Courses

“Listening enables us to give democratic shape to our being together in the world,” according to the political philosopher Susan Bickford. In this course, we will explore histories and theories of listening and the power of listening as a means to connect with other times and spaces.

The course focuses on justice-involved veterans who are at the nexus of two of the United States largest, most powerful, and well-funded institutions—the criminal justice system and the military. The curriculum explores the U.S. military, the criminal justice system, race, health, violence, poverty, U.S. policy, trauma, and masculinity.

This is primarily an Art and Cultural Studies course that also intersects City Planning and Cinema Studies.

The SNF Paideia Fellows Proseminar I introduces sophomore Fellows to academic research and practice related to dialogue across difference. The course also explores the relationship between robust, civil dialogue and citizenship, wellness, and service. We engage diverse perspectives on the purpose of higher education, the role of dialogue in learning and communities, the nature of citizenship, the value of civility, and the relationship between individual and community wellness.

In the SNF Paideia Fellows Proseminar II, Fellows engage in deeper exploration of the themes of dialogue, citizenship, wellness, and service, especially considering potential connections with their chosen major.

The police are one of the most heavily imagined institutions in American popular culture. From Cagney and Lacey to Colors, Law & Order, The Wire and The Watchmen, evolving depictions of law enforcement help us to understand larger socio-cultural shifts that have occurred from the post-1968 riots to the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement in the mid-2010s and police abolition in the early 2020s.

This course is designed to introduce students to an emerging field, one that explores the connections between nature and human health. A growing body of literature suggests that exposure to natural settings supports human health in a variety of ways. The healing powers of nature appear to be demonstrable scientifically, with research studies spanning various aspects of social, mental, and physical health. The course also invites students to consider the ways in which humans can contribute to the healing of ecosystems. Contemplative practices (e.g., meditation, journaling) will be woven throughout. The course will be linked to the Nature Rx@Penn Program, with opportunities for active and experiential learning.

This course will introduce the student to the many ways in which mindfulness is currently being implemented to support the health and success of students of all ages.  Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), in particular, which utilizes secularized practices from Asian and South Asian traditions for the remediation of various health concerns, has revolutionized behavioral medicine, and the scientific evaluation of MBSR has shed new light on the bio-mechanical pathways linking mind and body.

The phrase “failure to communicate” became iconic in American English from the 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” in which Paul Newman played a convict who refuses to listen or follow orders. The film raised questions about the multiple ways we understand “failure to communicate” and its consequences. Is it sometimes a decision to resist a presumption, a premise, an interpretation, an argument, a directive from authority? Is it at other times simply a mechanical failure? This course examines “failure to communicate” in multiple cultural areas, among them literature, romance, politics, show business, law, science, war, psychology, philosophy, business, religion, humor and education.

When and how can we justify using the power of the government to force our fellow citizens to follow rules with which they disagree?

This course will explore both the roots and the evolution of conservative thought by engaging directly with prominent leaders on the right. Multiple group projects will allow students to think creatively and have lively discussions with faculty and each other.

This highly engaged course integrates the process of learning about positive psychology with personal experience and reflection. We explore topics such as well-being, positive affect, optimism, relationships, and character strengths.

What is a participatory city? What has that term meant in the past, what does it mean now, and what will it mean going forward? Against the backdrop of increasing inequality and inequity, and the rise in a search for solutions, what role can citizens play in co-creating more just cities and neighborhoods? How can citizens be engaged in the decision making processes about the places where we live, work, and play? And most importantly, how can we work to make sure that all kinds of voices are meaningfully included, and that historically muted voices are elevated to help pave a better path forward?

Designated as an Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) course.

This course examines the ways in which truth and reconciliation are voiced in the aftermath of grand societal traumas, such as the Rwandan genocide and South African apartheid. The course investigates the kinds of dialogues that arise from times of social rupture in order to understand how truth and reconciliation are calibrated. Here, the rhetoric of civil engagement associated with healing will be central to our study.

Numerous divides dominate discussions of life in the U.S.: Polarization rooted in political parties. Deepening income inequality. Stalemates over how to address global crises like climate change, human migration, and public health. The list is long. Tensions between politics and religion can exacerbate any of these divides.

Why do we sometimes feel strongly about a particular political cause even though we might not know much about it? Or buy into the cancel culture of a celebrity just because everyone else is? Often times, our beliefs are heavily shaped by our social connections and result in false assumptions and a misunderstanding of others.

How do we conceptualize and perform ourselves as political actors? How can rhetoric and philosophy work together to craft viable strategies for advocacy and novel forms of deliberation?

A sense of belonging allows us to be more compassionate, more humane, and more tolerant of outsiders. In this critical writing seminar we will investigate ways to create belonging in our everyday lives.

Too often society draws a firm line between scientists and writers. This creates a dangerous dichotomy where scientific data becomes trapped in an echo chamber, preventing important findings from being shared and understood by the public. It doesn’t matter if you have the best data in the world if you can’t communicate it with the world.

How might our voices be heard and reach through the din of an ever changing and increasingly complex world? This course seeks to introduce concepts and practices of critical engagement with ourselves, with our communities, with the world to help us learn how to amplify our voices through writing and other practices of engagement in civil discourse.

For years, marketers, CEOs, online journalists, and communication researchers have described digital technology as steadily eroding our physical place. Some celebrate our ability to keep up with family and friends, or join virtual communities regardless of the distance. Others warn of isolation, avatar only dialogues, a decline in civic participation and a recognition of others.

The aims of Grit Lab are three-fold: (1) to equip you with generalizable knowledge about the science of passion and perseverance; (2) to help you apply these insights to your own life; and (3) to inspire you to share these insights with others. Special permission required for registration. Apply here by 11:59 Sunday, April 2

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of how decisions and policy are really made in Washington. Weekly travel to Washington D.C. required.

A central premise of the “American Dream” is economic freedom, implying opportunity, security, and in the minds of many, wealth. The statistical and experiential reality, vividly evident throughout the nation’s urban cities, is a staggering inequitable distribution of resources and growing economic instability for scores of households, including those identified as middle class. This course equips and supports students for dialogue on financial issues and helps them to explore why this dialogue is sometimes avoided or feels difficult.

This course surveys the rich history of Orthodox Christian communities in North America from the early 19th century to the present day. Orthodox Christians from the Middle East, eastern Europe, Russia, Ethiopia, India, and elsewhere have immigrated to America for more than two hundred years, and contributed to the American religious, political, legal, literary, and material landscapes. Their stories are, however, rarely incorporated into the often Protestant-centric grand narratives of the history of religion in America. Through the lenses of post-colonial, immigration and diaspora, gender, media, and religious studies, this course surveys the literature, art, material culture, and religious practice of various Orthodox Christian communities, highlighting the multifaceted ways Orthodox Christianity shaped America.

Podcasting has become one of the most popular ways of disseminating the voice, supplanting radio. It has even been a primary driver of the growth of music streaming services like Spotify. This creative-critical seminar situates the podcast historically, analyzes current instantiations of the genre, and teaches hands-on skills to create your own podcasts. The course also frames podcasts as a form of asynchronous dialogue that can be critically engaged with and utilized as a mechanism to comment on societal issues.

Humans are often motivated and act to benefit the well-being of others. In this course, we will explore altruism as a process and investigate its affective, cognitive, behavioral, social, and ecological components. We will investigate questions such as, what are the causes, conditions, and impediments of altruism? Can altruism be developed within individuals, and if so how? What would an altruistic society look like, and how might it be achieved?

With a pandemic still lingering and the worst effects of climate change looming, we need science to play an authoritative role in policymaking. Yet by giving science authority, we threaten the stability of democracy, our best means to a just and equitable society.

This is a course on philosophical topics surrounding love and sex. We will touch on issues in all areas of philosophy including ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and epistemology. You will develop the sorts of skills fundamental to philosophy: understanding and reconstructing arguments, evaluating arguments, and developing your own argumentative abilities. You will also acquire theoretical tools that might be useful for thinking about your own love and sex lives, and the lives of those around you.