CoursesThe Positive Humanities: Arts, Culture, and Human Flourishing (NEW)
PSYC 3400, Section 301

The Positive Humanities: Arts, Culture, and Human Flourishing (NEW)

This intensive, discussion-based seminar will equip you with useful insight and critical analysis about Positive Psychology by emphasizing scientific literacy. The workload for this seminar requires intensive reading. To excel in this seminar, students must be willing to enthusiastically read, dissect, and critique ideas within Positive Psychology. This requires students to articulate various ideas in verbal and written form.

Instructor(s)
  • James Pawelski
Semester

Spring 2026

Register
W 1:45pm-4:44pm

Positive psychology can be defined as the science of what makes individuals and communities thrive. In this seminar, we will be focusing on a core part of what makes individuals and communities—and even societies—thrive: arts and culture. Referring to these areas collectively as the humanities, we will be focusing on the Positive Humanities, a new field of inquiry and practice concerned with the relationship between arts, culture, and human flourishing. This course will rely heavily on reading and discussion of the relevant literatures, as well as on experiential activities within arts and culture.

Related Content

Other Courses of Interest

LAWM 538

Engineering Law and the State (New)

Instructor(s)

  • Justin (Gus) Hurwitz

Semester

Spring 2026

This course explores the relationship between engineering, law, and the state to develop an understanding, on the one hand, of the mechanisms by which technology affects political processes and, on the other hand, how political processes regulate technological designs. It does so by using engineering principles as a lens to introduce and discuss foundational concepts from political philosophy, jurisprudence (legal theory), positive political theory, and economics. The course has the express goal of bringing engineering fields into dialogue with the humanities and social sciences and facilitating dialogue between those disciplines.

 

Learn More
EDUC 5437

Interfaith Dialogue in Action

Instructor(s)

  • Steve Kocher

Semester

Spring 2026

Faith, belief, spirituality and religious identity are central to the lives of so many people, and so building understanding about these aspects of life – encompassing the development of our personal convictions as well as our connections to (or challenges with) institutional religion and spiritual community – is essential to understanding our world.  But conversations on these topics can be complicated, confusing, even contentious.  The Interfaith Dialogue in Action course makes space for students of all religious and non-religious backgrounds to engage with one another, reflect together, and learn skills to build dialogue between people with different faith traditions, worldviews, practices, and beliefs.  

 

Learn More