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Art Matters: Health, Community and Culture, a Foundational Literacies Seminar, engages students in an exploration of the role art plays in numerous facets of our lives. From cave paintings to graffiti, people have been using art to communicate with diverse audiences about events, natural wonders, and issues of social justice. Many forms of art have been used to learn about the human body, convey health messages, share stories about community, and impart cultural wisdom. In this course, students will examine different art forms in the classroom and at public art installations. By viewing art and engaging with different writing genres, students will develop a greater understanding of why art matters. Throughout the semester, students will strengthen rhetorical reading skills that will enable them to delve deeply into texts across a variety of genres. Creative and academic writing skills will be strengthened through assignments designed to communicate students’ understanding of art and its impact on the individual and society.

Professor: Cathy Coyne

• Paired with HIST 221: History of The Body

• Instructor: Heikki Lempa

• This course explores the history of the body by focusing on its relationship to medicine, health, sports, and society since 1500. We explore how science, medicine, and sports have “made” our bodies. We will ask, whether the body could be a machine and whether there is one sex or two sexes. We will investigate how the bodies moved, how they were exercised, and how the sports developed. We will then explore the ways the bodies were dressed. Finally, we will take a look at how the body became political, how it was defined in terms of race and otherness. We engage these themes through readings, discussions, analysis of images and movies, and writing. An integral part of this class is to see the history of the body as a contested field of changing historical interpretations.

In this MILE 101 course of the paired course set, we acknowledge that personal histories are connected to larger cultural histories beyond us. In 101, we will research and produce academic work that contextualizes students’ family stories using academic sources responsibly (within the considerations of copyright and Creative Commons materials). Students will practice writing in different genres, including writing press releases, critiquing others’ work and developing a supportive community around creative production. We will regularly discuss the ethics of telling others’ stories and considerations of cultural and linguistic contexts. We will work collaboratively to improve our writing and build community, while we explore our shifting identities during the first semester of college.

Professor: Elizabeth Gray

• Paired with IDIS 120: Filming Family Histories

• Instructor: Richard Anderson

• This course examines the connection between personal experiences and collective histories and trains students to develop historical arguments on video. Using primary sources and audio recordings from oral history interviews conducted by students, we will produce short videos framing family stories in larger historical contexts. By creating narratives that move between local and national/global scales, and individual and collective scales, students will learn how their family history has been shaped by the wider customs and beliefs of their national, ethnic, or religious culture. Through an examination of family histories, students will also investigate the ways in which cultural contexts have shaped their own values and perspectives. Finally, through peer review of video drafts and oral presentations in which two students compare family histories, the class will analyze how social and historical forces create points of commonality and difference between their lives.

Everyone needs to eat, and to eat well. But how should we define “well” when we take into account not just our individual needs but also those of the planet and everything that lives upon it? In “Eating for the Planet: Food and Environmental Sustainability," we consider how the production, packaging, consumption, and disposal of food contributes to a global environment that is increasingly at risk, and how the human population must make changes to its diet if we hope to mitigate the quickly escalating effects of climate change. Students will consider the connections between sustainable food practices and food justice, and through readings, discussions, and writing assignments will explore how a variety of practices help to create sustainability and equity with regard to food. This seminar introduces first-year college students to a liberal arts education that emphasizes critical thinking, effective writing, and civic engagement.

Professor: Theresa Dougal

• Paired with CHEM 113 LC:  General Chemistry I (Lab section) 

• Atomic theory and structure, behavior of matter, principles and laws, and the scientific method of working and reasoning. Laboratory consists of related physical-chemical experiments.

Everyone is a fan of something, and every fandom has its own unique way of being. Whether you are a Potterhead (Harry Potter), a Gleek (Glee), a Greg (Danny Gonzalez), part of the BeyHive (Beyoncé), or a diehard supporter of the Birds (Eagles), all fans have a way of simultaneously consuming and creating as both individuals and collectives online. We will begin to examine who participates in fandoms and how, while also considering how digital environments influence these specific fandom practices. Additionally, we will explore ethical concerns of censorship, ownership and authorship. Through a series of critical reading and writing projects, students will develop their own writing process as fans, learning how to navigate digital platforms with intentionality, creativity and a critical eye.

Professor: Gianna Tully

• Paired with ART 119: Creativity, Art, and Social Practice

• Instructor: MaryJo Rosania-Harvie

• Students in this introductory, process-based studio art course experiment extensively and in a variety of ways with tools and materials in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, sculpture, metals, and fiber. While discovering the visual languages of materials and works of art, students learn cross-disciplinary skills such as communicating ideas; problem solving; critical thinking and writing; recording and evaluating observations; forming meaning and metaphor; and constructing new knowledge.

In this course, students will explore the history of Black protest in modern US history. We will begin by taking a close look at the various issues Black Lives Matter activists raise today. Students will then select one contemporary issue and research its history. What are the historical causes of the problem activists currently protest? How have Black people attempted to address this issue in the past? What obstacles have they faced? Students will author essays in which they present their research findings. They will also produce videos that present the historical research they have conducted.

Professor: Jane Berger

• Paired with AFST 121 / ENGL121 /WGSS 121: African American Literature

• Instructor: Robert LaRue

• Introduction to the African American literary tradition, which might include the genres of poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and drama. The course will explore how categories of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity shape this literature and reflect its peoples’ relationship(s) with the American nation.

This course examines how digital technologies are reshaping the ways we write, communicate, and engage with texts. Students will explore the evolution of writing practices in the context of the internet, social media, and emerging digital platforms. Key topics include digital rhetoric, the ethics of digital communication, and multimodal composition in crafting persuasive and engaging messages in the digital environment. By analyzing digital documents and producing their own, students will gain insight into the complexities of writing in an interconnected world, preparing them to navigate and contribute to the digital landscape with critical awareness and creativity. Paired with PHIL 120, Introduction to Philosophy, this course also invites students to engage critically with foundational philosophical questions in the context of the digital age, enriching their writing through deeper reflection on truth, knowledge, and ethical communication.

Professor: TBA

• Paired with PHIL 120: Introduction to Philosophy

• Instructor: Austin Baker

• Tasks and subject matters of philosophy, including major theories of reality, knowledge, religion, morality, and social justice. Attention to several classic philosophical texts as primary source readings

This MILE 101 section investigates the body. We think we know bodies because we have one. We think we know how they move, run, walk, jump, and get tired. We think we know how they consume food and drink, how they shiver and sweat, how they desire rest, and how they get sick. Yet, over the course of history, the body has changed. Knowledge of bodies has changed. The spaces bodies occupy have changed. In this course I invite you to explore how and why these changes happened. We explore sports. We look into medicine and human health. We investigate sex and sexuality. We discuss the ways men and women dressed, followed or ignored fashion. We engage these themes through readings, discussions, analysis of images, films, and writing.

Professor: Heikki Lempa

• Paired with SOC 114: Dreams, Genes and Machines: The Future of Human Enhancement

• Instructor: Virgina O'Connell

• The medical scientific community has been dedicated to mastering illness and disease, fixing whatever we collectively deem wrong with the human body, intervening when the organism is injured or invaded. In the process of fighting disease, we have created numerous physical and pharmaceutical enhancement techniques in the name of beauty, symmetry, mental stability and productivity. We are now at the crossroads of the next frontier—the creation of cyborgs, combined organic and mechanical organisms. Whether we talk about the implantation of computer chips in humans or the substitution of amputated limbs with robotic replacements, we have begun the process of integrating men and machines. In this class we will explore the use of a variety of enhancement procedures—pharmaceutical, genetic and mechanical--and reflect on what the future of human enhancement will mean for our understanding of the human experience.

Nearly five decades have passed since the publication of Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach's futuristic novel about an ecological utopia in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In this course, we work to update the '70's cult classic for our own time. Using its literary imagining as a starting point, we review recent developments in sustainable urban design, food production, and energy, among others, and then see how those strategies have been tried and adopted in real places in the U.S. and elsewhere. Through rhetorical analysis, writing, research, and field trips, we create a blueprint for a viable ecotopia of the 21st century.

Professor: Mark Harris

• Paired with ENVR 113: Changes in the Land: Lessons in Sustainability From Early American History

• Instructor: Kate Brandes

• This course examines the more nature-sensitive practices of early America including a tendency toward minimalist consumption practices, thoughtful repurposing and recycling of materials, and more land-centered ways of life. Students will explore the complexities of sustainable human uses of environments by examining and comparing, as case studies, ƽ��һФ��̳’s own sustainability practices as compared to sustainability practices throughout local history (including that of the ƽ��һФ��̳s and throughout the period of Lehigh Valley industrialization). Topics include: environmental effects of human occupation, past and modern-day agriculture, colonial practices, changes to people's relationship to land over time, diverse perceptions of nature, and evolving concepts of sustainability.

Does your town have a local legend? Do ghosts haunt a certain stretch of road in your neighborhood? Or, perhaps, the Jersey Devil has spoiled your milk before? In this course, students will explore the many ways folklore influences belief, culture, and morality within communities. We will examine written and oral recounts of legends across the country and analyze the variations in these narratives as they are communicated across cultures. We will also seek to discover the unique rhetoric of storytelling by examining the persuasive language used. Students will research and write about legends, lore, and cryptozoology through a variety of creative and academic genres.

Professor: Kailey Tedesco

• Paired with FORL 129 / ENGL 129: Monsters in Modern Asian Cultures

• Instructor: Dorothee Hou

• Godzilla, Poke´mon, vengeful ghosts, serpentine seductresses...: monsters in modern and contemporary Asian cultures have frightened and fascinated audiences across time and borders. The monstrous, the supernatural, and the uncanny are that which transgress, transform, and destabilize existing cultural norms, providing nuanced insights into the collective psyche of a society. This course explores the many ways monsters symbolize and personify issues, problems, fears and hopes that have shaped modern East Asian societies. We will also discuss the global popularity of monster movies, manga, and video games, how they shape the world’s perception of Asia, and through which, how Asian societies remake their own cultural images.

The practice of healing has taken many forms over history and, in many cultures, its separation from religion and magic is rather blurry. Through critical reading, writing, and research, this course explores the role of experts in healing and ritual across various cultures and time periods, with close attention to the ways that healing and religious expertise have been drawn together or distinguished in various forms of practice. We will consider healers such as the attendants of the sanctuary of the Greek healing god Asclepius, where remedies were dispensed through dreams, and herbalists who served women’s health needs who were deemed witches. We will pay close attention to how expertise and titles are conferred, noting who are called healers, saints, and miracle workers, and who are called charlatans, witches, and quacks, and ask: how have societies assessed healers and forms of healing, deeming some legitimate and therefore mainstream, and others fringe?

Professor: Brigidda Zapata

• Paired with HLTR 185: Introduction to Health Professions
• Instructor: Danielle Costanzo

• Students are introduced to various health professions and the knowledge base, skills, and abilities necessary for success in healthcare. This course examines healthcare from multiple perspectives including healthcare ethics, cultural competence, and social disparities in healthcare access. Students are asked to reflect on their roles as future healthcare providers in addressing current issues facing national healthcare. The course reflects key introductory themes in health professions education which will be developed in more depth in subsequent courses within the Health Sciences program
   

What is it about your favorite song lyrics or poem that make it so meaningful to you? Can you remember someone’s words that strongly influenced you? For most of us, words hold a lot of power. Through a series of reading and writing assignments, we will engage in critical thinking about the psychology of language (or psycholinguistics) to better understand how language impacts us. Topics will include how sound, visual, and meaning components of language come together (in spoken language and sign language), how we acquire language, and how language is represented in the mind and brain, reflecting on our everyday experiences of language, including real-life conversations, movie/television/book dialog, music with lyrics, poetry, and public speeches. In addition, we will explore cultural factors in language, consider how the meaning of our words can have power, and learn about the theory that one’s language shapes the way we think in a fundamental way. As part of this, we will actively compare/contrast two or more distinct languages (esp. English, French, and German) to think about how language shapes thought. We will write about our experiences with language to reinforce our understanding. While we consider how a writer’s choice of words can convey a particular meaning, we will think about the impact of the words we choose ourselves in our own communication, both formal and informal. Throughout the course, students will develop their skills in critical reading, research, argumentation, revision, and reflection through writing.

Professor: Sarah Johnson

• Paired with FREN 110 / FREN 210 / GERM 110

  • Course titles: French Language and Culture II, French Language and Culture III, German Language and Culture II 

• Instructors: Jenifer Branton-Desris, Joanne McKeown, Adile Terzioglu

• Descriptions: 

  • FREN 110: Designed to develop novice-mid to novice-high proficiency in reading, writing, listening, speaking.

  • FREN 210: This course is designed to improve French language proficiency and skills at the intermediate level to prepare the transition to more advanced coursework. Students will study structures, build vocabulary, and analyze cultural artifacts from France and the Francophone world. This work will hone skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Class is discussion-based and conducted entirely in French. 

  • GERM 110: Designed to develop intermediate-low proficiency in reading, writing, listening, speaking. 

Eighteenth-century Pennsylvania can seem like a distant and inaccessible world, but in many ways it resembles the conflicts and opportunities that characterize our communities today. It was an incredibly diverse colony with people of many races, ethnicities, and religious preferences all hoping to carve out a unique and potentially expansive space for themselves. To capture this energy more tangibly, this course will often be conducted at historic sites. We will prepare for these visits by reading scholarly articles, and we will aim to apply the same critical eye that we bring to texts to reading historical architecture and landscapes. Having honed our critical reading skills, we will also devote significant attention to translating the information and interpretations that we have studied into clear and effective writing. We will focus on writing as a process of thinking and communicating, taking particular care to understand how our writing strategies change with our audience. First-year Student Paired Course: ENGL 120 A In addition to our regularly scheduled class time, we will take three mandatory Saturday field trips. There is an $80 course fee to cover the price of admission and travel expenses. Students participating in fall sports are not good candidates for this course.

Professor: Sharon Muhfeld

• Paired with ENGL 120: American Literature: Roots & Routes

• Instructor: Andrew Crooke

• An introduction to the development of the American literary heritage, this course focuses on works that either remain deeply rooted in a single place or chart routes to new destinations. In addition to considering why some writers and characters prefer the comforts (or challenges) of home while others are lured (or forced) on the road, we will also explore tensions between region and nation throughout American literature. Emphasis on analytical, written, and oral skills.

This course equips aspiring educators with the critical writing and research skills essential for success in their academic journey and future careers. Focusing on Education field placements, students will conduct in-depth research investigating the learning environment, their own professional development, and the experiences of the learners they work with. They will learn and apply writing conventions across various disciplines, particularly within the field of Education, to effectively communicate research findings and reflections. Furthermore, the course cultivates key skills in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, enabling students to conduct rigorous research, analyze information critically, and articulate their insights in a clear, persuasive, and impactful manner. By the end of this course, students will have a strong foundation in research and writing, enabling them to become confident and effective educators who can thoughtfully analyze their practice and contribute meaningfully to the field.

Professor: Chris Hassay

• Paired with EDUC 160: Culture, Community, and Diversity

• Instructor: Randy Ziegenfuss

• Through field experience, reading, discussion and intensive writing, students in the course will explore the diversity affecting their teaching, both within their classroom and within the broader community from which their students come. This examination will be both contemporary and historical. They will examine many forms of diversity, but in particular will examine how teachers need to consider language, culture, multiple intelligences, and learning styles in their work with diverse learners including English language learners and students with disabilities. The course is unified through a philosophical exploration of critical pedagogy, including the work of Paulo Freire and through the ethical issues related to teaching. 

There is no doubt that social media has an influence on society behaviors. This course will delve deeper into the intentions of social media communications, particularly focusing on rhetoric and foundational literacy skills including how the messages develop credibility (ethos), play on our emotions (pathos), and engage critical reasoning (logos). Through a series of writing projects, the art of persuasion will be explored while assessing multiple messaging platforms. Students will have the opportunity to analyze various social media communications and create responses that connect with the end users’ ethos, pathos and logos. These practices have several practical applications and as this course is being paired with HLTR 185 – Introduction to Health Professions, the applications will be relevant for health sciences students. For example, health professionals need to understand how to communicate with patients and families and create meaningful, relevant content to connect with them, optimizing patient-centered care. Other relevant topics include exploring how social media platforms are utilized to ethically communicate health related concerns, how to evaluate credibility of this information, and understand how this information can impact patient goals and values in medical decision making. Best practices from well-known experts and leaders will be part of the analysis.

Professor: Heather Kuhns

• Paired with HLTR 185: Introduction to Health Professions

• Instructor: Jamie Chapman

• Students are introduced to various health professions and the knowledge base, skills, and abilities necessary for success in healthcare. This course examines healthcare from multiple perspectives including healthcare ethics, cultural competence, and social disparities in healthcare access. Students are asked to reflect on their roles as future healthcare providers in addressing current issues facing national healthcare. The course reflects key introductory themes in health professions education which will be developed in more depth in subsequent courses within the Health Sciences program. This course is intended to foster a deeper understanding of the following: 1) Health professions education as a field of study and practice 2) Current challenges to the healthcare system and implications for health professions education 3) Current trends and priorities in health professions education 4) Interprofessional practice the healthcare environment.

“Stories are all we are,” Cherokee author Thomas King tells us. Stories are integral to identity, situating us in time and space, reminding us of what we value, where we have been, and what we hope to become. Indigenous cultures transmit history and culture across generations through richly complex and powerful stories. Yet despite the vast body of Indigenous knowledge contained in oral traditions, the written word dominates most Americans’ understanding of Indigenous culture and histories. We see Native Americans through the eyes of Europeans and Americans whose writings historians rely on to know about the past. Placing oral traditions at the center of Indigenous experiences, this course provides the historical and cultural context necessary to analyze and compare traditions across time and cultures. Examining other cultures’ traditions encourages us to reconsider the role of orality and stories in shaping our own lives and identities. This course will allow you to practice the skills necessary to transition to college-level work. You will read closely and critically, develop research questions, write for different audiences, and treat writing as a process. You will produce a research paper in stages, participate in peer-review, and present your work for a public audience.

Professor: Jamie Paxton

• Paired with ENGL 122: Native American Literature

• Instructor: Andrew Crooke

• This course introduces students to Native American Literature by exploring the rich diversity of tribal cosmologies, the vibrant storytelling imparted by the oral tradition, the tragic history of conflicts with European American settlers, and significant themes as well as wide-ranging stylistic approaches and particular literary techniques of contemporary Indigenous writers, with emphasis on analytical, written, and oral communication skills.

We work with numbers and math every day - and in ways we may not even realize! From sports, to baking, to gaming and more, numbers permeate our lives and help us make sense of the world around us. In this course, we'll reflect on some of the practical applications of numbers in our lives through readings, reflections, and hands-on exercises, making technically sound arguments both written and verbal. No particular mathematics background is needed and examples of technical writing in other fields will also be discussed.

Professor: Jeffrey McClelland

• Paired with MATH 170: Analytic Geometry and Calculus I

• Instructor: TBD (Staff)

• Review of real numbers, analytic geometry and algebraic and transcendental functions. Limits and continuity. Definition, interpretations, and applications of the derivative. Definite and indefinite integrals, including the fundamental theorem of calculus.

In this course, we’ll strive to discover and understand our relationship with the natural world through readings both historical and contemporary. As writers, through observation and description, we will create pieces of writing that evoke the natural world and our place within it. We will study works and themes common to the genre and apply these lessons with reflections and hands-on exercises.

Professor: Jeffrey McClelland

• Paired with SPAN 110: Spanish Language and Culture II

• Instructor: Claudia Mesa

• Designed to develop intermediate-low proficiency in reading, writing, listening, speaking.

What makes a "monster"? Is it claws and fangs? Green skin and scales? Or is it something deeper than skin? In this course, we will discuss what defines a "monster," how our fears and desires change over time and become embodied by monsters, why we create monsters, how we cope with monsters around us, and how monsters function (or not) in a good/evil binary. We'll analyze monstrosity in a series of multimodal texts, including zines, blogs, social media, film, television, music, visual artwork, and journal articles through the lenses of disability and capacity, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, health and illness, religion and spirituality, age, and class. You'll have the opportunity to do research on and make claims about the ways that monstrosity in pop culture impacts our broader communities, shared environments, and daily lives. Our writing practices in this topic will include rhetorical analysis, argument of definition, evaluative argument, causal argument, and multimodal invention. *Because we will be working with the horror genre, some course content may contain heavy material. Instructor will work with students to avoid certain content when needed.

Professor: Camaryn Wheeler

• Paired with SOC 115: Introductory Sociology

• Instructor: Rebecca Malinski

• Explores basic concepts and theories concerning the relationship between individuals and society. Emphasizes the influence of culture, social structure, and institutions upon human activity. Discusses and analyzes social groups, socialization, community, class, power, and social change, among other substantive issues.