Example Course Overview Pages

GRANTWRITING  |  INSTRUCTOR: MAUREEN FEIT

Screen capture of Maureen Feit's course overview page

PEOPLE, POWER, & POLITICS  |  INSTRUCTOR: PATRICK SCHOETTMER

People, Power & Politics Banner

Welcome to People, Power and Politics

This course is fundamentally about citizenship. Democracy is premised on the idea that legitimate government can only be established through a mandate of the people, but for that mandate to mean anything people and government need to listen to each other and to deliberate carefully. Thus, deliberative participation is a basic duty of any citizen of a democracy.

A great contradiction at the heart of democracy, however, is that deliberation and participation often seem to be in conflict. Listening to each other often causes us to become less engaged, while only listening to your own side leads to greater engagement. The two main avenues individuals effect change in our society (through democratic participation, and through legal challenges to the political system through this judiciary) highlight this duality. This contradiction lies at the heart of many American political conflicts, and also at the heart of our course. Our main question is this: which gives greater legitimacy to our political choices--deliberation or participation? Which one is more important, and where do we strike a balance when these values come into conflict? And finally, are these values inherently in conflict, or is there some way to envision a body politic where listening to the other side makes us more engaged in our communities and our country?

 

PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON  |  INSTRUCTOR: RUSSELL DUVERNOY

Welcome to Philosophy of the Human Person

This is an introductory course in philosophy that satisfies a Seattle University UCOR requirement. The course has two main units. In the first unit, we consider philosophical discussions of the self from a variety of different perspectives. Is there an essential self or soul that provides our source of identity? Is there some universal human essence that all human beings share? What is the relationship between mind and body? Is a human person essentially different from other kinds of beings? In the second unit, we focus on issues of change. First, we consider how social categories impact our sense of identity and how they have changed over time. We then consider questions of technology and the self: Does contemporary digital technology change what it means to be human?

The method of the course is historical and comparative. We consider these questions through a variety of world philosophical traditions, including canonical Western philosophy, classical Chinese philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and North American Indigenous philosophy. We end the course with a close reading of Plato’s Apologyto return to the question of philosophy as lived practice.

 

BUDDHISM & FILM  |  INSTRUCTOR: SHARON SUH

Welcome to Buddhism & Film

The relationship between seeing and spiritual maturation are inextricably linked in Buddhist traditions.

This course explores the power of religious modes of seeing in the Buddhist imaginary world and the significance of vision and visionary cultures in the transmission and reception of the tradition through the medium of film.  This course extends the study of Buddhist practice by asking what can be learned about the transmission and reception of Buddhism when film and gaze are taken as the basis of inquiry. This course thus addresses the following broad questions:

  1. How might Buddhist themed films serve as entry points into the imagined world of Buddhism?
  2. What makes for a Buddhist film?
  3. In what ways has Buddhism been imagined and constructed through the intersecting lenses of Orientalism, nationalism, fantasy, race, and gender?
  4. How do spectators engage in religious modes of reception while viewing film?
  5. How might film be transformed by religion? How is religion transformed by film?

Particular attention will be paid to Buddhist films produced and directed by Hollywood figures and those made in Asia by Asian directors working in their own languages. Analyzing Buddhist films allows one to discern contemporary religious values represented in film as well as the political, economic, social, gendered, and racial implications of images that are presented as essentially "real."  This study of Buddhism in film will include an analysis of scholarly texts, outside film reviews, interviews with directors, cast and crew, and press kits to further examine the nature of Buddhist films.  In analyzing the particularly Buddhist content of the film, this class will also include the Buddhist textual sources and imagery that are often implied in the films but not explicitly noted in order to deepen the understanding of a film’s message.

The course itself is organized around but not limited to the following themes:

  1. Western constructions and receptions of Buddhism
  2. Buddhism, race and cinema
  3. Buddhism, Nationalism and Independence movements
  4. Film as Meditation
  5. Women, Buddhism, and film

Goals and Outcomes

  1. Analyze and provide robust critique of representations of theBuddhist religion in Western and Asian popular cultures.
  2. Analyze and interpret the relationships between gender, race, and class projected in film.
  3. Interpret and apply the critical works of authors and modes of criticism such as bell hooks, Edward Said, Salman Rushdie, etc. to Buddhist film. Orientalism, reverse Orientalism, Post-Colonialism, Buddhism and gender, and feminist theory.
  4. Develop and demonstrate a foundational understanding of the rituals, practices, and beliefs of Buddhism.
  5. Interpret and demonstrate a deep understanding of the relationship between religious identity, experience, practice, and film.

 

STRESS, HEALTH & FLOURISHING  |  INSTRUCTOR: KATHERINE RAICHLE

Welcome to Stress, Health, and Flourishing

Welcome to the course!  And for those of you new to a psychology course, welcome to psychology!  This course will provide a basic introduction to the interface of psychology and health, a field called Health Psychology (please visit this page for more information about this field).  Overall, each topic that we examine will be couched within the Biopsychosocial Model of health and wellness.  We will unpack what this means the first couple weeks of the course, but essentially this is a model that considers the unique and overlapping contributions of biology, psychology, and social factors that impact health.

We will critically examine three main content areas of this field, as outlined below.

  1. One very common way that psychology interfaces with physical health is through stress, a major topic of this class.  Have you ever noticed that you are more likely to get sick (e.g, the common cold) when you've been under chronic stress?  This is very common and tells us that our feelings of being stressed (e.g., chronically overwhelmed by a difficult job) can manifest in our bodies (e.g., altered immune functioning).  We will explore this mind/body connection throughout the course.
  2. Another area that is a centerpiece of this course (and wellness in general) is health behaviors.  Through examining health behaviors (and the psychological and social determinants of health behaviors), you will be able to see how your lived is influences by internal psychological processes (e.g., feelings of stress), as well as external factors (stressors in your environment).  As we navigate this portion of the class, we will blend this material with our examination of stress as much as possible.
  3. Finally, we will work through 7 critical thinking exercises, each informed by what we know as psychologists about the errors in thinking that we often make.  The goal of this component of the course is to highlight the need for careful thinking in any field of study, specifically highlighting how careful we need to be when considering research around issues of health and wellness.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will:

  1. Recognize that multiple disciplines can inform our understanding of issues of health and wellness; you will learn about the Biopsychosocial Model of health.
  2. Develop an understanding of the particular biological, psychological, and social aspects of stress.
  3. Deepen your critical thinking skills.
  4. Apply the material to your own experiences of changing health behaviors.

Weekly Schedule

The weekly schedule will following a similar pattern, including 2-3 graded assignments per week:

  1. Reading and reading graded reading check.
  2. Group and paired discussions on the topic for the week.
  3. A critical thinking assignment that will inform your final class project.
  4. A "check-in" about your behavior-change exercise and tying it in with course material.

These will be spaced over the course of each week.  Your success in the course depends on your ability to stay on top of your work and due dates, thus steady work throughout the week is necessary.

Each week of the course will also be organized around learning objectives.

 

SOCIO-CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS  |  INSTRUCTOR: DAN WASHBURN

This is an old (and now grainy) welcome video that appeared on Dan Washburn's Socio-Cultural Transformations  course back in 2013. It is included here an an example of using a bit of idiosyncratic humor to capture the personality and approach of the instructor so that the instructor's "presence" can be felt by the students from the outset. It also does a nice job of setting the context of the course. (Punchline is near the end.)