Inc. describes how the editor’s political-theological convictions shaped Time Inc.’s media. Her second project, Pyramids of Plenty: Christianity and Multi-level Marketing, will be the first work to trace the historical entanglement of U.S. Christianity, new media, and the multi-level marketing industry.

Eden’s teaching and research interests include religion and media, consumerism and material culture, new religious movements, secularism studies, reality television, and histories of capitalism. Her work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Eisenhower Foundation, The New-York Historical Society and Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion.

Spring 2024 RELI 89 001 COMP 89-084 Lux Libertas: On the Understanding and Handling of Light TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Light has figured centrally in human explanations and manipulations of the natural world: from creation narratives, to the Copernican Revolution, to the theory of relativity, to harvesting energy from sunlight, to shaping light inside phones and screens for the capture and display of images. The goal of this course is to bring students into an intellectual encounter with light, one that will provide a history of human understandings of light, experimental encounters with light in the laboratory, and orientations to theoretical paradigms that have resulted from the human manipulation of light. At its most broad, the course aims to introduce first year students to knowledge and matter-energy as things that we study, handle, and transform.

Todd Ochoa

Todd Ramón Ochoa is a cultural anthropologist who does fieldwork with religious communities in Cuba. He is a scholar of religion specializing in how communities tell stories to create unique understandings of the world. In this co-taught course, he will focus on the way light figures in creation stories, and also how philosophy can help us grapple with the distinction between light and dark.

Montek Singh

Montek Singh is a computer scientist who is interested in the design of digital hardware systems, focusing on ways to make them run faster, consume less energy, and need less effort to design. His recent work has focused on designing new types of camera sensors, called event sensors, which capture changes in the scene only where and when they are considered interesting by the application. In this course, he will focus on the foundational scientific discoveries related to light (from Newtonian optics to Einstein's relativity), and the way light has been recorded in imagery (from tile mosaics to paintings to digital media), manipulated, and displayed.

Spring 2024 ROML 89 002 Sense of Wonder: Energy and Science Fiction TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is dedicated to the following, twinning questions: 1) How do we define energy in the literary humanities and 2) What is the ecological value of science fiction (SF)? We will answer these questions by turning to the history of French and francophone SF literature and media, calling on French philosophy and contemporary theory from a diversity of fields—including art history, anthropology, and cosmology—for supplement. Beginning with Cyrano de Bergerac’s proto SF, we will move through Jules Vernes’s scientific romance, Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s symbolism, Maurice Renard’s SF about invisible aerial aliens, Raymond Queneau’s surrealist anticipation of the new novel, Monique Wittig’s queer apocalypticism, countercultural comics, Ahmed Bouanani’s biohorror, and Marie NDiaye’s postcolonial fantastic, before concluding with Marie Darrieussecq’s SF about cloning. Along the way, we will watch SF from the history of French cinema, from Georges Méliès’s famous trip to the moon to Palme d’Or-winner Julia Ducournau’s recent Titane. Throughout the semester, we will remain attentive to questions of poetics, asking if, and if so, how and why SF generates a sense of wonder. Finally, then, what can this sense of wonder teach us about the energy crisis facing our planet today?

Sean Singh Matharoo

Sean Singh Matharoo is a transdisciplinary scholar of French- and English-language speculative literature, media, and philosophy, which he studies in the contexts of postcolonial studies, the energy humanities, and performance studies. As an alumnus of the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity, he is updating his doctoral thesis into a book, which is provisionally titled Solar Energology: Reading the Damned Poetics of a Dying Earth. Matharoo’s research responds to the Anthropocenic energy crisis and the need to transition to alternative energy sources by studying how literature, media, and philosophy contribute to the decolonization of petroculture by impelling us to find, in language, the gift of solar-powered futures. Important to this project is a theoretical framework whose possibility conditions include: 1) Alexandre Kojève's later concept of “energology,” or the study of the mediation between the dialectic of ontology and phenomenology; 2) Georges Bataille's solar economy; 3) Claude Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology; and, 4) the vitalist-structuralist pluralism of francophone Belgian science-fiction author J.-H. Rosny aîné’s Les sciences et le pluralisme (1922), which he is translating into English.

Matharoo is also a noise musician whose collaborative pieces about the environment may be understood to problematize the presupposition of colonial-racial divisions in thinking and being.

He is Book Review Assistant Editor for Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, a lab affiliate with Energy Lab Today at Georgia Tech, and is a partner/collaborator with Vision Inclusive.

Spring 2024 IDST 89 001 The Elements of Politics: The American Founding MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This seminar will examine fundamental political questions by reading selected philosophical, political, and legal texts bearing on the American Founding. Our goal will be to understand both the intellectual underpinnings of the Founding and how each text sheds light on how humans can (or should) live together in a political society. Through this lens we will examine the relationships and tensions between the individual and the community, virtue and politics, tradition and philosophy, freedom and justice. We will read thinkers like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke, Franklin, and Tocqueville, each of whose work informs or reflects on American self-government. We’ll also read the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers, examining the view of human nature and enduring political dilemmas upon which each of them depends. Finally, we’ll read select legal opinions related to our course themes. There will be several short papers and a final essay of 8-10 pages.

Rachel Gurvich

More than two decades ago, Professor Gurvich was also a first-year student at Carolina. After graduating with degrees in political science and Spanish, she attended Harvard Law School. After years at a large law firm practicing patent and appellate litigation, she came home to Carolina, where, she teaches various legal writing courses at the Law School and has won multiple teaching awards from students and colleagues. Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with her young children, British TV and literature, and ballroom dancing. Professor Gurvich is elated to be co-teaching with her mentor and favorite professor of all time.

Larry Goldberg

Dr. Goldberg’s first loves are Shakespeare and Plato (he holds degrees in Classical Greek, Literary Criticism, and English Literature). The primary focus of his teaching at UNC since 1989, has been a sequence of courses in which students discuss classics of political thought from all genres—philosophy, literature, history, essay, economics, and science–ranging from the ancients through the twentieth century. Dr. Goldberg’s passion is helping students read great authors closely and carefully.

Spring 2024 IDST 89 002 Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear and The Tempest MW 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM

The immediate purpose of this course is to help students enjoy great literature. The long-term purpose is to improve students’ skills in reading, writing and discussion. The method of instruction is practice, more like learning to play the piano than absorbing a given body of material. The class will be conducted through conversation and will require daily careful, detailed reading. The first two thirds of the course will deal with King Lear. After a preliminary reading of that play in its entirety, students will compose a brief essay. Then we’ll re-read and discuss each section of the play, carefully confronting the sources of our puzzlement. Along the way, students will build on their first essay, with the aim of refining and expanding their efforts so that the final draft represents a synoptic view of each student’s insights. In the final segment of the course, we shall read and discuss The Tempest.

Larry Goldberg

Dr. Goldberg’s first loves are Shakespeare and Plato (he holds degrees in Classical Greek, Literary Criticism, and English Literature). The primary focus of his teaching at UNC since 1989, has been a sequence of courses in which students discuss classics of political thought from all genres—philosophy, literature, history, essay, economics, and science–ranging from the ancients through the twentieth century. Dr. Goldberg’s passion is helping students read great authors closely and carefully.

Spring 2024 IDST 89 003 The Way of Medicine T 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Seminar will discuss and explore how health should be defined and various classical and contemporary views of medical practice. Ethical controversies in modern medicine will be discused and anlayzed.

John Thorp

I am the McAllister Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine and have practiced clinical medicine since 1983 in Chapel Hill. My research interests include clinical epidemiology, biomedical ethics, perinatal substance abuse, and preterm birth.

Spring 2024 INLS 73 001 Smart Cities TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

A smart city is one where the needs of a populace meet the needs of environmental sustainability. The balance between the social and environmental issues is governed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that power a smart city infrastructure. In this course, we learn about the influence of urban networks, smart city urban planning, energy as a catalyst of sustainable development, smart city infrastructure, sustainable transportation, flow of information and communications, smart grids, digital infrastructure and the role of data and information technology. We will discuss criteria for measuring the smartness of a city, including quality of life, citizen governance, and discuss issues that go towards the making of a future smart city. Several case studies will be presented with guest lecturers invited to present on critical thinking and practices in smart city development. Students will be involved in group projects to assess smartness of cities.

Arcot Rajasekar

Arcot Rajasekar is a Professor in the School of Library and Information Sciences, a Chief Scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) and co-Director of Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A leading proponent of policy-oriented large-scale data management, Rajasekar has several research projects funded by the NSF, NARA, NIH and other funding agencies. Rajasekar has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park and has more than 100 publications in the areas of data grids, digital library, persistent archives, logic programming and artificial intelligence. His latest projects include the Datanet Federation Consortium and the Data Bridge that is building a social network platform for scientific data.

Spring 2024 SOCM 89 001 Recognizing 'Others': Living with Difference and Disabilities (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This is a seminar about people with enduring stigmatized conditions–people whose lives are at once extraordinary and commonplace, unexpected and average. We will explore and discuss the experiences of individuals who live with disabilities, stigmatized behaviors and appearance, and who have chronic illnesses that mark them as different in ways that are devalued, or dangerous, or who deviate from or violate multiple norms. We will examine social, political, personal, and medical views of individuals with enduring, de-valued differences in anatomy, appearance, functioning, and behavior. The reading and discussions will include first person accounts or illness narratives, clinical and social science research, public health and policy, and the images of disabled and deviant persons in the media, literature and film. The class will also draw on the perspectives of families and relatives of disabled persons, as well as disability policy, advocacy and popular culture views. Students will engage in observational exercises, learning from a range of materials, and will write brief reflections and analyses of what they have learned and questions they wish to pursue further.

Sue Estroff

Sue Estroff a medical anthropologist with post doctoral training in psychiatry who does research on difference and disability. She has been teaching medical students and residents in the UNC School of Medicine in the Department of Social Medicine since 1982. Estroff also has an appointment in the UNC Department of Anthropology. Her research and teaching focus on learning from people living with stigmatized and debilitating conditions such as schizophrenia, spina bifida, addictions, sensory deficits, mobility challenges, and addictions to name a few. Her teaching involves experiential and personalized learning, collaboration with and among students, and learning from science as well as first person narratives, literature, film, politics, and advocacy. Estroff was UNC faculty chair from 2000-03 and is still involved in faculty governance. She received a post baccalaureate teaching award in the past and looks forward to learning with and from undergraduate students. Estroff lives with two golden retrievers who keep her on the trails in Duke Forest, and busy making sure they don't eat deer droppings, sticks, and pinecones.

Spring 2024 SOCM 89 002 Visual Cultures of Biology and Medicine TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar explores visualization, imaging, and graphic representation in biosciences and medicine. The course is anthropological and philosophical – with readings from a range of disciplines. We consider autopsis (seeing for oneself), as well as visual technologies like photography, cinema, microscopy, surveillance, and archives, in broad historical contexts. We compare observation in hospitals and laboratories with observation in other institutions. We consider philosophical aspects of perception – including ways in which even “ordinary” seeing is bound up with historical and aesthetic conventions, and with the exercise of power. We engage conceptions of truth and believability, both for professionals and laypersons. Most sessions involve discussion of images, along with shared readings. Several class sessions feature guests who work intensively with images. One or two sessions involve visiting the Ackland Art Museum. Student pairs also present guided independent research on cultural dimensions of particular modes of seeing or categories of images.

Barry Saunders

Saunders is a cultural anthropologist, recovering ER doc, and long-ago wet lab bench worker. Though his institutional home is in the Department of Social Medicine in the School of Medicine, he also has appointments in Anthropology, Communication Studies, & Religious Studies. He teaches in and co-directs the UNC medical students’ required preclinical courses in Social and Health Systems. He has long been interested in how we know what we know, and what we consider “evidence.” He remembers well how crucial some particular professors were, early in his own UNC undergraduate education, in helping him begin to learn how to think.

Spring 2024 SOCI 53 001 The Consequences of Welfare Reform and Prospects for the Future TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

President Bill Clinton ended “welfare as we know it” in 1996 when he signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law. This significant and historical welfare reform fundamentally changed the federal safety net in the United States and abolished guaranteed aid for those in poverty. In this first-year seminar, we will use a sociological lens to investigate the causes and consequences of welfare reform, as well as the subsequent expansion of other antipoverty programs designed to help the working poor. We will consider a range of viewpoints that inform current policy debates. Topics will include the conceptualization and measurement of poverty, causes of poverty, public and political attitudes toward welfare and the role of the government, and the implementation and efficacy of antipoverty policies.

Jessica Su

Dr. Jessica Houston Su is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow in the Carolina Population Center. Her research focuses on social inequality in American family life. At first glance, family formation may seem very individualized; decisions about whom we marry, when we have children, and how we raise them are personal. Her work investigates how social inequality contributes to patterns of family formation at the population level, and subsequently affects the development and well-being of parents and children. Her research appears in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Demography, the Journal of Marriage and Family, and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University and her B.A. in Sociology from Dartmouth College.

Spring 2024 SOCI 57H 001 Rationalization and the Changing Nature of Social Life in 21st-Century America TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Today, fast food restaurants have become a model for everyday life. Some scholars have even talked about the “McDonaldization” of the nation and the world. By that, scholars mean a drive toward greater efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control by non-human technologies in modern organizations. This drive has shaped many features of American life, including health care, law, and education. Such forces have even affected personal relationships. Sociologists have a term for this process: “rationalization.” We will explore “rationalization” through a process called “active learning” in which you will have opportunities to explore online resources, engage in peer-to-peer discussions, and work with me to develop a research project in which you explore the impact of rationalization on an occupation that might be a destination for you. We will spend one class period, every other week, working on the term paper in class. We will have four or five guests, sharing their expertise on how rationalization has affected their work. You will be assessed based on your timely contributions to blog posts, class discussion, short answer written assignments, and a research project culminating in a term paper (15-20 pages). You will then build an Adobe Spark page that explains, to the world, what you have learned. We will have no traditional examinations or quizzes.We will explore the use of generative AI, such as via ChatGPT4, as a tool in academic research & writing.

Visit https://proxy.qualtrics.com/proxy/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhowardaldrich.org&token=g9C4Y%2BQvXLdo%2BRwk%2By9aQVJv7foj5eOKRKanqFpD1i8%3D to view samples of prior term papers. Click on “Rationalization” in the top ribbon to see the beautifully illustrated term projects.

Additional Information
There are written assignments for every class. They are challenging but doable. Excellence is achievable through technique, discipline, and attitude, as we’ll learn via readings & assignments.

Howard Aldrich

Howard E. Aldrich is Kenan Professor of Sociology. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and mentoring: Favorite Professor Award from the senior class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; graduate students’ Award for Best Teaching, Department of Sociology, several times; and the J Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award from the University of Carolina Chapel Hill. His two sons and his daughters-in-law graduated from Carolina. Alas, his grandchildren have gone elsewhere. His main research interests are entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial team formation, gender and entrepreneurship, and evolutionary theory. He enjoys foreign travel and he fly fishes year-round in the mountains of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee and wherever else his travels may take him. Photos of his catches may be viewed on his homepage, as well as samples of students’ work in prior semesters. Look for “Rationalization.”

Spring 2024 SOCI 89 001 Black Feminism  TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Black Feminism is a first-year seminar that introduces students to black feminist theory and praxis. In this course, we will explore central themes and conversations around intersecting systems of domination. We will critically interrogate power and how inequality shapes policies, institutions, and our day-to-day lives. Topics will include (1) black feminist theory: past and present; (2) carcerality and violence; (3) resistance and solidarity; and (4) abolition and belonging. Students will develop critical analytic, research, and writing skills while thoughtfully engaging with interdisciplinary theories of black feminism.

Shannon Malone Gonzalez

Dr. Shannon Malone Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow in the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines the relationship between marginality and policing. Dr. Malone Gonzalez is especially interested in how black women and girls experience, understand, and resist police surveillance and violence. Drawing from black feminism and critical criminology, Dr. Malone Gonzalez uses mixed methods to investigate the social conditions that shape and obscure black women and girls' experiences of policing across social institutions and contexts.

Spring 2024 DRAM 80 001 Psychology of Clothes: Motivations for Dressing Up and Dressing Down TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The course seeks to help students find ways to articulate their own motivations for dress and then apply the ideas they have discovered to the ways in which individuality as well as group attitudes are expressed through clothing.

Pamela Bond

Pamela Bond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art. Pamela has taught at Hampton University and North Carolina Central University. Her recent work includes costume design for The Bus Stop featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has performed professionally at the National Black Theatre Festival and featured apparel designs in Charlotte Fashion Week and Winston Salem Fashion Week. Pamela believes that in order for students to experience the full scope as theatre practitioners they must be willing to explore diverse ethnic and cultural backdrops, as well as their own. So what does your clothing say about you? What messages are you trying to send with what you put on today? Let’s explore your closet and see who you are.

Spring 2024 ASIA 57 001 Dis-Orienting the Orient MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

Examines how the East is constructed as the Orient in different historical periods: 19th-century European colonialism, 1950s to 1960s Hollywood films, contemporary Japanese animation, and the current global war on terrorism.

Dwayne Dixon

Dwayne Dixon’s ethnographic research is focused on several intersecting issues within a broadly imagined Asia: youth culture, city spaces and urban life, media, and body experiences. These various interests coalesce in his work on Japanese young people situated in Tokyo, especially the lives and practices of skateboarders. As an anthropologist, he emphasizes fieldwork methods of extended engagement with his subjects, including the use of ethnographic video to produce visual documents that coincide with the use of video cameras by the young people themselves. His ongoing research into Asian skateboard culture involves studying the global incorporation of young skateboarders into the Olympic structure in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games where skateboarding will be included for the first time. Additionally, he is doing research on guns as a prosthetic; investigating the ways training and imagination construct an embodied relationship between the physical perception of perpetual threat as it relates to the immediate environment and the unknown. This research is informed by changes in small arms use and the narratives around them since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reshaped the global arms trade and the specific American experience of conflict in Western Asia.

Spring 2024 AMST 89 002 What is Critical Race Theory? TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

One of the most misunderstood terms to enter the public consciousness in recent years is “critical race theory.” It is a term that, by now, we have all heard, have at least some vague concept of what it is about, and have some inclination – depending on our political leanings – to either defend or reject it.

But what is it really? Where did it come from? How it is used? Why has it become part of the public consciousness? Is it really something that I want to defend or reject depending on my political leanings? What happens when we bridge the gap between the empty signifier that is bandied about on cable news channels and the scholarship that started, continues to fuel, and critiques this movement?

This class offers a real grounding in what is too often an empty term in the public discourse. We will examine critical race theory’s history, big ideas, important thinkers, and serious critiques. We will openly, honestly, and respectfully engage with an important, misunderstood, and politically fraught movements in American law and society.

Keith Richotte

In addition to teaching at UNC, Keith Richotte is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, an Associate Justice on the Turtle Mountain Tribal Court of Appeals, and the Chief Justice on the Spirit Lake Tribal Court of Appeals. He has a J.D. and LL.M. in addition to his Ph.D. and his scholarship focuses on federal Indian law, tribal law, constitutionalism, and governance.

Spring 2024 ROML 89 001 Discovering Animals: Culture and Creativity TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Animals have been central to the human imagination since the days of cave paintings. They have always played key roles in the way we connect with the world. We dream about them, we connect with them in our myths and stories, and we embrace them in our everyday lives. In this seminar, we will explore many animal stories together and learn to create new ones, attempting to envision the world from their perspective. Students will read literary and scientific texts, watch films, and be encouraged to write about (or on behalf of) animals, expanding their creativity to the nonhuman realm.

Serenella Iovino

Serenella Iovino specializes in environmental humanities, but her work encompasses many fields, from ecological literary criticism and animal studies to environmental philosophy and landscape anthropology. An essayist and public intellectual, she's author and editor of twelve books. For several years, she has been collaborating with newspapers and other mass media. She loves teaching and has spent her life interacting with and learning from animals (both human and nonhuman ones), and has a soft spot for chickens, dogs, and bees. Happy place: Venice. Favorite meal: a lot of fruit, plus a slice of pizza.

Fall 2024 APPL 110 03F Introduction to Design and Making: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Glenn Walters

I am a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. In this role, I am developing and teaching courses covering fundamentals of engineering in such areas as design, fluids, hydraulics, additive manufacturing, etc. My specialty is creating curriculum that focuses on experiential activities that develop student intuition as a pathway to learning theory and practice.

Fall 2024 BIOL 101 01F Principles of Biology MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

This course is the prerequisite to most higher courses in biology. An introduction to the fundamental principles of biology, including cell structure, chemistry, and function; genetics; evolution; adaptation; and ecology. (See department concerning Advanced Placement credit.) Three lecture hours a week.

Jordan Claytor

Jordan Claytor is originally from Maryland and received his undergraduate degree in biology from Elon University. As an undergraduate, he did research investigating how anthropogenic noises impacted the behavior of bottlenose dolphins. His interest in dinosaurs and paleontology developed during an internship at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History studying landscape ecology using micro-vertebrate fossils. He was featured in the NOVA program, Dinosaur Apocalypse: The Last Day on PBS. His current research is on the evolution and ecology of early mammals using morphology independent methods to infer diet.

Fall 2024 BIOL 104 01F Biodiversity TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The biological diversity we see on Earth today encompasses a variety of genetic, species, and ecosystem level variation. This course will focus on the biological principles that push biologists to understand what produces and sustains the biodiversity of life on Earth. This class will address key questions about how we identify and measure biological diversity, how it changes over time, and why biological diversity matters as our planet continues to change.

Mara Evans
Fall 2024 CHEM 102 02F General Descriptive Chemistry II MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

The course is the second in a two-semester sequence. See also CHEM 101. Solutions, thermochemical changes including conservation of energy, thermodynamics, reaction rates, chemical equilibria including acid-base chemistry, and electrochemistry.

Carribeth Bliem

Carribeth Bliem, a Teaching Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department, has been teaching at UNC-CH for 21 years. Her favorite course is CHEM 102 because it demonstrates many of the ways that chemistry impacts people's daily lives. She loves interacting with UNC undergraduates because they bring enthusiasm to make the world a better place. When not in the classroom, she conducts research in chemistry education, currently how both room design and undergraduate learning assistants can contribute to student learning.

Fall 2024 DRAM 120 01F Play Analysis TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Development of the skill to analyze plays for academic and production purposes through the intensive study of representative plays. DRAM 120 is the first course in the major and the minor in dramatic art.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2024 ECON 101H 01F ECON 101H-601 Introduction to Economics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Introduction to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, inflation, and the determination of prices.

Sergio Parreiras

Professor Parreiras has broad research interests in economics of information and game theory. His most recent research has concentrated on auctions and mechanism design. His recent publications include papers in the Journal of Economic Theory and Games and Economic Behavior.

Fall 2024 ENEC 201 01F ENEC 201-735, ENEC 201-736 Introduction to Environment and Society MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Human-environment interactions are examined through analytical methods from the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. The focus is on the role of social, political, and economic factors in controlling interactions between society and the environment in historical and cultural contexts. Three lecture hours and one recitation hour a week.

Gregory Gangi

In his teaching, Greg Gangi conveys a complex understanding of environmental challenges and explores innovative solutions. His teaching extends beyond the classroom as he leads students to many countries to learn firsthand about global change and innovation. He organized several educational trips to Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic nations. Given the role that South Korea and China play in shaping the future of technology, he plans to guide students in learning from these two nations during the summer of 2019.

Gangi received various awards at UNC and a national award for his advising and mentoring of students. In 2014, he was awarded the NACADA Award for Outstanding Faculty Advisor. He received the Tanner Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010 and the University recognized him with the Massey Award for Outstanding Service in 2018.

In addition to his teaching, Gangi works to create networks in North Carolina between industry, academia, and government to help strengthen innovation. He also seeks to foster international networks that connect companies in the Clean Tech sector with North Carolina. He defines clean technology broadly to include companies in clean energy, smart cities, water technologies, innovations to make transportation more sustainable, building technologies and solutions that improve food security and agricultural sustainability. He is the lead organizer of the annual UNC Clean Tech Summit, which represents the largest event of its kind in the southeastern region of the United States.

Fall 2024 GLBL 221 01F The Migratory Experience TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The course will critically analyze the migrant experience in North America and Europe with a focus on the experience of migrants from Mexico. Although the popular media often portrays migrants as agentless individuals making haphazard decisions, migration is a calculated decision that individuals, families, and groups make to improve their living conditions. We will explore the motivation of migrants, the nature of the migrant journey to their destination states, and their integration and adaptation into their new host societies. Through historical readings, selected works of literature, documentaries and my own firsthand lived experiences as a Latina immigrant, we will examine what motivates and drives their choices, what guides their actions, and what keeps them grounded during their perilous journey.

By the end of the course, students will:
• Develop a clear understanding of the theories driving migration and the various motivations (forced or voluntary) of individuals embarking in this journey.
• Become familiarized with the policies implemented by sending and receiving countries.
• Understand the reception and backlash migrants face.

Carmen Huerta-Bapat

Dr. Huerta-Bapat holds a PhD in sociology from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MA in sociology from UNC–Chapel Hill, and an MA in political science from Rice University. She has proudly “sampled” multiple Ph.D programs before settling as a sociologist and consequently her understanding of the world and how she conceptualized knowledge is multi-foci. Her research agenda takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how institutions such as universities, schools and police bureaucracies are working to incorporate underrepresented racial and ethnic groups with a particular interest in immigrant communities. Her research ranges from exploring police behavior toward new Latino immigrants in North Carolina, the social and health impact associated with persecutory immigration policies, the negative impact of micro-aggressions on first-generation college students, and parental involvement amongst Latino families in public education. Her recent work with the School of Public Health draws on her social science training, lived experiences as a Latina immigrant to ensure that health interventions with marginalized communities are not prescriptive, paternalistic and overbearing, but instead they are grounded on respect, mutual understanding and enduring social relations to yield change for all parties involved. In addition to her research work she owns Borderless Equity- a consulting firm specializing in help organizations improve their internal cohesiveness, morale and productivity. Some of her clients include the Department of Health and Human Services in NC, The Airforce Research Lab, and various Care Management Organizations in New Jersey.

Fall 2024 MATH 231 01F MATH 231-626 Calculus of Functions of One Variable I MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

Calculus is the mathematical study of change or movement. In the course, we will study limits, derivatives, and integrals along with their applications.

Jason Metcalfe

Jason Metcalfe is a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor and currently is the Chair of the Department of Mathematics. His research speciality is the analysis of partial differential equations, and in particular, he focuses on waves (and the effect of background geometry, such as black holes, on their behavior). Metcalfe has been at UNC since 2007, and he has received the Board of Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and was twice the recipient of his department's teaching award, the Goodman-Petersen Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Fall 2024 MATH 233 01F MATH 233-621 Calculus of Functions of Several Variables TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Vector algebra, solid analytic geometry, partial derivatives, multiple integrals.

Yaiza Canzani Garcia
Fall 2024 MUSC 120 01F Foundations in Music MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

If you are planning on majoring or minoring in music: this course is designed to open up the pathways in music at Carolina for you. It’s an introduction to the different approaches to thinking about and doing music–whether you’re an active performer, an electronic music fiend, a budding music researcher, an entrepreneurial arts administrator in the making…or more! Our classroom meetings expose students to a range of ways to “think about music,” emphasizing the breadth of routes music and sound take through human lives. As a foundational component of the music major and minor, the course emphasizes a range of genres of music making and fosters curious listening. Sometimes we’ll be challenged to think differently about very familiar sounds, sometimes challenged to connect to music very different from that we feel as ours. Expect to leave the semester with a new sense of what music can be for you at Carolina.

Naomi André

Dr. Naomi André (David G. Frey Distinguished Professor) received her B.A. in music from Barnard College and M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University. She was previously a professor at the University of Michigan in the Departments of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College.

Dr. André's research focuses on opera and issues surrounding gender, voice, and race. Her publications include topics on Italian opera, Schoenberg, women composers, and teaching opera in prisons. Her books, including, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (2006) and Blackness in Opera (2012, co-edited collection) focus on opera from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and explore constructions of gender, race and identity. African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021, co-edited collection) focuses on how performance and the arts shape the narratives of cultural history and politics on the African continent. Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (2018) is a monograph on staging race and history in opera today in the United States and South Africa. She has served on the Graduate Alumni Council for Harvard University's Graduate School of Art and Sciences, the Executive Committee for the Criminal Justice Program at the American Friends Service Committee (Ann Arbor, MI), and has served as an evaluator for the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.

In 2019, Dr. André was named the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera which has continued to the present. In her role, she advises Seattle Opera staff and leadership on matters of race and gender in opera; consults in artistic planning as it relates to representation of race and gender; and participates in company panel discussions, podcast recordings, and contributes essays to opera programs. She has continued to work with major and regional opera companies through panels, short residencies, and program essays.

In addition, Dr. André has worked with every major opera company in the United States and many regional opera companies and festivals. This summer she is a scholar-in-residence for the Des Moines Metro Opera. She has written program essays for recordings of Blue (CD, Tesori and Thompson, 2022) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (DVD Blanchard and Lemmons 2022). On February 4, 2022 she testified before the Committee on the Judiciary as a Witness for House Resolution 301 hearing (Examining the History and Importance of Lift Every Voice and Sing to become a National Hymn (sponsored by Congressman James E. Clyburn, South Carolina).

Fall 2024 PHYS 118 02F PHYS 118-401 Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Muxin Zhang

Muxin Zhang received her PhD in Physics Education Research (PER) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 with Dr. Eric Kuo. Her thesis focused on analyzing cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of small group interactions in physics discussion sections and labs. She is particularly passionate about understanding the role of emotions in science education and scientific practices. She is currently teaching Physics 114 and Physics 118 courses at UNC-CH.

Fall 2024 PHYS 118H 02F PHYS 118H-402 Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Dmitri Khveshchehno
  • Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2000-current;
  • Assistant Professor, Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, (Copenhagen), 1995-1999;
  • Research Associate, Department of Physics, Princeton University, 1993-1995;
  • Research Associate, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, 1992-1993.
  • PhD:1989;
  • Master degree: 1985.
Fall 2024 PSYC 101 01F General Psychology MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Fall 2024 PSYC 101 02F General Psychology MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Fall 2024 STOR 120 03F STOR 120-405 Foundations of Statistics and Data Science MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

This course teaches critical concepts and skills in computer programming and statistical inference, in conjunction with hands-on analysis of real-world datasets, including economic data, document collections, geographical data, and social networks. It delves into social issues surrounding data analysis such as privacy and design.

Nicolas Fraiman Borrazas
Fall 2024 AAAD 50 001 Defining Blackness TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This class will explore the meanings of race and ethnicity through a transnational perspective, examining how racial and ethnic identities are constructed, negotiated, and contested across different national and cultural contexts, with a focus on the Americas, particularly Latin America.

Nadia Mosquera Muriel

Dr. Mosquera Muriel specializes in Afro-Latin American social movements and structural inequalities at the intersection of race, class, and gender, with a focus on Venezuela and Colombia. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, class, gender, culture, space, and Black political mobilizations under Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution (1999-present). As a Black Feminist ethnographer, her work sheds light on the struggles for spatial justice among Black grassroots cultural producers, artists, and political activists as they challenge structural forms of anti-Blackness and spatial inequalities in Latin America.

Her current book project, titled “Building Blackness: Culture and Resistance in the Afterlives of the Plantation in Venezuela,” deploys an ethnographic approach to theorize the role of popular culture as a tactic to galvanize anti-racist politics among Afro-descendant populations in Venezuela’s central coast. Additionally, Dr. Mosquera Muriel conducts comparative research with Afro-Colombian feminist organizations in the Departments of Cauca and Cauca Valley in southwestern Colombia to comprehend Black Colombian women’s cultural politics and their responses against misogynoir (sexism and racism). From 2021-2023 she held a position as a Postdoctoral Provost Fellow at the University of Texas in Austin. She has also held fellowships at the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), School of Advanced Studies, University of London in 2019, and the United Nations Fellowship Program for People of African Descent (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2016.

Her work is published in Bulletin of Latin American Research, Journal of Latin American Studies, and The Concise Encyclopedia of Human Geography. She currently serves on the editorial board of Gender, Place, and Culture.

Fall 2024 AAAD 58 001 Health Inequality in Africa and the African Diaspora TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines the ways that healthcare access and health itself are shaped by social, racial, and economic inequalities in our society and others. The geographic focus of this course is Africa and the United States, but case studies from the Caribbean and other African diasporic communities will be included. Drawing on research in medical anthropology, sociology, public health, and history we will gain an understanding of the political, economic, and social factors that create health inequalities. Topics include gender inequality and HIV/AIDS in Africa; race and chronic disease in the U.S.; inequality and the practice of global health; and how racial difference has historically been used to justify and explain health disparities. Students will gain experience with ethnographic research methods, and work on small qualitative research projects investigating health inequality in their own communities.

Lydia Boyd

Lydia Boyd is an associate professor of African, African American, and Diaspora studies and is trained as a cultural and medical anthropologist, with a research focus in Uganda. Her work considers issues of health, culture, and the moral and political frameworks that shape health behavior. Her first book examined the impact and reception of the U.S.'s global AIDS treatment and prevention policy (PEPFAR) in Uganda. Her current work focuses on Ugandan women's decision-making during pregnancy and perceptions and experiences of both biomedical and non-biomedical forms of care.

Fall 2024 AAAD 89 001 Afro-Latinxs in the U.S. TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

What does it mean to be both racially Black and ethnically Latino in the U.S.? This discussion-based course will look at the history, culture, experiences, political struggles, and social dilemmas of “Afro-Latina/o/xs”: African-descended peoples from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean who reside in the U.S. The erasure of these communities, along with their struggles for well-being, prosperity, belonging, and visibility, will be explored. The class provides an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade, ethno-nationalism, and U.S. foreign-policy, and their connection to contemporary issues of migration, sexism, inequality, and anti-blackness. In-depth conversations about the politics of “race” and “ethnicity” will trouble dominant U.S. paradigms of identity. We will engage with a variety of sources, from academic books and scholarly articles to film. Students will synthesize their understanding through daily forum posts, a collaboratively-prepared presentation, an essay, and a group research project.

Maya Berry

Maya Berry is a sociocultural anthropologist who writes on topics related to race, gender, politics, and performance in Cuba, as well as black feminist approaches to ethnographic methods more broadly. She earned a PhD. in Anthropology from University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Prior to joining AAAD at UNC-Chapel Hill, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. A third-generation Afro-Cuban-American, she is practitioner and researcher of Afro-Cuban dance. For her teaching at UNC she has been awarded the Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award in Engaged Teaching (2020) and the Johnston Teaching Excellence Award (2021).

Fall 2024 AAAD 89 002 Women of the Black Atlantic TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course examines constructions of gender and individual and collective responses to developing systems of inequality in the Atlantic world shaped by sex, race, and class. Students analyze and compare how African, European, and American societies constructed the category of “woman” and the constraints and liberties these constructions imposed.

Course participants document and examine how concepts of race and processes of racialization impacted experience for African and African descent women throughout the Atlantic World. Course readings survey societies from the early modern period to the twentieth century focusing on power, kinship, labor, and sexuality in daily life. The course highlights women’s cultures of resistance to interlocking systems of oppression in West and West Central Africa, the Caribbean, and North and South America. Students will engage travel writing, visual art, and historic Afro-Atlantic spiritual traditions as critical source materials.

Alicia Monroe

Alicia L. Monroe is a historian of modern Latin America specializing in the study of slavery, freedom, and black-identified religious and secular associations in nineteenth and twentieth century southeastern Brazil. Her research focuses on African diaspora religious experiences, post-emancipation civic societies, and representations of Afro-Brazilian laborers in early Brazilian photography with an emphasis on gender and lived experience. Her research has received support from the J. William Fulbright Fellowship, the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, and UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Her recent publications have appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review and the Journal of Africana Religions.

Fall 2024 AMST 60 001 American Indians in History, Law, and Literature MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

This research seminar provides a broad grounding in American Indian law, history and literature through an exploration of the remarkable life and times of Flathead author, intellectual and activist D’Arcy McNickle (1904-1977). We will read D’Arcy McNickle’s novels, short stories, histories and essays, as well as secondary works about him. Even better, we will be working with D’Arcy McNickle’s handwritten and heretofore unpublished diary. You will have an opportunity to transcribe and contextualize passages and then share (probably through digital technologies) what you have learned about history, law, literature (and much, much more) through his life story. Rather than just being a passive recipient of information, you will be creator of new knowledge!

Daniel Cobb

Daniel M. Cobb is an award-winning writer and teacher committed to the scholarship of engagement, public outreach and service to the profession. His research and teaching focus on American Indian history since 1887, political activism, ethnohistorical methods, ethnobiography, memory and global indigenous rights. His first book, Native Activism in Cold War America (2008), won the inaugural Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award in 2009. His other publications include the edited works Beyond Red Power (2007) and Memory Matters (2011), a revised and expanded fourth edition of William T. Hagan’s classic work American Indians (2013) and Say We Are Nations (2015), a primary document collection on Native politics and protest from the late nineteenth century to the present. Works in progress include biographies of Ponca activist Clyde Warrior, a central figure in the American Indian youth movement of the 1960s, and D’Arcy McNickle.

Fall 2024 ANTH 53H 037 Darwin's Dangerous Idea TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to one of the most profound revolutions in the history of thought, generating stunning insights but also some misunderstanding and tragic abuse. This seminar aims to provide a clear understanding of how natural selection works, and how it doesn’t. We will examine objections to the theory; how the environmental and health problems we face today reflect processes of natural selection in the past and now; and recent attempts to understand why we get sick, how we respond to disease, why we get old, when and why we fight or help one another, why we choose mates the way we do, and more. Class sessions will feature a mix of lecture and discussion of concepts and issues. Students will also engage in small group projects—cooperative explorations of problems raised in class or in the readings and/or designing mini research projects.

Paul Leslie

Paul Leslie’s professional interests focus on human ecology, and he has pursued this primarily through research among nomadic peoples in East Africa. His most recent project entails studying (while nursing an aged Land Rover across the African savanna) human-environment interactions in northern Tanzania, especially how the changing land use and livelihood patterns of the Maasai people living there affect and are affected by wildlife and conservation efforts. When not teaching or practicing anthropology, he enjoys bicycling, motorcycling, woodworking, and jazz.

Fall 2024 ANTH 62 001 Indian Country Today MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

With the United States as our geographic focus, this seminar explores a range of 20th- and early-21st-century American Indian topics and current issues. We look at Indian casinos, tribal colleges, identity, gender, tribal courts, sports, and other topics. An exploration of the history of American Indians before and after the arrival of Europeans, a history with which we begin the seminar, provides essential background for looking at the present and recent past. This seminar will help students better understand the challenges facing American Indian communities both internally and externally and the creative solutions being forged to address these challenges. It will also help students further develop skills in reading, writing, critical analysis, and public speaking.

Valerie Lambert

Valerie Lambert is professor of anthropology and an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and has won awards for undergraduate teaching and for each of her two single-authored books. Her first book is about her Tribe; her second one is about American Indian and Alaska Native workers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She has twice been elected president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. She is the mother of two daughters, both of whom are in their twenties.

Fall 2024 ANTH 67 001 Blackness and Racialization: A Multidimensional Approach MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

Blackness and Racialization is an introduction to the history, social construction, cultural production, and lived experience of race. The course focuses on Blackness in the United States and Jamaica (for comparison), though it necessarily addresses other race formations such as Whiteness and Brownness. The course approaches racialization from three angles: historical; social; and personal. It utilizes historical, theoretical, ethnographic, and popular culture productions to explain the effects, uses, durability, and pliability of racial formations.
Some questions that the course will address include:
• What does the social construction of race mean in practice? How is race socially constructed?
• How do racial categories and identities develop, persist, and change?
• How does race work at various “levels,” such as the level of the individual, collectivity, and history?
• What are the origins of various racial stereotypes?
• Why do people have very different understandings of race, some embracing race, some rejecting race, and some claiming to not understand race at all?

Charles Price

Charles Price is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Charles’s research, writing and activity focus on Black racial identity, Rastafari identity, life narrative genres, action research, community organizations and community organizing, people-centered community development, and social movements, with a geographic concentration on the United States and Jamaica. Charles authored the book Becoming Rasta: The Origins of Rastafari Identity in Jamaica (2009, New York University Press), co-authored the monograph Community Collaborations: Promoting Community Organizing (2009, Ford Foundation), and is under contract with NYU Press to write a sequel to Becoming Rasta, a book on collective identity formation and ethnogenesis among the Rastafari people of Jamaica. He is developing a historically grounded qualitative approach to explaining collective identity formation. Another project in development involves a collaboration with a faculty member to develop an action-oriented study of how Black men in North Carolina and Connecticut negotiate challenges and obstacles in their lives.

Fall 2024 ANTH 89 001 Walking in the World: The Anthropology of Moving, Knowing, and Creating TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

We learn about the world as we move through it. In moving, we change the world around us and we are transformed by our experiences. However, we are not free to move wherever we wish. We live with boundaries, some only dimly understood. And yet, sometimes we come together to challenge these boundaries and struggle to create something new.

In this class, students will learn how anthropologists create research projects to explore these questions. While our focus will be on cultural anthropology, students will be exposed to the ways in which artists, historians, geographers, novelists, philosophers, outdoor athletes, soldiers, and activists approach similar problems.

Beyond readings and small-group discussions, students will step out of the classroom to design and carry out short research projects. They will share their result in journals entries and critical essays, and I will mentor each student as they develop their ideas.

Christopher Nelson

Christopher Nelson is a cultural anthropologist. His research interests include the relationship between history and memory; the critical study of everyday life; storytelling, ritual and performance; value, exchange and sacrifice. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in Japan for nearly three decades, and recently completed book about the relationship between workers, artists, anthropologists, political activists, shaman and the dead in Okinawa. Nelson has been a Marine infantry officer, a truck driver, a factory worker, an editor of the journal Cultural Anthropology, and has taught at Carolina for the past twenty years. He is also an enthusiastic walker and hiker.

Fall 2024 ANTH 72 001 Archaeology and Popular Culture TTH 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

Archaeology often captures the popular imagination through fantastic and farfetched portrayals of lost civilizations, aliens, and spectacular treasures. While these depictions of archaeology and the past may not be accurate, the story being told is nonetheless significant and reflects something about the culture that produced it.

This course explores how these films, televisions shows, books, and video games tell stories about the past, what stories are being told, and what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and society. We will critically analyze popular representations of archaeology, comparing how competing visions of fact and fiction operate in the public sphere.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Fall 2024 APPL 60 001 Tree. Timber. Totem TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Trees, through their biology, meaning and uses, create an arc of understanding that spans what it means to be human. We will explore the meaning of trees and wood and why we seek happiness in nature, cherish wood and the creation of wood ofjects. Tree: What is a tree from a biological perspective? How do they represent a complex community and play a vital role in life on the planet? Timber: What is the economy of wood? What are biophysical and material properties of trees that allow them to grow and be so useful to human society? Totem: Why do we respond emotionally to wood and choose it as a material in our lives? How do we design and create objects of meaning from wood? We will walk in the woods, meet “wood people” from across the state and learn woodworking with projects of the the students’ design and creation.

Richard Superfine

I am the son of a home builder, a first gen life-long student who is also a faculty member that has a passion for studying biology using the perspective and tools of physics. In my day job at UNC I build microscopes, materials and systems to study the wonders of the lung, the body’s immune system and biomedical diagnostic technologies – all in collaboration with brilliant scientists from across UNC and the world. I also have a woodworking shop in my basement where I make from wood furniture and gifts of meaning for family and friends.

Fall 2024 APPL 89 002 Convergent Research: Solving the Grand Engineering Challenges of the Future TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Convergence research focuses on addressing complex problems in science, engineering, and society. Today’s and tomorrow’s grand challenges will not be solved by one discipline, but by the integration of knowledge, methods, and expertise from across various disciplines.

This first-year seminar will introduce students to the new scientific language of convergence research. Through surveying the grand challenges of engineering, we will learn how through pursuing a common research challenge, experts from various fields intermix their knowledge, theories, methods, data, and research communities, enabling new discoveries to emerge. Students will participate in various in-class activities, group discussion and problem-solving coaching to enhance understanding of how chemistry, physics, materials science, biology, math, and computer sciences are applied to engineering.

Seminar will host guest lecturers with expertise on a particular topic, allowing the students to gain a true interdisciplinary view of the subject, instead of an isolated view of each.

Ronit Fraiman

My interdisciplinary expertise in chemistry, nanotechnology, material science, and computer science allows me to study problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single area of research practice. I truly believe that collaborations among scientists trained in different fields are essential for exploring and tackling complex problems. As such, I am both a participant and a leader of integrated research teams involving a vast network of interdependent researchers. I develop breakthrough biologically inspired technologies to advance healthcare. My work has led to major advances in tissue engineering, nanobiotechnology, and diagnostics, and key innovations are being translated into commercial products

Fall 2024 ARTH 61 001 African American Art of the Carolinas MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Focusing on the Carolinas, this seminar explores the many ways African Americans have used art to define themselves and their communities. We will ask how art has been used to maintain cultural traditions, shape American culture and build political solidarity from the era of colonialism and slavery to the present. We will study the cultivation of artistic practices from Africa; African American painters, sculptors and craftsmen who earned national reputations for the quality of their work; artists who re-imagined and redefined African American identity through art; and artists throughout the 20th century who represented the daily lives and hardships of rural and working-class blacks. Students will visit campus museums and archives and conduct original research using regional sources. Persistent questions throughout the semester will include, How does the art of African Americans in the Carolinas provoke us to question our own identities and roles within the region, and what is the contemporary role of art in shaping public discourse?

John Bowles

John Bowles received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002 and is a graduate of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He is an historian of African American art, who works from the assumption that art plays an important role in determining how we see ourselves as morally responsible individuals. In his research and teaching, he attempts to convey the urgency of art by addressing moral and political dilemmas we would often rather ignore. He has published articles and art criticism in various journals and has recently completed a book that examines the work of artist Adrian Piper. He is currently writing a book that explores how African American artists have engaged simultaneously with modernism, globalization and diaspora from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s until today.

Fall 2024 ARTS 50 001 The Artistic Temperament TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Class examines how to advance and sustain artistic production, focusing not only on being a successful artist, but also on the importance of creativity and hard work in any successful venture. Honors version available.

Annette Lawrence

Learn more about Dr. Lawrence: https://magazine.college.unc.edu/tar-heels-up-close/making-and-unmaking/

Fall 2024 ASIA 74 001 Imagining Palestine MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

This course explores the idea of Palestine as it is presented in Palestinian writings, films, and other creative works. We will study what Palestine is for the Palestinians, none of whom have lived in a Palestinian state and many of whom have spent more time in exile than in the land that has been known historically as Palestine; how Palestinian relationships to and expectations of Palestine may have changed over time; and how Palestinian portrayals of their dreamed-of homeland have affected our own perceptions of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Arab world generally. How have Palestinian art, film, and literature helped to shape Palestinian identities and aspirations in different ways over the course of modern Palestinian history? In what ways have art, film, and literature intersected with Palestinian politics and a sense of political and personal agency?

Nadia Yaqub

Nadia Yaqub’s research has treated Arab cultural texts ranging from medieval literature and contemporary oral poetry to modern prose fiction and visual culture. Most recently she has focused on Palestinian literature and visual culture. Her current work has focused on two distinct areas: 1) Palestinian cinema and 2) women and transgression in the Arab World. Her most recent books are Palestinian Cinema in the Days of Revolution (2018, University of Texas Press) and Bad Girls of the Arab World (2017, University of Texas Press), a collection she coedited with Dr. Rula Quawas from the University of Jordan.

Fall 2024 BIOL 59 001 Unsolved Problems in the Genomic Age TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

We are living in times of a genetic revolution. We have sequenced the human genome and are in a position to transform medical treatment in the world. In spite of the advances in DNA sequencing, there remain mysteries in terms of how the cell accesses genetic information and how our genomes are transmitted to progeny cells with such high fidelity. The principles governing chromosome organization have been discovered through advances in biology, physics, statistics and computational sciences. This class will explore advances from the diverse disciplines and discuss the successes and limitations of the different approaches.

Kerry Bloom

Dr. Kerry Bloom has a long-standing interest in chromosomes. How does the cell pack 2 meters of DNA into a tiny (10 micron) cell. We use a combination of tools including genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, polymer physics, computer simulations and molecular modeling to understand basic mechanisms of chromosome organization and segregation.

Fall 2024 BIOL 89 001 Behavior and the Brain MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Neuroscience is a profoundly integrative field spanning electrical impulses, biochemistry, cellular biology, physiology, and behavior. In this class, we will learn about how brains work, how variation in brains lead to individual differences in behavior, how behavior, in turn, changes the brain, and how our understanding of neuroscience relates to the structure and function of society.

Sabrina Burmeister

Dr. Sabrina Burmeister has studied the brain and behavior since her undergraduate research investigating learning in honeybees. Her research on social and spatial cognition in poison frogs makes use of modern genomics tools, neurobiology, and behavior analysis to gain insight into the mechanisms and evolution of behavior.

Fall 2024 BUSI 89H 001 History, Myth and Modern Leadership MW 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The History, Myth and Modern Leadership course is an immersive seminar designed to deepen students’ understanding of leadership and increase their leadership skills. The course will use leadership examples from mythology, history, and the latest news to analyze leaders’ actions and character. The analysis will be performed based on insightful leadership theory while providing students practical skills that will make them better leaders.

Covering a range of topics from ancient leadership philosophies and leaders to modern-day leadership theory and challenges from around the world, the course blends theoretical learning with practical application. Interactive elements such as case studies, simulations, and group discussions will enrich the learning experience, fostering critical thinking and leadership skills. This seminar aims to inspire and equip students to become thoughtful, effective leaders in diverse professional and personal settings.

Mark McNeilly

Mark McNeilly is a Professor of the Practice in marketing and organizational behavior in the MBA and Undergraduate Business programs and acts as a faculty advisor in the STAR student consulting program.

Mark serves as the co-chair of the UNC Generative AI Committee and chairs the Kenan-Flagler Emerging Technologies Committee, which focuses on generative AI. In his generative AI roles, Mark assists in providing guidance and education for faculty, staff, and students, developing AI organizational strategy, and presenting his views on this topic to internal and external organizations.

Prior to coming to academia, Mark served as a global marketing executive and has several years of experience with both IBM and Lenovo in the IT industry. His business background includes branding, strategy, marketing, market intelligence, management, manufacturing, and personnel.

Mark is the author of a popular strategy book based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War titled Sun Tzu and the Art of Business: Six Strategic Principles for Managers as well as George Washington and the Art of Business: Leadership Principles of America’s First Commander-in-Chief, both from Oxford University Press.

Mark has presented his views on generative AI, strategy and marketing to corporations, businesspeople in the U.S., Europe, and Asia as well as the U.S. Air Force Command and Staff College. He has discussed his ideas on strategy on the BBC, C-SPAN, CNBC’s Power Lunch and other TV and radio programs. He appeared on a History Channel Special on Sun Tzu’s Art of War. He has been an expert blogger for Fast Company. He also has presented widely on generative AI and its impact on individuals, businesses, and society.

Mark received his MBA with honors from the University of Minnesota and his BS in finance from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.

Fall 2024 CHEM 89 001 Medicinal Plants - Bridging Chemistry, Medicine, and Native American Culture TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

There is an increased interest in medicinal plants as alternatives to modern medicine are sought. Native Americans have been using herbal medicine for centuries. Through readings, interactive lectures, guest speakers and field trips, we will explore the chemistry and biological effects of some medicinal plants and their role in Native American culture. This course will begin with an overview of chemical structures and molecular properties. Then we will focus on medicinal plants, herbal medicine and Native American culture. Student teams will prepare final papers and presentations that focus on medicinal plants used by Native Americans.

Nita Eskew

Dr. Nita Eskew is a Teaching Associate Professor in the UNC Department of Chemistry. She earned her PhD in Organic Chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill under the direction of Slayton A. Evans, Jr. after receiving a BS in Chemistry at UNC Chapel Hill.

Dr. Eskew is passionate about sharing the excitement of chemistry with students in the classroom and laboratory. She has an ongoing interest in medicinal plants that began while researching American Ginseng, a native plant of the NC mountains used by Native Americans. She developed an APPLES course, 'The Chemistry of Purslane'. Dr. Eskew routinely teaches organic chemistry courses.

Prior to joining UNC in 2012, Dr. Eskew taught at Salem College and worked at Bayer Corporation. Additionally, she is the parent of two Carolina alums.

Fall 2024 CLAS 51H 001 Greek Drama from Page to Stage MWF 3:35 PM – 4:25 PM

Taking a participatory approach to ancient Greek drama, this course pairs readings from three Athenian playwrights (Aeschylus, Euripides, and Aristophanes) with performance-oriented activities and scholarship.

Alexander Duncan

Al Duncan holds a B.A. in English and Classical Languages & Literature from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Classics and the Humanities from Stanford University. Having previously taught in Classics and Comparative Literature at the University at Utah, he joined the Carolina faculty in 2015, where he teaches a variety of courses on ancient Greek language and literature and ancient Mediterranean culture.
Professor Duncan’s research focuses on performance, aesthetics, cognition, and embodiment. His first book, Ugly Productions: An Aesthetics of Greek Drama, comes out this year, and he is working on projects concerned with spectatorship, creativity, and interactions between humans and materials in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Fall 2024 CLAS 63 001 The Politics of Persuasion in the Ancient and Modern Worlds MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

What is the connection between oratory and democracy? What makes a speech powerful – and dangerous? Can you learn to be a persuasive speaker? We will consider these questions and others like them by reading a selection of speeches from the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations and comparing them to speeches from today. Students will also learn ancient techniques for how to be effective speakers.

Peter O’Connell

My bachelor’s and doctoral degrees are from Harvard in Classics. Classics is the academic area that studies every aspect of ancient Greece and Rome. I specialize in ancient Greek literature, especially the rhetoric of the Athenian democracy. This will be my first year as a faculty member at Carolina after ten years at the University of Georgia, the last two as chair of the Communication Studies Department. I am looking forward to working with first-year students and getting to know Carolina with you.

Fall 2024 COMM 75 001 Researching Society and Culture TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Qualitative research offers an exciting way to discover the world. There are so many unknowns about why people do the things they do, what is meaningful in people’s lives, how conflicts arise or are resolved, how technologies shape possibilities, how symbols acquire meaning, and how social change occurs. Whereas we all have ready-made “frames” that provide us with hunches about why things are the way they are, the task of the researcher is to ask good questions and then seek answers, all the while being open to—and eagerly pursuing—surprises. This intellectual posture of genuine curiosity is what animates some of the best research. This is the kind of research you will learn about and will conduct yourself in this course.

Torin Monahan

I am an interdisciplinary scholar who thoroughly enjoys conducting empirical research. I’ve studied hospitals, schools, Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism centers, and most recently digital platform companies (e.g., Uber, Airbnb). I also have wide experience in evaluating research proposals for funding agencies such as the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council, the European Science Foundation, and many more. I routinely draw upon this background to mentor students and help them maximize the success of their research projects. My specialty area is in media and technology studies.

Fall 2024 COMM 82 001 Food Politics from an Organizational Communication Perspective TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The globalization of food systems is both a hotly contested subject and a central part of contemporary life. This course provides an applied introduction to key debates by adopting a critical organizational communication lens on our globalized food system. Drawing on readings, popular media texts, discussions, and experiential activities, we will explore food system labor practices, the role of multinational companies and global commodity chains, the status of hunger and food deserts, the role of food marketing and consumption practices, and the growth of local and sustainable movements devoted to food justice. Throughout, we investigate how our global food system is shaped by different types of organizations operating within particular locales, such as North Carolina, USA.

This is an APPLES-designated service-learning course that requires service hours. In addition to experiential field activities and visits, our course is organized around group-based engaged research projects. Your success will depend upon your ability to work independently and practice collective leadership. This project will increase your research and writing skills, sharpen your leadership and collaborative skills, and provide you with applied insight into the themes of the course.

Sarah Dempsey

Sarah Dempsey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research focuses on critical theories of work and professional life and the politics of voice, representation, and accountability in social change efforts. Her most recent research examines cultural discourses about work and labor in the context of the food industry. She is currently engaged in a book length project drawing on archival research, critical analysis of popular discourses and corporate practices, and interviews with contemporary food service workers, organizers, and living wage and fair wage advocates and business owners.

Fall 2024 COMM 89 001 Paying Attention: The Art of Documentary TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Paying attention to the world around us is foundational to our understanding of the people, behaviors, environments, and living species that co-exist alongside us. Attention fuels our curiosity, deepens our empathy, and invites us to step outside of ourselves. Representing what we pay attention to–what we see and hear–is the art and practice of documentary. At its essence, documentary is a “document” of what we observe and what we record. In this course, we will use video and sound recording along with the written word to document and then re-present what we are paying attention to. Throughout the course, students will strengthen their attention-paying capacities and learn how to refine their chosen methods of documentation. Class discussion, readings, film screenings, journaling, site visits, and in-class exercises will provide an opportunity to experiment, ask questions, and collaborate with peers. We will consider obstacles to paying attention as well as its “darker side,” including the role of social media, surveillance, and the attention economy more broadly. The course will culminate in a final documentary project done in small groups on student-chosen topics that will be presented to the class.

Julia Haslett

Julia Haslett is an award-winning filmmaker whose expressionistic documentaries include Pushed up the Mountain (2020) and An Encounter with Simone Weil (2010), which was a New York Magazine's Critics Pick. Before joining the faculty at UNC, she worked in public and cable television, and as a Filmmaker-in-Residence at Stanford University's Center for Biomedical Ethics. Her current research interests include environmental filmmaking, mental health, and the ethics of attention. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Professor Haslett very much appreciates how easy it is to access the natural world in and around Chapel Hill.

Fall 2024 DRAM 79 001 The Heart of the Play: Fundamentals of Acting, Playwriting, and Collaboration TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The goal of this seminar is to get you doing theatre, to spark your creativity and to connect you with the deeper lessons of this dynamic art form. You will act. You will write. You will work with others. It will not always be easy, but if you are willing to stretch yourself, you should have a great time. Each lesson is organized around a principle or virtue inherent in the practice of the art. Participants study a quotation or two that relate to that principle and then engage in drama exercises that spring from that principle. By the end of the course, you will have gained skills to make you comfortable to write, stage and perform your own 10 minute plays. Not just for those interested in pursuing theatre, this seminar will give you a more holistic understanding of essential principles in the practice of your life.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2024 DRAM 80 001 Psychology of Clothes: Motivations for Dressing Up and Dressing Down TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The course seeks to help students find ways to articulate their own motivations for dress and then apply the ideas they have discovered to the ways in which individuality as well as group attitudes are expressed through clothing.

Pamela Bond

Pamela Bond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art. Pamela has taught at Hampton University and North Carolina Central University. Her recent work includes costume design for The Bus Stop featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has performed professionally at the National Black Theatre Festival and featured apparel designs in Charlotte Fashion Week and Winston Salem Fashion Week. Pamela believes that in order for students to experience the full scope as theatre practitioners they must be willing to explore diverse ethnic and cultural backdrops, as well as their own. So what does your clothing say about you? What messages are you trying to send with what you put on today? Let’s explore your closet and see who you are.

Fall 2024 DRAM 81H 001 Staging America: The American Drama TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines our national drama from its colonial origins to the present. Participants read plays and criticism, screen videos, engage in critical writing, and consider performance as related means of exploring the visions and revisions constituting American dramatic history. We will approach American drama as both a literary and commercial art form, and look to its history to provide a context for current American theater practice. Readings are chosen for their intrinsic merit and historical importance, but also for their treatment of key issues and events in American life. Our focus throughout will be on the forces that shaped the American drama as well as, in turn, that drama’s ability to shed light on the national experience.

Gregory Kable

Gregory Kable is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art, where he teaches dramatic literature, theatre history, and performance courses and serves as an Associate Dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company. He also teaches seminars on Modern British Drama and American Musicals for the Honors program. He has directed dozens of productions at UNC and throughout the local community, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Fall 2024 DRAM 83 002 Spectacle in the Theatre TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Fall 2024 DRAM 85 001 Documentary Theatre TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course explores the political and social ramifications of documentary theatre in the United States. Students will investigate a local community of their choosing and create an interview-based performance. Honors version available.

Aubrey Snowden
Fall 2024 EMES 53 001 The Ends of the Earth: Polar Oceanography and Exploration TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What explains the ‘pull of the Poles’? What motivated early explorers to undergo great hardships to investigate the Arctic and Antarctic, and what did they discover about these regions? What have we discovered in the intervening decades, and what do we still not understand about polar regions? Why do the Arctic and Antarctic play such a critical role in global climate? This seminar will combine scientific and historical perspectives to investigate the ‘ends of the earth’, the Arctic and Antarctica. We will begin by surveying the geography and oceanography of these regions, and then step back into the past and follow in the footsteps of some of the early polar explorers through their own accounts of their explorations. Modern accounts will help us compare and contrast these early explorations. The seminar will also include readings and discussions about current questions and problems of the polar regions, in particular human impacts and potential effects of global warming. A ‘Makerspace’ component is an important feature of the class – students will be supplied with materials to work on a design/build challenge, testing, revising, discussing, and consulting with one another to improve their efforts through the course of the semester. This ‘making’ experience is highly relevant to the experiences of early polar explorers as well as modern oceanographers, who often have to improvise and fix or build or create things on the spot, with materials at hand, in order to solve specific problems. Note that no experience in Makerspace, and no design or build experience, is assumed, expected, or required for this seminar. There are no prerequisites for this seminar.

Carol Arnosti

Carol Arnosti grew up in Wisconsin, where she developed an early appreciation for snow and ice. As an undergraduate at Lawrence University, she majored in chemistry, studied history, and played intercollegiate basketball. After completing a Ph.D. in oceanography at M.I.T. and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she went to the Max-Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany, where she rapidly became involved in a new project investigating microbial life at low temperatures. Continued involvement in this project since moving to Chapel Hill in 1995 has led to repeated research work in the Arctic as well as a trip to Antarctica, and a permanent case of ‘Polar Fever’.

Fall 2024 EMES 55 001 Change in the Coastal Ocean TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar provides students with opportunities to explore recent changes in marine environments caused by the interactions of fascinating oceanographic processes. Class presentations and discussions focus on the work of active marine scientists who combine their traditional disciplinary research with knowledge and skills from other fields as needed to understand new environmental challenges. This cross-cutting scientific approach prepares class members to recognize important connections between traditional disciplines to discover interdisciplinary research areas that they might wish to further explore during their undergraduate careers at Carolina. Each week we read a series of cutting-edge, non-technical research papers focused largely on recent changes in marine ecosystems in preparation for in-class discussions, laboratory demonstrations, and “video- and photo-trip” visits to field sites. We use information from those papers, other course materials and current research at Carolina, to investigate how biological, geological, physical, and geochemical processes interact to influence coastal, open-ocean, and tropical environments. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions during classes, in demonstrations using state-of-the art instrumentation in MASC laboratories, and in “hands on” mini-field experiments (as weather allows) designed to emphasize the importance of the scientific question rather than just the technology involved. Please note that this seminar has no prerequisites.

Christopher Martens

Christopher S. Martens earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from Florida State University in 1972, then moved to Yale to complete two years of postdoctoral study before joining the faculty at UNC in 1974. His current research focuses on how biological processes affect the chemistry of coastal and deep-sea environments, including the expanding role of sponges in coral reef ecosystems, the impacts of recently discovered natural gas seeps found off the North Carolina coast and the fate of the huge volume of hydrocarbons released to the deep sea during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He publishes widely, has twice been co-recipient of the international Geochemical Society’s Best Paper award in Organic Geochemistry and received the Ketchum Award for Leadership in Coastal Oceanography from the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is an experienced SCUBA, hard helmet, saturation and submersible diver and an underwater videographer. He has received a “Favorite Faculty” award for recognized excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Fall 2024 EMES 59 001 Extreme Microorganisms: Pushing the Limits of Life on Earth and Beyond TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

We will expand our horizons in biology by learning about some of the most extreme microorganisms on the planet – microorganisms that thrive without oxygen in deep marine sediments and in the Earth’s crust, under high temperatures in boiling hot springs or in superheated deep-sea water under high pressure, and under chemical stress factors (high sulfide and heavy metal concentrations) that were once thought to be incompatible with life. Numerous extremophilic (extreme-loving) microorganisms of different metabolic types have been isolated in the laboratory as pure cultures; others have been observed in Nature but have so far resisted cultivation. Extremophiles provide opportunities to study the unusual and strange biochemistry that allows them to thrive in their unique habitats; they are also valuable model systems for potential life on other planets. We will get to know the unusual habitats where extremophiles are found, for example hot springs and volcanic areas on land (Yellowstone) and in the ocean (hydrothermal vents), and we will explore the earliest history of extremophiles as some of the most ancient microorganisms on Earth.

Andreas Teske

Andreas Teske is a biochemist by training, but became fascinated by the microbial world of the oceans and focused his Ph.D. research on the ecology and diversity of marine bacteria that catalyze the sulfur cycle. After completing his Ph.D. at Bremen University and the Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany in 1995, he spent his postdoc years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and stayed on as Assistant Scientist. Andreas Teske joined the UNC Marine Sciences faculty in 2002. His research interests include the microbiology of the deep marine subsurface, and microbial ecosystems of petroleum seeps and hydrothermal vents. In search of novel extreme marine microorganisms, he and his students are participating in a wide range of research cruises.

Fall 2024 EMES 72H 001 Field Geology of Eastern California TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Have you ever wanted to stand on a volcano, see a glacier, trace out an earthquake fault, or see the Earth’s oldest living things? This seminar is designed around a one-week field trip to eastern California, where students will study geologic features including active volcanoes, earthquake-producing faults, and evidence for recent glaciation and extreme climate change. Before the field trip (which will take place the week of Fall Break and be based at a research station near Bishop, California), the class will meet twice a week to learn basic geologic principles and to work on developing field research topics. During the field trip students will work on field exercises (e.g., mapping, measuring, and describing an active fault; observing and recording glacial features) and collect data for the research projects. After the field trip, students will obtain laboratory data from samples collected during the trip and test research hypotheses using field and laboratory data. Grading will be based on presentation of group research projects, and on a variety of small projects during the trip (notebook descriptions, mapping projects, etc.). Students may be required to pay some of the costs of the trip (typically, about $500.) This course will require missing three days of classes. The course is designed to teach basic geology “on the rocks”, so there are no prerequisites. Link to Yosemite Nature Notes video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5RQp77uVPA

Drew Coleman

Drew Coleman’s research focuses on understanding how the Earth works by determining the rates of processes (mountain building, extinction, volcanism, etc.) that occurred in the past. To accomplish this he and his students date rocks. His teaching is inquiry based and he is most happy when he is teaching “hands on” in the field or lab.

Fall 2024 ENEC 89 001 How Green are We? Examining Campus Sustainability at UNC TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

How sustainable is our university? Cities around the world face issues of environmental degradation, congested traffic, poor water supplies, sanitation concerns, poor energy delivery and waste management. A research university is analogous to a small city, where we can both investigate and more easily implement sustainable technologies and practices. In this class we will examine the sustainability concerns of the modern university, going “back of the house” around UNC—how green is our energy? Our food? Our water? How do we handle waste across these inputs? We will examine how sustainability is measured and improved, comparing our institution’s progress to other similar schools, and ask ourselves both where we can do better and how we can convince the system to make it happen. This year our focus will be on sustainability and waste management.

Amy Cooke

Amy Cooke is fascinated by the intersection of environmental science and everyday life. This fascination led her to wander around the world asking people about their food, water supplies, clothing and shelter, from the Galapagos Islands to the Serengeti Plains. Here at UNC, she has worked closely with both Edible Campus and the sustainable food purchasing project in the dining halls and loves to take students 'backstage' around campus.

Fall 2024 ENGL 57 001 Future Perfect: Science Fictions and Social Form TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

What will our world look like in ten years? Fifty? One hundred? Will the future be a utopian paradise or a dystopian wasteland? Through a wide-ranging survey of popular science writing, novels, and films, this first year seminar will examine fictional and nonfictional attempts to imagine the future from the nineteenth century to the present. We will explore everything from futurology and transhumanism to warnings of imminent environmental collapse. Our focus will be less on assessing the accuracy of these predictions and more on determining what they tell us about the hopes and fears of the times in which they were made. The course will culminate in a short research paper on a future-oriented topic of your choosing.

Matthew Taylor

Matthew Taylor’s research focuses on the intersections among environmental humanities, critical theory (including posthumanism, biopolitics, science and technology studies, and critical race theory), and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature. His first book, Universes without Us: Posthuman Cosmologies in American Literature (Univ. of Minnesota Press), examines cosmologies that challenge the utopianism of both past and present attempts at fusing self and environment.

Fall 2024 ENGL 66 001 Blake 2.0: William Blake in Popular Culture TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

William Blake, the visionary poet, artist and printmaker of the British Romantic period, has had enormous influence on modern art and popular culture. His illuminated poetry integrated word and image anticipating graphic novels and influencing many modern musicians, poets, writers (including Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy, Bono, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison). Using the Blake Archive, a hypertext of Blake’s poetry and art, we will study key Blake works as well as the digital medium that enables us to study these works in new ways. We will also explore the Web for performances and adaptations of the works we study and for works by musicians, painters, poets, writers, actors, playwrights, performers, dancers and film and video makers who were or are inspired or influenced by Blake. Students will share their discoveries with the class and produce critical or creative responses to a work by Blake or by an influenced artist.

Joseph Viscomi

Joseph Viscomi, the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English Literature, directs and co-edits the William Blake Archive (blakearchive.org). His special interests are British Romantic literature, art, and printmaking and digital humanities. He has co-edited 9 illuminated works for The William Blake Trust and over 172 digital editions of Blake's literary and art works for the Blake Archive. He is the author of Prints by Blake and his Followers, Blake and the Idea of the Book, and Blake’s Printed Paintings: Methods, Origins, Meanings. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation, Getty Foundation, and the National Humanities Center.

Fall 2024 ENGL 86 001 The Cities of Modernism TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

In this seminar we will embark on a world tour of modernist cities across the Global North and the Global South including London, Dublin, Paris, Kolkata, Chicago, and New York. We will read fiction and poetry and watch films by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Elizabeth Bishop, Mina Loy, Marianne Moore, Sam Selvon, and Satyajit Ray, among others. Modernism has been historically celebrated as an art of the cities. However, this claim has also been contested. In this seminar we will ask the following questions: how does modernism depict the theme of alienation and mental life in the city? How does modernist literature transgress conventions of gender and sexuality within the cityspace? Is the modernist city welcoming to everyone or are there individuals/communities who remain marginalized? What is distinctive about the architecture and urban planning of the modernist city and how does it relate to ideas of environmental sustainability? The course will conclude with students creating a digital storymap on a city of their choice.

Shinjini Chattopadhyay

Dr. Shinjini Chattopadhyay is a scholar of modernist literature. Her research focuses on Irish, British, and transnational modernisms. Her monograph-in-progress, “Plurabilities of the City,” investigates the construction of metropolitan cosmopolitanism in modernist and contemporary novels. Her work has been published in the James Joyce Quarterly, European Joyce Studies, Modernism/Modernity Print+, and elsewhere.

Fall 2024 ENGL 89 001 One Long Book That's Worth It MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

This course guides students slowly and carefully through one extraordinary long book that is well worth the time and effort. Texts vary year to year. Required text: one inexpensive book that you will never want to sell back.

H.M. Cushman

H.M. Cushman is a scholar of early British literature.

Fall 2024 ENGL 89 002 Human Rights and Literature MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

In this class we will investigate the history of human rights from the perspective of literature. We will explore how rights are represented and narrated in novels such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and how founding declarations—famously, the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—rely on fictional structures. While attending to some of the more politically contentious issues involved with human rights, such as the claim that universal rights lack political and legal enforcement, we will also consider the following questions: how does fiction help articulate and represent claims to human rights? Why might a political philosopher or legal scholar turn to a work of fiction from the eighteenth century or present day in order to make an argument about human rights? Alongside theoretical and historical writings about human rights we will read authors such as Hannah Arendt, Edmund Burke, Behrouz Boochani, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Hobbes, Mohsin Hamid, Thomas Paine, Mary Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Stephanie DeGooyer

Stephanie Degooyer’s research examines intersections between law and literature, with interests in immigration, migration, history of disease and global health, and human rights and humanitarianism. She teaches classes on law and literature, transatlantic and colonial literature, Medical Humanities, and theories and history of the novel. Stephanie Degooyer’s forthcoming book, Acts of Naturalization, (JHUP, 2022) looks to the legal process of naturalization in the long eighteenth century to argue for a new fictional conception of nationality in early modernity. She is currently working on two projects: Asylum Nation: Refugees and the Founding of America, which traces the colonial history of legal concepts such as “asylum” and “refugees” in British common law and early American legal and literary history, and a book project on the history and social function of unidentified bodily remains. She is co-author of The Right to Have Rights (Verso Books, 2018), and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Novel (forthcoming 2023). She has written on a variety of topics – immigration, borders, vaccines, disease, and literature – for The Nation, Guardian, Dissent, Boston Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, Humanity, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Public Books.

Fall 2024 EXSS 89H 001 Brain Matters: The Human Computer TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Brain Matters: The Human Computer will explore one of the greatest anatomical and physiological mysteries known to us: the brain. The brain contains over 100 billion neurons allowing the human brain to serve as the hub for everything we do, say, or feel. It is by far the most complex and sophisticated ‘computer’ in existence. Together, we will explore this vast unknown. We will discuss and explore topics ranging from anatomy, neurodevelopment, decision-making, maturation, disease, and other topics related to our cerebral computers. The seminar will use examples from research and mass media to complement the teaching materials in the seminar. You will have opportunities to work together, present your work, submit reaction papers, and participate in class discussion on these topics. The seminar is intended for all first-year students—regardless of intended major—interested in neuroscience.

Jason Mihalik

Dr. Jason Mihalik is a professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science (EXSS) where he directs the Matthew Gfeller Center and leads its THRIVE Program. In these roles, he has studied civilian and military traumatic brain injury (TBI) for the past 20 years, publishing over 170 peer-reviewed publications on these topics. His work has contributed to changing rules and policies in several major sports, concussion legislation in our state, clinical programs to help Veterans and first responders, and has secured congressional funding to support ongoing military research. He is looking forward to the opportunity to translate high level neuroscience concepts into an engaging learning experience for first year Honors Carolina students.

Fall 2024 FOLK 89 001 Environmental Humanities TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The contemporary moment in Earth’s history is increasingly defined by environmental changes and threats, many of which lead to the loss and displacement of human, animal, and plant lives and fundamental alterations to the landscape. While scientific research and technological innovation are critical to addressing such ecological challenges, the environmental humanities can offer equally vital insights by examining how cultural values, artistic expressions, and ethical perspectives have formed—and been formed by—humans’ relationships with the environment. Through discussions, activities, and projects, this course examines the relevance and power of the humanities in comprehending, researching, and responding to environmental issues. By consulting artists, poets, writers, and thinkers, students will untangle the intertwined connection between “nature” and “culture,” tapping into key existential questions about what it means to be humans who not only live in this world, but who seek to solve the environmental problems that they have caused or exacerbated.

Ben Bridges

Ben Bridges is folklorist and anthropologist who specializes in the environmental humanities, material culture studies, and critical Indigenous studies. His primary research concerns the effects of climate change and economic transition on red and yellow cedar trees in Southeast Alaska, specifically in relation to Tlingit and Haida art. Alongside his work in Alaska is a running interest in human-environment relations in North Carolina, his home state. In the classroom, his central goal is to help students draw meaningful, personal connections between the course material and their own lives, which he accomplishes through experiential education, project-based learning, and mentorship.

Fall 2024 GEOG 50 001 Mountain Environments TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Mountains cover one quarter of the Earth’s land surface and represent the home to one quarter of the human population. This first-year, honors seminar examines the physical and human geography of mountain environments and the processes that have created them, shaped them, and sustained them over time scales from minutes to millions of years. The course is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the extraordinary life of German geographer Alexander von Humboldt and his five-year expedition to the Andes Mountains where he observed and described nature as we understand it today: an interconnected global force with similarities and differences across the world that are subject to human-induced change. The second part explores mountain processes that shape the landscape and create patterns that are apparent to us today. The third part examines the concept of scale in space and time, and evaluates examples from the latest peer-reviewed literature and popular media. Students should expect to read – and be prepared to discuss – an average of three readings per week, ranging from technical articles to newspaper reports. Throughout the semester, students will gain familiarity and confidence leading in-class discussions, nurturing critical thinking skills that extend well beyond mountain environments.

Diego Riveros-Iregui

Diego Riveros-Iregui is the Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of Geography and the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research group investigates ecohydrology, forest and soil processes, and landscape responses to environmental change. He has worked in mountainous watersheds across the U.S. and Latin America, including conifer forests of the Rocky Mountains, temperate forested mountains, volcanic islands, tropical highland forests, and tropical alpine grasslands. Riveros-Iregui holds a B.S. in geology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, an M.S. in hydrogeology from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in watershed hydrology from Montana State University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder and an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska prior to moving to UNC in 2013. He is recipient of the J. Carlyle Sitterson Award for Teaching First-Year Students, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Fulbright Scholar Award, and UNC’s Faculty Award for Global Excellence.

Fall 2024 GEOG 56 001 Local Places in a Globalizing World MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Globalization is a word we hear every day, but what does it mean for us in local places? Specifically, what can an understanding of globalization tell us about Carolina and nearby places? This seminar weaves together perspectives on globalization with hands-on exploration of Carolina and its place in today’s global “knowledge economy,” and the University’s founding in relation to the globalizing forces of that day. Our focus will shift back and forth between the global and the local, even to the microscale of our campus. We will learn through a variety of experiences and approaches, including fieldwork, old documents, and some introductory GIS (geographic information systems) exercises in addition to readings, class discussion, and group work. By the end of the seminar, students will not only have an understanding of globalization and the very real connections between the global and the local, but also a unique perspective on our university.

Ruth Matamoros Mercado

I am an Indigenous Geographer specializing in indigenous research methods, decolonial indigenous and feminist geographies and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). My research interests center on Indigenous Peoples' land relations with a focus on Central America. My current research examines the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of land dispossession for the lives of Indigenous peoples in Nicaragua and Honduras. I completed a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and I also have a degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, UNAN-León.

Fall 2024 GSLL 51 001 Stalin and Hitler: Historical Issues in Cultural and Other Perspectives TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course deals with critical issues, in the broadest possible context, that dominated the twentieth century: the rise of fascism out of the carnage of World War One and the Bolshevik revolution to which the war and Czarist Russia’s involvement in it helped contribute. As the semester unfolds, drawing on a variety of historical and documentary films, and literature (memoirs, novels), we will take a comparative look at singular personalities like Lenin, Stalin and Hitler and examine the role played by such key figures in historical events of this magnitude. More towards the end of the semester, we glance briefly at the situation created in Western and Eastern Europe by the defeat of fascism and contemplate the origins and evolution of the cold war. We conclude with a consideration of the dissolution and democratization of Eastern European countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and, against the tragic background of the past, the recent reemergence of conflict between Russia and the “West.”

David Pike

David Pike received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1978 in German Studies with a minor in Russian and has taught at UNC–CH since 1980. He is the author of three books, The Politics of Culture in Soviet -Occupied Germany, 1945-1949 (1993), Lukács and Brecht (1985), and German Writers in Soviet Exile, 1933-1945 (1982). His research takes him regularly to Berlin and Moscow.

Fall 2024 GSLL 80 001 Not Just Dogs: Animals in Russian Literature TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar explores the “question of the animal” in the works of major Russian writers (Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov) and introduces students to the main theoretical texts on the animal/human relationship (Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, Irigaray). Among the topics to be discussed are the animal as the other, animal and human natures, dominance and submission, ethics of the human/animal relations, and the theme of “talking” animals.

Radislav Lapushin

Radislav Lapushin, Associate Professor of Russian Literature, received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His primary research interests are Chekhov; interrelationship between prose and poetry; and Russian literature on stage and screen. His well-received book, Dew on the Grass: The Poetics of Inbetweenness in Chekhov, focuses on the poetic dimensions of Anton Chekhov’s prose and drama. An author of several volumes of Russian poetry, his most recent collection, Dog Poetry (Boston, 2016), dovetails nicely with the topic of this seminar.

Fall 2024 GSLL 83 001 We, Robots: Identifying with our Automated Others in Fiction and Film TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The word “robot” was invented by Czech author Karel Čapek in 1920. Science fiction has had a long-running obsession with robots: fiction and film portray robots who have mastered and even surpassed the strange art of being human. Meanwhile, in contemporary robotics, to build a robot capable of walking is a difficult and costly feat of engineering. In this class, we will read and watch stories about robots from East and Central Europe with frequent detours into American culture. Students will use fiction to develop critical perspectives on technology’s place in today’s world and to think creatively about the future. Students will learn and practice methods of writing from the traditional comparative essay to creative writing, research reports, and film reviews. Films will be screened with English subtitles. All readings and discussions will be in English.

Eliza Rose

Eliza Rose is Assistant Professor and Laszlo Birinyi Sr. Fellow in Central European Studies in the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages and Literatures. She researches art, film and science fiction from Poland and East Central Europe. Her in-progress book project, Working the Base: Alloys of Art and Industry in the People’s Poland, is a cultural history of art and film in the industrial workplace in late-socialist Poland. She is an author of science fiction and alumna of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. Her stories can be found in Interzone and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and have been translated into Polish and French.

Fall 2024 HIST 62 001 Nations, Borders, and Identities TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Rally around the Flag! Leaders’ calls to action on behalf of the nation has led to common action against invasion, disaster, and disease. Similar exhortations have preceded aggression, exclusion, and hostility. How have people defined their collective identities? What roles do borders have in creating–and separating–nations? What kinds of other identities motivate people, and why do we assume it is nationalism that dominates history? We will use a variety of historical sources to analyze the ways collective identities have defined the past.

Sarah Shields

Sarah Shields has been at UNC for decades, and both of her children have graduated wearing Tar Heel blue. She teaches courses on the modern Middle East, the conflict over Israel/Palestine, the history of Iraq, and a variety of courses on water in the Middle East. Her current research is on the Middle East and the establishment of borders after World War I. She has enjoyed teaching at UNC so much that she has even accompanied UNC students to programs in Turkey, England, and South Africa.

Fall 2024 HIST 81 001 Diaries, Memoirs, and Testimonies of the Holocaust TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In ghettos and hiding places during the Holocaust, European Jews and other victims of Nazism recorded their experiences in diaries and other chronicles. Efforts to preserve individual histories continued after the war as survivors wrote memoirs and gave oral testimonies beginning in the earliest postwar years. In this course, students will read diaries, memoirs and literature as well as listen to oral histories to understand the history of the Holocaust through life narratives and to explore tensions between history and memory.

Karen Auerbach

Professor Karen Auerbach is assistant professor of history and Stuart E. Eizenstat Fellow in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. She is the author of The House at Ujazdowskie 16: Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust (2013) and editor of Aftermath: Genocide, Memory and History (2015). Prior to arriving at UNC, she taught at universities in Australia and England as well as at Virginia Tech and Brown University. She has lived for extended periods in Poland, where she was based at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw

Fall 2024 HIST 89 001 Movies and the Medieval Past MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Depictions of the medieval past in movies reflect the interests, anxieties, politics, and values of those producing, directing, financing, and viewing them. In addition to portraying the medieval past, movies set in the Middle Ages can serve as a mirror for the values of those living in the present, reflecting their sense of history and their own moment in time. In this seminar, we will analyze a number of movies set in the eras of the Middle Ages, considering their merits and drawbacks not only as entertainment, but as a form of historical memory. By pairing historical evidence from the Middle Ages with cinematic representations of the medieval past, students in this class will become better historians, sharper viewers of historical films, and learn more about the Middle Ages.

Brett Whalen

Brett Edward Whalen works on Christian intellectual and cultural history during the European Middle Ages, mainly focusing on the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. He has published works on the crusades, apocalypticism, pilgrimage, and the medieval papacy. His most recent book, The Two Powers: The Papacy, the Empire, and the Struggle for Sovereignty in the Thirteenth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), reappraises the epoch-making clashes between two popes, Gregory IX and Innocent IV, and the Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II. He has published articles in journals including The American Historical Review, Traditio, and Viator. Whalen also serves as the series editor for Trivent publishing’s new book series The Papacy and Medieval Christendom: Critical Perspectives. He is currently in the early stages of a research for a new book, Medieval Jesus: The Son of God from the Middle Ages to the Present.

Fall 2024 IDST 89 001 The Way of Medicine T 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Seminar will discuss and explore how health should be defined and various classical and contemporary views of medical practice. Ethical controversies in modern medicine will be discused and anlayzed.

John Thorp

I am the McAllister Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine and have practiced clinical medicine since 1983 in Chapel Hill. My research interests include clinical epidemiology, biomedical ethics, perinatal substance abuse, and preterm birth.

Fall 2024 LING 60 001 How Reading Works: Language, Cognition, and Literacy TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

In many societies today, we live our lives surrounded by the written word. But did you ever stop to wonder how reading works? How do we go from looking at symbols on a page, sign, or screen to understanding the writer’s message? How do children learn to read, and what ways of teaching reading would best promote success for all students? We will explore these questions through hands-on analysis of language and writing-system structure, as well as discussion of the primary research literature. Your final course project will address a real-world question about reading, literacy, or reading education from the perspective of language and cognition.

Jennifer Smith

Jennifer Smith first encountered linguistics as a first-year college student looking for ways to combine a love of languages with an interest in science. Her research focuses on the cognitive representation of language sound systems: what kinds of consonants, vowels, and syllables do the languages of the world use, and why? How does the sound-structure system of a language interact with the structure of words or sentences? She has been invited to teach courses and give lectures around the US and abroad, and she was awarded the Chapman Family Fellowship for excellence in teaching at UNC Chapel Hill.

Fall 2024 LTAM 52 001 The Cuban Revolution, Latin America, and the United States T 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM

This course will examine facets of one of the transcendental events of the twentieth century in Latin America. Under the auspices of la revolución, Cubans embarked upon an ambitious revolutionary project. Virtually all previously existing national institutions were abolished, modified, or otherwise reorganized in the service of an egalitarian project inscribed into the claim of national sovereignty and self-determination.

The seminar will focus on the origins and development of the Cuban revolution, spanning the years of the insurrectionary war of the 1950s through the present. The seminar will direct attention to in-depth analyses of the salient facets of the Cuban experience of the past fifty years–including the context of social change, relations between Cuba and the United States, the role played by Fidel Castro, change and changelessness in gender and race relations, and the impact of the Cuban revolution in Latin America and the world–all through multi-disciplinary perspectives as a way to arrive at a deeper understanding of the multiple and interacting facets of the revolution.

This course has several objectives. First, it seeks to promote the development of knowledge of the complexities of the Cuban revolution, including the antecedents and sources of the revolution, the “whys” and the “hows” of the revolution, the personalities and the policies, the cultural context and political setting of change, and the complicated relationship between Cuba and the United States.

The seminar is also designed to promote skills for the evaluation of conflicting arguments and assessment of multi-disciplinary perspectives, with particular attention given to issues of evidence, disciplinary diversity, and the character of sources. It seeks to develop awareness of the process of critical interpretation and the means with which to make judgments on the Cuban revolution as a transcendental event of twentieth-century Latin America.

But more than the acquisition of specific knowledge relating to Cuba and the Cuban revolution, students will be encouraged to “think through” controversy, to develop analytical frameworks within which to evaluate competing–and often conflicting–claims, and most of all to develop the skills of critical thinking as a method with which to take measure of issues–often controversial issues–that matter.

Emphasis will also be given to the practice of formal writing: the experience of preparing a coherent narrative to convey ideas, render judgments, and craft arguments and to develop the skills necessary for clarity and cogency.

Students will be asked to prepare analytical written assessments of the assigned readings and to engage in thoughtful and respectful discussion and debate in a seminar environment. This implies skills related to the evaluation of information–including scholarly texts, biography, novels, and film–and the formulation of arguments based on newly-acquired knowledge. It involves also a critical reading and formulation of arguments and points of view.

Louis Pérez

Principal research interests center on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Caribbean, with emphasis on Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Current research explores the character of society and gender in nineteenth-century Cuba.

Fall 2024 MUSC 51 001 PHYS 51-001 The Interplay of Music and Physics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music making from ancient times to the present day. Students will study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. Students who have never studied physics or music theory are welcome to enroll; there are no prerequisites. We will conduct four laboratory exercises (called etudes) in which students will work in small groups to investigate the acoustics of string, woodwind and brass instruments. Keyboards and percussion will also be considered, and students can pursue their areas of special interest in a research paper. The final project for each student will be a public performance of an original musical composition for an ensemble of instruments that the students have constructed themselves out of found objects. This class is taught in person and does not accommodate remote learners. This class meets in various locations according to a schedule listed on the class website.

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Brent Wissick

Brent Wissick has taught cello, chamber music and early music at UNC-CH since 1982; and performs across the US and abroad. But he has had a life-long interest in how instruments work and how sound is made. He loves encouraging musicians to understand some of these issues, and getting a broad range of science students involved in doing “musical” things. He thinks about physics when practicing the cello or viola da gamba, making CD recordings, rehearsing with ensembles, giving lessons and listening to music in a variety of spaces. He still wakes up every morning excited to make and study music with professional colleagues and undergraduates.

Fall 2024 MUSC 63 001 Music on Stage and Screen TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar is designed to offer students the tools and techniques for understanding multi-media, staged musical works like opera, musical theater, and film. The goal of the seminar is to develop students’ analytical skills in verbal and non-verbal media and to encourage their visualization of the potential and implications of artistic forms and structures. No ability to read music is required. We will discuss musical, visual, and textual narratives, source materials, and the various means by which such multi-media artworks are transmitted to modern audiences.

Anna Gatdula
Fall 2024 MUSC 89 001 Music and Women's Rights TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This First-Year Seminar is about the history and protest songs of the First and Second Waves of American feminism, from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 – where women declared their equality with men and called for women’s right to vote – to the passage of Roe v. Wade and the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Issues for discussion include the role of music-making in women’s activism, the practice of writing contrafacts (new words for old tunes), and the intersectionality of women’s rights and civil rights movements.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This First-Year Seminar carries three learning objectives: 1) to introduce students to the roles that music and the writing of new words for old tunes play in women’s activism during the First and Second Waves of American feminism; 2) to foster students’ engagement in self-directed, multi-media research; and 3) to teach students how to present their research online using ArcGIS StoryMaps.

GENERAL EDUCATION PERSPECTIVES

Focus Capacity: Power, Difference & Inequality (FC-POWER)
Reflections & Integration: Research & Discovery (RESEARCH)

Anne MacNeil

Anne MacNeil holds a PhD in the History & Theory of Music from the University of Chicago and a Master's Degree from the Eastman School of Music. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the Authority of Record at the Library of Congress on the Renaissance commedia dell'arte actress Isabella Andreini. Prof. MacNeil is also a founding directory of IDEA: Isabella d'Este Archive, an international research consortium that studies the music and culture of Renaissance Italy through the lens of the marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539).

Fall 2024 NURS 89 001 Navigating and Advocating for Your Wellness TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Healthcare systems are responsible for fostering the competence and safety of practitioners. Patients and families are integral members of the healthcare team. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that individuals possess the necessary knowledge and skills to navigate the complex healthcare system and advocate for high-quality and safe healthcare to ensure their optimal well-being.

Navigating and Advocating for your Wellness is a dynamic and interactive freshman seminar course designed to empower students with the knowledge and skills to become actively engaged participants in their own health and healthcare. Through a combination of expert guest speakers, real-world case studies, and hands-on learning activities, students will explore the principles of patient engagement, the dynamics of the healthcare system, and the critical role of effective communication in healthcare interactions.

Maureen Baker

Dr. Baker, a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, is deeply dedicated to education and inspiring the next generation of nurses. Holding a position as an Apple Distinguished Educator, she spearheads the UNC SON EmpowerEd program, utilizing iPads to enhance nursing education, foster student engagement, and promote scholarly productivity. Her research areas focus on patient engagement and innovation within nursing education.

Driven by a commitment to patient safety, Dr. Baker has redirected her attention from nurses to future patients. Her goal is to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the healthcare system effectively, contributing to the development of a robust culture of safety in healthcare. In her teaching approach, students can anticipate being challenged to employ innovative strategies, fostering both learning and the adoption of critical life skills.

Fall 2024 PHIL 60 001 Plato's Symposium and Its Influence on Western Art and Literature MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

This seminar examines Plato’s philosophical and literary masterpiece, The Symposium, and its influence on later artists and writers: we explore the Symposium itself, the ways in which the Symposium influenced later European artists and writers, and the importance of the Platonic view of love and beauty for modern artists and writers.

Rory Hanlon

Rory Hanlon is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Program for Public Discourse and the Department of Philosophy. Rory’s interests center on Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially how the Greek and Roman philosophers thought about the mind, soul, life, and personhood (and this all relates to contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science). He also loves film, and so the philosophy of film, film theory, and the presentation of philosophy through film.

Fall 2024 PHIL 60 002 Plato's Symposium and Its Influence on Western Art and Literature MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

This seminar examines Plato’s philosophical and literary masterpiece, The Symposium, and its influence on later artists and writers: we explore the Symposium itself, the ways in which the Symposium influenced later European artists and writers, and the importance of the Platonic view of love and beauty for modern artists and writers.

Rory Hanlon

Rory Hanlon is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Program for Public Discourse and the Department of Philosophy. Rory’s interests center on Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, especially how the Greek and Roman philosophers thought about the mind, soul, life, and personhood (and this all relates to contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science). He also loves film, and so the philosophy of film, film theory, and the presentation of philosophy through film.

Fall 2024 PHIL 63 001 Mind, Brain, and Consciousness TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Many features of human consciousness are puzzling. Why are people so ready to believe extraordinary claims on the basis of virtually no evidence whatsoever, but unwilling to accept the reality of well-documented phenomena? Why are people repulsed by some very ordinary biological phenomena but not by others? Why do people dream about some things rather than others? Why is it that ordinary events can sometimes make people anxious, even when they can face serious danger with equanimity? Why do we find some things funny and other things not? And why do people feel compelled to act in ways that they know perfectly well will prove disastrous to them? This course will examine psychodynamic theories that attempt to explain these phenomena, and then consider how these features of consciousness end up reflected in philosophy.

Ram Neta

Ram Neta is Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in epistemology and is currently at work on a book on knowledge, rationality, and consciousness.

Fall 2024 PHIL 86 001 Persons and Identity TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

An introduction to the topic of personal identity, focused on epistemological, ethical, and metaphysical themes. The course examines what personal identity over time consists in, whether and how we can know such identity, under what conditions our personal identity is liable to change, and what this implies for our values and projects.

Carla Merino-Rajme

Carla Merino-Rajme is an assistant professor in philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to Chapel Hill, she was an assistant professor of philosophy at Arizona State University and a Bersoff Fellow at New York University. She works mainly in philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

Fall 2024 PHYS 51 001 MUSC 51-001 The Interplay of Music and Physics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar is for students who are interested in how music is made, how sound is produced in instruments, and how those sounds have been used in music making from ancient times to the present day. Students will study the basics of physics and music: wave motion, resonance, the perception of sound, scales, harmony, and music theory. Students who have never studied physics or music theory are welcome to enroll; there are no prerequisites. We will conduct four laboratory exercises (called etudes) in which students will work in small groups to investigate the acoustics of string, woodwind and brass instruments. Keyboards and percussion will also be considered, and students can pursue their areas of special interest in a research paper. The final project for each student will be a public performance of an original musical composition for an ensemble of instruments that the students have constructed themselves out of found objects. This class is taught in person and does not accommodate remote learners. This class meets in various locations according to a schedule listed on the class website.

Laurie McNeil

Laurie McNeil spent her childhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan before studying Chemistry and Physics at Radcliffe College (Harvard University) and Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her Ph.D. in 1982. After spending two years conducting research at MIT, she moved to Chapel Hill, where she has taught elementary physics, optics, solid-state physics, and materials science. Her seminar grows out of her life as a choral singer (and, earlier, a violinist and recorder player). When not singing with the Choral Society of Durham, she can be found in her laboratory using lasers to study the properties of materials.

Brent Wissick

Brent Wissick has taught cello, chamber music and early music at UNC-CH since 1982; and performs across the US and abroad. But he has had a life-long interest in how instruments work and how sound is made. He loves encouraging musicians to understand some of these issues, and getting a broad range of science students involved in doing “musical” things. He thinks about physics when practicing the cello or viola da gamba, making CD recordings, rehearsing with ensembles, giving lessons and listening to music in a variety of spaces. He still wakes up every morning excited to make and study music with professional colleagues and undergraduates.

Fall 2024 PHYS 53 001 Handcrafting in the Nanoworld: Building Models and Manipulating Molecules TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar provides a general introduction to nanoscience and nanotechnology, focusing on recent advances in molecular electronics, nanomaterials, and biomedical research. Course activities include group model-building projects, presentations, and discussions of reading material.

Otto Zhou
Fall 2024 PHYS 55 001 PHYS 55-401 (12 seats), PHYS 55-402 (12 seats) Introduction to Mechatronics MW 10:10 AM – 11:25 AM

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary synergy of STEM fields, specifically physics, engineering, electronics, and computer science. All students, regardless of their educational goals, will achieve critical introductory skills in numerical reasoning and analysis, model-building and prototyping, computer programming and electronics, and will demonstrate proficiency and knowledge about topics that increasingly impact society. The course focuses on four areas: Numeracy and Proportional Reasoning, Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing, Computer Technology (Programming and Electronics), and Current and Future technologies (aka, shall we welcome our new mechatronic overlords – robotics, AI, quantum computing, with a new emphasis on disruptive technologies such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion). The course goals are to prepare students for academic success at UNC, to help science students be more capable scientists, and to help ALL students be stronger and better-informed citizens of the world.

Stefan Jeglinski

In a previous 30-year private-sector career, Stefan Jeglinski designed and built instrumentation, learned to program from scratch, and performed R&D for large and small companies. For five years he was actually a rocket scientist, so when he says “this ain’t rocket science,” he knows what he’s talking about! He broke away from rockets to complete his PhD in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Utah, and then returned to industry where he spent over 15 years in all aspects of product development for electron microscopy. He landed at UNC in 2010 to share everything he’s learned and to study new disruptive technologies. In addition to his love of teaching physics, he brings a lifetime of real-world experience and stories about building, making, and engineering across disciplines.

Fall 2024 PLAN 59 001 World's Fairs TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course introduces students to World’s Fairs in the US between 1893 and 1965 (1884 World Cotton Centennial, New Orleans; 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago; 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis; 1939 New York World’s Fair; 1962 Seattle World’s Fair; 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair). We will look at how ideas about cities and world’s fairs changed over time. We will also look at the role World’s Fairs played in: (1) promoting a city’s place in the US and the world, (2) addressing social issues, and (3) disseminating ideas about progress. We will learn about world’s fairs through documentaries (video/audio), texts, as well as examine memorabilia from each of the Fairs. Students will be responsible for participating in weekly discussions on readings and biweekly journal responses. Students will work on a group project on a world’s fair and present at the end of the semester. This project can use traditional means of presentations–such as PowerPoint and posters, or it could be a podcast (5 minutes), video, or some other media.

Alainna Thomas

Dr. Allie Thomas looks at how technology can be used to address both environmental sustainability and social equity within the transportation sector. She relies upon qualitative methods to investigate the phenomenon of how and why technologies are accepted or rejected She sometimes embeds herself in the planning context to learn where the process succeeds or breaks down. Her work has looked bus rapid transit adaption in China, electric bikes in San Francisco, and the use of ridehailing services across Generation X and millennials in the Southeastern US. She is currently working on understanding how transit agencies adapt cashless fare technologies.

Fall 2024 PLAN 89 001 Planning the Night TH 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

As societies have urbanized and globalized, daytime activities have increasingly encroached on the night. These changes hold significant ramifications for public health, social equity, and urban ecology, among other things. Yet many of the activities that take place overnight have long been essential to the functioning of daytime societies: truckers, cleaners, snow removers and sidewalk-salters work the nights to ensure our cities are stocked, cleaned, and greased by day. At the same time, urban night-life has incubated cultural transformations and localized ‘culture wars.’ This course will introduce students to foundational urban planning concepts through the lens of ‘nightology,’ examining the ways in which everything from environmental regulations and zoning to sexual expression, counterculture, and the survival of endangered species have been shaped by humanity’s evolving relationship with the night.

Matthew Palm

Dr. Matthew Palm has a passion for public transportation and advancing the economy and society through better infrastructure planning. He will talk your ear off about shift workers, and why planners should do more to support the workforce of our 24-hour economy. His published work covers transportation and housing topics across the USA, Canada, and Australia. His work has been featured in leading news outlets in all three countries, and he endeavours to incorporate this global perspective in all his courses.

Fall 2024 PLCY 54 001 U.S. Immigration TTH 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

This seminar provides students with an opportunity to discuss current topics in United States immigration. Students will explore theories of migration, acculturation and assimilation, and the ways in which policies influence the well-being of immigrants.

Joaquín Rubalcaba

Joaquín Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Rubalcaba received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New Mexico and is an alumnus of the RWJF doctoral fellows program. His areas of interests broadly include health and labor economics. Specifically, he has explored the health and labor market outcomes among underrepresented and disadvantaged communities, while developing new empirical techniques to investigate the economic mechanisms and public policies driving these outcomes.

Currently, Dr. Rubalcaba’s research addresses the role of public policy in the overall socioeconomic wellbeing of immigrant communities. In this line of research, he investigates how policies such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the Real ID Act have impacted labor supply behavior and health insurance coverage. In another line of research, Dr. Rubalcaba is exploring new empirical techniques to estimate economic values. This particular research has demonstrated an empirically tractable method to assign economic value to health conditions, such as diabetes, ultimately increasing the economic tools used to inform policy decisions.

Fall 2024 PLCY 61H 001 Policy Entrepreneurship and Public/Private/Non-Profit Partnerships MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

This seminar will define a policy entrepreneur and examine strategies used by policy entrepreneurs to achieve policy change or innovation in the policy making process. This course also aims to explore ways that public, private, and non-profit sectors collaborate to address problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. There is growing recognition that sustainable solutions to some of the most complex challenges confronting our communities can benefit from these collaborative or “intersector” approaches.

Daniel Gitterman

Daniel Gitterman is Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill. He also serves as Director of the Honors Seminar in Public Policy and Global Affairs (Washington, DC).

Fall 2024 PLCY 75 001 Debates in Public Policy and Racial Inequality TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course is designed to introduce students to debates about the impact of policies on inequalities in the United States. We will begin the class by reviewing work on inequalities more broadly. At the beginning of the semester, we will touch on topics like Black Lives Matter, historical oppression, systemic racism, and Whiteness. From there, we will move to investigate the use of education policy as a tool to maintain inequalities within the United States. We will tackle areas such as Indian boarding schools, the desegregation of schools, academic tracking, criminalization of Black and Brown students, and achievement testing.

Cassandra Davis

Dr. Cassandra Davis is a Research Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Within the last four years, Dr. Davis has held the role of principal investigator on five research evaluations, with the most recent of these projects focused on the impacts of hurricanes on schools, educators, and students in low-income communities. Dr. Davis has also collaborated with school districts to assist them with improving graduation rates of underrepresented groups, supporting students with learning differences, identifying opportunity and achievement gaps amongst students, assessing the quality of professional development training for school personnel, and investigating ways to engage parents. Dr. Davis’ areas of interest include education policy, the impact of natural disaster on schools and communities, program evaluation, qualitative research methods, and the social and historical context in education. Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in Education from UNC Chapel Hill.

Fall 2024 PLCY 76 001 Global Health Policy TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Global health policy impacts the health and well being of individuals and peoples throughout the world. Many determinants of health operate at a global level, and many national policies, social practices, and individual health behaviors are structured by global forces. Concern for the spread of infectious diseases, increasing rates of chronic diseases and the effectiveness of health systems to provide quality care are among the daunting challenges to health policy makers.

With profound social, political and economic changes rapidly challenging global health, the aim of this course in Global Health Policy is to provide students with a variety of opportunities to understand the epidemiologic trends in world health, the institutions of global health governance, and the effects of globalization on global and national health policy.

This course provides an introduction to the relationship between international relations, global health policy and public health outcomes. The focus of this course will be on public policy approaches to global health, employing interdisciplinary methodologies to understand selected public health policies, programs, and interventions. Providing a foundation for responding to global health harms, this course will teach students how to apply policy analysis to a wide range of critical issues in global health determinants, interventions, and impacts.

Benjamin Meier

Professor Benjamin Meier's interdisciplinary research—at the intersection of international law, public policy, and global health—examines the human rights norms that underlie global health policy. In teaching UNC courses in Justice in Public Policy, Health & Human Rights, and Global Health Policy, Professor Meier has been awarded the 2011 William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2013 James M. Johnston Teaching Excellence Award, the 2015 Zachary Taylor Smith Distinguished Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching, and six straight annual awards for Best Teacher in Public Policy. He received his Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University, his J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Cornell Law School, and his B.A. in Biochemistry from Cornell University.

Fall 2024 PLCY 87 001 Education in a Multicultural Society TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course focuses on education in the multicultural society of the United States. Diversity has been at the center of the American educational story, as society has continued to struggle with competing goals of assimilation and diversity, opportunity, and competition. The American dream that promises a better life through education has played out unevenly for different groups. This course aims to help students develop new understandings of the role and nature of schools and teaching, as well as to construct alternative perspectives on and approaches to examining educational issues. It will study inequality in public education in a way that is place-based, featuring extended opportunities for engaged learning in and around UNC.

Simona Goldin

Dr. Simona Goldin is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy. Dr. Goldin has studied ways to transform the preparation of beginning teachers to teach in more racially just and equitable ways, and has elaborated the teaching practices that bridge children’s work in schools on academic content with their home and community-based experiences. Dr. Goldin holds a master’s degree in management and urban policy analysis from the New School University, and a Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Michigan.

Fall 2024 POLI 57 001 Democratic Governance in Contemporary Latin America TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Over the past forty years, Latin America has experienced the most prolonged and extensive period of democratic politics in its history. State power today is accessed through reasonably competitive and fair elections in many countries in the region, in contrast to past patterns of openly authoritarian rule. This democratic shift, though, has often been challenged by serious problems with political representation and the effective inclusion of citizens, and in some cases with more serious setbacks. The way power is practiced by those in power reflects historical continuities and new forms of corruption or other types of abuses of state resources, as well as various forms of populism. With important variations across the region, countries have struggled to respond effectively to the Covid-19 pandemic, and more broadly to provide citizen security, economic development and social inclusion.

Jonathan Hartlyn

Jonathan Hartlyn is the Kenneth J. Reckford Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up in Latin America, in Cuba, Mexico and Peru. He received his B.A. from Clark University, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His research and teaching interests focus on the comparative politics of Latin America. He spent several months in Argentina in fall 2017 advancing on his current research on democratic governance in the region. He also has on-going research on constitutional change in Latin America and on the dynamics of executive approval. He has authored or co-authored dozens of articles and chapters on democratic transitions, gender and politics, migration and political parties, public opinion and institutional trust, and elections and electoral governance. His books include: The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia; The Struggle for Democratic Politics in the Dominican Republic; and the co-authored Latin America in the Twenty First Century: Toward a New Socio-Political Matrix. His publications have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German and Persian. He has served as an international election observer in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Venezuela.

Fall 2024 POLI 77 001 Immigrants and Refugees in World Politics TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The movement of people across international borders is one of the most politically controversial issues in the world today. This class focuses on two different types of global migrants, immigrants and refugees, and explores why these two groups move out of their countries and how they are treated by receiving countries. Immigrants and refugees have traditionally been thought of as politically, legally and ethically different from each other and this class explores these differences, but it also explores the many ways that they are similar. Finally, the class explores a third type of global migrant that politicians and policy makers frequently promote, guest workers, and considers to what extent guest worker policies can effectively address the challenges and opportunities posed by the two other migrant groups. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Fall 2024 POLI 87 001 What Does it Mean to be a Good Citizen? TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What, if any, responsibilities accompany democratic citizenship? Voting? Active participation in political meetings? Obeying laws? Volunteering in one’s community? Preserving natural resources for future generations? Adhering to certain values? Protesting unjust laws? This course offers an overview of the different ways in which Americans have answered these questions.

We will also be developing our oral communication skills this semester through a variety of activities, including active-listening sessions, a structured debate, and a consensus-building workshop. We will also be learning how to run effective group meetings. I realize that public speaking is stressful for many people, and I promise to make this as painless as possible.

Nora Hanagan

Professor Nora Hanagan studies political ideas. She is particularly interested in the ideas that have animated American politics and history. She also researches different approaches to environmental and food politics. Her book, Democratic Responsibility: The Politics of Many Hands in America, examines whether individuals bear responsibility for harms that are caused by social institutions and processes. When she isn’t chasing her young children around, she likes gardening and hiking.

Fall 2024 POLI 89 001 Global Politics of Climate Change TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the politics of climate change at multiple levels of policy making, from global efforts down to local communities. Throughout the course, climate policy is investigated as a result of the interplay of science and politics. At each level of politics, global, regional (EU), country (US), sub-national (US states), and local (regional and city), students will have the opportunity to review existing policy approaches, explore official inter-governmental and governmental policies, and read social science analyses. In addition, at each level, a scientific expert and/or activist will visit class to interact on climate issues. Student participation is required, with the format for class meetings combining a mixture of lectures and discussions as well as expert and activist speakers, video resources, and group presentations.

Robert Jenkins

Dr. Robert Jenkins has a combined thirty years of teaching experience at UNC and Yale University. He regularly teaches courses on international organizations, Transatlantic security, ethnic conflict and international intervention in former Yugoslavia, crises and change in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the comparative political mobilization of race and ethnicity. He has led study abroad programs in the Balkans and Vienna, Brussels and London, and Cape Town, South Africa. Common themes of these experiential programs are the activities of international organizations and conflicts over race and ethnic identity. In the past three years, he has systematically incorporated climate change into his teaching on security and international organizations. Based on this understanding of the growing threat of climate change and the range of global efforts to develop climate policies, he will bring his enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning to this new course.

Fall 2024 PSYC 58H 001 The Psychology of Mental States and Language Use TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

As adults we constantly make judgments about other people’s beliefs, desires, goals, knowledge, and intentions from evidence like eye gaze and inferences from their words and actions. These judgments together can be called mindreading, or theory of mind (where “theory” refers to the theory someone might hold about another’s mental state, not a scientific theory). This information is known to guide some aspects of language use — for example, you wouldn’t ask someone to hand you “that book” if they don’t know it exists. But sometimes you might ignore what someone else does or does not know – for instance asking someone for “the red book” when that person is sitting in front of two red books. This course examines how children, adults, and individuals with autism infer other people’s mental states, and how they use it to guide decisions during speaking and understanding. This seminar will follow a discussion format.

Jennifer Arnold

Dr. Jennifer Arnold is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She studies the ways that our minds handle the jobs of speaking and understanding. How do speakers choose words and produce them? How do listeners pick out the speaker’s meaning? Her research is guided by questions about how people represent the thoughts, intentions, and mental activities of other people, and how this information influences specific linguistic processes.

Fall 2024 PWAD 89 015 September 11: Origins, Consequences, and Where Do We Go From Here MW 9:05 AM – 10:20 AM

This first-year seminar will reflect upon the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, exploring how the terrorist attacks occurred and why the U.S. intelligence community and policymakers failed to anticipate and prevent them as well as the subsequent effects on the United States, the Middle East, and the world. The instructor, a former intelligence analyst, will lead students in discussions and in-class exercises to encourage critical analysis of the implications of terrorism, particularly on United States national security. A variety of assignments will require students to assess the causes and results of American national security decisions and alternative decisions that might have been made, supported with research and evidence.

Erinn Whitaker

Erinn Whitaker, a former senior analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and US State Department, is a Professor of the Practice for the Peace, War and Defense Curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With nearly 15 years of experience overseas and in Washington, teaches courses such as “Writing and Briefing for Intelligence,” “Comparative Intelligence Regimes,” and “Cases in Counter Intelligence,” helping students interested in careers ranging from intelligence to public policy to journalism strengthen their written and oral communication skills. Whitaker earned a BA from Middlebury College, where she spent a year studying Russia in Siberia, and a MA from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. She speaks German and Russian.

Fall 2024 RELI 63 001 The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been described as the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The first scrolls were discovered in 1947, in a cave near the site of Qumran by the Dead Sea. Eventually the remains of over 900 scrolls were found in 11 caves around Qumran. The scrolls date to the time of Jesus and include the earliest preserved copies of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). They were deposited in the caves by members of a Jewish sect called the Essenes who lived at Qumran. In this seminar, students explore the meaning and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls – and learn about broader issues such as how canons of sacred scripture developed among Jews and Christians – through classroom discussions, thought papers, and creative assignments.

Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism. Before coming to UNC–Chapel Hill in 2002, she taught at Tufts University for ten years. Professor Magness received her B.A. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. She has participated on numerous excavations in Israel and Greece, and currently directs excavations at Huqoq in Israel. Professor Magness’ publications include a book entitled The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2021 [second edition]).

Fall 2024 RELI 71 001 The Spirit of Capitalism TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In 1905 the sociologist Max Weber famously proclaimed that capitalism has a “spirit.” Beyond just determining how we make money and circulate goods, Weber argued, capitalism is deeply entangled with religious ways of life. Both religious and economic systems work together to determine what we aspire to, how we organize communities and how we define our self-worth. Beginning from this insight, this freshman seminar examines the intersection of capitalism and religion through a series of key terms, including “vocation,” “aspiration,” “commodity,” “celebrity,” and more.

Eden Consenstein

Eden Consenstein is a scholar of religion, media, and capitalism in the United States. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies and English from the University of Toronto, an M.A in Religious Studies from New York University, and a Ph.D.in the Religious Studies from Princeton University, where she also completed a certificate from the program in Media and Modernity.

She is currently working on two book projects. The first, Religion at Time Inc.: From the Beginning of Time to the End of Life, is a religious history of the major media corporation best known for Time, Life and Fortune magazines. From 1923 to 1964, Time Inc. (sometimes called the Time-Life Corporation) was run by Henry R. Luce, a self-styled theologian and leading Presbyterian layman who insisted that the press should promote high moral standards rather than aim for objectivity. Through extensive research in Time Inc.’s recently publicized corporate archives and close readings of the magazines Luce edited, Religion at Time Inc. describes how the editor’s political-theological convictions shaped Time Inc.’s media. Her second project, Pyramids of Plenty: Christianity and Multi-level Marketing, will be the first work to trace the historical entanglement of U.S. Christianity, new media, and the multi-level marketing industry.

Eden’s teaching and research interests include religion and media, consumerism and material culture, new religious movements, secularism studies, reality television, and histories of capitalism. Her work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Eisenhower Foundation, The New-York Historical Society and Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion.

Fall 2024 RELI 73H 001 From Dragons to Pokemon: Animals in Japanese Myth, Folklore, and Religion TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion. We will discuss various kinds of animals: those that occur in the natural world, those that are found in myths and folklore, and those that have appeared in popular media such as animation. We will explore how images of various animals were culturally constructed as tricksters, gods, monsters, or anthropomorphic companions; how animals were ritualized as divine, demonic, or sentient beings in Buddhism, Shinto, and folk religion; and how animals could serve as metaphors that embodied collective ideals or anxieties. Most of our readings will focus on primary and secondary texts from the Japanese tradition (in English), but we will also read theoretical texts on human-animal relationships and historical studies on animals in the larger Asian context. We will also view and analyze Japanese films, both anime and documentaries, that deal with animals and environmental issues.

Barbara Ambros

Field of specialization: Religions of Asia. Research interests: Religions in early modern through contemporary Japan; gender studies; animal studies; place and space; and pilgrimage. Fun fact: she holds a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate and serves as the faculty advisor for the UNC Shotokan Club.

Fall 2024 ROML 89 001 What Language Do Forests Speak? MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

You may already have read that trees communicate with each other, or that forests are complex networks of resource exchange. But have you ever considered the place of language in plant life? While forests may not exactly think in a language like English (or Portuguese), in this course, we will ask how different cultures have tried to relate to forests through language. By focusing specifically on forests in Portugal, Brazil, and Angola, we will study how poets, novelists, filmmakers, and activists in the Portuguese-speaking world have created different (but interrelated) literatures of the forest, and what we can learn about their cultures, their history, and their entanglements with vegetable worlds through these texts and images. Each week a short essay on vegetable studies (the field of Environmental Studies that has been paying special attention to trees, leaves, plants, and forests) will be paired with a creative piece to help us think in original and unexpected ways about veggie companions in the Portuguese-speaking world. All readings will be provided in English translation, but this course also serves as a general introduction to Portuguese-speaking cultures.

Pedro Lopes de Almeida

Dr. Pedro Lopes de Almeida is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Their research focuses primarily on aesthetics and the environment in literature, film, and performance from Brazil, Portugal, and Angola. Their research interests also include literary theory and Portuguese and Brazilian cinema, as well as foreign-language acquisition and curriculum development. They hold a B.A. in Portuguese and Lusophone Studies (2009), an M.A. in Literary, Cultural, and Interart Studies with a specialization in Literary Theory (2012), both from the University of Porto in Portugal, and a Ph.D. in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies from Brown University, USA (2021). For more than a decade, Professor Lopes de Almeida has taught in higher education institutions in the US, having designed a wide range of new courses on Portuguese literatures, cultures, and the environment. They have previously taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2013-2015), and at Brown University (2015-2022). In 2018-2019, Dr. Lopes de Almeida was the recipient of a Mellon Graduate Fellowship in Collaborative Humanities from the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University, and in 2021-2022 they taught at Brown University as a Deans' Faculty Fellow in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. In 2023, Professor Lopes de Almeida was distinguished with the Faculty and Postdoctoral LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Award by the University of North Carolina. Their work has been featured in journals and edited volumes in Europe, Latin America, and in the US.

Fall 2024 ROML 89 002 French Coastal Ecologies MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

In this course, we will examine how French topography, in particular coastal topography, has had an impact on French cultural production. A central feature of France, the coastline extends for 5834 kilometers and faces four marine basins, each with their distinctive coastal and offshore characteristics: the Southern edge of the North Sea, the English Chanel, The Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. I propose that we approach the French coast using various lenses: mapping the coastline will be our first focus. From there, we will study selected historical events such as invasions and conquests, as well as contemporary migrations. This will lead us into examining how the coast is represented in French visual culture, mainly paintings and films, as well as in literature. A closer approach to the coast will allow us to discuss man’s impact on the coastal environment and how the French have led an environmental movement for the protection of the coastline and the sea. This will also enable to us to examine another important aspect of the French coast and sea: the sea as therapy. Using a variety of approaches (geographical, historical, artistic, literary, and environmental) will allow us to understand the central role the coast and the sea play in French culture and identity.

Cécile Ruel

Dr. Cécile Ruel is a Teaching Assistant Professor of French in the Romance Studies Department. Originally from France, she earned a B.A in English from the Université de Caen-Normandie. She went on to complete an M.A and a Ph.D. in French Modern Studies in the US. Her research interests are 20th-21st century French and Francophone literature, culture and thought, with special interests in travel narratives, film, visual studies, environmental studies and ecopoetics. She teaches intermediate to advanced level language courses, as well as literature and culture courses. She is the co-organizer of the ROMS Film Festival taking place every semester at UNC.

Fall 2024 ROML 70 001 JWST 70-001 Jewish Spain: History and Culture Across the Hispanic World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 PM

Jewish life and civilization in Spain have been compared to a drama in which moments of cultural flourishing are mixed with tragedy and exile. This seminar explores the history and culture of the Golden Age of medieval Spanish Jewry, as well as how modern Hispanic cultures have interpreted and reimagined this historical past. We will interrogate how this fascination with Sephardic Jews overlaps with a variety of topics: national identity, anti-Semitism, liberal democracy, colonialism, exile, Holocaust memory, among others. Throughout this journey across time and space, we will think about the relevance of Sepharad, or Jewish Spain, to our present by working with a diverse group of cultural products that includes poetry, paintings, film, memoirs, and novels. The texts we will study come from numerous Hispanic cultures: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Adam Cohn

Adam Cohn specializes in modern Spanish literature, with a focus on the nexus of race, diaspora, and Judaism in early twentieth-century Spain. His current research project analyzes the relationship between liberal philosephardic thought and (anti-)colonialism in the Spanish novel. He is also interested in contemporary Jewish culture in Spain, Federico García Lorca, and Spanish Civil War literature. Adam holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and joined Carolina in fall 2023.

Fall 2024 SOCI 71 001 The Pursuit of Happiness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Happiness is a fundamental goal in many societies, despite being elusive for many people. In recent years, social scientists have become increasingly interested in the subject of happiness and its causes and consequences. Sociologists, economists, political scientists, geographers, and psychologists have joined with philosophers in studying the nature of happiness and subjective well-being and its relationship to social life. This course will provide an overview of how these different disciplines study happiness. We will examine the interplay between individual and social happiness by considering the nature and meaning of happiness in the contemporary United States and in other countries. We will seek to answer questions such as: What is happiness? Can we measure happiness, and if so, how? Does happiness vary among diverse groups (racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, and social class groups)? How does happiness differ among cultures and nations? What is the relationship between biology and happiness? Between psychology and happiness? Does money buy happiness? What is (and should be) the role of happiness in formulating public policies? We will address these and other questions by reading books and articles; by class discussions and debates; by viewing films; by interviewing people; and by collecting information using the Internet and other sources.

Arne Kalleberg

Dr. Arne Kalleberg is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has Adjunct Professorships in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Department of Public Policy, and the Curriculum in Global Studies. He received his BA from Brooklyn College and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published extensively on topics related to the sociology of work, organizations, occupations and industries, labor markets, and social stratification. He served as Secretary of the American Sociological Association from 2001-2004 and as its President in 2007-2008. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Social Forces, an International Journal of Social Research.

Fall 2024 SOCI 89H 001 Gender Equity in STEM TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Although women now attend and graduate from college at a higher rate than men, they remain underrepresented in STEM majors and careers in the US. This course explores the causes and consequences of why women – and other gender minority individuals – are less likely to pursue education and careers in the STEM fields. To do so, we will draw on sociological insights from the study of gender, education, work and occupations, and science and technology studies. Throughout the course, students will engage with social science research as well as contemporary news articles, films, and podcasts on these topics. They will also have the opportunity to meet experts who actively work on promoting diversity in STEM as well as established women and other gender minority individuals who have pursued STEM careers. This course is open to students of all backgrounds, majors, and genders.

Lauren Valentino

Dr. Lauren Valentino is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University, and a postdoctoral associate at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Duke University, a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Bachelors degree in Sociology and French Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Her National Science Foundation-funded research has examined reasons for the gender gap in STEM at the undergraduate level, using longitudinal data from public school students in North Carolina. Based on this research, Dr. Valentino has co-founded an intervention program for local public school students in the Triangle that aims to connect undergraduate mentors to STEM-interested middle schoolers. She has earned a Certificate in College Teaching and is the recipient of a teaching award for excellence in undergraduate instruction. You can read more about Dr. Valentino, her latest research, and her teaching accolades at her website: www.laurenvalentino.org.

Fall 2024 WGST 67H 001 Sexuality and Salvation TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In Christianity and Islam, bodies populate the afterlife. What those bodies look like, how they act, what they feel, and who they engage with are subjects of contentious and long-standing debates. The various answers offered in these debates deeply affect Christian and Muslim responses to the body, sexuality, race, and gender in this life. This course examines how these two religious traditions’ diversity of histories and ideas construct theories of identity. In each tradition, we will look at attempts to dictate a wide variety of sexual norms and at the creativity followers have employed in interpreting such regulations. We examine the many ways that Muslims and Christians have used sexual practices, language, and images to enhance their devotion and pose questions about living out religion. This means analyzing how the afterlife affects earthly life, including family structures, health care debates, legal choices, questions of feminist agency, and imagery of war.

Sarah Bloesch

Sarah J. Bloesch (she/her) is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches feminist and queer approaches to film, popular culture, and spirituality. Her research focuses on Christianity, gender, and race in the contemporary United States and how those aspects shape our understanding of sexuality, time, and relationships. She is the co-editor of the textbook Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods and loves spending time with her dog: a boxer mix, who is obviously the best puppy in the world.

Fall 2024 JWST 70 001 ROML 70-001 Jewish Spain: History and Culture Across the Hispanic World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 PM

Jewish life and civilization in Spain have been compared to a drama in which moments of cultural flourishing are mixed with tragedy and exile. This seminar explores the history and culture of the Golden Age of medieval Spanish Jewry, as well as how modern Hispanic cultures have interpreted and reimagined this historical past. We will interrogate how this fascination with Sephardic Jews overlaps with a variety of topics: national identity, anti-Semitism, liberal democracy, colonialism, exile, Holocaust memory, among others. Throughout this journey across time and space, we will think about the relevance of Sepharad, or Jewish Spain, to our present by working with a diverse group of cultural products that includes poetry, paintings, film, memoirs, and novels. The texts we will study come from numerous Hispanic cultures: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Adam Cohn

Adam Cohn specializes in modern Spanish literature, with a focus on the nexus of race, diaspora, and Judaism in early twentieth-century Spain. His current research project analyzes the relationship between liberal philosephardic thought and (anti-)colonialism in the Spanish novel. He is also interested in contemporary Jewish culture in Spain, Federico García Lorca, and Spanish Civil War literature. Adam holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and joined Carolina in fall 2023.

Fall 2024 MUSC 64 001 What is a Work of Art? Listening to Music TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Music is one of the most ubiquitous arts in our world. It surrounds us in the grocery store, it accompanies our favorite films and television shows, and it serves as a basis for our ringtones and social media content. And yet, it is also one of the hardest arts to define. What exactly IS music? Does music express emotion, or is it just sounds interacting in space and time? Is there a ‘right’ way to hear music, or does the same musical excerpt mean different things to different people? And how does THAT work? If I ‘cover’ a song, am I playing the song, or a new piece? Is birdsong music? Why or why not? These are just some of the many questions that this course seeks to explore. A special emphasis is given to developing active listening skills so that we can hear more parameters of music. No prior knowledge of music notation is required to take this course, just an openness to learning about musical traditions from various times and places and a desire to discuss as a class the big questions that underlie the musical arts.

Evan Harger

Dr. Harger (Assistant Professor) is the Music Director for the UNC Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as a Staff Conductor in various capacities for Global Arts United festivals in Sofia, Bulgaria; Vienna, Austria; and São Paulo, Brazil. Additionally, He holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Newfound Chamber Winds, where he assists with guest conducting, producing, and outreach. As an educator, Dr. Harger enjoys asking the big philosophical questions that underly the musical arts, and he enjoys leading student-generated discussions about big questions within the musical arts. Past guest conducting engagements have included the Newfound Chamber Winds, Oregon Mozart Players, Arkansas Music Works Brass Band, Sofia Philharmonic, PHACE Ensemble, PMEA District IX and VIII Orchestras, Marywood String Celebration Chamber Orchestra, and Idaho All-Collegiate Band. He also served as a past Music Director of the Young People's Philharmonic of the Lehigh Valley. He is thrilled to be a part of the UNC community!

Fall 2024 DRAM 80 002 Psychology of Clothes: Motivations for Dressing Up and Dressing Down TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

The course seeks to help students find ways to articulate their own motivations for dress and then apply the ideas they have discovered to the ways in which individuality as well as group attitudes are expressed through clothing.

Pamela Bond

Pamela Bond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art. Pamela has taught at Hampton University and North Carolina Central University. Her recent work includes costume design for The Bus Stop featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has performed professionally at the National Black Theatre Festival and featured apparel designs in Charlotte Fashion Week and Winston Salem Fashion Week. Pamela believes that in order for students to experience the full scope as theatre practitioners they must be willing to explore diverse ethnic and cultural backdrops, as well as their own. So what does your clothing say about you? What messages are you trying to send with what you put on today? Let’s explore your closet and see who you are.

Fall 2024 ENGL 89 003 Free Speech and American Literature TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In this course students will explore the relationship between American novels and free speech. Paying particular attention to the ideas of “rational deliberation” and “civil discourse,” pillars of free speech in First Amendment doctrine, we will read landmark legal as well as key philosophical texts exploring the role of free speech in democracy. Our literary readings will center on portrayals of key themes related to free speech, both in novels written during the era in which the First Amendment became doctrine and in contemporary novels examining civil discourse. Questions and themes to be considered include creativity, curiosity, equality, and judgment. Readings by Plato, John Locke, David Hume, Matthew Arnold, I.A. Richards, John Stuart Mill, Robert Post, Stanley Fish, and John Rawls; novels by Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, William Faulkner, W. E. B. Dubois, Toni Morrison, Lorrie Moore, and George Saunders.

Florence Dore

The 2024 recipient of the Board of Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Florence Dore teaches in both the Creative Writing and Literature Programs at Carolina. After stints at New York University’s Draper Program and Kent State University, Prof. Dore became a permanent member the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill in 2010. Several books and articles—both academic and public-facing—appear on Dore’s c.v., but she has also released three records, one of which, Highways and Rocketships, won Best Americana Album of 2022 at Lonesome Highway Magazine. She has held fellowships at New York University, the National Humanities Center, and UNC’s Institute for Arts and Humanities and has won several grants, including one from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Prof. Dore’s scholarship is focused on two related fields: American novels and democracy.

Fall 2024 POLI 150 01F PWAD 150-01F International Relations and Global Politics MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

An introduction to the study of political and economic relations in the international system. Topics covered include international conflict, trade, global finance, international institutions, civil war, and human rights.

Annie Watson

Annie Watson earned her PhD in political science and international affairs from the University of Georgia in 2020. She joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall of 2024 as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, where she is teaching classes on data science and international relations.

Dr. Watson is deeply passionate about the good that good data can do. Thus, her research focuses on holding governments accountable for their obligations under international law, particularly through the construction of new measures of how the degree to which governments respect human rights. In this capacity, she currently serves as the co-lead of the children’s rights workstream at the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), a research analyst for HRMI’s economic and social rights workstream and the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF) Index, and a principal investigator for the CEDAW Compliance Codes (C3).

Fall 2024 PWAD 150 01F POLI 150-01F International Relations and Global Politics MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

An introduction to the study of political and economic relations in the international system. Topics covered include international conflict, trade, global finance, international institutions, civil war, and human rights.

Annie Watson

Annie Watson earned her PhD in political science and international affairs from the University of Georgia in 2020. She joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall of 2024 as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, where she is teaching classes on data science and international relations.

Dr. Watson is deeply passionate about the good that good data can do. Thus, her research focuses on holding governments accountable for their obligations under international law, particularly through the construction of new measures of how the degree to which governments respect human rights. In this capacity, she currently serves as the co-lead of the children’s rights workstream at the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), a research analyst for HRMI’s economic and social rights workstream and the Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF) Index, and a principal investigator for the CEDAW Compliance Codes (C3).

Fall 2024 HIST 89 002 Dogs, Past and Present TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

As workers and companions, dogs have shared human history virtually from its origins. For dogs, the first domesticated animals, human society has always been their natural habitat. Understanding dogs therefore requires analyzing their relationships to and meaning for people. For what reasons, practical and emotional, have humans kept dogs? What roles have dogs played in their community life and culture? How have humans understood the nature of dogs as a species and the differences between animals and themselves? How have humans projected onto dogs their assumptions about humanity? What ethical obligations do they recognize toward their dogs? What problems result from the close proximity of people and dogs in daily life—and how have societies coped with them? How have the answers to these questions changed as human societies have changed? This course approaches these questions about the history of dogs in human society by employing a range of disciplinary perspectives: philosophy and ethics, biology and psychology, literature and law, popular culture and social history.

Lisa Wolverton

Prof. Lisa Wolverton is a scholar of medieval Central Europe, who comes to UNC after 24 years at the University of Oregon. A longtime animal-love, she is the author of five books, none of them about dogs.

Spring 2025 AAAD 51 001 Masquerades of Blackness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar is designed to investigate how the concept of race has been represented in cinema historically, with a particular focus on representations of race when blackness is masqueraded. Its intent is to launch an investigative inquiry into how African Americans are represented on screen in various time periods, how we as spectators are manipulated by these cinematic constructions of race, and how race is marked or coded other than through visual representation. Students will view films that deal with “passing” from the various historical periods and will utilize theoretical concepts introduced in class to read these visual representations. Films selected for viewing include the pre-World War II Era, the Civil Rights Era, and the “Post-Racial” era. Students will be required to write three papers that reflect their ability to apply theoretical concepts to reading racialized representations on screen in these three historical periods to demonstrate their understanding of how racial masquerades have evolved over time and continue to persist in contemporary culture.

Charlene Regester

Charlene Regester is an Associate Professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies and Affiliate Faculty for the Global Cinema Minor. She received her BA, MA, Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960 (which was nominated by the press to the NAACP Image Awards). She is the 2011 recipient of the Trailblazer Award Hayti Heritage Film Festival and 2007 Oscar Micheaux Book and Film Award from the Oscar Micheaux Film Festival, South Dakota. She has appeared on North Carolina Bookwatch with UNC-TV 2011; WUNC-FM Radio “The State of Things;” and Turner Movie Classics. Documentaries in which she has appeared include: Movies of Color: Black Southern Cinema (2003, Tom Thurman director), Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel (2001), Madison Davis Lacy director), and Birth of a Movement (2017, Bestor Cram and Susan Gray directors).

Spring 2025 AAAD 53 001 Experimentalism in Global Black Music and Performance Arts MW 12:20 PM – 1:35 PM

This course centers on artists who are known for their radically experimental approach to music-making and performance, pushing at established boundaries of genre, form, and affect, while taking inspiration from black identity, history, and culture. Geographically, this course is not limited to the United States, but also examines avant-garde artistry in Africa, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. The focus is mainly on music, with excursions into avant-garde jazz, Brazilian tropicália, Jamaican dub, and electronic music. But we do additionally discuss experimental dance and theatre. The special challenges faced by black artists in establishing themselves in artistic fields marked as modernist, given the historical domination of discourses and institutions of modernism/modernity by whites, are explored. Students have the option to either write a traditional research paper on a topic of their choice, or create their own experimental artistic project.

David Pier

Professor David Pier is an ethnomusicologist who researches music in Africa and the United States. His book, Ugandan Music in the Marketing Era: The Branded Arena is a ethnographic study of the commercialization of folk music and dance heritage in Uganda. He is currently working on a book on a Ugandan guitar genre known as kadongo kamu. Having started out as a jazz pianist, he is keenly interested in both the processes and underlying ideas of musical experimentalism, especially in global Black historical contexts.

Spring 2025 AMST 65 001 North Carolina Black Feminisms TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The goal of this First-Year Seminar is to help students develop their own sense of Black feminist thought and practice through exploring the lives and works of several key Black feminist figures with ties to North Carolina. The figures are Harriet Jacobs, Anna Julia Cooper, Pauli Murray, Ella Baker, Nina Simone, Jaki Shelton Green, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Students will engage materials that put these figures in context of Black feminist thought and will do hands on activities that reflect Black feminist practices.

Antonia Randolph

Antonia Randolph is an assistant professor of American Studies at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is a graduate of Spelman College (BA in Sociology) and Northwestern University (PhD in Sociology). Her interests include diversity discourse in education, multicultural capital, non-normative Black masculinity, and the production of misogyny in hip-hop culture. Her book The Wrong Kind of Different: Challenging the Meaning of Diversity in American Classrooms (Teachers College 2012) examined the hierarchies elementary school teachers constructed among students of color. She has also published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, and The Feminist Wire. Her current book project, That’s My Heart: Queering Intimacy in Hip-Hop Culture, examines portrayals of Black men’s intimate relationships in hip-hop culture.

Spring 2025 FOLK 77 001 The Poetic Roots of Hip-Hop: Hidden Histories of African American Rhyme TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

“There ain’t nothing new about rapping.” That’s what elders from a host of African American communities declared when hip-hop first exploded onto the scene. This “new” form, they claimed, was just a skilled re-working of poetic forms that had been around for generations. Each elder seemed to point to a different form–some to the wordplay of rhyming radio deejays, others to the bawdy flow of street corner poets, still others to the rhymed storytelling of sanctified singers. And each was right; elegant rhyming has indeed marked African American talk for generations. Yet because most such rhyming was spoken, its history remains hidden. In this seminar, we’ll explore this lost history, talking to poets and hip-hop emcees while probing the archives to uncover the hidden heritage of African American eloquence. Our goal is nothing short of writing the prehistory of hip-hop, and in so doing demonstrating rhyme’s longstanding role as a key marker of African American identity.

Glenn Hinson

By training and spirit, Glenn Hinson is a folklorist, one who works with communities to explore grassroots creativity and the many ways that it holds meaning. Though he is white, much of his work over the years has been with Black communities, whose members have repeatedly schooled him on the simple fact that any exploration of artistry must address the critical and all-encompassing context of racism. Their challenge directly contributed to the creation of this seminar, which explores the erasure and misrepresentation of more than 150 years of affirming and anti-racist Black artistry.

Spring 2025 ANTH 68 001 Forced Out and Fenced In: Ethnography of Latinx Immigration TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Undocumented immigration receives considerable attention in the U.S., but what does it mean to be undocumented? How does illegality shape the lived realities of migrants themselves? Using the lens of legal anthropology, which seeks to understand the relationship between law/policy, social relations, and inequality, and through in-depth engagement with ethnographic research on the topic, this course examines the social, political, and legal challenges faced by undocumented Latinx migrants and their families. All authors are invited to join the class for a virtual Q&A with students.

Angela Stuesse

Angela Stuesse is a cultural anthropologist broadly interested in social inequality in the Americas and specializing in methodologies of activist research. Her scholarship focuses on globalization, migration and citizenship, race and racism, labor, and policing in the US and Latin America. Much of her work, including her award-winning book, Scratching Out a Living, has explored how new Latinx migration to the US South has shaped and been shaped by the region’s racial hierarchies. She also investigates the intensification of immigrant policing and the experiences of undocumented young people in higher education.

Spring 2025 ANTH 89 001 A History of the World in 12 Objects MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

How did we get here? What were the major transformations in human history that created our world? What impacts have these changes made on the natural world and on us? What can we learn from this long history? This class is about objects and social change: meaning that we will use human-made objects – artifacts – as a way to understand the long and complex history of our species. We use the concept of ‘object biography’ to do this – you will each get a chance to produce an object biography of your own and to think critically about how we understand and represent material culture in museum displays.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Spring 2025 ANTH 89 002 Taking up Space: Colonization, Resources, and Life Beyond Earth MW 4:40 PM – 5:55 PM

Our early human ancestors were great travelers moving across great distances over many generations and thousands of years. Our more recent human history is dominated by human colonization as new waves of people traversing the globe using technological innovations and paving a path of incomparable destruction and exploitation that continue to overshadow the lives of millions of people and our very planetary health to this day. In early 2020 Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX released their campaign to “Occupy Mars” by 2050, joining a long linage of human ventures that have considered places and peoples unknown to them up for grabs and consequently, ownership and exploitation. Fantastic research, technology, international cooperation, and human advancements have come out of space research. However, the idea that life and resources outside our planet or beyond our galaxy is tenacious and remains an influential factor. In this course, we will explore our human future beyond Earth through the lens of our past asking the question is colonization inevitable? Is it possible as described in Star Trek to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no [hu]man has gone before?” without contaminating, dominating, and destroying that which exists out there? Can we as a species learn from our human past and avoid colonial mistakes? Can we handle discovering new resources without depleting them? How might discoveries made beyond Earth influence the meaning, use, and ideas about our resources here at home? Applying an anthropological lens to understand the human experience of curiosity, travel, expansion, and colonization, this class, dares to dream big and ask hard questions. This discussion-based seminar will read research and popular publications of nonfiction and fiction including a SciFi novel and ethnographic book, view films and documentaries, and look for signs of space in everyday life on Earth. Through assessment activities such as “Taking up Space” students will learn to critically break down and research the role of cultural ideas and how they influence scientific research and discovery.

Caela O’Connell

Caela O'Connell is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program. Dr. O'Connell runs the Socio-Ecological Change Research Lab (SECR Lab) at UNC investigating different aspects of sustainability, agriculture, inequality, water, disasters, adaptation, crisis and environmental conservation and partnering with community organizations for engaged scholarship. Her work is primarily in the Caribbean and the Americas, and she’s currently working on a new project that considers human resource use and conceptions in research and development for outer space exploration. When not thinking about the future for farming and our global environment, she enjoys baking for friends, hiking (nothing too steep), taekwondo, tracking hurricanes, reading Sci-Fi and mysteries, and traveling with her family.

Spring 2025 ANTH 89 003 Anthropology of Disability MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Disability is a part of life: we all get sick, age, and require care. This course examines debates on disability from a perspective of cultural and medical anthropology. We focus on the diversity and richness of disability worlds, learning how different societies make sense of disability and how living with disability leads to a proliferation of identities and cultures. This course covers a wide range of topics, from the history of disability to cross-cultural approaches to mental health to the intersections of disability with gender and sexuality to caregiving. Course material illustrates that disability is a collective project that encourages individuals and communities to engage in creative modes of thinking and being in a world that moves beyond the binary of “normal” and “abnormal.” This course shows that studying disability unveils new ways to see the world and helps us to better understand what it means to be human.

Dariia (Dafna) Rachok

Dafna Rachok is a medical and political anthropologist, researching global health, medical humanitarianism, and patient communities. Her current research, Affective Belonging: Vulnerable Groups’ Political Subjectivity and HIV in Ukraine explores what underpins the strength of a public health system in a supposedly weak post-socialist state. It centers on political mobilization of Ukrainian vulnerable communities (people living with HIV, sex workers, people who use drugs) as citizens through interactions with the state public health bureaucracy. Dafna's research was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation, among others. When Dafna’s not working, she’s spending time with her Malinois-mix named Doxa.

Spring 2025 APPL 110 01F Design and Making for Engineers: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Glenn Walters

I am a Professor of the Practice in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. In this role, I am developing and teaching courses covering fundamentals of engineering in such areas as design, fluids, hydraulics, additive manufacturing, etc. My specialty is creating curriculum that focuses on experiential activities that develop student intuition as a pathway to learning theory and practice.

Spring 2025 ARTH 64 001 Picturing Nature TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Whether it’s cute animal cams or frightening visualizations of climate change, pictures of nature are both ubiquitous and powerful. This seminar explores the ways in which nature has been collected, displayed, and represented in art, science, and popular culture from the Renaissance to the present. We will explore nature’s many meanings: as curiosity and resource, as playground and lab, and as preserve and wasteland. How have portrayals of nature shaped ideas in the arts and sciences? What is the place of nature imagery now in a time of environmental crisis? Students can expect to experience nature in addition to reading and writing about it. For final projects, students will research and write an op-ed article about picturing nature during uncertain times.

Maggie Cao

Maggie Cao is an art historian who studies the eighteenth and nineteenth century United States. She is an associate professor educated at Harvard. She published one book about American landscape painting and its nineteenth-century demise and has just finished another about painting and imperialism. She has long been interested in historical connections between art and science, the subject of this course. She also happens to be an avid hiker and backpacker in North Carolina and beyond.

Spring 2025 ARTS 59 001 Time, A Doorway to Visual Expression MW 11:15 AM – 12:45 PM

This class will closely examine and explore visual expression as they investigate the often-forgotten design element of time. Students examine the philosophical and scientific descriptions of time, as well as the physical, psychological and emotional properties of time. Students immerse themselves in the subject and create original works of art motivated and inspired by their personal but enhanced understanding of time.

Jim Hirschfield

Jim Hirschfield is a Professor in the Department of Art and Art History who began contemplating the experience of time during his travels through the deserts of the southwest in his VW Microbus. He still treasures the experience of travel and travels for inspiration and for adventure. Jim has received a number of art commissions from cities across the country: From Anchorage, Alaska to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and from San Diego, California to Orono, Maine. He has also received numerous awards for his art installations, which he describes as explorations in meditative and ethereal environments that expand our perceptions of time.

Spring 2025 ASIA 57 001 Dis-Orienting the Orient MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

Examines how the East is constructed as the Orient in different historical periods: 19th-century European colonialism, 1950s to 1960s Hollywood films, contemporary Japanese animation, and the current global war on terrorism.

Dwayne Dixon

Dwayne Dixon’s ethnographic research is focused on several intersecting issues within a broadly imagined Asia: youth culture, city spaces and urban life, media, and body experiences. These various interests coalesce in his work on Japanese young people situated in Tokyo, especially the lives and practices of skateboarders. As an anthropologist, he emphasizes fieldwork methods of extended engagement with his subjects, including the use of ethnographic video to produce visual documents that coincide with the use of video cameras by the young people themselves. His ongoing research into Asian skateboard culture involves studying the global incorporation of young skateboarders into the Olympic structure in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games where skateboarding will be included for the first time. Additionally, he is doing research on guns as a prosthetic; investigating the ways training and imagination construct an embodied relationship between the physical perception of perpetual threat as it relates to the immediate environment and the unknown. This research is informed by changes in small arms use and the narratives around them since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq reshaped the global arms trade and the specific American experience of conflict in Western Asia.

Spring 2025 ASIA 59 001 Media Masala: Popular Music, TV, and the Internet in Modern India and Pakistan TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This seminar explores different types of broadcast and digital media, examining various cultural examples (e.g., music videos, television soap operas and reality shows, radio, and the Internet) and covering a variety of topics, including gender, sexuality, globalization, religion (personal and public), and activism. We will also discuss the ways traditional art forms (e.g., qawwali, ghazal, epic, classical dance) are transformed and given relevance in the modern South Asian media. An important theme of this course is how India and Pakistan, despite historical tensions, are linked by a common media culture that interprets and sometimes transcends geopolitical differences. This seminar will be particularly useful and fun for students who like to consider a variety of multimedia and textual sources in thinking about a provocative issue or question. Each student will design a short research project and make a presentation, and with a small group, produce a music video, giving the class an experiential perspective on the media in modern India and Pakistan.

Afroz Taj

Afroz Taj has been teaching South Asian literature, culture, and language in the United States since 1983. In 1995 Afroz came to the University of North Carolina to establish a pioneering program of teaching Hindi-Urdu through live, interactive videoconferencing. He is the creator of the popular language learning websites “A Door Into Hindi” and “Darvazah: A Door Into Urdu.” Afroz’s research interests include Urdu poetry and poetics, South Asian theater, cinema and media. Afroz is the author of The Court of Indar and the Rebirth of North Indian Drama, Urdu Through Hindi, and The Tanhaiyan, Ankahi, and Ahsas Companion.

Spring 2025 ASIA 72 001 Transnational Korea: Literature, Film, and Popular Culture TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Taking the recent Korean Wave phenomenon as its point of departure, this course introduces students to the history of transnational imaginations in modern and contemporary Korean culture. Drawing upon literature, film, television, and secondary scholarship, we will explore how a diverse array of Korean cultural producers have used narratives of cross-border travel, migration, and exchange to rethink Korea’s place in the world and refashion Korean identity. In each section of the course, we will consider a different domain or dimension of border-crossing activity: education; labor; migration and diaspora; North-South interactions; war and military; cosmopolitan imaginings and the making of “global Korea.” In so doing, we will learn to think critically about the relationship between works from colonial Korea, postcolonial North Korea, postcolonial South Korea, and the Korean diaspora, and we will also gain a more nuanced understanding of popular culture’s place within its broader social and historical contexts.

Jonathan Kief

Jonathan Kief is a scholar of modern Korean literature and culture whose research focuses on interactions between words and images in postcolonial North and South Korea. He is also interested in the Korean diaspora, the history of Korean translation practices, and the history of radio and television in Cold War-era East Asia. His teaching combines literature, film, and popular culture to help students explore both the contemporary globalization of Korean culture and the robust history of transnational exchanges that it builds upon. Before moving to North Carolina, he lived in Korea, Japan, and many different parts of the U.S.

Spring 2025 ASIA 76 001 Traveling to China and Traveling from China in the Premodern World TTH 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

From the medieval Silk Road to the contemporary Belt and Road initiative, the country we now call China has been a dynamic place with changing borders and the traveling of many people, things, and ideas across them. This course examines cross-cultural and transregional interactions premodern Chinese had with the broader world through the lens of traveling. Examining records written by various travelers – merchants, missionaries, pilgrims, nomads, and diplomats –, the course invites students to the following questions: what kinds of questions did travelers have about the others? What were the major routes of overland and oceanic travels in the premodern world? How did cross-border travels foster religious, ethnic, and cultural diversities as well as early modern globalization? How was an idea of “China” formed in and outside China through the interaction facilitated by travels? Students will read and discuss translated primary sources arranged in a thematic and chronological order. During the second half of the course, students will form groups to create digital itinerary maps using the information extracted from the readings.

Kyoungjin Bae

Kyoungjin Bae is a historian of China. Her research places Chinese history in the global contexts and includes the Sino-Western interactions, Chinese maritime trade, crafts, and material culture during the early modern period.

Spring 2025 BIOL 53 001 Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Foods to the Sequence of the Human Genome TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

A good life depends on access to adequate food and medical care. Advances in biotechnology have made possible both agriculture and medicine, and further advances may allow us to feed and keep healthy a burgeoning population in both developed and undeveloped countries. This seminar will examine the science behind a number of striking recent advances in biology, including animal cloning, genetic engineering of crop plants, development of new therapeutic drugs, development of embryonic stem cells, and deciphering of the complete human genome sequence. Students will debate how specific technological advances force us to confront new social and ethical choices, such as whether you want your own genome to be sequenced. We will also consider how new technologies are actually implemented, especially in regard to recent public health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The seminar should bring together the humanistic and technical impulses in students, and is open to students planning careers in scientific or humanities fields.

Jill Dowen

Jill Dowen, PhD, is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Integrative Program in Biological and Genome Sciences, and is an Associate Professor in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department and the Biology Department at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Dowen's lab investigates the function of DNA loops that connect genes and their regulatory elements. Projects in her lab address how chromosome structure impacts the expression of genes in different cell types during development and how disruptions in these mechanisms lead to human diseases such as cancers and developmental syndromes.

Spring 2025 BIOL 75H 001 Biodiversity and Citizen Science TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

In this course you will learn about the biodiversity around us, and the discipline of citizen science as a means to understanding more about that biodiversity. Citizen science is the public generation of scientific knowledge, and in this era of mobile technology and artificial intelligence, non-expert members of the public are providing millions of biodiversity observations each year. We will learn about the promise of citizen science for answering important questions in biodiversity science, we will contribute our own observations to citizen science databases, and we will learn how to make and interpret graphs and figures using citizen science data.

Allen Hurlbert

My research seeks to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes underlying broad-scale patterns of distribution, abundance and diversity across the globe, and how that biodiversity is expected to respond to ongoing environmental change. I enjoy observing the natural world (especially birds and bugs), but also figuring out how to best analyze data to yield the most important insights. I hope my students grow in both of those areas!

Spring 2025 CHEM 101 01F CHEM 101, sections 601-643 General Descriptive Chemistry I MWF 10:10 AM – 11:10 AM

The first course in a two-semester sequence. See also CHEM 102. Atomic and molecular structure, intermolecular forces, stoichiometry and conservation of mass, and properties of gases.

Jade Fostvedt

Jade Fostvedt is a teaching assistant professor of chemistry at UNC-CH. Jade is originally from South Dakota and received her B.S. degree in chemistry in 2017 from the University of South Dakota. Jade then moved to California for doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley; she received her Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry in May 2022 and moved to UNC-CH in Fall 2022. At UNC-CH, Jade teaches CHEM 251 (intro to inorganic chemistry), general chemistry I and II, and CHEM 550L (synthetic chemistry lab). Jade believes that everyone in the classroom - including the teacher - is a co-constructor of knowledge. She aims to guide students towards mastery of chemistry by departing from traditional lecture-based methods of teaching, validating student science identities, creating a joyful and supportive classroom community, and offering flexible opportunities for demonstrating content mastery.

Spring 2025 CHEM 102 01F General Descriptive Chemistry II MWF 3:35 PM – 4:25 PM

The course is the second in a two-semester sequence. See also CHEM 101. Solutions, thermochemical changes including conservation of energy, thermodynamics, reaction rates, chemical equilibria including acid-base chemistry, and electrochemistry.

Joshua Beaver

Joshua Beaver, Ph.D., is a Teaching Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in organic and general chemistries. He completed is graduate studies at UNC-Chapel Hill in organic chemistry and molecular recognition in water. His postdoctoral training at Duke University involved developing targeted anticancer drug delivery agents. As a professor he adapts interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches to active, evidence-based teaching to foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a supportive and inclusive learning environment. His current research focuses on improving student outcomes in chemistry through the development of new teaching strategies, building data-driven analytical tools, and developing novel scaffolded learning resources.

Spring 2025 PLAN 89 001 The Hood is Not For Sale TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course delves into the multifaceted dynamics of gentrification, exploring its historical roots, and its far-reaching implications for cities and communities from the 1960s to today. This class conceives of gentrification as a complex process that is distinctly different from redevelopment. It changes the makeup of neighborhoods and fuels political and policy conflicts while exacerbating inequality and destabilizing the tenure of longstanding communities. Throughout the course, we will examine the interplay between urban development, social change, and political power, while exploring the challenges and strategies for combating the negative impacts of gentrification.

Ashley Hernandez

My name is Ashley Hernandez, and I am Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. I am a qualitative researcher, and my research areas include urban change and inequality as it relates to gentrification, urban social movements, affordable housing, and community engagement. I am deeply committed to community-based research and equitable policy, particularly that which centers the experiences and voices of underrepresented communities and their struggles against displacement.

Spring 2025 CLAS 61H 001 Writing the Past MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

The intersection of history-writing, cinema and fiction will be our focus as we engage with the greatest Greek historians—Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius—against the backdrop of modern renditions of the past and of war in cinema (including Peter Weir’s Gallipoli, Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy and Zack Snyder’s 300), documentaries (including Tolga Ornek’s Gallipoli), news footage and short stories. We will examine the strategies of each ancient writer in confronting challenges that remain pressing for directors, journalists, and historians today. These include difficulties of conflicting perspectives, biased evidence, and the limitations of memory, as well as broader questions about the nature of historical representation. The aim is for students to engage in critical and informed analysis of the strategies of our three ancient historians in ‘writing the past’, and to draw appropriate comparisons with the challenges that confront modern counterparts. The course will center on in-class group discussion and debate focused on questions arising from the week’s reading or viewing assignments. Students will write two short essays and a longer paper arising from their course project.

Emily Baragwanath

Emily Baragwanath studied at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, before taking up a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, U.K. where she gained her doctorate in Classics. She has since held research fellowships at Christ Church, Oxford, at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C., and in Heidelberg. Her main area of scholarly interest is the literary techniques employed by Greek historians in their construction of historical narratives. Her first book, Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus, winner of Oxford’s Conington Prize and the CAMWS Award for Outstanding Publication 2010, explores the representation of human motivation in Herodotus’ Histories. She is now examining the representation of women in the historian and philosopher Xenophon.

Spring 2025 CLAS 65 001 The City of Rome MWF 3:35 PM – 4:25 PM

All roads lead to Rome! But what was Rome really like? This class is an introduction to the history, art, and archaeology of Rome from antiquity to today. You will learn to recognize and interpret different aspects of the ancient city – temples, theaters, sculptures, mosaics, and more – to see how the Romans sent messages through them, and how those messages were received, manipulated, and reinterpreted by different audiences. We will consider not only the perspectives and (many) monuments of wealthy men but also the contributions of women, workers, freedpersons, and slaves. Just as modern American cities grapple with how to deal with old monuments, we will explore how different generations of Romans re-imagined their past and used archaeology to tell a story about themselves and their world, from the aristocracy of the Renaissance (15-16th centuries) to Mussolini and the Fascists (1922-45) to the debates still happening today.

Sheira Cohen

Sheira Cohen is Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Department of Classics. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (PhD Classical Art and Archaeology); she was born in Aotearoa New Zealand and studied at both the University of Auckland (BA Anthropology and Ancient History) and University of Sydney (MA Classics). Her work explores questions of how people formed communities and expressed their intersecting identities through their material culture. Her research interests include burial practices, mobility and networks, shepherds and pastoralism, and urbanism. She is an active field archaeologist and currently supervises excavations at the ancient city of Gabii, a city outside Rome. Her fieldwork makes use of cutting-edge digital recording techniques as well as new biochemical and bioarchaeological analyses to learn more about the lives of ordinary people in the past.

Spring 2025 CLAS 89H 001 Pagans and Christians MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

What does large-scale culture change look like? What does it feel like? What do individuals and communities experience as world-views change from generation to generation? In this course we’ll examine these questions by looking at one example of a period of substantial culture-change in the past: the first three centuries of the Common Era in the Mediterranean world, when Christianity was emerging with new ideas about social organization, community and personal identity, and the structure of the cosmos. In this seminar course, we will explore a range of texts from this period – ancient novels, early Christian gospels and acts, religious satires, pagan hymns, oracular texts, religious inscriptions, philosophical and theological texts – that offer a glimpse of some of the conversations and debates between new and old ideas about human beings, the natural world, and the gods.

Janet Downie

Dr. Janet Downie teaches courses in ancient Greek language, literature, culture, and thought in the Department of Classics. Her research focuses on Greek literary culture in the multi-ethnic and multi-religious context of the Roman Empire. She is most interested in the "end" of antiquity: what happened as the classical world became Christian? And how does that distant time continue to shape our thinking today?

Spring 2025 COMM 140 01F Introduction to Media History, Theory, and Criticism MW 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM

An introduction to the critical analysis of film, television, advertising, video, and new media texts, contexts, and audiences.

David Monje

Dr. David Monje’s research and teaching interests are in the environment, art, aesthetics and politics. He has travelled widely pursuing these interests and brings a broad perspective to the class. His interdisciplinary approach to teaching is informed by his education: he has BFA in painting, a BA in Linguistics, an MA in Communication and Society, and Ph.D. in Cultural Studies and Communication.

Spring 2025 COMM 63 001 The Creative Process in Performance MW 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM

Students in this seminar will attend and study the production process of multimedia, music, dance and theater performances on campus and on-line. The Process Series of the Performance Studies program in the Department of Communication Studies, Playmakers, Carolina Performing Arts, and others across campus and additional on-line performance. We will discuss how performance as it was experienced (pre-Covid) and as it currently experienced. We will examine performance through multiple lenses, from Aristotle’s Poetics, Peter Brooks’s Empty Space, up to current writing from Performance Studies scholars. We will explore the ways that performances engage us, communicating powerful ideas and emotions through their various media of expression. Students will research performance pieces, interview the performers, attend rehearsals and performances, and write essays that combine their own experiences of the performances with class readings. Students will also create their own performance pieces as they observe the relationship of preparation and practice to the spontaneity and surprise of performance.

Joseph Megel

Joseph Megel has spent the last 20 years focusing on the direction and development of new works, for theatre, film and video. Mr. Megel is a member of SSDC (Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers), Co-Artistic Director of StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and an Associate Artist for The Working Theatre in New York. He holds the M.F.A. degree from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California, a Master of Arts from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and a B.S. in Speech from Northwestern University. He served for six years as Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, a new play development theatre, and continues to serve as Co-Executive Producer of Harland’s Creek Productions, producer of New York premieres of new plays, developmental producer of screenplays, readings and films.

Spring 2025 COMM 89 001 Remixing Star Wars MW 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM

This course is a critical and creative inquiry in contemporary culture, art and politics through Star Wars films and television series. Students will learn methods of creating of original video-based and/or performance-based to use the imagery, sounds and film/video sequences of Star Wars to engage the many cultural, political and individualized contexts in which Star Wars is already situated, as well as by wrenching them from their contexts through radically recontextualization. Our work will be informed by course readings that locate Star Wars in film and television history, as well as the many ways they speak to, from and with the political and cultural issues they (intentionally and unintentionally) engage. The course is organized around the creation and exhibition of original student works based in the art of remix and mash-up, utilizing found video and audio to engage themes developed by students.

Tony Perucci

Dr. Perucci is Professor of Performance and Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication. He is a scholar and performance practitioner whose research focuses (1) on how artistic practices across mediums (performing arts, film/TV/media, music, literature) utilize performance as a means aesthetic experimentation and political engagement, and (2) the role of performance outside of artistic contexts that shape culture, politics and everyday life (e.g., surveillance, political demonstrations and rallies, media and marketing spectacles, performances of self). His books include Paul Robeson and the Cold War Performance Complex: Race, Madness, Activism and On the Horizontal with Mary Overlie and The Viewpoints. His current research focuses on contemporary artistic practices in film, television and performance that intentionally sabotage the viewer's ability to discern fact and fiction/real and fake, and the significance of such work in the context of "post-truth politics," AI and deepfake technologies and conspiracy theory. His work as a performance practitioner has been presented in Los Angeles, New York City, Brazil, Germany and North Carolina.

Spring 2025 DRAM 120 01F Play Analysis TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Development of the skill to analyze plays for academic and production purposes through the intensive study of representative plays. DRAM 120 is the first course in the major and the minor in dramatic art.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Spring 2025 DRAM 80 001 Psychology of Clothes: Motivations for Dressing Up and Dressing Down TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The course seeks to help students find ways to articulate their own motivations for dress and then apply the ideas they have discovered to the ways in which individuality as well as group attitudes are expressed through clothing.

Pamela Bond

Pamela Bond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art. Pamela has taught at Hampton University and North Carolina Central University. Her recent work includes costume design for The Bus Stop featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has performed professionally at the National Black Theatre Festival and featured apparel designs in Charlotte Fashion Week and Winston Salem Fashion Week. Pamela believes that in order for students to experience the full scope as theatre practitioners they must be willing to explore diverse ethnic and cultural backdrops, as well as their own. So what does your clothing say about you? What messages are you trying to send with what you put on today? Let’s explore your closet and see who you are.

Spring 2025 DRAM 83 001 Spectacle in the Theatre TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Spring 2025 EMES 51 001 Global Warming: Science, Social Impacts, Solutions MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Students will examine evidence that human activity has caused global warming, investigate scientists’ ability to predict climate change, and discuss the political and social dimensions of global climate change.

Marc Alperin

Marc Alperin’s work involves the use of stable isotopes as natural tracers of sedimentary processes. He is particularly interested in carbon cycling in coastal sediments and its role in the global carbon budget. Recent projects have included studies of the biogeochemistry of organic compounds dissolved in sediment pore waters, the fate of organic matter deposited on the seafloor, anaerobic oxidation of methane in marine sediments, and the effects of dissolved organic nitrogen and carbon in atmospheric precipitation on coastal ecosystems. Dr. Alperin also co-leads the CHAOS Biogeochemistry Laboratories.

Spring 2025 ECON 89 001 Asian Socialist Systems TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Asian Socialist Systems elaborates the workings of the North Korean, Chinese and Japanese socialist economies in neoclassical perspective. The course goal is acquainting students with the special characteristics and comparative merit of Asian socialist systems.

Steven Rosefielde

Professor of Economic, UNC
Area: Comparative Economic Systems
Book: Socialist Economic Systems: 21st Century Pathways (2023)
Expertise: Russian, Asian and European economic systems. International security.
Member: Russian Academy of Natural Sciences

Spring 2025 ENGL 71H 001 Healers and Patients TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

When medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman writes that “illness has meaning,” he reminds us that the human experience of being sick involves more than bodily symptoms. Moreover, the effects of illness and disability are rarely confined to one person. In this course, we will analyze a diverse collection of writers who work to make sense of illness and disability through a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, graphic memoir, podcasts, and oral histories.

Divided into five units, the course will allow us to explore not just the medical, but also the personal, ethical, cultural, and political facets of illness from the perspectives of patients, healthcare providers, and families. Central texts will include /Ask Me About My Uterus/ by Abby Norman, /Black Man in a White Coat/ by Damon Tweedy, /Mom’s Cancer/ by Brian Fies and /The Farewell/ directed by Lulu Wang. Additionally, students will explore a set of oral histories to learn more about the experiences of patients, healthcare providers, and families from across North Carolina.

Kym Weed

Kym Weed is a Teaching Assistant Professor in English & Comparative Literature and the Co-Director of the HHIVE Lab and Associate Director of graduate programs in Literature, Medicine, and Culture. She earned her PhD from UNC and returned to Chapel Hill after a year in Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society. Her research focuses on the intersection of science and literature in late-nineteenth-century American literature and culture as well as contemporary understandings of illness, health, disability, and embodiment. Her most recent project examines narratives around anti-microbial resistance. She teaches courses in health humanities, disability studies, American literature, and writing.

Spring 2025 ENGL 87 001 Jane Austen, Then & Now MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

Pride and Prejudice, often cited as the best-loved novel in English, is the focus of this semester’s course in Austen and present-day responses to her oeuvre. We will begin with in-depth reading of Austen’s 1813 novel, with attention to its form (genre and narrative style) and to its historical and biographical contexts; we will examine recent re-workings, in fiction and in film, in light of present-day concerns and the students’ interests. Several film adaptations will be considered as part of our research into Austen’s current influence. First-time readers of Austen are welcome in the course, as are those deeply familiar with Austen’s oeuvre. Interested students are welcome to contact the instructor in advance of registration with any questions or concerns.

Jeanne Moskal

Jeanne Moskal is an award-winning teacher and mentor. She has authored a study of the poet William Blake and has edited the travel writings of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Moskal’s book-in-progress analyzes twentieth-century adaptations of Jane Eyre.

Spring 2025 ENGL 89 001 The Rhetoric of Wellness TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Scan any bookstore shelf and you’d think the human psyche is hanging on by a thread. From fighting anxiety to seeking happiness to putting an end to procrastination, the titles compete for the opportunity to fix our problems with the promise of self-improvement. But are we really in worse psychological shape than those who have come before us? And how would we begin to study the status of our wellness? This first-year seminar will offer one approach to exploring these and related questions: studying the rhetoric of self-help. Rhetoric provides a lens for thinking about the ways people talk about self-help. This lens will drive the organization of the course. Studying the language in online self-help discourse, for instance, will enable extensive research activities. Students will learn to collect a corpus of Tweet data, and then use grounded theory and qualitative approaches to study the conversation. Using mixed methods, they will then quantify interpretations and develop visuals to recognize patterns. In addition to working with contemporary online discourse, students will explore texts with historical instantiations of self-help rhetoric—from classical instruction linked with civics and oration to medieval meditations to 1960s and 70s self-actualization to modern mindfulness. Rhetorical study will also facilitate the production of knowledge as students translate their understanding into communication to be shared publicly. The class activities will feature the creation of texts in a range of media. Students will produce print reports, visual memes, and PSA video projects. Students will also explore oral communication through the creation of podcasts. The combination of mixed methods research and public communication will drive the class. Teaching methods will tap into this dynamic by augmenting lecture and discussion with hands-on activities, collaboration, and the drafting and revision of projects.

Daniel Anderson

Daniel Anderson is a Professor in the Department of English & Comparative Literature. He is the Director of the University Writing Program. He is also Director the Digital Innovation Lab, where he leads campus digital humanities initiatives. He studies digital rhetoric, digital humanities, humanities data studies, teaching with technology, and alternative approaches to scholarship. His books include Video Scholarship and Screen Composing, Write Now, Connections: A Guide to Online Writing, Writing About Literature in the Media Age, and Beyond Words: Reading and Writing in a Digital Age. He also creates new media performance art and scholarship using the computer screen as a composing space. More information can be found at https://iamdan.org.

Spring 2025 ENVR 89 002 Environment-ECUIPP Lab: Connecting with Communities through Environmental Research for Public Health TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course is an entry into an undergraduate learning community organized by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. The ECUIPP Lab (Environmentally-Engaged Communities and Undergraduate students Investigating for Public health Protection) is a creative community of students, faculty members and practice partners. Students in ENVR 89-001 will become members of the Environment-ECUIPP Lab. Over the course of the semester they will design and conduct research that addresses a pressing environmental health issue in a local community. Students will work with the local community partner to develop a research question and use the resources of the ECUIPP Lab and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering to answer the question through the research process. The course is a hands-on undergraduate research experience

Amanda Northcross

Professor Amanda Northcross likes to build things and enjoys working together with students and communities to explore environmental health concerns, design field campaigns, and build and deploy networks of sensors to answer environmental health questions. With BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical and environmental engineering she is passionate about health equity. Dr. Northcross has conducted environmental health and engineering research in Guatemala, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. She will work together with faculty from UNC’s Water Institute to conduct community-engaged environmental research with first year students.

Spring 2025 EXSS 155H 01F Human Anatomy and Physiology I TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course is targeted to students enrolled in Department of Exercise and Sport Science majors as well as other students with interest in medical professions. This course involves a systematic approach to human anatomy and physiology with an emphasis on the musculoskeletal, articular and nervous systems as well as anatomical terminology and homeostasis. No prerequisites are required.

Kristin Ondrak
Spring 2025 GEOG 130 01F Development and Inequality: Global Perspectives TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is an introduction to historical and contemporary ideas about practices and meanings of development through the perspective of geography. Students will explore the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of struggles over inequality. They will also consider how development and inequality become constructed and institutionalized throughout history, the radical and not-so-radical ways that individuals, governments, and organizations have sought to change inequality, and the ways that geographical concepts can improve our thinking about these puzzles. SPECIAL FOR SPRING 2025: We will be collaborating with a local arts organization, Culture Mill, and a local community group on a new performance titled ‘Bloc’, in order to understand local landscapes of inequality and also of community in Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth Olson

Elizabeth Olson is Professor of Geography and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds an M.A. in Political Science/Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Geography, both from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was previously on faculty at Lancaster University, England, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She researches care, ethics, and geographies of inequality. She has published widely on topics related to normative ethics, the geographies of religion and spirituality, and youth and young people, and is co-editor of Religion and Place: Landscapes, Politics and Piety (2012) and The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Feminist Geographies (2020). She loves teaching and offers classes related to global inequality and global theory, cultural landscapes, and geographies of religion.

Spring 2025 GEOG 56 001 Local Places in a Globalizing World TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course is designed to reflect on the complexities of an interconnected world and the dynamic relationship between globalization and localization by investigating how these forces shape our world and influence individuals and communities. A central component of this exploration involves examining the perspectives of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. Students will critically examine how these diverse groups respond to, influence, and resist globalization, thus gaining nuanced insights into alternative development and environmental stewardship paradigms.

Ruth Matamoros Mercado

I am an Indigenous Geographer specializing in indigenous research methods, decolonial indigenous and feminist geographies and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). My research interests center on Indigenous Peoples' land relations with a focus on Central America. My current research examines the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of land dispossession for the lives of Indigenous peoples in Nicaragua and Honduras. I completed a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and I also have a degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, UNAN-León.

Spring 2025 GEOG 68 001 Freshwaters in the Anthropocene TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Freshwaters sustain myriad ecosystem services by providing drinking water, irrigation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreational opportunities, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. At the same time, both water quality and quantity are impacted by land use, water abstraction, damming, contamination, and climate change. This seminar will focus (1) on understanding how these anthropogenic pressures affect freshwater ecosystems differently across ecoregions, and (2) how management, legislative, and social initiatives have adapted or developed solutions. We will focus mainly on the United States but consider case studies from around the world. Students should be prepared to read and discuss three materials per week. These reading materials will include a range of popular media including podcasts, newspaper articles, and book chapters, as well as scientific articles and overviews. We will also spend some time exploring and talking about streams accessible to the UNC campus. Class will culminate with research projects in which students get to explore a topic of their choice and presenting findings to their peers.

Amanda DelVecchia

I am a physical geographer focusing on freshwater ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves connecting various spatial and temporal scales, and biotic and abiotic factors, within groundwater, lakes, wetlands, rivers, and their watersheds. In particular, I ask how connectivity between different parts of the landscape (including those we cannot see!), and over time, affect functions like carbon and nutrient cycling, food webs, and greenhouse gas dynamics. By understanding these connections, we can better predict how freshwaters react to climate change and anthropogenic alteration, so that we may better protect freshwater biodiversity and function. I use a mix of empirical and data science, and work across the U.S. and internationally. You can learn more about my research by visiting my website at amandadelvecchia.weebly.com, by emailing me, or by visiting during my office hours, in which case I can promise you a warm reception and an offer for tea.

Spring 2025 GEOG 69 001 People and Forests MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

This course delves into the interplay between human communities and the vital forest ecosystems upon which they rely. Through our collective exploration, we will deepen our understanding of the far-reaching impacts of forests on virtually every facet of our daily lives. In addition to forests of the world, we will also explore art about trees and learn about the forests that make our campus unique. The course includes field visits to the Coker Arboretum and other natural areas on campus.

Shorna Allred

Shorna Allred is a Professor of Geography and Environment at UNC Chapel Hill. She has worked in forests all over the world to partner with local communities on conservation challenges and spans from upstate New York to the island of Borneo. Her work in the U.S. centers on environmental justice and bringing equity into forestland stewardship. Dr. Allred is a third-generation Texan and first-generation college student, and her passion for sustainable development and environmental justice was sparked at Penn State, where she was one of the first African-American women to earn a graduate degree from the School of Forest Resources.

Spring 2025 GSLL 76 001 Uncharted Territory: Underworlds in Literature and the Visual Arts TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course examines concepts and representations of underworlds in literature and the visual arts from the ancient world to modernity. Our journey will take us to the realms of the afterlife as well as into the abyss of the human psyche and the shady areas of criminal activities. We will explore how the desire to know the beyond has triggered people’s imagination, inspired literary and artistic traditions and influenced new forms of knowledge, moral values and social realities. Readings include short stories by E.A. Poe and Franz Kafka, and excerpts from works such as Plato’s Republic, the Bible, Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, Primo Levi’s Auschwitz memoirs, Don de Lillo’s Underworld, and Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. We will watch movies and TV shows such as Apocalypse Now and Breaking Bad. We will visit the museum and a theater performance. Through reading responses, papers, and an oral presentation students develop and practice skills of critical thinking, persuasive written and oral communication and they use creativity effectively.

Aleksandra Prica

Aleksandra Prica is a professor of German literature. She was born and raised in Switzerland and studied at the University of Zürich. So far, her life has involved a lot of traveling, and she has lived in different countries and cities such as Berlin, Amsterdam, Chicago and a small village in Columbia, South America. She joined the faculty at the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures in 2016. In her research she focuses on literature of the Middle Ages and contemporary adaptations of the medieval world in literature, art and film.

Spring 2025 HIST 51 001 Latin American Revolutions TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course explores the problem of revolutionary upheaval in Latin American history, from the revolutionary wars of the independence era (1810-1825) to revolutionary episodes of the 20th century.

Andrew Walker

Andrew Walker is a historian of slavery, emancipation, nation-building, and racial formations in the Atlantic World, with a focus on Haiti and the Greater Caribbean in the nineteenth-century.

His current book project, Haitian Santo Domingo: From Emancipation to Separation, uses local notarial and administrative records from the city of Santo Domingo to tell the story of how Hispaniola, an island governed by independent Haiti for 22 years, became divided into two nations. The book argues that the transition from unification to division cemented revolutionary antislavery as a foundational legacy of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but also generated paradoxical silences surrounding racial inequalities in the modern Dominican Republic.

Dr. Walker's published work has appeared in the William & Mary Quarterly, the Law and History Review, and Slavery & Abolition. He has also contributed book chapters to the Routledge Companion to Nineteenth-Century Latin America and the edited volume Santo Domingo, 1821-2021: Bicentenario de la Independencia Efi?mera, published by the Archivo General de la Nación of the Dominican Republic.

Previously, Dr. Walker held postdoctoral fellowships at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and at Wesleyan University. Dr. Walker received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in History and French Studies from Duke University.

Dr. Walker teaches courses on Caribbean history, modern Latin American history, and Latin American studies.

Spring 2025 HIST 72 001 Women's Voices: 20th-Century European History in Female Memory TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The course examines 20th-century European history through the lenses of women’s autobiographical writings. It explores women’s voices from different generational, social, and national backgrounds and asks what formed their memories.

Jennifer A. Boittin

Jennifer A. Boittin is the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global History. She received her Ph.D. in History from Yale University and was previously a professor at Penn State University. Her research and teaching look at how colonial spaces in West Africa, Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the French Caribbean were shaped by intersections between class, politics, and urban culture around the world wars and decolonization. Completed in part thanks to a Paris Institute for Advanced Studies fellowship, her second book is entitled Undesirable: Passionate Mobility and Women’s Defiance of French Colonial Policing, 1919-1952 (2022, University of Chicago Press). Undesirable tells the virtually unknown history of hundreds of women in Southeast Asia (French Indochina) and West Africa (AOF) tracked by authorities because they were traveling alone and claiming Frenchness. Drawn from Cambodian, French, and Senegalese archives, Undesirable’s focus on how ordinary people react to being policed gives historical depth to pressing contemporary issues of migration and violence in France today and of similar reckonings on a global scale.

Boittin’s first book, Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris (2010, University of Nebraska Press) is an innovative, intersectional history of radical interwar politics. She has also published extensively on the Nardal sisters, Lamine Senghor, Tiémoko Garan Kouyaté, Black anti-imperialism, masculinity, Black and African diaspora, Josephine Baker, and women travelers. She is a Past President of the Western Society of French History, editor of French Colonial History, and founding member on the editorial committee for Marronnages, les questions raciales au crible des sciences sociales.

Spring 2025 HIST 89 001 Native North Carolina: Past, Present, and Future TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course introduces students to the long history of North Carolina’s many and diverse Indigenous peoples. We will learn about their millennia-long history in this place, from the Outer Banks to the Appalachian Mountains. We will study their sixteenth-century encounters with newcomers from Europe and Africa and how they brought those newcomers into their economic and social worlds. We will see how, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, non-Indigenous settlers moved west, taking the land of Native peoples starting on the coast and then moving to the piedmont and finally the mountains. We will see how Native peoples kept their communities alive while fleeing, hiding from, and fighting colonialism in various ways. And we will learn about the economic and cultural renaissance going on today among Native North Carolinians. The class will include on-campus field trips (usually during the class period) and up to two off-campus field trips.

Kathleen DuVal

Kathleen DuVal's research focuses on early America, particularly how various Native American, European, and African women and men interacted from the sixteenth through early nineteenth centuries.

Spring 2025 HIST 89 002 Doing Digital History TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

How has the information age changed the ways that historians do and share research? This class is designed to help students chart shifts in the historical discipline alongside broader transformations in technology, media, and information-sharing since the post-World War II era. It will also allow students to practice using digital history tools and methods, culminating with a collaborative final project. Over the semester, our class will work with the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources as well as students in another first-year seminar (Native North Carolina) to create an interactive map of resources for K-12 educators relating to state-recognized tribes.

Lauren Jarvis

Lauren Jarvis is an Associate Professor of History. She grew up in Chapel Hill and earned her BA in History at that school down the road (rhymes with "fluke"). She then received her PhD in History at Stanford. Jarvis's research focuses on 19th and 20th century South Africa. At UNC, she teaches classes in South African, African, Global, and (most recently) Digital History. She is currently the Faculty Director of The LAUNCH, or The Lab at UNC History, a digital history and storytelling hub.

Spring 2025 HNRS 89 001 Narrative and Medicine: Writing COVID/Writing Us W 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM

This first-year seminar is a workshop in autobiographical and creative short story, focusing on the complex connections between story-telling, interpretive skill, the experience of illness, and the practice of medicine. The only prerequisite is some experience (and enjoyment in) reading stories. Students will write and distribute autobiographical and and creative short stories about illness and caregiving; the seminar will meet weekly to discuss these stories, as well as published works by doctors and other writers, seeking out the key issues each story expresses about what it means to be sick, and what it might mean to take care of others. This is a highly collaborative course. Each week, the entire class works as a group to build an understanding of:

how meaning arises in the stories composed and presented by members of the class;
the role form plays in our ability to shape and understand a narrative (and our lives);
the extent to which the creative process draws on both intellectual and emotional processes;
how often those processes are not immediately apparent to either the writer or the reader (in other words, in writing we often say more than we consciously intend, and our understanding of what we read takes work; in this class that understanding is an iterative process in which repeated readings and the collaboration of others is essential toward arriving at a full understanding of what each story is trying to tell us).

In addition to writing for the workshop, participants will keep a journal over the course of the semester, charting not day-to-day events but vignettes of remembered experience, daydreams, sketches, which taken together address, one way or another, what it has been like for you to experience the Great Pandemic of 2020-2X. It is difficult to imagine writing, either autobiographical or imaginative, that does not, under our current conditions, somehow address the COVID-19 pandemic. This is not to say that everything we write should consciously, overtly, or explicitly be about COVID 19, but simply that the reality of the pandemic shapes much of what we think these days, especially concerning illness. Whether we choose to live in the world as if the pandemic were over, or if we are still aware of its ongoing ravages both at home and abroad, we still inhabit a world utterly changed by the fear of contagion, and all the different ways we choose to respond to both that contagion and that fear. As an omnipresent and yet unvoiced anxiety, as a deeply facilitated pathway in our limbic cortices, as an occult force in our individual and social lives, COVID continues to provide an ideal topic as we attempt to understand how our stories draw on memories and emotions of which we may not (wish to) be aware. This journal is to be the foundation for the capstone project. This project need not be “written.” It can take the form of a video or audio recording, an animation, or of images strung together as a slide show while you read a narrative composition. Or it can simply be a story, autobiographical or imaginative, about you and COVID 19.

The writing and (especially) interpretive skills acquired in this workshop are directly valuable to anyone contemplating a career in medicine, but are equally valuable in a wide range of humanities disciplines, as well as to anyone who might at some point encounter (in themselves or in someone they care for) the trauma of illness. In addition to the weekly workshop, participants will have one-on-one conferences with the instructor (himself an MD with an international reputation as a writer). Both in the writing of your stories, and in the discussion of your classmates’ stories, you will find in this course both the tools for a greater understanding of yourself and a greater appreciation of how much you share with those around you. This course offers a personal, meaningful approach to questions many of us share, but rarely have a chance to put into words.

Terrence Holt

Terrence Holt (M.F.A., Ph.D. Cornell University; M.D. UNC), has held a faculty position at the School of Medicine since completing his residency (internal medicine) in 2003. He teaches topics ranging from health care finance to medical ethics to narrative medicine. For ten years a contributing editor to Men's Health, he publishes and speaks widely on a range of topics related to ethical and experiential questions of medical practice. His short story collections (In the Valley of the Kings, Internal Medicine) have appeared on numerous "best of" lists, including the New York Times bestsellers, and have been reprinted, translated, and anthologized in the US, Europe, and Asia. He thinks of this course as his central contribution to his teaching at Carolina, one that combines the multiple disciplinary strands of his career into a unified experience for learners at a range of levels.

Spring 2025 IDST 89 001 The Way of Medicine T 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Seminar will discuss and explore how health should be defined and various classical and contemporary views of medical practice. Ethical controversies in modern medicine will be discused and anlayzed.

John Thorp

I am the McAllister Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine and have practiced clinical medicine since 1983 in Chapel Hill. My research interests include clinical epidemiology, biomedical ethics, perinatal substance abuse, and preterm birth.

Spring 2025 MATH 69 001 Unfolding Infinity: Mathematical Origami and Fractal Symmetry TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Have you ever wanted to be able to hold infinity in the palm of your hand? This course engages students in an exploration of the interplay between mathematics, origami, and fractal symmetry. Learning objectives will include mastering basic origami folding techniques, identifying and applying fundamental symmetry operations, recognizing and analyzing fractal symmetry, and creating geometric tessellations. Students will use image editing software (Illustrator and Photoshop), mathematical imaging software (Geometer’s Sketchpad and Ultra Fractal), and the laser cutter in UNC’s BeAM space, to design and create modular origami and fractal tessellation artwork. Students will be expected to participate in class discussions and small group work, as well as submit short written assignments on course topics.

Mark McCombs

Mark McCombs is a Teaching Professor of Mathematics. He teaches Selected Topics in Mathematics, Calculus 1–3, Discrete Math and First Year Seminars focusing on mathematical art. He strives to help students explore how mathematical ideas resonate with fields typically perceived as non-mathematical. He uses UNC’s BeAM network to develop maker-based activities that cultivate students’ analytical creativity. He enjoys making 3D origami sculpture and digital fractal art (https://www.deviantart.com/boygnius/gallery/), some of which was exhibited at the 2018 Bridges Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. One of his sculptures is now on display in Stockholm’s National Museum of Science and Technology!

Spring 2025 MUSC 63 001 Music on Stage and Screen TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Offers tools and techniques for understanding multimedia, staged musical works like opera, musical theater, and film. The goal of the seminar is to develop students’ analytical skills in verbal and nonverbal media and to encourage their visualization of the potential and implications of artistic forms and structures.

Naomi André

Dr. Naomi André (David G. Frey Distinguished Professor) received her B.A. in music from Barnard College and M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University. She was previously a professor at the University of Michigan in the Departments of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College.

Dr. André's research focuses on opera and issues surrounding gender, voice, and race. Her publications include topics on Italian opera, Schoenberg, women composers, and teaching opera in prisons. Her books, including, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (2006) and Blackness in Opera (2012, co-edited collection) focus on opera from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and explore constructions of gender, race and identity. African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021, co-edited collection) focuses on how performance and the arts shape the narratives of cultural history and politics on the African continent. Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (2018) is a monograph on staging race and history in opera today in the United States and South Africa. She has served on the Graduate Alumni Council for Harvard University's Graduate School of Art and Sciences, the Executive Committee for the Criminal Justice Program at the American Friends Service Committee (Ann Arbor, MI), and has served as an evaluator for the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.

In 2019, Dr. André was named the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera which has continued to the present. In her role, she advises Seattle Opera staff and leadership on matters of race and gender in opera; consults in artistic planning as it relates to representation of race and gender; and participates in company panel discussions, podcast recordings, and contributes essays to opera programs. She has continued to work with major and regional opera companies through panels, short residencies, and program essays.

In addition, Dr. André has worked with every major opera company in the United States and many regional opera companies and festivals. This summer she is a scholar-in-residence for the Des Moines Metro Opera. She has written program essays for recordings of Blue (CD, Tesori and Thompson, 2022) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (DVD Blanchard and Lemmons 2022). On February 4, 2022 she testified before the Committee on the Judiciary as a Witness for House Resolution 301 hearing (Examining the History and Importance of Lift Every Voice and Sing to become a National Hymn (sponsored by Congressman James E. Clyburn, South Carolina).

Spring 2025 MUSC 64 001 What is a Work of Art? Listening to Music TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Music is one of the most ubiquitous arts in our world. It surrounds us in the grocery store, it accompanies our favorite films and television shows, and it serves as a basis for our ringtones and social media content. And yet, it is also one of the hardest arts to define. What exactly IS music? Does music express emotion, or is it just sounds interacting in space and time? Is there a ‘right’ way to hear music, or does the same musical excerpt mean different things to different people? And how does THAT work? If I ‘cover’ a song, am I playing the song, or a new piece? Is birdsong music? Why or why not? These are just some of the many questions that this course seeks to explore. A special emphasis is given to developing active listening skills so that we can hear more parameters of music. No prior knowledge of music notation is required to take this course, just an openness to learning about musical traditions from various times and places and a desire to discuss as a class the big questions that underlie the musical arts.

Evan Harger

Dr. Harger (Assistant Professor) is the Music Director for the UNC Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as a Staff Conductor in various capacities for Global Arts United festivals in Sofia, Bulgaria; Vienna, Austria; and São Paulo, Brazil. Additionally, He holds the position of Associate Conductor of the Newfound Chamber Winds, where he assists with guest conducting, producing, and outreach. As an educator, Dr. Harger enjoys asking the big philosophical questions that underly the musical arts, and he enjoys leading student-generated discussions about big questions within the musical arts. Past guest conducting engagements have included the Newfound Chamber Winds, Oregon Mozart Players, Arkansas Music Works Brass Band, Sofia Philharmonic, PHACE Ensemble, PMEA District IX and VIII Orchestras, Marywood String Celebration Chamber Orchestra, and Idaho All-Collegiate Band. He also served as a past Music Director of the Young People's Philharmonic of the Lehigh Valley. He is thrilled to be a part of the UNC community!

Spring 2025 MUSC 89 001 Sound Art TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course explores the primary concepts, techniques, and artists/works falling under the category of “sound art,” an interdisciplinary field that centers sound and listening in contexts outside of traditional musical performance. Examples of sound art include sound installations, soundwalks, performance art, conceptual music, music technology, and more. Artistic work at the intersections of visual art, sculpture, science, architecture, theater, poetry, and music will be discussed in a seminar-style class format. In addition to learning about the history and aesthetics of sound art, students will participate in the creation and performance of original sound art works.

Lee Weisert

Lee Weisert is a composer of instrumental and electronic music and a multimedia sound artist. He teaches courses in music technology, composition, musicianship, and digital media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Weisert’s recent music has incorporated increasingly disparate elements such as orchestral instruments, found sounds, field recordings, digital synthesis, and analog circuitry, in an attempt to find, “through experimentation, tinkering, and unconventional approaches, a ritualistic and deeply expressive world of sound.” His music is published by New Focus Recordings.

Spring 2025 PHIL 85 001 Reason, Religion, and Reality in the Copernican Revolution TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The reasoning by which Galileo and his contemporaries defended the Copernican model of the solar system (the “heliocentric” model – that is, with the Earth orbiting the Sun rather than the Sun orbiting the Earth) can puzzle us even today. Here are a few of the questions that we could ask about the reasoning given by Copernicus, Galileo, and their contemporaries. Did Copernicus’s arguments support the heliocentric model strongly enough to justify believing it true? Or was it unjustified until Galileo amassed telescopic evidence for it? Or was it unjustified until even later – when Newtonian physics was developed? Or did it remain unjustified until even later – when various mechanical and optical discoveries were made in the nineteenth century? Was the Catholic Church justified at the time of Galileo in regarding Copernicus’s theory as just one among many fairly successful techniques for predicting the night sky’s appearance? Did Galileo bring his sentence (at his famous – and notorious – trial) on himself? Could Galileo argue persuasively for his telescope’s reliability? Could Galileo use mere “thought-experiments” (as opposed to actual experiments) to defend Copernicanism? In this course, we will grapple with these and related questions in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the logic by which scientific theories in general are tested and, ultimately, justified. We will also try to use this historical episode to understand better how political, social, and cultural factors can influence the reception of a scientific theory – even today! We will learn some of the means by which the biases and presuppositions introduced by these factors were overcome (eventually) in the Copernican Revolution, and we will apply some of these lessons to current science. At various points during our discussions, each student will submit in written form his or her own best reconstructions of some of the arguments that were given for or against the Copernican model. In other words, each student will offer his or her best advice regarding how a given scientist might have argued for or against Copernicanism, anticipating possible objections and responses. Students will occasionally form groups to examine and to critique one another’s proposals, with each group finally presenting its best thoughts orally to the rest of the class for further discussion. Students will, in effect, be putting Galileo on trial once again – not for heresy or for disobeying authority, but for having convincing or for having insufficient evidence for his Copernicanism. In all of these ways, students will learn how to appreciate sympathetically the competing astronomical theories from the perspective of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the truth was in some doubt. Along the way, students will wrestle with some of the puzzles and apparent paradoxes arising even from today’s best philosophical accounts of the logic of theory testing in science. No previous background in science will be assumed. Students will not need to purchase any books.

Marc Lange

Marc Lange is Theda Perdue Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in the philosophy of science and related areas of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mathematics, along with the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. He won UNC's 2016 Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction and a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. (For a brief sample of his teaching, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SKmqh5Eu4Y)

Spring 2025 PHYS 118 01F PHYS 118-401. Note: The PHYS 118-01F lecture will be combined with other PHYS 118 lecture sections, and it will be taught as a large survey class. PHYS 118-401, the studio section associated with this class, is the FY Launch section. Please be sure to enroll in the lecture, PHYS 118-01F, and the corresponding studio, PHYS 118-401, to fulfill the FY-LAUNCH requirement. Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Muxin Zhang

Muxin Zhang received her PhD in Physics Education Research (PER) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 with Dr. Eric Kuo. Her thesis focused on analyzing cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of small group interactions in physics discussion sections and labs. She is particularly passionate about understanding the role of emotions in science education and scientific practices. She is currently teaching Physics 114 and Physics 118 courses at UNC-CH.

Spring 2025 PHYS 89 001 Mysteries of the Universe TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course will provide a qualitative treatment of some of the great mysteries related to our understanding of the universe and the fabric of space and time, as well as key modern physics theories and laws of nature that we use in exploring these mysteries. Topic include: the second law of thermodynamics and entropy; the pricniples of quantum mechanics; their application to a unified undertsanding of how our universe emerged to existence and how it will end; what lies beyond the horizon at the largest scales of space and time and in the heart of black holes.

Course objectives: Give you a deeper insight into the working of the universe and its mysteries, expose you to cutting edge research in modern physics, and demonstrate how different fields of knowledge merge and blend together into a unified description of Nature. Encourage critical and conceptual thinking.

Laura Mersini-Houghton

Laura Mersini- Houghton is an internationally renowned cosmologist and theoretical physicist and one the world’s leading experts and author of the origin of the universe from the quantum multiverse. She proposed to use quantum entanglement to test the multiverse and made a series of predictions for anomalous signatures, notable the Cold Spot, imprinted in our sky. All of the predicted anomalies were confirmed by the Planck satellite experiment. She is a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a visiting professor at numerous distinguished universities around the world, including University of Cambridge in the UK and CITA, University of Toronto in Canada. She has been the subject of hundreds of interviews & articles in leading popular science magazines, newspapers, and documentaries, in the Science Channel, Discovery Channel, PBS, National Geographic, and BBC-Horizon, BBC Radio 4 and NPR.

Spring 2025 POLI 100 01F American Democracy in Changing Times TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Why do Americans love democracy, but hate politics? Why are there only two political parties? Why do voters hate, yet respond to negative campaigning? This course will introduce students to politics in the United States, addressing these and many more questions about how American democracy works.

Suzanne Globetti

Suzanne Globetti joined the political science department after having taught 14 years at Vanderbilt University and 4 years at Bowdoin College.??She received her BA at the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Suzanne teaches a range of classes about American politics and research methods.??At Carolina, she’ll offer the introductory American government class, along with courses on the mass media, public opinion, campaigns and elections, and beginning statistics.??At Vanderbilt she won multiple teaching awards and was widely considered the political science department’s most successful classroom presence.

Spring 2025 POLI 130 01F Introduction to Comparative Politics TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available.

Caitlin Andrews-Lee

Caitlin Andrews-Lee is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She earned her Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining UNC, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Center for Inter-American Policy and Research and an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Caitlin’s research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political behavior, with an emphasis on charismatic leadership and followership in Latin America. She is the author of The Emergence and Revival of Charismatic Movements: Argentine Peronism and Venezuelan Chavismo (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which won the Leon Epstein Award (APSA) and the Social Sciences Award (LASA). Her research has also been published in journals including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Democratization, Political Research Quarterly, and Journal of Politics in Latin America, among others.

Caitlin’s current project investigates the gendered nature of charismatic authority and explores under what conditions women can defy expectations and establish legitimacy as charismatic leaders.

Spring 2025 POLI 59 001 Revolution, America in 1776 and France in 1789 MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

This course is designed to throw students into New York City in 1775 and Paris in 1791 by recreating and engaging with the ideas and arguments of these times. The course will rely on the Reacting to the Past pedagogy. “Reacting to the Past” (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills. The course will be extremely hard work, but should also be intellectually engaging and, to put it simply, a good deal of fun. Click the following link to see a video of students discussing their experiences in the class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUq6IU6NGOs&t=1s

Matthew Weidenfeld

Dr. Matthew Weidenfeld has a wide range of teaching interests and experience in the history of political theory and in American Politics. Recently, his courses have featured role-immersive, Reacting to the Past Simulations. These consist of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; though he advises and guides students throughout. The simulations seek to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills.

Spring 2025 POLI 70 001 Political Conflict in the European Union and the United States TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is concerned with politics and political conflict in the Europe and the United States. In Part one you will learn about political parties and electoral systems, and why they are so important. Part two moves to the European Union: why was it created; how has it developed, and how does it work? Part three investigates the revolt against globalization in Europe and the US. Who is involved and why?

Gary Marks

Gary Marks is Burton Craige Professor of Political Science and Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. He served as the director and co-founder the UNC Center for European Studies and EU Center of Excellence. In 2017 he received the Daniel Elazar Distinguished Federalism Scholar Award from the American Political Science Association and has received the Humboldt Prize for his contributions to political science. Professor Marks has written more than a dozen books and is one of the most cited scholars worldwide in political science.

Spring 2025 POLI 75 001 Thinking about Law MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Are you interested in being a lawyer or public official? Do you know what it means to “think like a lawyer?” Have you considered why people mostly honor the law? Where do you find “the law?” How do judges decide difficult cases? This seminar will explore the notion of a rule of law, formal and customary law, legal analysis, judicial interpretation and the realities of the adversarial system and law practice. We will consider what makes law seem legitimate and how to assess whether it promotes liberty and justice. This seminar will challenge students to be reflective and critical about their own perspectives and to explore personal responsibility for promoting a rule of law. Students will be engaged in analytical thinking and expression through required participation in teacher-led dialogues based on assigned readings and with research and writing assignments. Reading materials include selections from court cases and other sources that provide an introduction to the notion of a rule of law, the sources of law that govern us and protect our individual rights, the nature of legal analysis, the different methods of judicial interpretation, and the realities of law practice and the adversarial system.

Charles Szypszak

Charles Szypszak is Albert Coates Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government. He has been with the School of Government since 2005. Prior to that, he was an attorney and director of a general practice firm in New Hampshire. He provides legal counsel to state, national and international institutions, organizations and public officials and teaches Law for Public Administration in the graduate program in public administration. He has taught and worked on law reforms in Poland and Russia. He is the recipient of the University’s J. Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award and the School of Government’s Coates Distinguished Professorship for Teaching Excellence.

Spring 2025 POLI 77 001 Immigrants and Refugees in World Politics TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The movement of people across international borders is one of the most politically controversial issues in the world today. This class focuses on two different types of global migrants, immigrants and refugees, and explores why these two groups move out of their countries and how they are treated by receiving countries. Immigrants and refugees have traditionally been thought of as politically, legally and ethically different from each other and this class explores these differences, but it also explores the many ways that they are similar. Finally, the class explores a third type of global migrant that politicians and policy makers frequently promote, guest workers, and considers to what extent guest worker policies can effectively address the challenges and opportunities posed by the two other migrant groups. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Spring 2025 POLI 87 001 What Does it Mean to be a Good Citizen? TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

What, if any, responsibilities accompany democratic citizenship? Voting? Active participation in political meetings? Obeying laws? Volunteering in one’s community? Preserving natural resources for future generations? Adhering to certain values? Protesting unjust laws? This course offers an overview of the different ways in which Americans have answered these questions.

We will also be developing our oral communication skills this semester through a variety of activities, including active-listening sessions, a structured debate, and a consensus-building workshop. We will also be learning how to run effective group meetings. I realize that public speaking is stressful for many people, and I promise to make this as painless as possible.

Nora Hanagan

Professor Nora Hanagan studies political ideas. She is particularly interested in the ideas that have animated American politics and history. She also researches different approaches to environmental and food politics. Her book, Democratic Responsibility: The Politics of Many Hands in America, examines whether individuals bear responsibility for harms that are caused by social institutions and processes. When she isn’t chasing her young children around, she likes gardening and hiking.

Spring 2025 POLI 74 001 Introduction to Constitutional Conflicts TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the issues, arguments, history, impact, and reasoning arising from or in conflicts between presidents and Congress. The constitutional conflicts that are the focus of the course involve presidents and Congress fighting for primacy in areas in which they have shared constitutional powers.

Michael Gerhardt

Michael Gerhardt is the Burton Craig Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina Law School. He is the author of seven books, including The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy, which the Financial Times named as one of the best non-fiction books of 2013, and over 100 articles on constitutional law. He has testified more than 20 times before the House or Senate, has been special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the confirmation proceedings for seven of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court, and served as special counsel to the Presiding Officer in Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate.

Spring 2025 NSCI 175 01F Introduction to Neuroscience MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Provides an introduction to the structure and function of the nervous system. Fundamental principles will be introduced including nervous system anatomy; molecular and cellular properties of the nervous system; sensory and motor systems; current methods used in neuroscience; and how the nervous system produces behavior and cognition. This course provides greater breadth and depth of neuroscience topics, as compared to Biopsychology (PSYC 220).

Alexandra Nowlan

Alexandra (Ally) Nowlan earned her PhD from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory School of Biological Science, where she investigated neural circuits that support multisensory integration and neural plasticity important for social communication. Dr. Nowlan performed her postdoctoral research at UNC-CH in the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, where she studied changes in noradrenergic activity in opioid use disorder and withdrawal syndrome. She joined the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience as an adjunct lecturer in 2024 and will be joining as an assistant teaching professor in 2025.

Spring 2025 NSCI 175 02F Introduction to Neuroscience MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Provides an introduction to the structure and function of the nervous system. Fundamental principles will be introduced including nervous system anatomy; molecular and cellular properties of the nervous system; sensory and motor systems; current methods used in neuroscience; and how the nervous system produces behavior and cognition. This course provides greater breadth and depth of neuroscience topics, as compared to Biopsychology (PSYC 220).

Alexandra Nowlan

Alexandra (Ally) Nowlan earned her PhD from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory School of Biological Science, where she investigated neural circuits that support multisensory integration and neural plasticity important for social communication. Dr. Nowlan performed her postdoctoral research at UNC-CH in the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, where she studied changes in noradrenergic activity in opioid use disorder and withdrawal syndrome. She joined the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience as an adjunct lecturer in 2024 and will be joining as an assistant teaching professor in 2025.

Spring 2025 NSCI 61 001 Drug Addiction: Fact and Fiction MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

Illicit and legal drugs make the user feel good but also promote the development of dependence and long-lasting changes in brain physiology. In this biological psychology seminar, we will take a multi-disciplinary approach to learn about the neurobiology of drug addiction with a focus on the following questions: How do we define addiction? What are the beneficial and harmful psychological effects of abused drugs? What has scientific research revealed about the neurobiology of the “brain on drugs”? Do most users become addicts? How is drug addiction treated? We will tackle these and other questions through classroom discussions/debates, lectures, movies, reading and writing assignments, and an optional tour of a residential substance abuse recovery program. In this communication intensive seminar, critical analysis of information about the neurobiology of addiction will be used to separate fact from fiction.

Kathryn Reissner

Kathryn (Kate) Reissner received her PhD from the University of California, where she performed research on the neurobiology of learning and memory. Dr. Reissner went on to perform postdoctoral research at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she studied the role of glutamate transport in the development of cocaine addiction. She joined the Department of Psychology at UNC-CH as an Assistant Professor in 2013. Research in the Reissner lab is focused on the long lasting changes in the brain’s reward circuitry induced by cocaine abuse which mediate enduring vulnerability to relapse, with emphasis on neuron-astrocyte interactions.

Spring 2025 PSYC 54 001 Families and Children TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The goal of this first-year seminar course is to familiarize students with a range of topics associated with contemporary families, with a specific focus on familial influences on child and adolescent development. Also, given the increasing diversity among families in contemporary society, this course will increase knowledge of the various domains of diversity (i.e., developmental stage, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity) as well as help students be attuned to pertinent issues faced by these families. Select course topics include 1) demographic trends of families; 2) parenting and development; 3) sibling relationships; 4) cultural contexts of parenting and families; 5) media and technology; 6) neighborhood and community influences; and 7) youth civic engagement.

Shauna Cooper

Dr. Shauna M. Cooper is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on how social contexts and experiences shape development. Much of her research examines the family, school, and community contexts of development and youth well-being as well as how culture may shape parenting and family processes. Her research lab is the Strengths, Assets, and Resilience (StAR) Lab at UNC: thestarlab.org.

Spring 2025 PLCY 51 001 The Global Environment in the 21st Century TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Explores linkages among nations, global environmental institutions, and the environmental problems they cause and seek to rectify. Introduces pressing challenges of the global environment, particularly around energy use and climate change, and potential solutions. Discusses perspectives of nations, NGOs, and the international community involved in crafting policy solutions. This class does not have any prerequisites.

Elizabeth Sasser

Elizabeth Sasser is a Teaching Assistant Professor in Public Policy with extensive experience in federal and state government. Prior to joining UNC, she served as policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she worked with U.S. and Chinese government leadership on strategies to advance U.S. interests on environmental and energy issues. She was also a policy advisor to two North Carolina governors on energy and education issues. She has a B.A. and an M.P.P. from Duke University and has studied at Peking University in Beijing, China, where she developed a fluency in Mandarin.

Spring 2025 PLCY 81 001 America's Labor Market TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The course will familiarize students with the major public policies and movements affecting the American labor market. Students will learn how each of the following impacts the labor market: education, the minimum wage, Social Security, pensions, unions, unemployment insurance, welfare (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF), income taxes (including the Earned Income Tax Credit, EITC), self-employment, immigration, automation, and the gig economy. The course uses news articles, policy summaries, podcasts, and academic journal articles to help students learn the many theoretical and political viewpoints associated with each topic.

Jeremy Moulton

Jeremy Moulton received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Davis and works in the fields of public and labor economics. His research primarily utilizes public policy shocks as “natural experiments” to investigate labor market outcomes, retirement decision-making, the intergenerational transmission of wealth and education, and the real estate market. Jeremy has published papers that investigate the extent to which people leave the labor force when they lose eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), whether people can marry a more educated spouse if they increase their own education using variation in education caused by the World War II G.I. Bill, whether lower healthcare costs caused by Medicare Part-D pushed people to enter self-employment, the long-run impact of entering the labor market during the Great Depression, and the impact of property tax exemptions on real estate prices using a ballot initiative in Virginia.

Spring 2025 PLCY 89 001 Issues in Science and Technology Policy MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Intended for first-year students of any major, this course explores the role of public policy in shaping the innovation ecosystem where new science and technology emerge and how governments, organizations, and communities influence their development. By looking at contemporary, domestic, and international case studies, we will examine key issues in the governance of emerging technologies, their ethical dimensions, and the intersection of science with issues like climate change, public health, and national security. Students will develop an understanding of policy-making processes, stakeholder engagement, and the role of public and private institutions in shaping science and technology landscapes. The course will also provide practical insights into regulatory frameworks, international collaboration, and the trade-offs involved in balancing innovation with safety, ethics, and the public interest.

Maria Carnovale

Maria Carnovale studies under what conditions technology maximizes well-being without negatively impacting individuals and communities and how policies can foster this process. She has written about the social and ethical implications of digital platforms, digital contact tracing, and more recently smart sanitation, among other topics. In her classes, Maria draws from her academic work as a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School or as a Visiting Associate at the University of Notre Dame, with practical insights from her non-profit experience. An avid writer, her work has been published on Slate, Issues and Zocalo, among other publications.

Spring 2025 RELI 65 001 Myth, Philosophy, and Science in the Ancient World TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This interdisciplinary course explores various, often conflicting ways of conceiving and shaping reality in the ancient world – religious, scientific, and philosophical. The course is organized around a series of case studies: (1) the formation and makeup of the cosmos; (2) the origin of mankind and its sexual differentiation; (3) the invention of the ‘self’; (4) the origin and nature of dreams; (5) foundations of law, justice, and morality. Short writing assignments, in-class discussions, oral presentations, and a term-paper will be used to introduce students into a complex intellectual network of natural scientists, philosophers, and oral story-tellers throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Readings include Near Eastern mythical narratives and Homeric poems and hymns; selections from the earliest Greek philosophers through Plato’s dialogues to Hellenistic and Roman philosophical schools; works from the famous Hippocratic corpus and Galen’s medical treatises; and various religious texts from ancient Greece and Rome, early Christianity, and late antiquity.

Zlatko Pleše

Zlatko Pleše received his PhD in Classics at Yale University, where he specialized in ancient philosophy and medicine, early Christianity, Hellenistic rhetoric and Coptic language. He taught at various universities in Europe and the US, including Yale and Wesleyan University, and is currently Professor of Ancient Mediterranean religions (Greco-Roman world, early Christianity and late antiquity) at Carolina. He has published monographs and articles on Platonist philosophers of the Roman imperial period, ancient Gnostic and Hermetic writings, apocryphal gospels, and early modern theories of nationhood in South-Eastern Europe.

Zlatko Ples?e

Zlatko Ples?e received his PhD in Classics at Yale University, where he specialized in ancient philosophy and medicine, early Christianity, Hellenistic rhetoric and Coptic language. He taught at various universities in Europe and the US, including Yale and Wesleyan University, and is currently Professor of Ancient Mediterranean religions (Greco-Roman world, early Christianity and late antiquity) at Carolina. He has published monographs and articles on Platonist philosophers of the Roman imperial period, ancient Gnostic and Hermetic writings, apocryphal gospels, and early modern theories of nationhood in South-Eastern Europe.

Spring 2025 RELI 70 001 Jesus in Scholarship and Film TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will examine how historians have reconstructed the life, teachings and death of the historical Jesus. We will look at the Gospels of the New Testament, as well as references to Jesus in other writings (Roman and Jewish sources, as well as Gospels that did not make it into the New Testament). In addition, we will explore how Jesus has been portrayed in modern film, including such Biblical “epics” as The Greatest Story Ever Told, such “period pieces” as Jesus Christ Superstar, such brilliant retellings as Jesus of Montreal and such controversial films as The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion of the Christ. The ultimate goals of the seminar are to see what we can say about the historical man Jesus himself and how Jesus came to be portrayed in both ancient sources and modern imagination.

Bart Ehrman

Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies. He has taught at Carolina since 1988. He is author or editor of thirty books and is widely regarded as a leading expert on the New Testament and the history of the early Christian church. He is also a well-known teacher on campus, having won the Undergraduate Students Teaching Award, the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the John William Pope Center Spirit of Inquiry Teaching Award.

Spring 2025 RELI 89 001 Indigenous Ways of Knowing TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The course explores the various Indigenous knowledge production, the struggles, and the beliefs throughout Indigenous populations in Mexico. The course will begin with historical studies of Indigenous people populations, examining the history of the conquest to better understand the impact of the arrival of Europeans and colonization in Mexico. The course will then explore the diversity of Indigenous cultures in colonial Mexico and their production of Indigenous knowledge until today. Topics include the Mesoamerican writing system, language, religions, ritual practices, gender, human rights, and place and space of Indigenous people. Students will also learn about the cultural wealth preserved by the Indigenous culture and its contributions to the global world.

Abelardo de la Cruz

I am a macehualli (Nahuatl native speaker) and ixtlamatquetl (Nahua scholar) from Chicontepec, Veracruz, Mexico. My research focuses on Indigenous religious practices, particularly the intersection of Nahua traditions and Catholicism. I hold a Ph.D., with my dissertation examining the role of motiochihuanih (catechists turned prayer specialists) in Nahua communities. My work emphasizes the coexistence and accommodation between Indigenous and Catholic practices.

Spring 2025 FREN 80 001 Déjà vu. Medicine and Narration across Time and Space MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Hallucinations, depression, hysteria, paranoia, anxiety, neurosis, body dysmorphic disorder, obsession, and pain are only some of the symptoms that will be reflected in the narratives of this course. The authors featured in this seminar are familiar with the medical knowledge of their time and are often patients themselves suffering from the medical conditions they describe. Throughout the semester, we will examine the practices of authors – such as Maupassant, Montaigne, Selzer, Sembène, or Meruane – who not only borrow heavily from medicine in composing their works but also conceive of writing itself as something medical, that is, as having a therapeutic function for both writer and reader. Accordingly, we will study a group of writers and artists across time and space who explore, adapt, and converse with contemporaneous medical learning in their creative works.

Dorothea Heitsch

Dorothea Heitsch is Teaching Professor in French & Francophone Studies in the Department of Romance Studies. In addition to the language sequence, she teaches French grammar & composition, culture courses about France and French-speaking regions, and topics courses across the centuries, inviting students to explore Honors Theses, the Ackland Museum’s visuals, and UNC’s numerous special collections. Her research and teaching include medical, political, and religious issues, and she particularly enjoys pointing students to questions of rhetoric, translation, and linguistic practice. She is the author of two monographs and numerous articles on early modern topics and the co-editor of two collections.

Spring 2025 ROML 89 001 Pastoral Plate: Exploring Food, Farming, and Fiction TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course explores how nature, farming, and food are portrayed in literature, especially within the pastoral tradition, which depicts an idealized version of rural life, often emphasizing harmony with nature and the simplicity of country living. We will read a mix of classical and modern texts, and watch a selection of films, to analyze how this tradition shapes our understanding of culture and the environment. Focusing on the significance of four key ingredients—milk, root vegetables, meat, and honey—we will examine the connection between people and nature, the role of food in shaping identity, and how different landscapes are represented. Students will visit a local farm and historical sites to see how these idealized portrayals compare to the realities of rural life. Through class discussions, presentations, and writing assignments, students will understand how food, farming, and nature influence society, and how literature and films reflect and challenge these ideas within the context of pastoral settings.

Danila Cannamela

Danila Cannamela's work explores literary genres and movements that have remained at the periphery of dominant culture. This includes avant-garde poetics, niche genres, counterculture, and gender liberation movements. She is working on a book project titled Radical Trans/Locations: U.S. Trans Activism in Italy. This monograph traces overlooked connections between Italian and American trans activists.

She believes that scholarly work can be creative and can open up connections between theory, pop culture, and everyday life. Her future book-length project is a theory-infused cookbook. This project rethinks the pastoral genre as a "comfort food recipe" that has inspired sophisticated "cooking techniques" and reinventions.

Spring 2025 SOCM 89 001 Food Allergies in Everyday Life TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Sharing food is central to social life as well as to the formation of cultural identities. We can see this in how people come together over food, structure their days around it, and perform national or ethnic identities through it. At the same time, food allergies are on the rise and introduce many challenges to individuals, families, and organizations. The situation is complicated by the fact that public awareness, responses from schools and other organizations, and regulatory safety measures tend to lag behind. This course explores the topic of food allergies through several important lenses: biomedical, political, cultural, and social. The course’s goals are to understand how living with and managing food allergies can be challenging to individuals and families, as well as to query how potential therapies for food allergies should be regulated and how schools and business should accommodate for food allergies. The course critically engages concepts such as risk/benefit, medicalization, disability, and quality of life to better understand the social and cultural values that shape perceptions of and responses to food allergies.

Jill Fisher

Jill A. Fisher, Ph.D. is Professor of Social Medicine in the Center for Bioethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of Medical Research for Hire: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials (Rutgers University Press, 2009) and Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals (New York University Press, 2020). She is currently conducting qualitative research on food allergy clinical trials to study the social and ethical issues that emerge from testing new medical therapies on children.

Spring 2025 SOCI 53 001 The Consequences of Welfare Reform and Prospects for the Future TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

President Bill Clinton ended “welfare as we know it” in 1996 when he signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law. This significant and historical welfare reform fundamentally changed the federal safety net in the United States and abolished guaranteed aid for those in poverty. In this first-year seminar, we will use a sociological lens to investigate the causes and consequences of welfare reform, as well as the subsequent expansion of other antipoverty programs designed to help the working poor. We will consider a range of viewpoints that inform current policy debates. Topics will include the conceptualization and measurement of poverty, causes of poverty, public and political attitudes toward welfare and the role of the government, and the implementation and efficacy of antipoverty policies.

Jessica Su

Dr. Jessica Houston Su is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow in the Carolina Population Center. Her research focuses on social inequality in American family life. At first glance, family formation may seem very individualized; decisions about whom we marry, when we have children, and how we raise them are personal. Her work investigates how social inequality contributes to patterns of family formation at the population level, and subsequently affects the development and well-being of parents and children. Her research appears in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Demography, the Journal of Marriage and Family, and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Cornell University and her B.A. in Sociology from Dartmouth College.

Spring 2025 SOCI 89 001 Black Feminism TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Black Feminism is a first-year seminar that introduces students to black feminist theory and praxis. In this course, we will explore central themes and conversations around intersecting systems of domination. We will critically interrogate power and how inequality shapes policies, institutions, and our day-to-day lives. Topics will include (1) black feminist theory: past and present; (2) carcerality and violence; (3) resistance and solidarity; and (4) abolition and belonging. Students will develop critical analytic, research, and writing skills while thoughtfully engaging with interdisciplinary theories of black feminism.

Shannon Malone Gonzalez

Dr. Shannon Malone Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow in the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines the relationship between marginality and policing. Dr. Malone Gonzalez is especially interested in how black women and girls experience, understand, and resist police surveillance and violence. Drawing from black feminism and critical criminology, Dr. Malone Gonzalez uses mixed methods to investigate the social conditions that shape and obscure black women and girls' experiences of policing across social institutions and contexts.

Spring 2025 SOCI 89H 001 Poverty, Inequality, and the American Dream TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

What does it mean to live in poverty in the “land of plenty” and experience inequality in the “land of opportunity?” Why is the “American Dream” more attainable for some people than it is others? This FY-S will use a sociological perspective to explore these questions and more. We will cover a wide range of topics as they relate to poverty and inequality, including perceptions, measurement, causes, and consequences as well as different domains (e.g., housing, education, the labor market, the criminal legal system, etc.) and how they serve as inequality mechanisms. We will also discuss the significance of history and place as well as highlight different axes of inequality (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, disability). Ultimately, this course aims to advance understanding of poverty and inequality in America, and in doing so, highlight why the American Dream is difficult (and becoming increasingly so) for some individuals and families to attain.

Regina Baker

Regina S. Baker is an Associate Professor of Sociology. Prior to joining UNC-CH in 2023, she was previously an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research seeks to understand the factors that shape socioeconomic conditions and disparities across people, places, and time. Her current research areas include poverty and poverty risks across children and families, historical and institutional mechanisms of inequality, and racial and place-based disparities in socioeconomic and health outcomes. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Duke University, Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia, and Bachelors in Sociology from Mercer University.

Spring 2025 WGST 66 001 Growing Up Girl, Globally MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Course introduces students to literature by women from around the world, particularly stories of a girl’s transition to womanhood. Close reading strategies are used to examine films, novels, and poetry.

Amalia Ashley
Spring 2025 HIST 89 003 The Environment in American History TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

In this course, students will analyze the ways in which Americans have both shaped and been shaped by their natural environment. Together, we will trace a selected history of interactions between humans and nature in America, focusing on the often-fraught intersection between political, economic, social, and religious understandings of nature. As we do so, we will examine the various answers that Americans have given to a set of slippery core questions: What responsibilities do humans have to the broader natural world? Are humans a part of nature, or outside of it? What, ultimately, is the nature of nature?

This will be a dynamic course that requires students to connect the lessons of history to the world they inhabit today. In addition to learning from texts and primary historical sources, students will engage with podcasts, popular journalism, literature, and more. As a class, they will visit sites like the Coker Arboretum, the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, and the Carolina Community Garden to explore how the environmental history they are studying has shaped even their most immediate on-campus surroundings. Students will also each have the opportunity to dive into a research projects on a contemporary environmental issue of their choosing.

Joanna Smith

Dr. Joanna Sierks Smith has a PhD in American Religion. Her research focuses on nature, foodways, and environmental philosophy, and her most recent project on the history of the meat industry took her to slaughterhouses and farms around North Carolina. In addition to teaching, Dr. Smith serves as the Associate Director for State Outreach at Carolina Public Humanities, where she works with partners at community colleges, libraries, and historic sites around the state to organize public conversations about some of today’s most pressing issues – including environmental issues.

Spring 2025 ENGL 89 002 Apocalypse Now, Then, and Later MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Plenty of us feel like we’re living in the end times – but why do some of us feel like they happened long ago, or that they’re just around the corner? This course considers the representation of the apocalypse in Western literature and culture from two angles: first, as the product of a religious fascination with the end of time, and second, as a phenomenon whose significance depends upon whether it has occurred, will occur, or is occurring at this very moment. Students will read a selection of texts drawn both from the Bible and from parallel religious traditions (for instance, medieval visions of the apocalypse, or the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh) alongside novels and essays by writers attempting to think through the significance of the apocalypse as both a temporal and an historical event.

Taylor Cowdery

I study the literature of late-medieval Britain, with a secondary specialization in the history of gender and sexuality. My first book, Matter and Making in Early English Poetry (Cambridge, 2023), considered how premodern poets thought about materiality, and especially, the "matter" of their own writings. I'm currently at work on two new projects. One of these is a historical study of the literature and culture of middle-class people in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while the other is a more theoretically driven book that considers medieval concepts of embodiment, transition, and gender fluidity in relation to contemporary queer theory.

Spring 2025 ECON 101H 01F ECON 101H-601 Introduction to Economics TTH 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Introduction to Economics (Economics 101H) is the Honors section of the introductory course in Economics for undergraduates. The Honors section covers the same material as the large enrollment version but does so in more depth. This is an introductory course in both microeconomics and macroeconomics. In this one-semester course students are introduced to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, ination, and the determination of prices. This course is the gateway course for the major of Economics; if you wish to major in Economics, you must have at least a C in this course.

Sergio Parreiras

Professor Parreiras has broad research interests in economics of information and game theory. His most recent research has concentrated on auctions and mechanism design. His recent publications include papers in the Journal of Economic Theory and Games and Economic Behavior.

Spring 2025 POLI 89 001 Introduction to Constitutional Conflicts (John L. Townsend III First-Year Seminar) TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar will introduce students to the issues, arguments, history, impact, and reasoning arising from or in conflicts between presidents and Congress. The constitutional conflicts that are the focus of the course involve presidents and Congress fighting for primacy in areas in which they have shared constitutional powers.

Michael Gerhardt

Michael Gerhardt is the Burton Craig Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina Law School. He is the author of seven books, including The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy, which the Financial Times named as one of the best non-fiction books of 2013, and over 100 articles on constitutional law. He has testified more than 20 times before the House or Senate, has been special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee for the confirmation proceedings for seven of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court, and served as special counsel to the Presiding Officer in Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate.

Spring 2025 SCLL 89 001 What is a University For? TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar considers the purpose and history of the university and different conceptions of liberal learning. Is the university primarily a place? An idea? A community of students and teachers? Focusing mainly on the development of higher education in the United States, we will debate the relationship between the university and democracy, the difference between academic study and professional training, and competing understandings of intellectual liberty and free expression.

Danielle Charette James

Danielle Charette James is a political theorist with broad research interests in the Scottish Enlightenment and American intellectual history. She is excited to launch this new FYS seminar to debate the purpose and politics of the modern research university and what we hope to achieve in going to college.

Spring 2025 SCLL 89 002 C.S. Lewis in a Disenchanted World MW 9:05 AM – 10:20 AM

C.S. Lewis is mostly remembered today as the creator of the fantastical land of Narnia, but he grew up in a modern world stripped of enchantment. It was only gradually that he learned to see magic everywhere. This course will follow Lewis through a string of awful boarding schools, the muddy trenches of France, and the Gothic streets of Oxford. Above all, it will seek Lewis in the books he wrote and the books that shaped him. In doing so, it will ask whether the world really is as disenchanted as it seems.

This is an interdisciplinary course that draws from fields like history, religious studies, and literature. Students in this first-year seminar will be expected to read a substantial portion of Lewis’ work, as well as some of the texts that made the greatest impact on him. We will explore topics that include the purpose of an education, mythology, science and religious belief, friendship, and Christianity.

Flynn Cratty

Flynn Cratty is a professor of the practice in the School of Civic Life and Leadership and a historian of early modern French and British history. His scholarly interests include the development of secularism; academic freedom of expression; religion; intellectual history; the Reformation; and the Enlightenment. Prior to coming to UNC, he was a lecturer on history at Harvard. He's also read all of the Narnia books aloud to his children.

Spring 2025 SCLL 89 005 Human Being and Citizen TTH 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

How shall we live together? Humans are unique among living creatures in that we cannot live solitary lives by ourselves, yet we also have no fixed method of organization. It thus remains an open question how we will organize our common life. To answer it, we need to ask whether there is any conflict between the life of a good person and a good citizen. We must weigh tradeoffs between liberty, justice, and stability. In this course, we enter into “the great conversation,” in which political thinkers for more than two millennia have debated these questions with each other.

Michael Hawley

I am a political theorist with special interest in ancient and modern political philosophy. In class, we will explore age-old questions of what it means to be a good human being and what it means to be a good citizen. Reading great books, we will consider the problems of finding meaning and transcendence and figuring out our place in the world.

Spring 2025 SCLL 89 003 The Politics of the Bible TTH 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The Bible is the most widely read book in history. It forms a central pillar of western – if not world – civilization. It is invoked constantly by political partisans of all stripes, and nearly everyone recognizes at least a few of its most famous quotations. But what does it really have to say to us today? This class does not expect that students read the Bible as believers in its divine authority, but rather in what Leon Kass calls a “wisdom-seeking” spirit, an attitude that treats the text as making serious claims to truth in the same way that philosophic dialogues and great works of literature do. We will be concerned less with the Bible’s otherworldly message than what it might teach us about the things of this world. We will explore the Bible’s account of human nature, the good life, family, friendship, justice, love, war, economics, and freedom.

Michael Hawley

I am a political theorist with special interest in ancient and modern political philosophy. In class, we will explore age-old questions of what it means to be a good human being and what it means to be a good citizen. Reading great books, we will consider the problems of finding meaning and transcendence and figuring out our place in the world.

Spring 2025 SCLL 89 004 Lab Coats and Legislators: Science and Public Policy TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This course aims to help students navigate the messy intersection of science, policy, and politics by teaching how the substance, history, presentation, and interpretation of science influences our understanding of the world. Further, students will gain an understanding of how science can influence policy within government at both a state and national level. Students will: 1) analyze public discourse and debate about science, 2) consider how philosophies, data, and interpretations are created, delivered, and received (e.g., traditional and digital media; social media; technical and academic journals; personal interactions; etc.), and 3) discuss how these factors – alongside partisan politics and bias from both sides of the aisle – influence science policy outcomes. This course is designed to expose students to the necessary critical thinking skills required to gain a basic understanding of the scientific research (who does it, how it is funded, how it is communicated, and how it can be incorporated into policy decisions). A wide variety of case studies will be presented and discussed, and students will actively work together to develop a science-related policy as a capstone project.

Jeffrey Warren

Professor Warren is the executive director of the NC Collaboratory and a professor of the practice in the Department of Public Policy. Formally trained as a marine geologist, Warren has spent the past 15 years in State-level science policy positions, including the coastal hazards policy specialist for the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management (2004 to 2010) and the science advisor for the North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore (2011 to 2017). Warren earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2006). His academic research included field sites in the southeastern US, northern Mexico, the East and South China Seas, and Antarctica.

Spring 2025 SCLL 89 006 American Politics and Literature TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course explores the links between politics and literature in America, focusing on the way in which fiction is able to provide a unique view of politics. The course will look at American short stories, poems, films, and novels in roughly chronological order, examining how the political and social concerns of each era are expressed its literature. Throughout, we will address questions including: Is there a uniquely American mode of literary expression, and what does that say about the American character? How can literature serve as a commentary on or intervention into politics? Does doing so compromise its status as art? Can literature give us insight into politics that theoretical treatises, journalism, and other historical documents cannot? What are the limits of understanding politics through literature?

Melody Grubaugh

Melody Grubaugh is an adjunct assistant professor and a political scientist whose work focuses on constitutional studies, political theory, and politics and literature.

Spring 2025 ENGL 121 01F British Literature, 19th and Early 20th Century MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Fulfills a major core requirement. Launch focusing on later British literature covering the Romantic, Victorian, and Modern periods–great foundation for studying later periods.

Jeanne Moskal

Jeanne Moskal is an award-winning teacher and mentor. She has authored a study of the poet William Blake and has edited the travel writings of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Moskal’s book-in-progress analyzes twentieth-century adaptations of Jane Eyre.

Spring 2025 MATH 347 01F Linear Algebra for Applications TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Algebra of matrices with applications: determinants, solution of linear systems by Gaussian elimination, Gram-Schmidt procedure, and eigenvalues.

Shahar Kovalsky
Fall 2025 HIST 89 004 America's Founding Documents MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This first-year seminar introduces students to the foundations of U.S. democracy through its most significant speeches, declarations, letters, proclamations, and other writings. Together, we will analyze, discuss, and write about foundational documents from the Declaration of Independence to more efforts to form “a more perfect Union.”

TBD
Fall 2025 ROML 89 001 From AFROFUTURISM to AFROTOURISM - The African Diaspora in Latin America and Europe MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

What is Afrofuturism? Afrofuturism is a movement that revisits discussions on Black identity through music, art, literature, cinema, and political resistance, analyzing and celebrating Black people’s culture and future. What is Afrotourism? Afrotourism is a movement in Africa and Africa Diaspora countries that transforms arts and questions traditional tourism. In this course, students will study Afrofuturism and Afrotourism and the importance of Black identity in the modern African Diaspora, emphasizing Latin America and Europe through music, readings, film, artifacts, and tourism. We will learn how people from the African Diaspora communicate culture through literature, cuisine, dance, music, religion, and tourism as way to legitimize and celebrate their culture and future.

We will also explore how people of African descent develop new tourist activities, foster economic growth, and celebrate Afro-futuristic societies. Students will discuss how these individuals and places are highly significant to the legacy of Black modernism in Brazil and the history of the African Diaspora.

Nilzimar Vieira Hauskrecht

Nilzimar Vieira has a master's degree in German Language Teaching from Indiana University (2009) and a master’s in Portuguese Literature from the same university (2012). She received her doctorate in Portuguese Literature and Latin and Caribbean Studies equally from Indiana University (2023). Her thesis is titled "Rewriting Black Experiences: Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Portuguese Female Voices in Contemporary Literature and Cinema." She is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of her recent courses is titled "Brazil and Beyond: Resistance through Art, Music, and Virtual Activism." Her research projects include literary and cinematographic studies of the African diaspora in Brazil, Portugal, and Germany and research interest in German Literature in Brazil. She has translated the "Anthology Afrofuturism - The Future is Ours" from Portuguese into English. She has received several awards for her teaching and recently received the Schwab Academic Excellence Award from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for her research development. She is currently working on translating poems in films from English to Portuguese from African diasporic authors.

Fall 2025 ARTS 82 001 Please Save This: Exploring Personal Histories through Visual Language TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This class will investigate the idea of personal histories in visual art. As a studio class, the course will be organized around several art making projects. As a catalyst to our own art making, we will explore the idea of personal history and memory through readings, as well as looking at contemporary artists whose work functions in an autobiographical framework.

Roxana Perez-Mendez
Fall 2025 AAAD 50 001 Defining Blackness TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This class will explore the meanings of race and ethnicity through a transnational perspective, examining how racial and ethnic identities are constructed, negotiated, and contested across different national and cultural contexts, with a focus on the Americas, particularly Latin America.

Nadia Mosquera Muriel

Dr. Mosquera Muriel specializes in Afro-Latin American social movements and structural inequalities at the intersection of race, class, and gender, with a focus on Venezuela and Colombia. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, class, gender, culture, space, and Black political mobilizations under Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution (1999-present). As a Black Feminist ethnographer, her work sheds light on the struggles for spatial justice among Black grassroots cultural producers, artists, and political activists as they challenge structural forms of anti-Blackness and spatial inequalities in Latin America.

Her current book project, titled “Building Blackness: Culture and Resistance in the Afterlives of the Plantation in Venezuela,” deploys an ethnographic approach to theorize the role of popular culture as a tactic to galvanize anti-racist politics among Afro-descendant populations in Venezuela’s central coast. Additionally, Dr. Mosquera Muriel conducts comparative research with Afro-Colombian feminist organizations in the Departments of Cauca and Cauca Valley in southwestern Colombia to comprehend Black Colombian women’s cultural politics and their responses against misogynoir (sexism and racism). From 2021-2023 she held a position as a Postdoctoral Provost Fellow at the University of Texas in Austin. She has also held fellowships at the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS), School of Advanced Studies, University of London in 2019, and the United Nations Fellowship Program for People of African Descent (Geneva, Switzerland) in 2016.

Her work is published in Bulletin of Latin American Research, Journal of Latin American Studies, and The Concise Encyclopedia of Human Geography. She currently serves on the editorial board of Gender, Place, and Culture.

Fall 2025 AAAD 58 001 Health Inequality in Africa and the African Diaspora TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines the ways that healthcare access and health itself are shaped by social, racial, and economic inequalities in our society and others. The geographic focus of this course is Africa and the United States, but case studies from the Caribbean and other African diasporic communities will be included. Drawing on research in medical anthropology, sociology, public health, and history we will gain an understanding of the political, economic, and social factors that create health inequalities. Topics include gender inequality and HIV/AIDS in Africa; race and chronic disease in the U.S.; inequality and the practice of global health; and how racial difference has historically been used to justify and explain health disparities. Students will gain experience with ethnographic research methods, and work on small qualitative research projects investigating health inequality in their own communities.

Lydia Boyd

Lydia Boyd is an associate professor of African, African American, and Diaspora studies and is trained as a cultural and medical anthropologist, with a research focus in Uganda. Her work considers issues of health, culture, and the moral and political frameworks that shape health behavior. Her first book examined the impact and reception of the U.S.'s global AIDS treatment and prevention policy (PEPFAR) in Uganda. Her current work focuses on Ugandan women's decision-making during pregnancy and perceptions and experiences of both biomedical and non-biomedical forms of care.

Fall 2025 AAAD 89 001 Reading Beyond the Page TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

What does it mean to truly read? What are “texts” and how do we read them closely, carefully, critically? How does reading separate us from the machines that seek to streamline our learning and work at best, or displace us at worst? And, with the swift changes in technology exemplified by the rise of artificial intelligence, how do we read to learn and positively inform what we know? Reading Beyond the Page is a first-year seminar designed to teach students how to read critically for general knowledge across different forms of media. Through close reading, discussion, and collaborative projects, students will explore how texts shape our collective understanding. By the end of the course, students will not only have honed their ability to read critically across multiple genres but will also have developed a more nuanced understanding of how knowledge is constructed, communicated, and contested in the world around them.

LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant

Whether investigating practices of specific communities, exploring cultural production at the popular level, considering the impact of new technologies, or creating documentary shorts, critical to Dr. Manigault-Bryant’s research and teaching are explorations of how Black women throughout the Diaspora engage religion and spirituality to navigate the contours of life. Her research straddles the disciplines of religion, anthropology, art, music, and media.

Fall 2025 AAAD 89 002 Women of the Black Atlantic TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course examines constructions of gender and individual and collective responses to developing systems of inequality in the Atlantic world shaped by sex, race, and class. Students analyze and compare how African, European, and American societies constructed the category of “woman” and the constraints and liberties these constructions imposed.

Course participants document and examine how concepts of race and processes of racialization impacted experience for African and African descent women throughout the Atlantic World. Course readings survey societies from the early modern period to the twentieth century focusing on power, kinship, labor, and sexuality in daily life. The course highlights women’s cultures of resistance to interlocking systems of oppression in West and West Central Africa, the Caribbean, and North and South America. Students will engage travel writing, visual art, and historic Afro-Atlantic spiritual traditions as critical source materials.

Alicia Monroe

Alicia L. Monroe is a historian of modern Latin America specializing in the study of slavery, freedom, and black-identified religious and secular associations in nineteenth and twentieth century southeastern Brazil. Her research focuses on African diaspora religious experiences, post-emancipation civic societies, and representations of Afro-Brazilian laborers in early Brazilian photography with an emphasis on gender and lived experience. Her research has received support from the J. William Fulbright Fellowship, the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, and UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Her recent publications have appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review and the Journal of Africana Religions.

Fall 2025 AAAD 89 003 African Americans and Education MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This course explores the African American experience in education, from the days of slavery to the present. All levels of education, from elementary to university will receive consideration, though high school and college will get particular attention. Course topics will range widely, from self-education in the 19th century to the crisis at Little Rock’s Central High in the 1950s to African American education at UNC across the years, particularly as revealed in the built environment of the university.

Robert Porter

Robert Porter has taught in his department for 36 years, during which time he has taught some 16 different AAAD courses. He has won numerous teaching awards and gets consistently high evaluations from students. His popularity is reflected in the fact that a quarter of the students enrolled in his last FYS in 2023 are still enrolled in various courses he teaches, definitely including people who had no plans to take an additional AAAD course after their FYS.

Fall 2025 AMST 89 001 The American Body MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

In this course, students will explore American culture through a focus on the human body. While maintaining an eye on the material, flesh-and-blood body, we will also consider it as a “text” that carries meanings about (dis)ability, gender, race, nationality, and other themes. We will do so by exploring various representations, from memoirs to audio/visual culture; students will ultimately conduct a project in which they explore and develop their own bodily practices. Ultimately, we aim to understand how material bodies are deeply intertwined with broad social and political issues.

Steve Marston

Steve Marston is a teacher and researcher in the area of cultural studies, sport studies, and U.S. history. His research has addressed such topics as baggy basketball shorts, Colin Kaepernick’s role in BLM activism, and the online circulation of “gruesome” injury videos. Over the past decade, Prof. Marston has taught broadly on 20th- and 21st-century American culture. In the classroom, Prof. Marston seeks to have students actively engage with a variety of materials, analyzing and conversing with the voices of the past and present.

Fall 2025 ANTH 62 001 Indian Country Today MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

With the United States as our geographic focus, this seminar explores a range of 20th- and early-21st-century American Indian topics and current issues. We look at Indian casinos, tribal colleges, identity, gender, tribal courts, sports, and other topics. An exploration of the history of American Indians before and after the arrival of Europeans, a history with which we begin the seminar, provides essential background for looking at the present and recent past. This seminar will help students better understand the challenges facing American Indian communities both internally and externally and the creative solutions being forged to address these challenges. It will also help students further develop skills in reading, writing, critical analysis, and public speaking.

Valerie Lambert

Valerie Lambert is professor of anthropology and an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and has won awards for undergraduate teaching and for each of her two single-authored books. Her first book is about her Tribe; her second one is about American Indian and Alaska Native workers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She has twice been elected president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists. She is the mother of two daughters, both of whom are in their twenties.

Fall 2025 ANTH 67 001 Blackness and Racialization: A Multidimensional Approach MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

Blackness and Racialization is an introduction to the history, social construction, cultural production, and lived experience of race. The course focuses on Blackness in the United States and Jamaica (for comparison), though it necessarily addresses other race formations such as Whiteness and Brownness. The course approaches racialization from three angles: historical; social; and personal. It utilizes historical, theoretical, ethnographic, and popular culture productions to explain the effects, uses, durability, and pliability of racial formations.
Some questions that the course will address include:
• What does the social construction of race mean in practice? How is race socially constructed?
• How do racial categories and identities develop, persist, and change?
• How does race work at various “levels,” such as the level of the individual, collectivity, and history?
• What are the origins of various racial stereotypes?
• Why do people have very different understandings of race, some embracing race, some rejecting race, and some claiming to not understand race at all?

Charles Price

Charles Price is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Charles’s research, writing and activity focus on Black racial identity, Rastafari identity, life narrative genres, action research, community organizations and community organizing, people-centered community development, and social movements, with a geographic concentration on the United States and Jamaica. Charles authored the book Becoming Rasta: The Origins of Rastafari Identity in Jamaica (2009, New York University Press), co-authored the monograph Community Collaborations: Promoting Community Organizing (2009, Ford Foundation), and is under contract with NYU Press to write a sequel to Becoming Rasta, a book on collective identity formation and ethnogenesis among the Rastafari people of Jamaica. He is developing a historically grounded qualitative approach to explaining collective identity formation. Another project in development involves a collaboration with a faculty member to develop an action-oriented study of how Black men in North Carolina and Connecticut negotiate challenges and obstacles in their lives.

Fall 2025 ANTH 72 001 Archaeology and Popular Culture TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Archaeology often captures the popular imagination through fantastic and farfetched portrayals of lost civilizations, aliens, and spectacular treasures. While these depictions of archaeology and the past may not be accurate, the story being told is nonetheless significant and reflects something about the culture that produced it.

This course explores how these films, televisions shows, books, and video games tell stories about the past, what stories are being told, and what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and society. We will critically analyze popular representations of archaeology, comparing how competing visions of fact and fiction operate in the public sphere.

Douglas Smit

Douglas Smit is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He is an archaeologist who currently directs projects in Peru and Philadelphia. His research focuses on the archaeology of the recent past, how local people have interacted with big processes like globalization over the past five hundred years. He is also a newcomer to UNC, having just moved with his partner, an infant, two dogs, and one cat to North Carolina from Philadelphia in the summer of 2022. Beyond archaeology, he loves hiking, basketball/soccer, and reading, non-fiction, although these days, it is mostly child-care.

Fall 2025 ANTH 89 001 Walking in the World: The Anthropology of Moving, Knowing, and Creating TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

We learn about the world as we move through it. In moving, we change the world around us and we are transformed by our experiences. However, we are not free to move wherever we wish. We live with boundaries, some only dimly understood. And yet, sometimes we come together to challenge these boundaries and struggle to create something new.

In this class, students will learn how anthropologists create research projects to explore these questions. While our focus will be on cultural anthropology, students will be exposed to the ways in which artists, historians, geographers, novelists, philosophers, outdoor athletes, soldiers, and activists approach similar problems.

Beyond readings and small-group discussions, students will step out of the classroom to design and carry out short research projects. They will share their result in journals entries and critical essays, and I will mentor each student as they develop their ideas.

Christopher Nelson

Christopher Nelson is a cultural anthropologist. His research interests include the relationship between history and memory; the critical study of everyday life; storytelling, ritual and performance; value, exchange and sacrifice. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in Japan for nearly three decades, and recently completed book about the relationship between workers, artists, anthropologists, political activists, shaman and the dead in Okinawa. Nelson has been a Marine infantry officer, a truck driver, a factory worker, an editor of the journal Cultural Anthropology, and has taught at Carolina for the past twenty years. He is also an enthusiastic walker and hiker.

Fall 2025 ANTH 89 002 Anthropology of Disability MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Disability is a part of life: we all get sick, age, and require care. This course examines debates on disability from a perspective of cultural and medical anthropology. We focus on the diversity and richness of disability worlds, learning how different societies make sense of disability and how living with disability leads to a proliferation of identities and cultures. This course covers a wide range of topics, from the history of disability to cross-cultural approaches to mental health to the intersections of disability with gender and sexuality to caregiving. Course material illustrates that disability is a collective project that encourages individuals and communities to engage in creative modes of thinking and being in a world that moves beyond the binary of “normal” and “abnormal.” This course shows that studying disability unveils new ways to see the world and helps us to better understand what it means to be human.

Dariia (Dafna) Rachok

Dafna Rachok is a medical and political anthropologist, researching global health, medical humanitarianism, and patient communities. Her current research, Affective Belonging: Vulnerable Groups’ Political Subjectivity and HIV in Ukraine explores what underpins the strength of a public health system in a supposedly weak post-socialist state. It centers on political mobilization of Ukrainian vulnerable communities (people living with HIV, sex workers, people who use drugs) as citizens through interactions with the state public health bureaucracy. Dafna's research was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation, among others. When Dafna’s not working, she’s spending time with her Malinois-mix named Doxa.

Fall 2025 ANTH 89 047 Canine Cultures TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Dogs are humanity’s oldest companions. While researchers dispute how, where, and when our mutual involvement arose, it has affected both species. This class will use the tools of sociocultural anthropology—its concepts, types of evidence, and forms of analysis—to examine human-canine relations. While our main experience of dogs is as pets (and kin), most dogs around the world have only a loose affiliation with humans, and their lives will be a major focus. We also will chew over the services dogs perform for humans, both old (hunting, herding, guarding), and new (de-mining, assisting). We will learn about the rise and spread of our own dog-keeping practices, before exploring changes in the role of dogs in American households and their consequences. Throughout, we will ponder what it might mean to experience the world from “the dog’s point of view” (or nose!)

Margaret Wiener

Margaret Wiener is a cultural anthropologist. Her interest in dogs and their people was piqued when she met her first Balinese dog, Morris, whose humans picked up that exotic American name from TV. She was in Bali researching her first prize-winning book about Balinese ideas of power. Wiener has recently finished a book on the role the idea of magic has played in establishing differences between "the West and the rest," while beginning to work on relations between humans and other species. Recently dog-less, she has made many dog friends in her neighborhood and has a grand-dog named Bailey.

Fall 2025 APPL 110 03F Design and Making for Engineers: Developing Your Personal Design Potential TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Students work in flexible, interdisciplinary teams to assess opportunities, brainstorm, and prototype solutions. Design thinking and physical prototyping skills are developed through fast-paced, iterative exercises in a variety of contexts and environments.

Richard Goldberg

Dr. Richard Goldberg is a Teaching Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Applied Physical Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Goldberg is leading the effort to develop new programs in Applied Sciences and Engineering, including a minor that started in 2020 and plans for an upcoming major. He is interested in developing programs that bridge ties between engineering and the liberal arts by promoting an entrepreneurial mindset in our students. His research interests are in engineering education, and in developing technology for people with disabilities.

Fall 2025 APPL 60 001 Tree. Timber. Totem TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Trees, through their biology, meaning and uses, create an arc of understanding that spans what it means to be human. Ultimately, we will explore the meaning of trees and wood and why we seek happiness in nature, cherish wood and the creation of objects of wood. Tree: What is a tree from a biological perspective? How do they represent a complex community and play a vital role in life on the planet? Timber: What is the economy of wood internationally and in the state of NC? What are biophysical and material properties of trees that allow them to grow so large and be so useful to human society? Totem: Why do we respond emotionally to wood and choose it as a material in our lives and surroundings? How do we design and create objects of meaning from wood? We will walk in the woods, meet “wood people” from across the state and country and learn woodworking with projects of the students’ design and creation.

Richard Superfine

I am the son of a home builder, a first gen life-long student who is also a faculty member that has a passion for studying biology using the perspective and tools of physics. In my day job at UNC I build microscopes, materials and systems to study the wonders of the lung, the body’s immune system and biomedical diagnostic technologies – all in collaboration with brilliant scientists from across UNC and the world. I also have a woodworking shop in my basement where I make from wood furniture and gifts of meaning for family and friends.

Fall 2025 APPL 89 002 Convergent Research: Solving the Grand Engineering Challenges of the Future TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Convergence research focuses on addressing complex problems in science, engineering, and society. Today’s and tomorrow’s grand challenges will not be solved by one discipline, but by the integration of knowledge, methods, and expertise from across various disciplines.

This first-year seminar will introduce students to the new scientific language of convergence research. Through surveying the grand challenges of engineering, we will learn how through pursuing a common research challenge, experts from various fields intermix their knowledge, theories, methods, data, and research communities, enabling new discoveries to emerge. Students will participate in various in-class activities, group discussion and problem-solving coaching to enhance understanding of how chemistry, physics, materials science, biology, math, and computer sciences are applied to engineering.

Seminar will host guest lecturers with expertise on a particular topic, allowing the students to gain a true interdisciplinary view of the subject, instead of an isolated view of each.

Ronit Fraiman

My interdisciplinary expertise in chemistry, nanotechnology, material science, and computer science allows me to study problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single area of research practice. I truly believe that collaborations among scientists trained in different fields are essential for exploring and tackling complex problems. As such, I am both a participant and a leader of integrated research teams involving a vast network of interdependent researchers. I develop breakthrough biologically inspired technologies to advance healthcare. My work has led to major advances in tissue engineering, nanobiotechnology, and diagnostics, and key innovations are being translated into commercial products

Fall 2025 ARTH 55H 001 Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

What did it mean to be a man or to be a woman in the Renaissance? This seminar will explore the ways in which constructions of gender are critical to understandings of the visual arts in the early modern period (c. 1400-1650). We will discuss and analyze a focused group of representations of men and women: portraits, mythological and biblical paintings and sculptures, and even turn our attention to the buildings these men and women inhabited. We will study the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Holbein, and Rubens, amongst others, to find ways of understanding how masculinity and femininity were central concerns in early modern society and in the art produced in this period.

Tania String

Dr. Tania String is an art historian specializing in the art of the Tudor period in England, and the Renaissance more broadly. She is the author of numerous books and articles on the portraits of Henry VIII. Before coming to UNC in 2010 she taught in England at the University of Bristol.

Fall 2025 ARTH 61 001 African American Art of the Carolinas MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

Focusing on the Carolinas, this seminar explores the many ways African Americans have used art to define themselves and their communities. We will ask how art has been used to maintain cultural traditions, shape American culture and build political solidarity from the era of colonialism and slavery to the present. We will study the cultivation of artistic practices from Africa; African American painters, sculptors and craftsmen who earned national reputations for the quality of their work; artists who re-imagined and redefined African American identity through art; and artists throughout the 20th century who represented the daily lives and hardships of rural and working-class blacks. Students will visit campus museums and archives and conduct original research using regional sources. Persistent questions throughout the semester will include, How does the art of African Americans in the Carolinas provoke us to question our own identities and roles within the region, and what is the contemporary role of art in shaping public discourse?

John Bowles

John Bowles received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002 and is a graduate of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. He is an historian of African American art, who works from the assumption that art plays an important role in determining how we see ourselves as morally responsible individuals. In his research and teaching, he attempts to convey the urgency of art by addressing moral and political dilemmas we would often rather ignore. He has published articles and art criticism in various journals and has recently completed a book that examines the work of artist Adrian Piper. He is currently writing a book that explores how African American artists have engaged simultaneously with modernism, globalization and diaspora from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s until today.

Fall 2025 ARTS 50 001 The Artistic Temperament MW 9:05 AM – 10:20 AM

Class examines how to advance and sustain artistic production, focusing not only on being a successful artist, but also on the importance of creativity and hard work in any successful venture.

Annette Lawrence

Learn more about Dr. Lawrence: https://magazine.college.unc.edu/tar-heels-up-close/making-and-unmaking/

Fall 2025 ASIA 75 001 Love in China TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course is designed for Equity in Teaching. During this course we will be implementing an innovative and interactive learning method—Collaborative Online International Learning, or COIL. During this course we will engage in class discussions and lectures and a final presentation assignment with Dr. Amir Hossein Vafa and students from the Shiraz University in Iran for approximately five class session (asynchronous and synchronous options available). These activities will enhance your learning of the course content, and your participation in the COIL activities is required. COIL activities will provide you with exposure to new cultural contexts, knowledge, and perspectives on the course material. By participating in the COIL activities, you will develop and enhance cross-cultural communication skills and gain experience working in multicultural teams. As part of your grade and COIL activities, in groups with Iranian students, you will sketch, design, and create a war-related artifact using the campus MakerSpace (BeAM) facilities.

Keren He

Keren He specializes in modern Chinese literature, media, and popular culture. Her research focuses on how aging and suicide negotiated “the politics of life” in the Chinese-speaking world. She is also interested in posthumanism, queer theory, and game studies in China and Sinophone regions. She had lived in Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong before receiving her Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Fall 2025 BIOL 104 01F Biodiversity MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

The biological diversity we see on Earth today encompasses a variety of genetic, species, and ecosystem level variation. This course will focus on the biological principles that push biologists to understand what produces and sustains the biodiversity of life on Earth. This class will address key questions about how we identify and measure biological diversity, how it changes over time, and why biological diversity matters as our planet continues to change.

Jordan Claytor

Jordan Claytor is originally from Maryland and received his undergraduate degree in biology from Elon University. As an undergraduate, he did research investigating how anthropogenic noises impacted the behavior of bottlenose dolphins. His interest in dinosaurs and paleontology developed during an internship at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History studying landscape ecology using micro-vertebrate fossils. He was featured in the NOVA program, Dinosaur Apocalypse: The Last Day on PBS. His current research is on the evolution and ecology of early mammals using morphology independent methods to infer diet.

Fall 2025 BIOL 62H 001 Mountains Beyond Mountains: Infectious Disease in the Developing World TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The global pandemic has refocused the attention of the world on the importance of using science to address pathogens in a global way, and on the inequities in our health care system in the US and globally. In this course we will examine the challenges of treating infectious disease in the developing world, and explore the root causes of global health care inequity. We will use HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis as examples, and the nation of Haiti as a case study, as we explore viral and bacterial pathogens, how they affect our bodies, and how we can use this information to develop better treatments. We’ll also explore innovative ways to bring health care to resource-poor nations.

Mark Peifer

Mark Peifer is the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor of Biology at UNC, where he and his lab study how the animal body is assembled during embryonic development, using genetic and cell biological tools. He was raised in Minnesota and is a first generation college student. He knows diversity, equity and inclusion are core American values and hopes we once again live up to them. His interest in global public health was stimulated by a desire to help students take a closer look at the world around them, and by the experiences he has had with the people of Haiti. He and his spouse live in the woods west of town, and his two daughters are both UNC grads, one a social worker and one a student teacher in second grade.

Fall 2025 CHEM 73H 001 From Atomic Bombs to Cancer Treatments: The Broad Scope of Nuclear Chemistry MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

Nuclear chemistry is a broad field which we all are affected by almost daily in some way, shape or form. In this course we’ll explore many aspects of nuclear chemistry in an attempt to better understand the historical development, the present technology and the future of the field. A general chemistry background in atomic history and theory will first be reviewed, followed by a survey of the applications and research topics of nuclear chemistry today. Many topics discussed in the course are surrounded by controversy. In each of these cases, students will research and discuss the various sides of each argument to better understand the topics. Field trips, guest speakers, and student research presentations will make up an integral part of the course.

Additional Information
Students should have credit for CHEM 101 before enrolling in this course.

Todd Austell

Todd Austell is a Teaching Professor and currently serves as the Associate Director of U’grad Studies for the Department of Chemistry. He serves as an academic advisor for STEM and pre-health science majors in UNC Academic Advising. Prof. Austell received his BS in Chemistry in 1987 and his PhD in Chemistry in 1996, both at UNC. He spent one year working in the pharmaceutical industry prior to graduate school and another year as an Assistant Professor at the United States Air Force Academy prior to returning to his current position in 1998. As an undergraduate, he participated in the Department of Energy and American Chemistry Society’s Summer School in Nuclear Chemistry. Topical studies in nuclear chemistry have been a hobby of his since that time. His graduate research involved separation science, and he is currently involved in both curriculum development within the chemistry department and in a long-term study of how middle school and secondary math education/preparation affects student performances in college general chemistry. His hobbies include hiking, camping, disc golf and gardening as well as following all UNC athletics. He has two young daughters whom he says are “his greatest accomplishment” and a wife who works as a physical therapist.

Fall 2025 COMM 82 001 Food Politics from an Organizational Communication Perspective TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The globalization of food systems is both a hotly contested subject and a central part of contemporary life. This course provides an applied introduction to key debates by adopting a critical organizational communication lens on our globalized food system. Drawing on readings, popular media texts, discussions, and experiential activities, we will explore food system labor practices, the role of multinational companies and global commodity chains, the status of hunger and food deserts, the role of food marketing and consumption practices, and the growth of local and sustainable movements devoted to food justice. Throughout, we investigate how our global food system is shaped by different types of organizations operating within particular locales, such as North Carolina, USA.

This is an APPLES-designated service-learning course that requires service hours. In addition to experiential field activities and visits, our course is organized around group-based engaged research projects. Your success will depend upon your ability to work independently and practice collective leadership. This project will increase your research and writing skills, sharpen your leadership and collaborative skills, and provide you with applied insight into the themes of the course.

Sarah Dempsey

Sarah Dempsey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research focuses on critical theories of work and professional life and the politics of voice, representation, and accountability in social change efforts. Her most recent research examines cultural discourses about work and labor in the context of the food industry. She is currently engaged in a book length project drawing on archival research, critical analysis of popular discourses and corporate practices, and interviews with contemporary food service workers, organizers, and living wage and fair wage advocates and business owners.

Fall 2025 COMM 85 001 Think, Speak, Argue TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This seminar helps students learn to think more critically, speak more persuasively, and argue more effectively by focusing on practical skill development in reasoning and debate. Students at Carolina learn to sharpen their thinking, speaking, and argument skills in the course of their normal classwork, but this happens more or less indirectly. This seminar will focus directly on improving each of these skills. Students will learn to think more critically by reflecting on the work of philosophers who deal with reasoning and informal logic, to speak with conviction and clarity through hands-on learning about the tradition of rhetoric, and to argue more effectively by debating the pressing issues of our day. The skills that we hone in on in this course will help students become more effective in the classroom, in their chosen vocation, and as citizens in an increasingly complex global public sphere.

Christian Lundberg

Chris Lundberg is a professor of rhetoric, a political consultant, and a corporate communications strategist. He is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at UNC Chapel Hill, where he writes about and teaches courses in public speaking, debate, persuasive communication and political rhetoric.
His academic work includes multiple books and award-winning articles on rhetoric, speech, and persuasion, including: The Essential Guide to Rhetoric (Bedford St. Martin’s, 2008, 2e 2017); Public Speaking: Choices and Responsibility (Cengage Publishers, 2014, 2e 2016, 3e 2022); and a book about the psychology of public persuasion called Lacan in Public: Psychoanalysis and the Science of Rhetoric (University of Alabama Press, 2012). He has served as a debate and messaging consultant for numerous US Senate races, gubernatorial campaigns, and cabinet-level confirmation processes. His international work features extensive work in the United Kingdom, including work on the UK Prime Ministership, the Scottish leadership election, and consulting services for the “Vote Leave” campaign during the EU referendum. He is also the founder and CEO of Vocable Communications, a speech focused and data-driven communication consultancy serving senior leadership at multiple fortune 500 corporations. He received his Ph.D. in rhetoric from Northwestern University’s School of Communication in 2006, and his Master of Divinity from Emory University in 2000. In addition to his experience in the classroom and with consulting clients, he has over fifteen years of experience in speech and debate coaching, serving most recently as a coach and argument consultant for Harvard University. He has coached national championship intercollegiate debate teams at four separate universities (Liberty University, Emory University, Northwestern University, and Harvard University), and has coached multiple competitors to the top individual speaker award at the National Debate Tournament.

Fall 2025 COMM 68 001 Paying Attention: The Art of Documentary TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Paying attention to the world around us is foundational to our understanding of the people, behaviors, environments, and living species that co-exist alongside us. Attention fuels our curiosity, deepens our empathy, and invites us to step outside of ourselves. Re-presenting what we pay attention to is the art and practice of documentary. At its essence, documentary is a “document” of what we observe and what we record. In this course, we will use video/sound, photography, and creative writing to document and then re-present what we are paying attention to. Students will strengthen their attention-paying capacities, develop research skills, and learn how to refine their chosen methods of documentation. Class discussion, readings, film screenings, creative assignments, site visits, and in-class exercises will provide an opportunity to experiment, ask questions, and collaborate with peers. The course will culminate in a final documentary project done in small groups on student-chosen and researched topics.

Julia Haslett

Julia Haslett is an award-winning filmmaker whose expressionistic documentaries include Pushed up the Mountain (2020) and An Encounter with Simone Weil (2010), which was a New York Magazine's Critics Pick. Before joining the faculty at UNC, she worked in public and cable television, and as a Filmmaker-in-Residence at Stanford University's Center for Biomedical Ethics. Her current research interests include environmental filmmaking, mental health, and the ethics of attention. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Professor Haslett very much appreciates how easy it is to access the natural world in and around Chapel Hill.

Fall 2025 DRAM 120 01F Play Analysis TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Development of the skill to analyze plays for academic and production purposes through the intensive study of representative plays. DRAM 120 is the first course in the major and the minor in dramatic art.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2025 DRAM 79 001 The Heart of the Play: Fundamentals of Acting, Playwriting, and Collaboration TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The goal of this seminar is to get you doing theatre, to spark your creativity and to connect you with the deeper lessons of this dynamic art form. You will act. You will write. You will work with others. It will not always be easy, but if you are willing to stretch yourself, you should have a good time. Each lesson is organized around a principle or virtue inherent in the practice of the art. Participants study a quotation or two that relate to that principle and then engage in drama exercises that spring from that principle. By the end of the course, you will have gained skills to make you comfortable to write, stage and perform your own 10-minute plays. Not just for those interested in pursuing theatre, this seminar will give you a more holistic understanding of essential principles in the practice of your life.

Mark Perry

Mark Perry teaches playwriting, play analysis and dramaturgy and serves as a resident dramaturg with PlayMakers Repertory Company. His plays "A New Dress for Mona" and "The Will of Bernard Boynton" have been produced by UNC’s Department of Dramatic Art, and he recently directed Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the department's Kenan Theatre Company. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop and a former recipient of the North Carolina Arts Council’s Literature Fellowship for playwriting.

Fall 2025 DRAM 80 001 Psychology of Clothes: Motivations for Dressing Up and Dressing Down TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The course seeks to help students find ways to articulate their own motivations for dress and then apply the ideas they have discovered to the ways in which individuality as well as group attitudes are expressed through clothing.

Pamela Bond

Pamela Bond is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art. Pamela has taught at Hampton University and North Carolina Central University. Her recent work includes costume design for The Bus Stop featured at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has performed professionally at the National Black Theatre Festival and featured apparel designs in Charlotte Fashion Week and Winston Salem Fashion Week. Pamela believes that in order for students to experience the full scope as theatre practitioners they must be willing to explore diverse ethnic and cultural backdrops, as well as their own. So what does your clothing say about you? What messages are you trying to send with what you put on today? Let’s explore your closet and see who you are.

Fall 2025 DRAM 81H 001 Staging America: The American Drama TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines our national drama from its colonial origins to the present. Participants read plays and criticism, screen videos, engage in critical writing, and consider performance as related means of exploring the visions and revisions constituting American dramatic history. We will approach American drama as both a literary and commercial art form, and look to its history to provide a context for current American theater practice. Readings are chosen for their intrinsic merit and historical importance, but also for their treatment of key issues and events in American life. Our focus throughout will be on the forces that shaped the American drama as well as, in turn, that drama’s ability to shed light on the national experience.

Gregory Kable

Gregory Kable is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art, where he teaches dramatic literature, theatre history, and performance courses and serves as an Associate Dramaturg for PlayMakers Repertory Company. He also teaches seminars on Modern British Drama and American Musicals for the Honors program. He has directed dozens of productions at UNC and throughout the local community, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Fall 2025 DRAM 83 002 Spectacle in the Theatre TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar will explore the artists, art and technology involved in creating the world of the play. It is intended as an overview for students who want to learn about theatrical design. Students will create their own designs in the areas of scenery, costumes, and lighting for three plays throughout the semester. The plays will be placed outside of their traditional setting while still maintaining the story and themes. Students have placed Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a trailer park and a daycare center for example. Careful historical research, close reading and analysis, text and source material, and collaboration will be the focus of the student projects.

David Navalinsky

David Navalinsky is the Director of Undergraduate Production in the Department of Dramatic Art. David has taught at the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Mississippi. David’s recent design work includes scenery for The Uncanny Valley by Francesca Talenti. The Uncanny Valley featured a Robothespian™, which is exactly what it sounds like. He has also written a documentary theatre piece Priceless Gem: An Athlete Story, which tells the stories of UNC athletes. David has worked professionally at South Coast Repertory in Orange County California, The Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre in Cleveland, OH. Some of David’s favorite projects were at the Dallas Children’s Theater where he made a dinosaur collapse and pirates walk the plank.

Fall 2025 ENGL 57 001 Future Perfect: Science Fictions and Social Form MW 4:40 PM – 5:55 PM

In this first-year seminar, we will explore science fiction as a history of the future. What we call “science fiction”—fiction that imagines a future shaped by changes in science or technology–has been around for a while, at least since Thomas More’s Utopia in 1516. Since this beginning, writers have been using the genre to ask two large questions: 1] where are we, as a society, now? As we will see, science fiction can be a shrewd instrument of social critique. And 2] what will happen next? These invented futures, whether good (“utopian”) or bad (“dystopian”) have a lot to tell us how such writers understood themselves and their place in history. But there’s a twist: the future they conceive is the one we live in! Or… do we? Did they get it right? Or wrong? Why? In this seminar, we’ll consider such questions across a range of science fiction of several types: books (Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination [1956], William Gibson’s Neuromancer [1984], and Martha Wells’ recent series The Murderbot Diaries [2017-], among others) and films (Forbidden Planet [1956], 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968], and Blade Runner (1982 and 2017, among others), with excursions into other media.

David Baker

David J. Baker is Peter G. Phialas Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Between Nations: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell and the Question of Britain (1997) and On Demand: Writing for the Market in Early Modern England (2010). With Willy Maley, he is the co-editor of British Identity and English Renaissance Literature (2002) and, with Patricia Palmer, Early Modern Criticism in a Time of Crisis (2022). In 2021, he was a Fulbright fellow in Ireland.

Fall 2025 ENGL 66 001 Blake 2.0: William Blake in Popular Culture TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

William Blake, the visionary poet, artist and printmaker of the British Romantic period, has had enormous influence on modern art and popular culture. His illuminated poetry integrated word and image anticipating graphic novels and influencing many modern musicians, poets, writers (including Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy, Bono, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison). Using the Blake Archive, a hypertext of Blake’s poetry and art, we will study key Blake works as well as the digital medium that enables us to study these works in new ways. We will also explore the Web for performances and adaptations of the works we study and for works by musicians, painters, poets, writers, actors, playwrights, performers, dancers and film and video makers who were or are inspired or influenced by Blake. Students will share their discoveries with the class and produce critical or creative responses to a work by Blake or by an influenced artist.

Joseph Viscomi

Joseph Viscomi, the James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English Literature, directs and co-edits the William Blake Archive (blakearchive.org). His special interests are British Romantic literature, art, and printmaking and digital humanities. He has co-edited 9 illuminated works for The William Blake Trust and over 172 digital editions of Blake's literary and art works for the Blake Archive. He is the author of Prints by Blake and his Followers, Blake and the Idea of the Book, and Blake’s Printed Paintings: Methods, Origins, Meanings. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation, Getty Foundation, and the National Humanities Center.

Fall 2025 ENGL 86 001 The Cities of Modernism TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

In this seminar we will embark on a world tour of modernist cities across the Global North and the Global South including London, Dublin, Paris, Kolkata, Chicago, and New York. We will read fiction and poetry and watch films by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Elizabeth Bishop, Mina Loy, Marianne Moore, Sam Selvon, and Satyajit Ray, among others. Modernism has been historically celebrated as an art of the cities. However, this claim has also been contested. In this seminar we will ask the following questions: how does modernism depict the theme of alienation and mental life in the city? How does modernist literature transgress conventions of gender and sexuality within the cityspace? Is the modernist city welcoming to everyone or are there individuals/communities who remain marginalized? What is distinctive about the architecture and urban planning of the modernist city and how does it relate to ideas of environmental sustainability? The course will conclude with students creating a digital storymap on a city of their choice.

Shinjini Chattopadhyay

Dr. Shinjini Chattopadhyay is a scholar of modernist literature. Her research focuses on Irish, British, and transnational modernisms. Her monograph-in-progress, “Plurabilities of the City,” investigates the construction of metropolitan cosmopolitanism in modernist and contemporary novels. Her work has been published in the James Joyce Quarterly, European Joyce Studies, Modernism/Modernity Print+, and elsewhere.

Fall 2025 ENGL 89H 001 The Machine Mistake from Frankenstein to AI MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

There is the assumption that science fiction propagandizes for the gleaming gadgetry that it depicts. It’s true that science fiction often endorses the scientific endeavor and worldview. It’s further true that the science fictionists of the 1940s and 1950s tended to pine for the space age that began in 1969. But even at its giddiest and wonkiest, science fiction remembers the lesson of Frankenstein. It remembers that our monsters develop ideas of their own; that they wind up haunting us and even hunting us; that our innovations—however seemingly benign—however fenced and fail-safe—threaten to escape our control and our comprehension. This course traces the genealogy of this machine anxiety. Our guiding questions will be: What are machines? Does the artificially intelligent “machine” cease to be a machine? Are machines “natural” or “unnatural”? Are they heretical? Are their dangers inherent? How do they change us?

Our course epigraph might paraphrase Winston Churchill: We shape our machines; thereafter they shape us.

David Ross

David A. Ross is a graduate of Yale and Oxford. He has been a member of the Department of English & Comparative Literature at UNC–Chapel Hill since 2002. He is the author of A Critical Companion to William Butler Yeats (2009) and the co-editor/co-translator of The Search for the Avant-Garde, 1946–1969 (2012), the descriptive catalogue of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. A collector and amateur scholar of traditional Chinese paintings and Japanese woodblock prints, he has served as president of Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and as both editor and book review editor of the Southeast Review of Asian Studies.

Fall 2025 ECON 101H 01F ECON 101H-901 Introduction to Economics TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Introduction to Economics (Economics 101H) is the Honors section of the introductory course in Economics for undergraduates. The Honors section covers the same material as the large enrollment version but does so in more depth. This is an introductory course in both microeconomics and macroeconomics. In this one-semester course students are introduced to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, ination, and the determination of prices. This course is the gateway course for the major of Economics; if you wish to major in Economics, you must have at least a C in this course.

Robert McDonough
Fall 2025 EMES 101 01F Planet Earth TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course will introduce geological concepts through the lens of U.S. national parks and a plate tectonic framework. The course will take a small-group approach to in-class work where developing collaboration and communication skills will be a focus. Students will apply their talents, skills, knowledge, and creativity to investigate related topics of interest as they manifest in a specific U.S. National Park to examine the interconnectedness of the geologic sciences and other fields of study. They will present their work in a manner appropriate to their project. Because this course is geared toward students newer to the university environment, the course will also discuss adjacent issues relevant to first-year students such as studying approaches, professionalism, as well as usefulness of meta-cognition, self-reflection, and feedback. Students will practice employing these ideas and approaches though individual and small-group work. Optional laboratory: GEOL 101L.

Michelle Haskin

Michelle Haskin is an Assistant Teaching Professor who strives to facilitate undergraduate learning through equitable pedagogical practices and collaborative learning. She has an interest in metacognition and applying learning strategies to help students discover new ways to approach and reframe their learning. She has taught over 2300 UNC students and looks forward to teaching many more.

Fall 2025 EMES 55 001 Change in the Coastal Ocean TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This seminar provides students with opportunities to explore recent changes in marine environments caused by the interactions of fascinating oceanographic processes. Class presentations and discussions focus on the work of active marine scientists who combine their traditional disciplinary research with knowledge and skills from other fields as needed to understand new environmental challenges. This cross-cutting scientific approach prepares class members to recognize important connections between traditional disciplines to discover interdisciplinary research areas that they might wish to further explore during their undergraduate careers at Carolina. Each week we read a series of cutting-edge, non-technical research papers focused largely on recent changes in marine ecosystems in preparation for in-class discussions, laboratory demonstrations, and “video- and photo-trip” visits to field sites. We use information from those papers, other course materials and current research at Carolina, to investigate how biological, geological, physical, and geochemical processes interact to influence coastal, open-ocean, and tropical environments. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions during classes, in demonstrations using state-of-the art instrumentation in MASC laboratories, and in “hands on” mini-field experiments (as weather allows) designed to emphasize the importance of the scientific question rather than just the technology involved. Please note that this seminar has no prerequisites.

Christopher Martens

Christopher S. Martens earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from Florida State University in 1972, then moved to Yale to complete two years of postdoctoral study before joining the faculty at UNC in 1974. His current research focuses on how biological processes affect the chemistry of coastal and deep-sea environments, including the expanding role of sponges in coral reef ecosystems, the impacts of recently discovered natural gas seeps found off the North Carolina coast and the fate of the huge volume of hydrocarbons released to the deep sea during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He publishes widely, has twice been co-recipient of the international Geochemical Society’s Best Paper award in Organic Geochemistry and received the Ketchum Award for Leadership in Coastal Oceanography from the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is an experienced SCUBA, hard helmet, saturation and submersible diver and an underwater videographer. He has received a “Favorite Faculty” award for recognized excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Fall 2025 EMES 59 001 Extreme Microorganisms: Pushing the Limits of Life on Earth and Beyond TR 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

We will expand our horizons in biology by learning about some of the most extreme microorganisms on the planet – microorganisms that thrive without oxygen in deep marine sediments and in the Earth’s crust, under high temperatures in boiling hot springs or in superheated deep-sea water under high pressure, and under chemical stress factors (high sulfide and heavy metal concentrations) that were once thought to be incompatible with life. Numerous extremophilic (extreme-loving) microorganisms of different metabolic types have been isolated in the laboratory as pure cultures; others have been observed in Nature but have so far resisted cultivation. Extremophiles provide opportunities to study the unusual and strange biochemistry that allows them to thrive in their unique habitats; they are also valuable model systems for potential life on other planets. We will get to know the unusual habitats where extremophiles are found, for example hot springs and volcanic areas on land (Yellowstone) and in the ocean (hydrothermal vents), and we will explore the earliest history of extremophiles as some of the most ancient microorganisms on Earth.

Andreas Teske

Andreas Teske is a biochemist by training, but became fascinated by the microbial world of the oceans and focused his Ph.D. research on the ecology and diversity of marine bacteria that catalyze the sulfur cycle. After completing his Ph.D. at Bremen University and the Max-Planck-Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany in 1995, he spent his postdoc years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and stayed on as Assistant Scientist. Andreas Teske joined the UNC Marine Sciences faculty in 2002. His research interests include the microbiology of the deep marine subsurface, and microbial ecosystems of petroleum seeps and hydrothermal vents. In search of novel extreme marine microorganisms, he and his students are participating in a wide range of research cruises.

Fall 2025 EMES 72H 001 Field Geology of Eastern California MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Have you ever wanted to stand on a volcano, see a glacier, trace out an earthquake fault, or see the Earth’s oldest living things? This seminar is designed around a one-week field trip to eastern California, where students will study geologic features including active volcanoes, earthquake-producing faults, and evidence for recent glaciation and extreme climate change. Before the field trip (which will take place the week of Fall Break and be based at a research station near Bishop, California), the class will meet twice a week to learn basic geologic principles and to work on developing field research topics. During the field trip students will work on field exercises (e.g., mapping, measuring, and describing an active fault; observing and recording glacial features) and collect data for the research projects. After the field trip, students will obtain laboratory data from samples collected during the trip and test research hypotheses using field and laboratory data. Grading will be based on presentation of group research projects, and on a variety of small projects during the trip (notebook descriptions, mapping projects, etc.). Students may be required to pay some of the costs of the trip (typically, about $500.) This course will require missing three days of classes. The course is designed to teach basic geology “on the rocks”, so there are no prerequisites. Link to Yosemite Nature Notes video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5RQp77uVPA

Drew Coleman

Drew Coleman’s research focuses on understanding how the Earth works by determining the rates of processes (mountain building, extinction, volcanism, etc.) that occurred in the past. To accomplish this he and his students date rocks. His teaching is inquiry based and he is most happy when he is teaching “hands on” in the field or lab.

Fall 2025 ENEC 201 01F ENEC 201-735 or ENEC 201-736 Introduction to Environment and Society MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Human-environment interactions are examined through analytical methods from the social sciences, humanities, and sciences. The focus is on the role of social, political, and economic factors in controlling interactions between society and the environment in historical and cultural contexts. Three lecture hours and one recitation hour a week.

Gregory Gangi

In his teaching, Greg Gangi conveys a complex understanding of environmental challenges and explores innovative solutions. His teaching extends beyond the classroom as he leads students to many countries to learn firsthand about global change and innovation. He organized several educational trips to Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic nations. Given the role that South Korea and China play in shaping the future of technology, he plans to guide students in learning from these two nations during the summer of 2019.

Gangi received various awards at UNC and a national award for his advising and mentoring of students. In 2014, he was awarded the NACADA Award for Outstanding Faculty Advisor. He received the Tanner Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010 and the University recognized him with the Massey Award for Outstanding Service in 2018.

In addition to his teaching, Gangi works to create networks in North Carolina between industry, academia, and government to help strengthen innovation. He also seeks to foster international networks that connect companies in the Clean Tech sector with North Carolina. He defines clean technology broadly to include companies in clean energy, smart cities, water technologies, innovations to make transportation more sustainable, building technologies and solutions that improve food security and agricultural sustainability. He is the lead organizer of the annual UNC Clean Tech Summit, which represents the largest event of its kind in the southeastern region of the United States.

Fall 2025 ENEC 89 001 Beyond Human/Nature: The Cultural Side of Environmental Issues TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Climate change and natural disasters are not purely environmental issues: they are fundamentally tied to political and economic activities deeply rooted in cultural understandings of the relationship between humans and nature. In this class, we will explore the cultural side of ecological problems by considering how ideologies, ethics, and art shape the ways humans interact with plants, animals, and landscapes. In doing so, we will unpack a foundational dichotomy of our time—are humans separate from the natural world, or part of it? By consulting artists, poets, writers, and thinkers, students will untangle this nature-culture relationship, tapping into key existential questions about what it means to be humans who not only live in this world, but who seek to solve the environmental problems that they have caused or exacerbated. The class will include reading discussions, podcasts, projects, and—as much as possible—time spent outdoors in our campus environment.

Ben Bridges

Ben Bridges is folklorist and anthropologist who specializes in the environmental humanities, material culture studies, and critical Indigenous studies. His primary research concerns the effects of climate change and economic transition on red and yellow cedar trees in Southeast Alaska, specifically in relation to Tlingit and Haida art. Alongside his work in Alaska is a running interest in human-environment relations in North Carolina, his home state. In the classroom, his central goal is to help students draw meaningful, personal connections between the course material and their own lives, which he accomplishes through experiential education, project-based learning, and mentorship.

Fall 2025 ENVR 89 002 Environment-ECUIPP Lab: Connecting with Communities through Environmental Research for Public Health TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is an entry into an undergraduate learning community organized by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. The ECUIPP Lab (Environmentally-Engaged Communities and Undergraduate students Investigating for Public health Protection) is a creative community of students, faculty members and practice partners. Students in ENVR 89-001 will become members of the Environment-ECUIPP Lab. Over the course of the semester they will design and conduct research that addresses a pressing environmental health issue in a local community. Students will work with the local community partner to develop a research question and use the resources of the ECUIPP Lab and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering to answer the question through the research process. The course is a hands-on undergraduate research experience

Amanda Northcross

Professor Amanda Northcross likes to build things and enjoys working together with students and communities to explore environmental health concerns, design field campaigns, and build and deploy networks of sensors to answer environmental health questions. With BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical and environmental engineering she is passionate about health equity. Dr. Northcross has conducted environmental health and engineering research in Guatemala, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. She will work together with faculty from UNC’s Water Institute to conduct community-engaged environmental research with first year students.

Fall 2025 EXSS 89H 001 Brain Matters: The Human Computer TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Brain Matters: The Human Computer will explore one of the greatest anatomical and physiological mysteries known to us: the brain. The brain contains over 100 billion neurons allowing the human brain to serve as the hub for everything we do, say, or feel. It is by far the most complex and sophisticated ‘computer’ in existence. Together, we will explore this vast unknown. We will discuss and explore topics ranging from anatomy, neurodevelopment, decision-making, maturation, disease, and other topics related to our cerebral computers. The seminar will draw from faculty expertise across campus and may use examples from research and mass media to complement the teaching materials in the seminar. You will have opportunities to work together, present your work, submit article critiques, and participate in class discussion on these topics. The seminar is intended for all first-year students—regardless of intended major—interested in neuroscience.

Jason Mihalik

Dr. Jason Mihalik is a professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science (EXSS) where he directs the Matthew Gfeller Center and leads its THRIVE Program. In these roles, he has studied civilian and military traumatic brain injury (TBI) for the past 20 years, publishing over 170 peer-reviewed publications on these topics. His work has contributed to changing rules and policies in several major sports, concussion legislation in our state, clinical programs to help Veterans and first responders, and has secured congressional funding to support ongoing military research. He is looking forward to the opportunity to translate high level neuroscience concepts into an engaging learning experience for first year Honors Carolina students.

Fall 2025 GEOG 130 01F Development and Inequality: Global Perspectives TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This course is an introduction to historical and contemporary ideas about practices and meanings of development through the perspective of geography. Students will explore the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of struggles over inequality. They will also consider how development and inequality become constructed and institutionalized throughout history, the radical and not-so-radical ways that individuals, governments, and organizations have sought to change inequality, and the ways that geographical concepts can improve our thinking about these puzzles. SPECIAL FOR SPRING 2025: We will be collaborating with a local arts organization, Culture Mill, and a local community group on a new performance titled ‘Bloc’, in order to understand local landscapes of inequality and also of community in Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth Havice
Fall 2025 GEOG 68 001 Freshwaters in the Anthropocene MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

Freshwaters sustain myriad ecosystem services by providing drinking water, irrigation, inland fisheries, transportation, recreational opportunities, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity. At the same time, both water quality and quantity are impacted by land use, water abstraction, damming, contamination, and climate change. This seminar will focus (1) on understanding how these anthropogenic pressures affect freshwater ecosystems differently across ecoregions, and (2) how management, legislative, and social initiatives have adapted or developed solutions. We will focus mainly on the United States but consider case studies from around the world. Students should be prepared to read and discuss three materials per week. These reading materials will include a range of popular media including podcasts, newspaper articles, and book chapters, as well as scientific articles and overviews. We will also spend some time exploring and talking about streams accessible to the UNC campus. Class will culminate with research projects in which students get to explore a topic of their choice and presenting findings to their peers.

Amanda DelVecchia

I am a physical geographer focusing on freshwater ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry. This involves connecting various spatial and temporal scales, and biotic and abiotic factors, within groundwater, lakes, wetlands, rivers, and their watersheds. In particular, I ask how connectivity between different parts of the landscape (including those we cannot see!), and over time, affect functions like carbon and nutrient cycling, food webs, and greenhouse gas dynamics. By understanding these connections, we can better predict how freshwaters react to climate change and anthropogenic alteration, so that we may better protect freshwater biodiversity and function. I use a mix of empirical and data science, and work across the U.S. and internationally. You can learn more about my research by visiting my website at amandadelvecchia.weebly.com, by emailing me, or by visiting during my office hours, in which case I can promise you a warm reception and an offer for tea.

Fall 2025 GLBL 89 001 The Migratory Experience TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The course will critically analyze the migrant experience in North America and Europe with a focus on the experience of migrants from Mexico. Although the popular media often portrays migrants as agentless individuals making haphazard decisions, migration is a calculated decision that individuals, families, and groups make to improve their living conditions. We will explore the motivation of migrants, the nature of the migrant journey to their destination states, their integration and adaptation into their new host societies and the backlash endured. Through historical readings and selected works of literature we will explore what motivates and drives their choices, what guides their actions and what keeps them focus and grounded during their perilous journey. We will also discuss the significant role that the U.S and European governments have in influencing an individuals’ decisions to migrate.

Carmen Huerta-Bapat

Dr. Huerta-Bapat holds a PhD in sociology from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MA in sociology from UNC–Chapel Hill, and an MA in political science from Rice University. She has proudly “sampled” multiple Ph.D programs before settling as a sociologist and consequently her understanding of the world and how she conceptualized knowledge is multi-foci. Her research agenda takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how institutions such as universities, schools and police bureaucracies are working to incorporate underrepresented racial and ethnic groups with a particular interest in immigrant communities. Her research ranges from exploring police behavior toward new Latino immigrants in North Carolina, the social and health impact associated with persecutory immigration policies, the negative impact of micro-aggressions on first-generation college students, and parental involvement amongst Latino families in public education. Her recent work with the School of Public Health draws on her social science training, lived experiences as a Latina immigrant to ensure that health interventions with marginalized communities are not prescriptive, paternalistic and overbearing, but instead they are grounded on respect, mutual understanding and enduring social relations to yield change for all parties involved. In addition to her research work she owns Borderless Equity- a consulting firm specializing in help organizations improve their internal cohesiveness, morale and productivity. Some of her clients include the Department of Health and Human Services in NC, The Airforce Research Lab, and various Care Management Organizations in New Jersey.

Fall 2025 GSLL 56 001 JWST 56-001 Germans, Jews, and the History of Anti-Semitism MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

This seminar offers first-year students an introduction to the German-Jewish experience and the history of anti-semitism in Germany, from early modernity to the present day. Students in this seminar will learn to analyze a variety of texts (both literary and philosophical), musical works, and films in relation to the history of Jews in German-speaking countries, and will be able to apply their knowledge to their analysis of present-day manifestations of antisemitism and xenophobia in Germany. The course has no requisites and presumes no prior knowledge of the subject matter.

Adi Nester

Adi Nester received her Ph.D. in German Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds additional degrees in Musicology and Piano Performance from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Southern California. She joined the department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at UNC in fall 2020. Adi’s research focuses on German-Jewish Studies and the intersection of literature, music, theology, and politics in the cultures and traditions of German-speaking countries.

Fall 2025 GSLL 82 001 Doctor Stories MWF 9:05 AM – 9:55 AM

Explores and reflects on the experience and significance of being a doctor in Russia and the United States, analyzing “doctors’ stories” presented in fiction, nonfiction, film, and other media. Previously offered as SLAV 82.

Stanislav Shvabrin

Stanislav Shvabrin has researched, published and lectured on the history and culture of Russian diasporas, comparative verse theory, poetics and politics of national memory and translation studies. Apart from his scholarly and editorial work on Vladimir Nabokov, he has written on Georgy Ivanov, Andrei Kurbsky, Mikhail Kuzmin and Marina Tsvetaeva.

Fall 2025 HIST 51 001 Latin American Revolutions TR 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM

This course explores the problem of revolutionary upheaval in Latin American history, from the revolutionary wars of the independence era (1810-1825) to revolutionary episodes of the 20th century.

Andrew Walker

Andrew Walker is a historian of slavery, emancipation, nation-building, and racial formations in the Atlantic World, with a focus on Haiti and the Greater Caribbean in the nineteenth-century.

His current book project, Haitian Santo Domingo: From Emancipation to Separation, uses local notarial and administrative records from the city of Santo Domingo to tell the story of how Hispaniola, an island governed by independent Haiti for 22 years, became divided into two nations. The book argues that the transition from unification to division cemented revolutionary antislavery as a foundational legacy of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but also generated paradoxical silences surrounding racial inequalities in the modern Dominican Republic.

Dr. Walker's published work has appeared in the William & Mary Quarterly, the Law and History Review, and Slavery & Abolition. He has also contributed book chapters to the Routledge Companion to Nineteenth-Century Latin America and the edited volume Santo Domingo, 1821-2021: Bicentenario de la Independencia Efi?mera, published by the Archivo General de la Nación of the Dominican Republic.

Previously, Dr. Walker held postdoctoral fellowships at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and at Wesleyan University. Dr. Walker received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in History and French Studies from Duke University.

Dr. Walker teaches courses on Caribbean history, modern Latin American history, and Latin American studies.

Fall 2025 HIST 63 001 Water, Conflict, and Connection: the Middle East and Ottoman Lands TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Despite its centrality for the lives and the livelihoods of people in the Middle East, water has seldom been examined in its own right as a contributing factor to its history. This new First Year Seminar will explore the many ways in which water has shaped the history of the region, and the effects it currently has on life in the Middle East.

Along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts as well as the Red Sea and Arab/Persian Gulf, seafaring and fishing played important roles in the economy; in the Gulf, pearl-diving became an important local industry as well. Agricultural innovations allowed permanent settlement in areas with little rainfall. Rivers and seas were essential for transportation, connecting populations of far-flung parts of the Middle East with each other, facilitating commerce and pilgrimage. The availability of clean water has become an increasing problem as industrialization and consumerism soil beaches and sully the region’s drinking supplies. Water and conflict have been indivisible in the region, since water is one of the crucial and rare resources in the Middle East. Some have argued, for example, that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians can only be resolved by taking water resources into account; others have pointed to recent drought in Syria as a major factor contributing to the uprising that began in 2011. This course will focus in turn on the historical, cultural, and contemporary issues surrounding the presence and absence of water in the Middle East.

Sarah Shields

Sarah Shields has been at UNC for decades, and both of her children have graduated wearing Tar Heel blue. She teaches courses on the modern Middle East, the conflict over Israel/Palestine, the history of Iraq, and a variety of courses on water in the Middle East. Her current research is on the Middle East and the establishment of borders after World War I. She has enjoyed teaching at UNC so much that she has even accompanied UNC students to programs in Turkey, England, and South Africa.

Fall 2025 HIST 66 001 Film and History in Europe and the United States, 1908-1968 TR 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

In this course, we will analyze the re-presentation of historical events and movements of the twentieth century in a number of landmark films. We will ask how a film can help us better understand resistance in a past situation, and, through their reactions to individual films, audiences’ relations, in particular times and places. to these representations of the past. In this class, students will view and discuss a dozen films. There is little reading for this class. The instructor will lay out the historical context and the historical situation which each film shows (and does not show), but the emphasis of the class is on students’ use of evidence from their viewings to develop insightful readings of the past and how it can and has been interpreted. Particular attention will be given to the concept of resistance–what are its qualities and attributes manifest in a wide variety of historical situations and what are the ways that film presents resistance and helps audiences understand it in new ways.

Donald Reid

Donald Reid is an historian of the French Resistance, of labor movements in France, and of the Long 1968 (1962-1981) in France.. He received the Tanner Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Reid has published widely on the relation of literature and film to the interpretation and presentation of history. His current book project is “Resistance in the Barracks: French Conscripts in the 1968 Years.”

Fall 2025 HIST 67 001 Maid in America, Made in China: Laboring Women in Global Perspective MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Public figures ranging from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof have suggested women’s increased entry into the labor market as a cure for the problems that face their families and their societies. But scholars have demonstrated that paid work has offered women new freedoms while subjecting them to new forms of control. This course will explore that paradox by examining women’s diverse experiences as workers historically and today.

Katherine Turk

Katherine Turk is Associate Professor of History and Adjunct Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. She teaches and researches on women, gender and sexuality and their intersections with work, law and social movements in the modern United States.

Fall 2025 HIST 72 001 Women's Voices: 20th-Century European History in Female Memory MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

The course examines 20th-century European history through the lenses of women’s autobiographical writings. It explores women’s voices from different generational, social, and national backgrounds and asks what formed their memories.

Jennifer A. Boittin

Jennifer A. Boittin is the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global History. She received her Ph.D. in History from Yale University and was previously a professor at Penn State University. Her research and teaching look at how colonial spaces in West Africa, Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the French Caribbean were shaped by intersections between class, politics, and urban culture around the world wars and decolonization. Completed in part thanks to a Paris Institute for Advanced Studies fellowship, her second book is entitled Undesirable: Passionate Mobility and Women’s Defiance of French Colonial Policing, 1919-1952 (2022, University of Chicago Press). Undesirable tells the virtually unknown history of hundreds of women in Southeast Asia (French Indochina) and West Africa (AOF) tracked by authorities because they were traveling alone and claiming Frenchness. Drawn from Cambodian, French, and Senegalese archives, Undesirable’s focus on how ordinary people react to being policed gives historical depth to pressing contemporary issues of migration and violence in France today and of similar reckonings on a global scale.

Boittin’s first book, Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris (2010, University of Nebraska Press) is an innovative, intersectional history of radical interwar politics. She has also published extensively on the Nardal sisters, Lamine Senghor, Tiémoko Garan Kouyaté, Black anti-imperialism, masculinity, Black and African diaspora, Josephine Baker, and women travelers. She is a Past President of the Western Society of French History, editor of French Colonial History, and founding member on the editorial committee for Marronnages, les questions raciales au crible des sciences sociales.

Fall 2025 HIST 81 001 Diaries, Memoirs, and Testimonies of the Holocaust TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

In ghettos and hiding places during the Holocaust, European Jews and other victims of Nazism recorded their experiences in diaries and other chronicles. Efforts to preserve individual histories continued after the war as survivors wrote memoirs and gave oral testimonies beginning in the earliest postwar years. In this course, students will read diaries, memoirs and literature as well as listen to oral histories to understand the history of the Holocaust through life narratives and to explore tensions between history and memory.

Karen Auerbach

Professor Karen Auerbach is assistant professor of history and Stuart E. Eizenstat Fellow in the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. She is the author of The House at Ujazdowskie 16: Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust (2013) and editor of Aftermath: Genocide, Memory and History (2015). Prior to arriving at UNC, she taught at universities in Australia and England as well as at Virginia Tech and Brown University. She has lived for extended periods in Poland, where she was based at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw

Fall 2025 HIST 89 001 Food in U.S. History MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This seminar explores food as both a historical object and a lens for examining power, inequality, and migration in U.S. history. We’ll trace food’s role from the Columbian Exchange to the early 20th century, analyzing how settler colonialism, slavery, and urbanization shaped food markets and labor. Through primary sources and historical scholarship, we’ll examine immigrant foodways, racial and gendered consumption, and the political economy of food. By the course’s end, students will understand how food has functioned as both a tool of oppression and empowerment and how it helps recover the histories of marginalized communities.

Heather Lee

Heather Ruth Lee is a historian of Asian American history with expertise at the intersection of immigration, law and policy, and digital methods. Her research examines the fundamental role of legal status in shaping race and ethnicity in the United States, revealing how immigration policies structured the lives of both documented and undocumented migrants. Using both quantitative data and archival sources, she uncovers historical patterns in transnational migration and the strategies migrants used to navigate legal barriers. Her work highlights how interracial encounters—particularly between Asians and Whites—shaped broader race relations and drove social, cultural, and political transformations.

Fall 2025 HIST 89 002 Global History of Food TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

What does it mean to study food history, and how do we approach it from a global perspective? The world of food (and the food of the world) is a huge subject, and the focus in this class will be on historical texts and topics (as opposed to contemporary food issues), and on global examples (with an emphasis on non-Western regions, including Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East). Class topics will center on three major themes: Food as Identity (Nation, Gender, Memory, Diaspora), Food as Value (Taste, Commodity, Feasting, Famine); Food in its Modern Forms (Industrialization, Consumption, Globalization). The course emphasis will be on giving students the opportunity to practice fundamental skills of historical methodology (written primary and secondary source analysis), and using what they have learned for a creative final project presentation, based on an oral history interview.

Michelle King

Michelle King is an Associate Professor of History, specializing in modern Chinese gender and food history. She is the editor of Culinary Nationalism in Asia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and a special issue on Chinese culinary regionalism in Global Food History (Summer 2020). Her latest research project focuses on the career of Taiwan’s beloved cooking celebrity, Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004), for which she was awarded a NEH Public Scholars Fellowship. She had the best bowl of noodles in her life twenty-five years ago at a nameless farmstead in rural Hunan province and has been seeking its equal ever since.

Fall 2025 IDST 89 001 The Way of Medicine T 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

This seminar will discuss and explore how health should be defined and various classical and contemporary views of medical practice. Ethical controversies in modern medicine will be discused and anlayzed.

John Thorp

I am the McAllister Distinguished Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine and have practiced clinical medicine since 1983 in Chapel Hill. My research interests include clinical epidemiology, biomedical ethics, perinatal substance abuse, and preterm birth.

Fall 2025 LING 89 001 Decipherment of Ancient Scripts MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

The seminar deals with the origin and evolution of writing systems; the methods for deciphering ancient scripts and studying contemporary scripts; and the socio-cultural and linguistic underpinnings of literacy in the ancient and contemporary worlds. Students will study and analyze, through a series of workshops and group projects, the early Sumerian, Egyptian, Harappan, Chinese and Mesoamerican writing systems—the five writing systems that account for much of the diversity of scripts known today. These are all non-alphabetic scripts, and studying them offers insights into the cognitive processes involved in the origin and evolution of writing, the relationship between script and image, and between script and language, and the challenges of learning to read and write in any writing system. Students will use group and individual projects emphasizing linguistic methodologies to study a variety of undeciphered (or partly deciphered) scripts such as Etruscan (Italy), Cretan Hieroglyphic (Crete), Linear A (Crete), Rongorongo (Easter Island), Zapotec (Oaxaca Valley, Mexico), Olmec (Veracruz, Mexico), Harappan (India), Khipu (Peru) and the increasingly visual and pictorial multimedia literacy strategies of the contemporary world.

David Mora-Marin

David Mora-Marin is a linguistic anthropologist who specializes in historical linguistics and writing systems. He focuses on the study of the contemporary and ancient indigenous languages of Mexico and Central America. His goal is to utilize linguistic data to better understand the history of their speakers (e.g. migrations, contacts with speakers of other languages, social and political changes, economic development), as well as the nature of language itself (i.e. how languages are structured and why they change). Mora-Marin studies three of the thirteen or so Mesoamerican scripts: Olmec, Epi-Olmec and Mayan. He has also carried out field projects in Oaxaca and Yucatan (Mexico) to document contemporary indigenous languages.

Fall 2025 LTAM 52 001 The Cuban Revolution, Latin America, and the United States T 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM

This course will examine facets of one of the transcendental events of the twentieth century in Latin America. Under the auspices of la revolución, Cubans embarked upon an ambitious revolutionary project. Virtually all previously existing national institutions were abolished, modified, or otherwise reorganized in the service of an egalitarian project inscribed into the claim of national sovereignty and self-determination.

The seminar will focus on the origins and development of the Cuban revolution, spanning the years of the insurrectionary war of the 1950s through the present. The seminar will direct attention to in-depth analyses of the salient facets of the Cuban experience of the past fifty years–including the context of social change, relations between Cuba and the United States, the role played by Fidel Castro, change and changelessness in gender and race relations, and the impact of the Cuban revolution in Latin America and the world–all through multi-disciplinary perspectives as a way to arrive at a deeper understanding of the multiple and interacting facets of the revolution.

This course has several objectives. First, it seeks to promote the development of knowledge of the complexities of the Cuban revolution, including the antecedents and sources of the revolution, the “whys” and the “hows” of the revolution, the personalities and the policies, the cultural context and political setting of change, and the complicated relationship between Cuba and the United States.

The seminar is also designed to promote skills for the evaluation of conflicting arguments and assessment of multi-disciplinary perspectives, with particular attention given to issues of evidence, disciplinary diversity, and the character of sources. It seeks to develop awareness of the process of critical interpretation and the means with which to make judgments on the Cuban revolution as a transcendental event of twentieth-century Latin America.

But more than the acquisition of specific knowledge relating to Cuba and the Cuban revolution, students will be encouraged to “think through” controversy, to develop analytical frameworks within which to evaluate competing–and often conflicting–claims, and most of all to develop the skills of critical thinking as a method with which to take measure of issues–often controversial issues–that matter.

Emphasis will also be given to the practice of formal writing: the experience of preparing a coherent narrative to convey ideas, render judgments, and craft arguments and to develop the skills necessary for clarity and cogency.

Students will be asked to prepare analytical written assessments of the assigned readings and to engage in thoughtful and respectful discussion and debate in a seminar environment. This implies skills related to the evaluation of information–including scholarly texts, biography, novels, and film–and the formulation of arguments based on newly-acquired knowledge. It involves also a critical reading and formulation of arguments and points of view.

Louis Pérez

Principal research interests center on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Caribbean, with emphasis on Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Current research explores the character of society and gender in nineteenth-century Cuba.

Fall 2025 MATH 231 01F MATH 231-626 Calculus of Functions of One Variable I MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

Math 231 is designed to provide a detailed introduction to the fundamental ideas of calculus. It does not assume any prior calculus knowledge, but the student is expected to be proficient working with functions and their graphs as well as manipulating variable expressions and solving equations using algebra. Students may not receive credit for both MATH 231 and MATH 241.

This is the Honors section of Math 231. It offers a more demanding and deeper treatment than the regular sections as well as more involved applications. There will be more emphasis on understanding theory than in other sections, and students will be expected to understand and reproduce proofs of theorems and formulas. In addition, this section will cover extra topics. Applications will be more involved and will sometimes involve real data. Homework will be more challenging, with more emphasis on creative problem solving and less emphasis on drill. Students will be expected to complete a final project.

Richard McLaughlin
Fall 2025 MUSC 120 01F Foundations in Music TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

If you are planning on majoring or minoring in music: this course is designed to open up the pathways in music at Carolina for you. It’s an introduction to the different approaches to thinking about and doing music–whether you’re an active performer, an electronic music fiend, a budding music researcher, an entrepreneurial arts administrator in the making…or more! Our classroom meetings expose students to a range of ways to “think about music,” emphasizing the breadth of routes music and sound take through human lives. As a foundational component of the music major and minor, the course emphasizes a range of genres of music making and fosters curious listening. Sometimes we’ll be challenged to think differently about very familiar sounds, sometimes challenged to connect to music very different from that we feel as ours. Expect to leave the semester with a new sense of what music can be for you at Carolina.

Naomi André

Dr. Naomi André (David G. Frey Distinguished Professor) received her B.A. in music from Barnard College and M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University. She was previously a professor at the University of Michigan in the Departments of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Residential College.

Dr. André's research focuses on opera and issues surrounding gender, voice, and race. Her publications include topics on Italian opera, Schoenberg, women composers, and teaching opera in prisons. Her books, including, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (2006) and Blackness in Opera (2012, co-edited collection) focus on opera from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and explore constructions of gender, race and identity. African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021, co-edited collection) focuses on how performance and the arts shape the narratives of cultural history and politics on the African continent. Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (2018) is a monograph on staging race and history in opera today in the United States and South Africa. She has served on the Graduate Alumni Council for Harvard University's Graduate School of Art and Sciences, the Executive Committee for the Criminal Justice Program at the American Friends Service Committee (Ann Arbor, MI), and has served as an evaluator for the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program.

In 2019, Dr. André was named the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera which has continued to the present. In her role, she advises Seattle Opera staff and leadership on matters of race and gender in opera; consults in artistic planning as it relates to representation of race and gender; and participates in company panel discussions, podcast recordings, and contributes essays to opera programs. She has continued to work with major and regional opera companies through panels, short residencies, and program essays.

In addition, Dr. André has worked with every major opera company in the United States and many regional opera companies and festivals. This summer she is a scholar-in-residence for the Des Moines Metro Opera. She has written program essays for recordings of Blue (CD, Tesori and Thompson, 2022) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (DVD Blanchard and Lemmons 2022). On February 4, 2022 she testified before the Committee on the Judiciary as a Witness for House Resolution 301 hearing (Examining the History and Importance of Lift Every Voice and Sing to become a National Hymn (sponsored by Congressman James E. Clyburn, South Carolina).

Fall 2025 MUSC 63 001 Music on Stage and Screen TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This seminar is designed to offer students the tools and techniques for understanding multi-media, staged musical works like opera, musical theater, and film. The goal of the seminar is to develop students’ analytical skills in verbal and non-verbal media and to encourage their visualization of the potential and implications of artistic forms and structures. No ability to read music is required. We will discuss musical, visual, and textual narratives, source materials, and the various means by which such multi-media artworks are transmitted to modern audiences.

Anne MacNeil

Anne MacNeil holds a PhD in the History & Theory of Music from the University of Chicago and a Master's Degree from the Eastman School of Music. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and the Authority of Record at the Library of Congress on the Renaissance commedia dell'arte actress Isabella Andreini. Prof. MacNeil is also a founding directory of IDEA: Isabella d'Este Archive, an international research consortium that studies the music and culture of Renaissance Italy through the lens of the marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539).

Fall 2025 MUSC 89 001 Songs of the Slave: The History of the African American Spiritual TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Born out of the oppressions of slavery, the spiritual is a folk song created by Africans forcibly brought to America and enslaved for 250 years. Spirituals were created through the combination of African melodies, rhythms, and performance practices with the influences of European Christian Hymnody. The Library of Congress has collected over 6,000 of these melodies. They contain themes of suffering, hope, rebellion, and longing. They tell the story of Africans in America through song and has become the catalyst through which all “American Music” was born. This course will examine and chronicle the origin and performance practice of the Negro Spiritual, it’s presence throughout American History and its influences on Contemporary American Music.

LaToya Lain

Applauded for her "wonderfully rich," "powerful," and "captivating" voice, American singer LaToya Lain, a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, studied voice at the University of Cincinnati - College Conservatory of Music, Florida State University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Before joining the voice faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Lain served on the voice faculties of Central Michigan University, New York University, and Oakwood University. Equally at home in the teaching studio and on the performance stage, LaToya continues to perform solo recitals, oratorio, and opera worldwide. She is currently a member of the star-studded cast of Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Dr. Lain's research includes the intensive study and performance practice of Negro Spirituals. She has performed her lecture recital "Narrative of a Slave Woman: Songs of Hope, Justice, and Freedom" on concert stages and universities throughout the world. Consequently, she was one of 57 experts invited to author a short chapter in The Voice Teacher's Cookbook: Creative Recipes for Teachers of Singing, as part of a series addressed to various groups of musicians. Her chapter is called "Delectable Diction and Dialect in the Negro Spiritual" and it was published this summer by Meredith Music Resources.

Fall 2025 NURS 89 001 Navigating and Advocating for your Wellness TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Healthcare systems are responsible for fostering the competence and safety of practitioners. Patients and families are integral members of the healthcare team. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that individuals possess the necessary knowledge and skills to navigate the complex healthcare system and advocate for high-quality and safe healthcare to ensure their optimal well-being.

Navigating and Advocating for your Wellness is a dynamic and interactive freshman seminar course designed to empower students with the knowledge and skills to become actively engaged participants in their own health and healthcare. Through a combination of expert guest speakers, real-world case studies, and hands-on learning activities, students will explore the principles of patient engagement, the dynamics of the healthcare system, and the critical role of effective communication in healthcare interactions.

Maureen Baker

Dr. Baker, a Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, is deeply dedicated to education and inspiring the next generation of nurses. Holding a position as an Apple Distinguished Educator, she spearheads the UNC SON EmpowerEd program, utilizing iPads to enhance nursing education, foster student engagement, and promote scholarly productivity. Her research areas focus on patient engagement and innovation within nursing education.

Driven by a commitment to patient safety, Dr. Baker has redirected her attention from nurses to future patients. Her goal is to equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the healthcare system effectively, contributing to the development of a robust culture of safety in healthcare. In her teaching approach, students can anticipate being challenged to employ innovative strategies, fostering both learning and the adoption of critical life skills.

Fall 2025 PHIL 51 001 Who Was Socrates? TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The historical Socrates did not write any philosophical works; instead, he engaged in philosophy through conversation. Yet, he made such a profound impression on some of his Athenian contemporaries that other philosophers wrote dialogues featuring him as the main character. Plato portrays Socrates defending the view that the unexamined life is not worth living, that no one voluntarily chooses to do wrong, that suffering injustice is worse than committing it, that all wrongdoing arises from ignorance, and that goodness amounts to wisdom. These views have been among the most influential—and, at times, the most controversial—in the history of philosophy. Even today, some philosophers agree with them, while others reject them. In this course, we will explore Socrates’ philosophical method and the philosophical theses attributed to him. Our goal will be to critically examine Socratic philosophy: Is Socrates right? What arguments does he offer in support of his views? What further arguments could be made in favor of or against them? This course will focus on developing philosophical skills through engagement with Socratic philosophy, while also addressing questions of enduring importance for how to live a good life.

Patricia Marechal

Patricia Marechal obtained her PhD from Harvard University in 2018. She specializes in Classical Greek philosophy, with a focus on ancient theories of the soul. Her research interests include ethics, moral psychology, and epistemology in the works of Plato and Aristotle. In her work, she explores the connection between affective states and intellectual capabilities, types of human motivation, and the extent to which ancient moral psychological models are shaped by the recognition that we are social beings by nature. She has also written about philosophical conceptions of non-human animals in Antiquity, the history of vegetarianism, and Greco-Roman medicine, particularly Galen’s views on philosophy of mind and teleology.

Fall 2025 PHIL 85 001 Reason, Religion, and Reality in the Copernican Revolution TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

The reasoning by which Galileo and his contemporaries defended the Copernican model of the solar system (the “heliocentric” model – that is, with the Earth orbiting the Sun rather than the Sun orbiting the Earth) can puzzle us even today. Here are a few of the questions that we could ask about the reasoning given by Copernicus, Galileo, and their contemporaries. Did Copernicus’s arguments support the heliocentric model strongly enough to justify believing it true? Or was it unjustified until Galileo amassed telescopic evidence for it? Or was it unjustified until even later – when Newtonian physics was developed? Or did it remain unjustified until even later – when various mechanical and optical discoveries were made in the nineteenth century? Was the Catholic Church justified at the time of Galileo in regarding Copernicus’s theory as just one among many fairly successful techniques for predicting the night sky’s appearance? Did Galileo bring his sentence (at his famous – and notorious – trial) on himself? Could Galileo argue persuasively for his telescope’s reliability? Could Galileo use mere “thought-experiments” (as opposed to actual experiments) to defend Copernicanism? In this course, we will grapple with these and related questions in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the logic by which scientific theories in general are tested and, ultimately, justified. We will also try to use this historical episode to understand better how political, social, and cultural factors can influence the reception of a scientific theory – even today! We will learn some of the means by which the biases and presuppositions introduced by these factors were overcome (eventually) in the Copernican Revolution, and we will apply some of these lessons to current science. At various points during our discussions, each student will submit in written form his or her own best reconstructions of some of the arguments that were given for or against the Copernican model. In other words, each student will offer his or her best advice regarding how a given scientist might have argued for or against Copernicanism, anticipating possible objections and responses. Students will occasionally form groups to examine and to critique one another’s proposals, with each group finally presenting its best thoughts orally to the rest of the class for further discussion. Students will, in effect, be putting Galileo on trial once again – not for heresy or for disobeying authority, but for having convincing or for having insufficient evidence for his Copernicanism. In all of these ways, students will learn how to appreciate sympathetically the competing astronomical theories from the perspective of the 16th and 17th centuries, when the truth was in some doubt. Along the way, students will wrestle with some of the puzzles and apparent paradoxes arising even from today’s best philosophical accounts of the logic of theory testing in science. No previous background in science will be assumed. Students will not need to purchase any books.

Marc Lange

Marc Lange is Theda Perdue Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He specializes in the philosophy of science and related areas of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mathematics, along with the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of biology. He won UNC's 2016 Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction and a Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. (For a brief sample of his teaching, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SKmqh5Eu4Y)

Fall 2025 PHIL 86 001 Persons and Identity MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

You are different now from how you were ten years ago; but still you are one and the same person, who underwent those changes. (You weren’t replaced by an imposter.) What makes you the particular person you are, and the same person as the youth you used to be? What kind of thing is a person, that it can maintain its identity even through such changes? Are we identical to our life stories? Is the idea of a persisting self just an illusion? What would it take for a person to stop existing? Do you have an immortal soul that could survive the death of your human body? Or are you identical to your body? Might it be possible to survive the death of your body by having your brain, or the information in your brain, transplanted into a new body? or into a computer network? Might amnesia or dementia amount to one person’s ceasing and being replaced by another? Would teleportation like they use in Star Trek be a fast means for you to travel — or would that be another way for you to cease to exist and be replaced by a perfect copy? Why do we take special interest in our own continued existence as persons, moreso than the continued existence of people similar to us, or who will push forward our projects? Should we?

Jim Pryor

Jim Pryor joined the philosophy department in 2020. Before that, he spent time at NYU, Harvard, and Princeton. His research and teaching spans epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. Issues he has focused on include: perception, evidence, belief, and confidence; our knowledge of our own minds; persons, memory, and the nature of the self; mistaken identity; and issues at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and computer science.

Fall 2025 PHIL 89 001 Identity in African American Philosophy TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

In this discussion-focused First Year Seminar, we will closely read influential texts by African American philosophers that engage with issues concerning identity. We will ask questions like: What types of identity, if any, do all Black people have in common? What is the relationship between Black identity and Black culture? What types of Black identity are necessary for Black political solidarity? We will consider Black feminist insights about how some identities lie at the intersection of multiple social groups.

Tom Dougherty

Tom Dougherty is a philosophy professor who researches and teaches ethics and political philosophy. They have written books on the ethics of consent. They are from the UK and previously worked at Stanford, Cambridge, and Sydney University.

Fall 2025 PHYS 118 01F PHYS 118-401. Note: The PHYS 118-01F lecture will be combined with other PHYS 118 lecture sections, and it will be taught as a large survey class. PHYS 118-401, the studio section associated with this class, is the FY Launch section. Please be sure to enroll in the lecture, PHYS 118-01F, and the corresponding studio, PHYS 118-401, to fulfill the FY-LAUNCH requirement. Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Muxin Zhang

Muxin Zhang received her PhD in Physics Education Research (PER) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 with Dr. Eric Kuo. Her thesis focused on analyzing cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of small group interactions in physics discussion sections and labs. She is particularly passionate about understanding the role of emotions in science education and scientific practices. She is currently teaching Physics 114 and Physics 118 courses at UNC-CH.

Fall 2025 PHYS 118H 01F PHYS 118H-401. Note: The PHYS 118-01F lecture will be combined with other PHYS 118 lecture sections, and it will be taught as a large survey class. PHYS 118H-401, the studio section associated with this class, is the FY Launch section. Please be sure to enroll in the lecture, PHYS 118H-01F, and the corresponding studio, PHYS 118H-401, to fulfill the FY-LAUNCH requirement. Introductory Calculus-based Mechanics and Relativity MWF 8:00 AM – 8:50 AM

Mechanics of particles and rigid bodies. Newton’s laws; mechanical and potential energy; mechanical conservation laws; frame-dependence of physical laws; Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Students may not receive credit for PHYS 118 in addition to PHYS 104, 114, or 116.

Muxin Zhang

Muxin Zhang received her PhD in Physics Education Research (PER) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 with Dr. Eric Kuo. Her thesis focused on analyzing cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of small group interactions in physics discussion sections and labs. She is particularly passionate about understanding the role of emotions in science education and scientific practices. She is currently teaching Physics 114 and Physics 118 courses at UNC-CH.

Fall 2025 PHYS 53 001 Handcrafting in the Nanoworld: Building Models and Manipulating Molecules TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This seminar provides a general introduction to nanoscience and nanotechnology, focusing on recent advances in molecular electronics, nanomaterials, and biomedical research. Course activities include group model-building projects, presentations, and discussions of reading material.

Fall 2025 PLAN 59 001 World's Fairs TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course introduces students to World’s Fairs in the US between 1893 and 1965 (1884 World Cotton Centennial, New Orleans; 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago; 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis; 1939 New York World’s Fair; 1962 Seattle World’s Fair; 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair). We will look at how ideas about cities and world’s fairs changed over time. We will also look at the role World’s Fairs played in: (1) promoting a city’s place in the US and the world, (2) addressing social issues, and (3) disseminating ideas about progress. We will learn about world’s fairs through documentaries (video/audio), texts, as well as examine memorabilia from each of the Fairs. Students will be responsible for participating in weekly discussions on readings and biweekly journal responses. Students will work on a group project on a world’s fair and present at the end of the semester. This project can use traditional means of presentations–such as PowerPoint and posters, or it could be a podcast (5 minutes), video, or some other media.

Alainna Thomas

Dr. Allie Thomas looks at how technology can be used to address both environmental sustainability and social equity within the transportation sector. She relies upon qualitative methods to investigate the phenomenon of how and why technologies are accepted or rejected She sometimes embeds herself in the planning context to learn where the process succeeds or breaks down. Her work has looked bus rapid transit adaption in China, electric bikes in San Francisco, and the use of ridehailing services across Generation X and millennials in the Southeastern US. She is currently working on understanding how transit agencies adapt cashless fare technologies.

Fall 2025 PLCY 55 001 Higher Education, the College Experience, and Public Policy MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Higher education is undergoing rapid transformations that may dramatically change the undergraduate college experience. In this course, you will examine urgent questions facing American colleges and universities. For example, why is the cost of college rising and what implications does this shift have for who attends and graduates from college? How well is higher education preparing students for jobs of the future? How has new technology reshaped the college experience, both academically and socially? How should universities respond to student needs and desires? What role should athletics play in higher education? We’ll explore these and other topics through class discussion, position papers, oral presentations and debates, and interactions with UNC faculty and staff. By introducing you to the history, institutions, and culture of higher education, this course also will help you transition into and make the most of your college experience.

Anna Krome-Lukens

Anna Krome-Lukens is a Teaching Assisant Professor and Director of Experiential Education in Public Policy. She completed her PhD in U.S. History at UNC-Chapel Hill, with research focused on the history of social welfare and public health policies. She developed her interest in pressing issues in higher education while she was in graduate school, through involvement in UNC’s graduate branch of student government, work in Undergraduate Retention, and service on several university-wide committees. As a member of the faculty, she continues to be involved in (and fascinated by) policy-making within the university.

Fall 2025 PLCY 61H 001 Policy Entrepreneurship and Public/Private/Non-Profit Partnerships MW 1:25 PM – 2:40 PM

This seminar will define a policy entrepreneur and examine strategies used by policy entrepreneurs to achieve policy change or innovation in the policy making process. This course also aims to explore ways that public, private, and non-profit sectors collaborate to address problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone. There is growing recognition that sustainable solutions to some of the most complex challenges confronting our communities can benefit from these collaborative or “intersector” approaches.

Daniel Gitterman

Daniel Gitterman is Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill. He also serves as Director of the Honors Seminar in Public Policy and Global Affairs (Washington, DC).

Fall 2025 PLCY 75 001 Debates in Public Policy and Racial Inequality TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course is designed to introduce students to debates about the impact of policies on inequalities in the United States. We will begin the class by reviewing work on inequalities more broadly. At the beginning of the semester, we will touch on topics like Black Lives Matter, historical oppression, systemic racism, and Whiteness. From there, we will move to investigate the use of education policy as a tool to maintain inequalities within the United States. We will tackle areas such as Indian boarding schools, the desegregation of schools, academic tracking, criminalization of Black and Brown students, and achievement testing.

Cassandra Davis

Dr. Cassandra Davis is a Research Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Within the last four years, Dr. Davis has held the role of principal investigator on five research evaluations, with the most recent of these projects focused on the impacts of hurricanes on schools, educators, and students in low-income communities. Dr. Davis has also collaborated with school districts to assist them with improving graduation rates of underrepresented groups, supporting students with learning differences, identifying opportunity and achievement gaps amongst students, assessing the quality of professional development training for school personnel, and investigating ways to engage parents. Dr. Davis’ areas of interest include education policy, the impact of natural disaster on schools and communities, program evaluation, qualitative research methods, and the social and historical context in education. Dr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in Education from UNC Chapel Hill.

Fall 2025 PLCY 76H 001 Global Health Policy MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Global health policy impacts the health and well being of individuals and peoples throughout the world. Many determinants of health operate at a global level, and many national policies, social practices, and individual health behaviors are structured by global forces. Concern for the spread of infectious diseases, increasing rates of chronic diseases and the effectiveness of health systems to provide quality care are among the daunting challenges to health policy makers.

With profound social, political and economic changes rapidly challenging global health, the aim of this course in Global Health Policy is to provide students with a variety of opportunities to understand the epidemiologic trends in world health, the institutions of global health governance, and the effects of globalization on global and national health policy.

This course provides an introduction to the relationship between international relations, global health policy and public health outcomes. The focus of this course will be on public policy approaches to global health, employing interdisciplinary methodologies to understand selected public health policies, programs, and interventions. Providing a foundation for responding to global health harms, this course will teach students how to apply policy analysis to a wide range of critical issues in global health determinants, interventions, and impacts.

Benjamin Meier

Professor Benjamin Meier's interdisciplinary research—at the intersection of international law, public policy, and global health—examines the human rights norms that underlie global health policy. In teaching UNC courses in Justice in Public Policy, Health & Human Rights, and Global Health Policy, Professor Meier has been awarded the 2011 William C. Friday Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2013 James M. Johnston Teaching Excellence Award, the 2015 Zachary Taylor Smith Distinguished Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching, and six straight annual awards for Best Teacher in Public Policy. He received his Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University, his J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Cornell Law School, and his B.A. in Biochemistry from Cornell University.

Fall 2025 PLCY 87 001 Education in a Multicultural Society TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

This course focuses on education in the multicultural society of the United States. Diversity has been at the center of the American educational story, as society has continued to struggle with competing goals of assimilation and diversity, opportunity, and competition. The American dream that promises a better life through education has played out unevenly for different groups. This course aims to help students develop new understandings of the role and nature of schools and teaching, as well as to construct alternative perspectives on and approaches to examining educational issues. It will study inequality in public education in a way that is place-based, featuring extended opportunities for engaged learning in and around UNC.

Simona Goldin

Dr. Simona Goldin is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy. Dr. Goldin has studied ways to transform the preparation of beginning teachers to teach in more racially just and equitable ways, and has elaborated the teaching practices that bridge children’s work in schools on academic content with their home and community-based experiences. Dr. Goldin holds a master’s degree in management and urban policy analysis from the New School University, and a Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Michigan.

Fall 2025 PLCY 79 001 Issues in Science and Technology Policy MWF 1:25 PM – 2:15 PM

Intended for first-year students of any major, this course explores the role of public policy in shaping the innovation ecosystem where new science and technology emerge and how governments, organizations, and communities influence their development. By looking at contemporary and international case studies, we will examine key issues in the governance of emerging technologies, their ethical dimensions, and the intersection of science with issues like climate change, public health, and national security. Students will develop an understanding of policy-making processes, stakeholder engagement, and the role of public and private institutions in shaping science and technology landscapes. The course will also provide practical insights into regulatory frameworks, international collaboration, and the trade-offs involved in balancing innovation with safety, ethics, and public interest.

Maria Carnovale

Maria Carnovale studies under what conditions technology maximizes well-being without negatively impacting individuals and communities and how policies can foster this process. She has written about the social and ethical implications of digital platforms, digital contact tracing, and more recently smart sanitation, among other topics. In her classes, Maria draws from her academic work as a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School or as a Visiting Associate at the University of Notre Dame, with practical insights from her non-profit experience. An avid writer, her work has been published on Slate, Issues and Zocalo, among other publications.

Fall 2025 POLI 100 01F American Democracy in Changing Times TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Why do Americans love democracy, but hate politics? Why are there only two political parties? Why do voters hate, yet respond to negative campaigning? This course will introduce students to politics in the United States, addressing these and many more questions about how American democracy works.

Jason Roberts
Fall 2025 POLI 130 01F Introduction to Comparative Politics TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available.

Caitlin Andrews-Lee

Caitlin Andrews-Lee is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She earned her Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining UNC, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Center for Inter-American Policy and Research and an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Caitlin’s research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political behavior, with an emphasis on charismatic leadership and followership in Latin America. She is the author of The Emergence and Revival of Charismatic Movements: Argentine Peronism and Venezuelan Chavismo (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which won the Leon Epstein Award (APSA) and the Social Sciences Award (LASA). Her research has also been published in journals including Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Democratization, Political Research Quarterly, and Journal of Politics in Latin America, among others.

Caitlin’s current project investigates the gendered nature of charismatic authority and explores under what conditions women can defy expectations and establish legitimacy as charismatic leaders.

Fall 2025 POLI 57 001 Democratic Governance in Contemporary Latin America TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Over the past forty years, Latin America has experienced the most prolonged and extensive period of democratic politics in its history. State power today is accessed through reasonably competitive and fair elections in many countries in the region, in contrast to past patterns of openly authoritarian rule. This democratic shift, though, has often been challenged by serious problems with political representation and the effective inclusion of citizens, and in some cases with more serious setbacks. The way power is practiced by those in power reflects historical continuities and new forms of corruption or other types of abuses of state resources, as well as various forms of populism. With important variations across the region, countries have struggled to respond effectively to the Covid-19 pandemic, and more broadly to provide citizen security, economic development and social inclusion.

Jonathan Hartlyn

Jonathan Hartlyn is the Kenneth J. Reckford Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up in Latin America, in Cuba, Mexico and Peru. He received his B.A. from Clark University, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. His research and teaching interests focus on the comparative politics of Latin America. He spent several months in Argentina in fall 2017 advancing on his current research on democratic governance in the region. He also has on-going research on constitutional change in Latin America and on the dynamics of executive approval. He has authored or co-authored dozens of articles and chapters on democratic transitions, gender and politics, migration and political parties, public opinion and institutional trust, and elections and electoral governance. His books include: The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia; The Struggle for Democratic Politics in the Dominican Republic; and the co-authored Latin America in the Twenty First Century: Toward a New Socio-Political Matrix. His publications have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German and Persian. He has served as an international election observer in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Venezuela.

Fall 2025 POLI 77 001 Immigrants and Refugees in World Politics TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

The movement of people across international borders is one of the most politically controversial issues in the world today. This class focuses on two different types of global migrants, immigrants and refugees, and explores why these two groups move out of their countries and how they are treated by receiving countries. Immigrants and refugees have traditionally been thought of as politically, legally and ethically different from each other and this class explores these differences, but it also explores the many ways that they are similar. Finally, the class explores a third type of global migrant that politicians and policy makers frequently promote, guest workers, and considers to what extent guest worker policies can effectively address the challenges and opportunities posed by the two other migrant groups. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Fall 2025 POLI 89 057 Political Issues in Europe Today TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Europe is facing numerous complex issues ranging from Brexit and populism to refugees and minority rights. A common thread running through many of its issues is the movement of people across national borders. This class examines an array of issues to explore how they affect, and are affected by, the politics in Europe, which are quite different from the politics in the United States. This class has two goals: 1) to give you a solid understanding of important issues affecting Europe today and comparing them to the U.S. so that you can contribute thoughtfully to discussions about them as a reader, writer and discussant; and 2) to introduce you to the many Europe-related faculty and resources at UNC if you want to explore this world region more deeply. This class encourages students from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to enroll because it benefits significantly from including such diversity.

Niklaus Steiner

Niklaus Steiner is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. He has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life and because of this experience, his teaching and research interests are around immigration, refugees, nationalism, and citizenship. His newest book, International Migration and Citizenship Today 2nd edition (Routledge, 2023), seeks to facilitate classroom discussions on admission and membership in liberal democracies. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Before joining the political science department in 2020, he enjoyed 22 deeply gratifying years working at UNC’s Center for Global Initiatives, the last 15 as the director. He is especially proud of the work he and many colleagues from across campus did to open access to global opportunities for students. In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC's oldest and highest honorary society. When not at work, Niklaus is often digging in the garden, hiking with his family or making something up in the kitchen.

Fall 2025 PSYC 101 01F General Psychology MWF 12:20 PM – 1:10 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Fall 2025 PSYC 101 02F General Psychology MWF 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM

PSYC 101 is a prerequisite for all psychology courses. A survey of major principles of psychology and an introduction to scientific modes of thought about behavior. Students participate in ongoing psychological research in the department.

Charlie Wiss
Fall 2025 PSYC 54 001 Families and Children TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

The goal of this first-year seminar course is to familiarize students with a range of topics associated with contemporary families, with a specific focus on familial influences on child and adolescent development. Also, given the increasing diversity among families in contemporary society, this course will increase knowledge of the various domains of diversity (i.e., developmental stage, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity) as well as help students be attuned to pertinent issues faced by these families. Select course topics include 1) demographic trends of families; 2) parenting and development; 3) sibling relationships; 4) cultural contexts of parenting and families; 5) media and technology; 6) neighborhood and community influences; and 7) youth civic engagement.

Shauna Cooper

Dr. Shauna M. Cooper is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on how social contexts and experiences shape development. Much of her research examines the family, school, and community contexts of development and youth well-being as well as how culture may shape parenting and family processes. Her research lab is the Strengths, Assets, and Resilience (StAR) Lab at UNC: thestarlab.org.

Fall 2025 PSYC 89 001 Talking about Numbers: Communicating Research Results to Others TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

How do you persuade others with numbers? What general principles should you think about when sharing data with others? What are the common biases and fallacies that we have in understanding numbers and statistics? How do you figure out if you should trust results from research studies reported in the media? This seminar introduces students to the many ways that data are reported to the public in our everyday lives-through advertising and media as well as scientific journal articles. Students in this course will create models in the BeAM spaces on campus that will help make abstract topics about numbers more concrete. Students will learn practical skills that will be useful in subsequent classes at Carolina and after graduation (e.g., in graduate school, in work, as a consumer, as a citizen).

Abigail Panter

Dr. Panter studies evaluation methodology, measurement and testing, advanced quantitative methods, survey methodology, evaluation of HIV/AIDS service and educational programs, substance abuse, educational diversity, and professional advancement educational programs.

Fall 2025 PWAD 89 015 September 11: Origins, Consequences, and Where Do We Go From Here TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

This first-year seminar will reflect upon the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, exploring how the terrorist attacks occurred and why the U.S. intelligence community and policymakers failed to anticipate and prevent them as well as the subsequent effects on the United States, the Middle East, and the world. The instructor, a former intelligence analyst, will lead students in discussions and in-class exercises to encourage critical analysis of the implications of terrorism, particularly on United States national security. A variety of assignments will require students to assess the causes and results of American national security decisions and alternative decisions that might have been made, supported with research and evidence.

Erinn Whitaker

Erinn Whitaker, a former senior analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and US State Department, is a Professor of the Practice for the Peace, War and Defense Curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With nearly 15 years of experience overseas and in Washington, teaches courses such as “Writing and Briefing for Intelligence,” “Comparative Intelligence Regimes,” and “Cases in Counter Intelligence,” helping students interested in careers ranging from intelligence to public policy to journalism strengthen their written and oral communication skills. Whitaker earned a BA from Middlebury College, where she spent a year studying Russia in Siberia, and a MA from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. She speaks German and Russian.

Fall 2025 JWST 56 001 GSLL 56-001 Germans, Jews, and the History of Anti-Semitism MWF 11:15 AM – 12:05 PM

This seminar offers first-year students an introduction to the German-Jewish experience and the history of anti-semitism in Germany, from early modernity to the present day. Students in this seminar will learn to analyze a variety of texts (both literary and philosophical), musical works, and films in relation to the history of Jews in German-speaking countries, and will be able to apply their knowledge to their analysis of present-day manifestations of antisemitism and xenophobia in Germany. The course has no requisites and presumes no prior knowledge of the subject matter.

Adi Nester

Adi Nester received her Ph.D. in German Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and holds additional degrees in Musicology and Piano Performance from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Southern California. She joined the department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures at UNC in fall 2020. Adi’s research focuses on German-Jewish Studies and the intersection of literature, music, theology, and politics in the cultures and traditions of German-speaking countries.

Fall 2025 JWST 70 001 ROML 70-001 Jewish Spain: History and Culture Across the Hispanic World TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Jewish life and civilization in Spain have been compared to a drama in which moments of cultural flourishing are mixed with tragedy and exile. This seminar explores the history and culture of the Golden Age of medieval Spanish Jewry, as well as how modern Hispanic cultures have interpreted and reimagined this historical past. We will interrogate how this fascination with Sephardic Jews overlaps with a variety of topics: national identity, anti-Semitism, liberal democracy, colonialism, exile, Holocaust memory, among others. Throughout this journey across time and space, we will think about the relevance of Sepharad, or Jewish Spain, to our present by working with a diverse group of cultural products that includes poetry, paintings, film, memoirs, and novels. The texts we will study come from numerous Hispanic cultures: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Adam Cohn

Adam Cohn specializes in modern Spanish literature, with a focus on the nexus of race, diaspora, and Judaism in early twentieth-century Spain. His current research project analyzes the relationship between liberal philosephardic thought and (anti-)colonialism in the Spanish novel. He is also interested in contemporary Jewish culture in Spain, Federico García Lorca, and Spanish Civil War literature. Adam holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and joined Carolina in fall 2023.

Fall 2025 RELI 63 001 The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been described as the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The first scrolls were discovered in 1947, in a cave near the site of Qumran by the Dead Sea. Eventually the remains of over 900 scrolls were found in 11 caves around Qumran. The scrolls date to the time of Jesus and include the earliest preserved copies of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). They were deposited in the caves by members of a Jewish sect called the Essenes who lived at Qumran. In this seminar, students explore the meaning and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls – and learn about broader issues such as how canons of sacred scripture developed among Jews and Christians – through classroom discussions, thought papers, and creative assignments.

Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism. Before coming to UNC–Chapel Hill in 2002, she taught at Tufts University for ten years. Professor Magness received her B.A. in Archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. She has participated on numerous excavations in Israel and Greece, and currently directs excavations at Huqoq in Israel. Professor Magness’ publications include a book entitled The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2021 [second edition]).

Fall 2025 RELI 64 001 Reintroducing Islam TR 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Students learn about Islam as a global, historical religious tradition and the dynamic interaction between religious ideas, practices, and debates on one hand and a variety of geographical and historical contexts on the other. The course takes as its starting point the assumption that every first year student has already been exposed to ideas about Islam and Muslims, usually in the form of religious, cultural and racialized othering, which means that the course has to respond to such preconceived notions that have shaped their worldviews. Students are challenged to consider both similar and dramatically different ways of learning, knowing, and perceiving the world by Muslims in past and present, thereby exposing them to alternative ways of knowing and nurturing at the very least an appreciation of the value of difference and understanding of a perceived other.

Youssef Carter

Youssef Carter is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Kenan Rifai Fellow in Islamic Studies. His research focuses on religious empowerment Afro-descendant Muslims. His current book project illuminates how Sufi epistemologies that emerge out of Senegal shape Black religious identities in the broader Atlantic, particularly in the American South and in West Africa.

Fall 2025 RELI 67 001 Nature/Culture/Self-Identity: Religion in the Construction of Social Life TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Beliefs about what a human being is—and isn’t—lie at the root of all religious traditions and also of secular ideologies. This course explores the ways that different religious and cultural communities have conceptualized human nature, and how those understandings are reflected in diverse forms of personal identity and ways of organizing public life. Readings will include historic and contemporary texts, and case studies from places including India, Nepal, and the USA. We will structure our inquiries around three thematic questions: (1) How do religious beliefs and practices shape the way that individuals and societies understand what it is to be human? (2) How do these beliefs manifest in seemingly unrelated areas of life such as personal aspirations, gender ideals, social structures, political institutions, and economic ideologies? (3) How do we know what we know about these things—i.e., what theories and methods do scholars use to understand other societies and also their own? This course also involves an experiential component that allows students to undertake original research.

Lauren Leve

Lauren Leve is an associate professor of Religious Studies. She has been living and working in Nepal since 1990; sometimes for a few weeks at a time, sometimes for a few years. Her research has also brought her to India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. She has published on topics including Buddhism, globalization, women’s empowerment, human rights, cultural heritage, and suffering. She is currently working on projects focused on Buddhist meditation and on gender, health, politics and the rise of Christianity in Nepal, and another that presents Himalayan Buddhism using virtual models and VR. Professor Leve is grateful to friends and strangers and around the world who have opened their lives to her and taught her to (try to) see things through their eyes. She reports that it can be disorienting at first, but that once you learn to learn from others’ perspectives, it’s both a super power and a source of joy!

Fall 2025 RELI 73H 001 From Dragons to Pokemon: Animals in Japanese Myth, Folklore, and Religion TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

This seminar examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion. We will discuss various kinds of animals: those that occur in the natural world, those that are found in myths and folklore, and those that have appeared in popular media such as animation. We will explore how images of various animals were culturally constructed as tricksters, gods, monsters, or anthropomorphic companions; how animals were ritualized as divine, demonic, or sentient beings in Buddhism, Shinto, and folk religion; and how animals could serve as metaphors that embodied collective ideals or anxieties. Most of our readings will focus on primary and secondary texts from the Japanese tradition (in English), but we will also read theoretical texts on human-animal relationships and historical studies on animals in the larger Asian context. We will also view and analyze Japanese films, both anime and documentaries, that deal with animals and environmental issues.

Barbara Ambros

Field of specialization: Religions of Asia. Research interests: Religions in early modern through contemporary Japan; gender studies; animal studies; place and space; and pilgrimage. Fun fact: she holds a fourth-degree black belt in Shotokan karate and serves as the faculty advisor for the UNC Shotokan Club.

Fall 2025 ROML 70 001 JWST 70-001 Jewish Spain: History and Culture Across the Hispanic World TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Jewish life and civilization in Spain have been compared to a drama in which moments of cultural flourishing are mixed with tragedy and exile. This seminar explores the history and culture of the Golden Age of medieval Spanish Jewry, as well as how modern Hispanic cultures have interpreted and reimagined this historical past. We will interrogate how this fascination with Sephardic Jews overlaps with a variety of topics: national identity, anti-Semitism, liberal democracy, colonialism, exile, Holocaust memory, among others. Throughout this journey across time and space, we will think about the relevance of Sepharad, or Jewish Spain, to our present by working with a diverse group of cultural products that includes poetry, paintings, film, memoirs, and novels. The texts we will study come from numerous Hispanic cultures: Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Adam Cohn

Adam Cohn specializes in modern Spanish literature, with a focus on the nexus of race, diaspora, and Judaism in early twentieth-century Spain. His current research project analyzes the relationship between liberal philosephardic thought and (anti-)colonialism in the Spanish novel. He is also interested in contemporary Jewish culture in Spain, Federico García Lorca, and Spanish Civil War literature. Adam holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and joined Carolina in fall 2023.

Fall 2025 SCLL 85 001 What Does it Mean to be a Good Citizen? TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

What, if any, responsibilities accompany democratic citizenship? Voting? Active participation in politics? Obeying laws? Volunteering in one’s community? Preserving natural resources for future generations? Adhering to certain values? Protesting unjust laws? This course offers an overview of the different ways in which Americans have answered these questions.

Nora Hanagan

Professor Nora Hanagan studies political ideas. She is particularly interested in the ideas that have animated American politics and history. She also researches different approaches to environmental and food politics. Her book, Democratic Responsibility: The Politics of Many Hands in America, examines whether individuals bear responsibility for harms that are caused by social institutions and processes. When she isn’t chasing her young children around, she likes gardening and hiking.

Fall 2025 SOCI 71 001 The Pursuit of Happiness TR 9:30 AM – 10:45 AM

Happiness is a fundamental goal in many societies, despite being elusive for many people. In recent years, social scientists have become increasingly interested in the subject of happiness and its causes and consequences. Sociologists, economists, political scientists, geographers, and psychologists have joined with philosophers in studying the nature of happiness and subjective well-being and its relationship to social life. This course will provide an overview of how these different disciplines study happiness. We will examine the interplay between individual and social happiness by considering the nature and meaning of happiness in the contemporary United States and in other countries. We will seek to answer questions such as: What is happiness? Can we measure happiness, and if so, how? Does happiness vary among diverse groups (racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, and social class groups)? How does happiness differ among cultures and nations? What is the relationship between biology and happiness? Between psychology and happiness? Does money buy happiness? What is (and should be) the role of happiness in formulating public policies? We will address these and other questions by reading books and articles; by class discussions and debates; by viewing films; by interviewing people; and by collecting information using the Internet and other sources.

Arne Kalleberg

Dr. Arne Kalleberg is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has Adjunct Professorships in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Department of Public Policy, and the Curriculum in Global Studies. He received his BA from Brooklyn College and his MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published extensively on topics related to the sociology of work, organizations, occupations and industries, labor markets, and social stratification. He served as Secretary of the American Sociological Association from 2001-2004 and as its President in 2007-2008. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Social Forces, an International Journal of Social Research.

Fall 2025 SOCI 89H 001 Poverty, Inequality, and the American Dream TR 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM

What does it mean to live in poverty in the “land of plenty” and experience inequality in the “land of opportunity?” Why is the “American Dream” more attainable for some people than it is others? This FY-S will use a sociological perspective to explore these questions and more. We will cover a wide range of topics as they relate to poverty and inequality, including perceptions, measurement, causes, and consequences as well as different domains (e.g., housing, education, the labor market, the criminal legal system, etc.) and how they serve as inequality mechanisms. We will also discuss the significance of history and place as well as highlight different axes of inequality (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, disability). Ultimately, this course aims to advance understanding of poverty and inequality in America, and in doing so, highlight why the American Dream is difficult (and becoming increasingly so) for some individuals and families to attain.

Regina Baker

Regina S. Baker is an Associate Professor of Sociology. Prior to joining UNC-CH in 2023, she was previously an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research seeks to understand the factors that shape socioeconomic conditions and disparities across people, places, and time. Her current research areas include poverty and poverty risks across children and families, historical and institutional mechanisms of inequality, and racial and place-based disparities in socioeconomic and health outcomes. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Duke University, Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia, and Bachelors in Sociology from Mercer University.

Fall 2025 WGST 89 001 Reproductive Justice MW 3:35 PM – 4:50 PM

This first year seminar introduces students to the collection of concepts, research, and activist strategies now known as “reproductive justice” – the stigma-free right and ability of everyone to have and raise the children they want and not to have the children they do not want. We will also study the difficulties of and past and current opposition to this perspective. We will discuss and evaluate debates about reproduction-related laws, technologies, and health as we consider the language, assumptions, evidence, and consequences of stances taken in different sites, at different historical moments, and by different stakeholders – including ourselves — in both biological and social reproduction. We will consider the U.S. case in relation to debates within and policies from international organizations and transnational social movements. Students will do research and give presentations on a topic or debate not studied in class. There is no pre-requisite for this course other than an interest in the social meanings and contexts of reproduction, an openness to different perspectives, and a willingness to be an active and respectful participant in your own and your peers’ education.

Karen Booth

Reproductive health and justice are my passion! I have been teaching and writing about reproductive health in the U.S. and internationally for 28 years but never has the topic been more urgent and relevant than it is now. My award-winning teaching is multi-disciplinary, intersectional, policy-relevant, and practical. My research has focused on HIV/AIDS in relation to reproductive. health and politics in Kenya, the U.S., and at the World Health Organization. I also write about medical ethics, news media, and pedagogy.

Fall 2025 ROML 89 002 Wonder and Energy in Science Fiction TR 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

This course is dedicated to the following, twinning questions: 1) How do we define energy in the literary humanities and 2) What is the ecological value of science fiction (SF)? We will answer these questions by turning to the history of French and francophone SF literature and media, calling on French philosophy and contemporary theory from a diversity of fields—including art history, anthropology, and cosmology—for supplement. Beginning with Cyrano de Bergerac’s proto SF, we will move through Jules Vernes’s scientific romance, Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s symbolism, Maurice Renard’s SF about invisible aerial aliens, Raymond Queneau’s surrealist anticipation of the new novel, Monique Wittig’s queer apocalypticism, countercultural comics, Ahmed Bouanani’s biohorror, and Marie NDiaye’s postcolonial fantastic, before concluding with Marie Darrieussecq’s SF about cloning. Along the way, we will watch SF from the history of French cinema, from Georges Méliès’s famous trip to the moon to Palme d’Or-winner Julia Ducournau’s recent Titane. Throughout the semester, we will remain attentive to questions of poetics, asking if, and if so, how and why SF generates a sense of wonder. Finally, then, what can this sense of wonder teach us about the energy crisis facing our planet today?

Sean Singh Matharoo

Sean Singh Matharoo is a transdisciplinary scholar of French- and English-language speculative literature, media, and philosophy, which he studies in the contexts of postcolonial studies, the energy humanities, and performance studies. As an alumnus of the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity, he is updating his doctoral thesis into a book, which is provisionally titled Solar Energology: Reading the Damned Poetics of a Dying Earth. Matharoo’s research responds to the Anthropocenic energy crisis and the need to transition to alternative energy sources by studying how literature, media, and philosophy contribute to the decolonization of petroculture by impelling us to find, in language, the gift of solar-powered futures. Important to this project is a theoretical framework whose possibility conditions include: 1) Alexandre Kojève's later concept of “energology,” or the study of the mediation between the dialectic of ontology and phenomenology; 2) Georges Bataille's solar economy; 3) Claude Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology; and, 4) the vitalist-structuralist pluralism of francophone Belgian science-fiction author J.-H. Rosny aîné’s Les sciences et le pluralisme (1922), which he is translating into English.

Matharoo is also a noise musician whose collaborative pieces about the environment may be understood to problematize the presupposition of colonial-racial divisions in thinking and being.

He is Book Review Assistant Editor for Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, a lab affiliate with Energy Lab Today at Georgia Tech, and is a partner/collaborator with Vision Inclusive.

Fall 2025 SOCI 89 001 Gender Equity in STEM TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

Although women now attend and graduate from college at a higher rate than men, they remain underrepresented in STEM majors and careers in the US. This course explores the causes and consequences of why women – and other gender minority individuals – are less likely to pursue education and careers in the STEM fields. To do so, we will draw on sociological insights from the study of gender, education, work and occupations, and science and technology studies. Throughout the course, students will engage with social science research as well as contemporary news articles, films, and podcasts on these topics. They will also have the opportunity to meet experts who actively work on promoting diversity in STEM as well as established women and other gender minority individuals who have pursued STEM careers. This course is open to students of all backgrounds, majors, and genders.

Lauren Valentino

Dr. Lauren Valentino is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Ohio State University, and a postdoctoral associate at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Duke University, a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Bachelors degree in Sociology and French Studies from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Her National Science Foundation-funded research has examined reasons for the gender gap in STEM at the undergraduate level, using longitudinal data from public school students in North Carolina. Based on this research, Dr. Valentino has co-founded an intervention program for local public school students in the Triangle that aims to connect undergraduate mentors to STEM-interested middle schoolers. She has earned a Certificate in College Teaching and is the recipient of a teaching award for excellence in undergraduate instruction. You can read more about Dr. Valentino, her latest research, and her teaching accolades at her website: www.laurenvalentino.org.

Fall 2025 MUSC 89 001 Music and Incarceration in the United States TR 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This course explores the place of music within the carceral system of the United States, particularly since the early 20th century. Among the questions that guide course content and discussion are the following: How do incarcerated people claim and reclaim their humanity through music? What are the arguments for and against facilitating music-making in carceral spaces? How have incarcerated musicians and their music been represented in scholarship and by the media? What ethical challenges and considerations face those who facilitate or study music in prisons? The seminar will examine a variety of musical genres and combine historical and ethnographic approaches. Throughout the course students will engage with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated musicians.

Mark Katz

Mark Katz is John P. Barker Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His books include Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music, Build: The Power of Hip Hop Diplomacy in a Divided World, Music and Technology: A Very Short Introduction, and Rap and Redemption on Death Row (co-authored with incarcerated musician Alim Braxton). He was the 2016 recipient of the Royal Musical Association’s Dent Medal for his contributions to musicology and is currently at work on a third edition of Capturing Sound.

Fall 2025 SCLL 89 001 Human Being and Citizen TTH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM

How shall we live together? Humans are unique among living creatures in that we cannot live solitary lives by ourselves, yet we also have no fixed method of organization. It thus remains an open question how we will organize our common life. To answer it, we need to ask whether there is any conflict between the life of a good person and a good citizen. We must weigh tradeoffs between liberty, justice, and stability. In this course, we enter into “the great conversation,” in which political thinkers for more than two millennia have debated these questions with each other.

TBD
Fall 2025 SCLL 89 002 What is a University For? MWF 10:10 AM – 11:00 AM

This seminar considers the purpose and history of the university and different conceptions of liberal learning. Is the university primarily a place? An idea? A community of students and teachers? Focusing mainly on the development of higher education in the United States, we will debate the relationship between the university and democracy, the difference between academic study and professional training, and competing understandings of intellectual liberty and free expression.

Jose Maria Andres Porras

Jose Maria Andres Porras is an assistant professor with extensive knowledge of the intellectual, cultural and social history of Western Europe in the late Middle Ages. At the University of Oxford, he focused his research efforts on how natural philosophy, medicine, theology and political thought shaped conceptions of human personhood and society. Porras received a doctorate from Oxford University. 

Fall 2025 SCLL 89 003 American Politics and Literature TTH 3:30 PM – 4:45 PM

This course explores the links between politics and literature in America, focusing on the way in which fiction is able to provide a unique view of politics. The course will look at American short stories, poems, films, and novels in roughly chronological order, examining how the political and social concerns of each era are expressed its literature. Throughout, we will address questions including: Is there a uniquely American mode of literary expression, and what does that say about the American character? How can literature serve as a commentary on or intervention into politics? Does doing so compromise its status as art? Can literature give us insight into politics that theoretical treatises, journalism, and other historical documents cannot? What are the limits of understanding politics through literature?

TBD
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