Insects are cold-blooded arthropods that represent 90% of all life forms on earth. Humans are quick to categorize insect species as beneficial or pests as they relate to agriculture, yet insects are fascinating beyond that dichotomy. This course employs insect models to address the study of diversity, behavior, and ecology. We will highlight the beneficial and detrimental roles of insects in human society, as vectors of disease, the ecological and agricultural impact of introduced species, and climate change.

This course will be a contemporary exploration of the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the African-rooted community dance circle. Through technical, literary, and media-based explorations, students will examine the circle as a culture of healing and transformation that sustains people of African heritage across geographic spaces spanning both oceans and time.

This course introduces students to the modal interdisciplinary approach of political economy, an approach that de-centers economics from a narrow focus on optimization and hype-rationality to a broader vision of how the behavior of homo sapiens acting as economic agents is shaped by social and psychological processes. Thus, the determinants of economic outcomes are similarly impacted by emotional and social context.

This seminar explores the economic impact of the Internet, information technology, digitalization, and the networked information economy on manufacturing and manufacturing networks, global and local finance, goods and services markets, innovation and invention, intellectual property rights, public finance and taxation, security and cybercrime, media, and social networking. We investigate the implications of the networked information economy and digitalization, more broadly, for the creating of new economic (and social) relationships and the internet of everything.

This course brings together literatures from Anglophone South Asia and Africa to explore how belonging to the nation is complicated by realities of marginalization and displacement. Postcolonial histories demonstrate tensions between the ideological aspirations of the nation as home and the reality of internal conflicts and wars that expose the limits of belonging. Texts include novels, literary criticism, and critical theory on internal displacement and refugees, the gendered and ethnic minorities, the political other, and trauma.

This course brings together literatures from Anglophone South Asia and Africa to explore how belonging to the nation is complicated by realities of marginalization and displacement. Postcolonial histories demonstrate tensions between the ideological aspirations of the nation as home and the reality of internal conflicts and wars that expose the limits of belonging. Texts include novels, literary criticism, and critical theory on internal displacement and refugees, the gendered and ethnic minorities, the political other, and trauma.

The prevalence of misinformation and disinformation has weakened the public's trust in science. This course will challenge media's coverage of three major topics -- sex, drugs, and psychopaths -- against the latest findings from neuroscience research. Through readings, podcasts, movies, and class discussions, students will challenge common misconceptions about our brains, by examining the science behind infidelity, gender identity, addiction, mental health, and murder.

Europe embodies crossroads of multiple cultures, memories, migrations, and political demarcations. Taking a critical view of conventional paradigms of European nation states and "master" narratives, we study shifting European cultures and identities through multiple perspectives across time and space. What remains of the ancient and modern regimes? How have global movements, historical upheavals, and shifting boundaries within and adjacent to European borders, from early empires to contemporary global networks, affected the transformation of lives? Where is Europe heading today?

Europe embodies crossroads of multiple cultures, memories, migrations, and political demarcations. Taking a critical view of conventional paradigms of European nation states and "master" narratives, we study shifting European cultures and identities through multiple perspectives across time and space. What remains of the ancient and modern regimes? How have global movements, historical upheavals, and shifting boundaries within and adjacent to European borders, from early empires to contemporary global networks, affected the transformation of lives? Where is Europe heading today?