ART 204: Digital Photography Workshop
Instructor: Danny Jauregui
3 Credits
Satisfies the COM 3 Lib Ed requirement
This course will acquaint students with the fundamentals of Digital Photography including traditional and experimental uses of Adobe Photoshop. Emphasis will be placed on visual communication of ideas through the medium of digital photography. Instruction will cover topics such as manual camera operations, basic image correction, digital image manipulation, and will also cover fundamentals of composition and 2-D image organization. The assignments will include consideration of the cultural/political impact of digital manipulation, the relationship between subject and photographer, and the historical implications of photographic objectification.
BSAD 190: Design Your Own Business
Instructor: Kristen Smirnov
3 Credits
How do pop-up stores draw consumers' attention during their limited lifespan? Do you make snap judgments after visiting a website for the first time? In a world where Amazon reliably offers cheaper books, how has Barnes & Noble stuck around? The design of a store or website shapes our opinions about that business. It signals who the store is for, what sort of products they offer, and the experience you'll get inside. It can even offer unique features that make you want to go to that business more! In this class, you'll put on your walking shoes, fire up your browsing fingers, and visit real in-person and online businesses to analyze their design choices. By the end, you'll propose your own ideas for a business design.
BSAD 290: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Instructor: Setayesh Sattari
3 Credits
This course focuses on the foundations of innovation and entrepreneurship and is designed to introduce students to the innovative entrepreneurial process and help students expand their innovative thinking skills. This course allows them to gain an understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship by the act of doing. Accordingly, the course includes experiential entrepreneurship-related activities where they work in a group to test ideas, practice entrepreneurship, and develop a business plan. This course is open for students in any discipline and not limited to the business administration majors. It will help students in various majors understand how they can develop an idea in their discipline into a business plan.
BSAD 309/INTD 309: Finance and the Brain
Instructor: Fatos Radoniqi
4 Credits
Satisfies CON 2 Lib Ed requirement
This course explores how individuals make financial decisions. We study how to minimize financial decision-making errors by examining various psychological biases that we are susceptible to. Biases and simplifying "rules of thumb" are ever present in our real‐life decisions, whether we're choosing which car to buy or deciding whether to gamble. We also learn about financial decision-making through the lens of neuroscience, examining the role of emotion, the reward system, and reinforcement learning. The course focuses on personal finance and is intended to guide students towards better spending, saving, and investing decisions. We aim to answer two questions: What are the deep “irrational” forces driving financial behavior, and what can be done to better manage them.
INTD 265: Nanotechnology and Society
Instructor: Serkan Zorba
4 Credits
Satisfies the CON 2 Lib Ed requirement
Nanotechnology is by its nature an interdisciplinary subject. It is where different fields of science and technology converge: physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. This course will lay down the technical background of nanotechnology, and discuss its potential implications for society. This exciting field is projected to bring about profound changes in our lives: ultra-fast computers, disease-fighting nano-robots (nanites), self-cleaning and color changing car/window surfaces, to name a few. The course will also emphasize how ethics and societal considerations have enormous transforming power over science and technology, and how this is a very healthy interaction for both. Throughout the course, we will draw on the ideas and writings of an eclectic group of scientists, philosophers, and futurists.
INTD 279: Disasters
Instructor: Ralph Isovitsch
3 Credits
Satisfies the CON 2 Lib Ed requirement
This course will explore the scientific and human dimensions of disasters. Topics will include modern disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the San Francisco Earthquake, historical disasters like the explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883, and potential disasters like global warming.
PLSC 201/GEN 201: Women and Leadership
Instructor: Sara Angevine
3 Credits
Satisfies CUL 4 Lib Ed requirement
This course analyses the connections between gender, power, and leadership. Women are underrepresented in positions of leadership across all fields of structural power: science, arts, politics, and business. Why? The course introduces students to theories of feminism, leadership, and knowledge to best analyze this phenomenon. In this course, students will gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between social, political, and economic institutions and the construction of individual identities. We will explore how gender interacts with nationality, race, age, socio-economic class, religion, and sexuality to shape the way in which communities define, promote, and advance leaders. Students will also formulate their own definition of women’s leadership. The course draws upon the fields of psychology, political science, business, women and gender studies, history, communications, and economics. Truly interdisciplinary, students will gain a richer understanding of why the gender gap in leadership positions persists, how to apply gender as a category of critical analysis, and their own potential to act as agents, as leaders.