What does it mean to be at home in a country that has often denied your being and belonging? The course dives into the ways Black Americans have wrestled with, redefined, and reclaimed the ideas of home, citizenship, and belonging. From Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley to Parliament Funkadelic and Beyonce, we'll explore how writers, artists, and musicians have challenged exclusion and reimagined what it means to be American. Topics include national mythmaking, Pan-Africanism, reparations, protest music, and speculative Black futures.

We all want to easily accomplish tasks such as navigating websites and following instructions - yet, ineffective designs prevent us from this. This first year seminar will help you recognize the power of effective design through user experience (UX) and human-centered design. We will collaboratively problem-solve and consider concepts of UX, usability, accessibility, and user- and human-centered design within information design, such as document design, graphic design, and especially web design.

This course explores The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) as a cultural and historical artifact of Cold War America. We will engage with questions such as: How did The Twilight Zone depict the apocalypse - not simply as destruction, but as moral and societal unraveling? What historical events shaped its narratives, and how did it both challenge and reproduce dominant beliefs of the Cold War? What role does allegory play in shaping political consciousness, and how do these speculative, imaginative narratives help us understand the fragility of our present and uncertainty of our future?

Do you consider yourself a writer? Whether the answer to that question is yes or no, writing is a fundamental practice to our everyday lives. Regardless of if we recognize it or not, we write all the time: text messages or social media posts to our friends and family; emails to our instructors or bosses; diaries or journals to keep track of our own well-being; and perhaps even creative projects to fulfill our expressive needs. In many respects, taking stock of the writing we do can be a way of understanding the kind of lives we are living.

Do you consider yourself a writer? Whether the answer to that question is yes or no, writing is a fundamental practice to our everyday lives. Regardless of if we recognize it or not, we write all the time: text messages or social media posts to our friends and family; emails to our instructors or bosses; diaries or journals to keep track of our own well-being; and perhaps even creative projects to fulfill our expressive needs. In many respects, taking stock of the writing we do can be a way of understanding the kind of lives we are living.

American prisons have produced an extraordinary body of literature with a unique historical significance and cultural influence. This course introduces students to a representative sample of the poetry, memoirs, essays and novels written by incarcerated people about the prison experience. Some of the authors we will read are quite famous while others are virtually unknown. Reading about prison from an incarcerated person's point of view will help students explore the meanings of imprisonment.

American prisons have produced an extraordinary body of literature with a unique historical significance and cultural influence. This course introduces students to a representative sample of the poetry, memoirs, essays and novels written by incarcerated people about the prison experience. Some of the authors we will read are quite famous while others are virtually unknown. Reading about prison from an incarcerated person's point of view will help students explore the meanings of imprisonment.

What is Gay Culture? Is there even a consensus on whether or not Gay Culture exists? Despite many buzzing articles and claims that it lays dead or dormant, anyone who watches an episode of RuPaul?s Drag Race or attends a Lady Gaga concert knows right away that there is a deeply-rooted, self-reflexive community at work here, alive and well, complete with its own dialect, social patterns, and community expectations. This course seeks to introduce students to the ins and outs of Gay Culture, its origins, and what it represents today.

What is Gay Culture? Is there even a consensus on whether or not Gay Culture exists? Despite many buzzing articles and claims that it lays dead or dormant, anyone who watches an episode of RuPaul?s Drag Race or attends a Lady Gaga concert knows right away that there is a deeply-rooted, self-reflexive community at work here, alive and well, complete with its own dialect, social patterns, and community expectations. This course seeks to introduce students to the ins and outs of Gay Culture, its origins, and what it represents today.