Below are the WAYS 101 Seminars that will be offered in Fall 2026.
Modern apes exhibit behaviors that anthropologists have described as cultural. For this reason, Dr. Louis Leakey questioned whether we can include apes as human. This course will explore the arguments for creating the “boundaries”, if any, that may separate humans from other living primates, particularly the apes, in respect to the anthropological definitions of culture, language and what being human is. The insights from the studies of nonhuman primates in the wild or in captivity will inform our arguments and enlighten the origins of human evolutionary behavior.
Do you feel what you lived through during COVID felt like the apocalypse? In this class, we will learn about how to prevent a zoonotic disease like COVID-19 from creating another “apocalypse” in the future. First, we will look at how human impacts on the environment and broken food systems lead to the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases. Next, we will develop a powerful arsenal of critical thinking skills and use them to develop new, creative solutions that will help your generation prevent the end of the world from ever happening.
Dogs and wolves are often compared. You may hear that dogs are just like wolves. Are dogs wolves? The social structure and other behaviors of wolves have often been used to explain dog behavior. Dogs are often said to just be domesticated wolves but what does that mean? In this course we will develop critical thinking skills and use these skills to explore similarities and differences between dogs and wolves. We will investigate their development, behavior and cognitive abilities and questions such as: Did dogs really domesticate themselves? Do dogs really have more sophisticated socio-cognitive skills than that of wolves?
In this course we will explore the importance of understanding our purpose in life as a precursor to unleashing our highest potential. We can’t reach our full potential unless we know our purpose. Am I destined for mediocrity if I don't know my purpose? We will critically explore these life issues and how they relate to business concepts. Critical thinking is the ability to think reflectively and independently in order to make thoughtful decisions and thus avoid future problems that can result from your actions. We will learn to identify problems and use applied critical thinking skills to solve them, including blowing up the business, asking the 5 whys and the 7 so what’s, exploring the 80/20 rule, and more.
This course introduces students to the history of the theory and practice of fascism on a global scale. We examine the origins of fascism in fin-de-siècle Europe, its proliferation during the 1920s and 1930s, as well as its unfolding in the Americas and other parts of the world. We will examine the history of fascist ideas and structures in Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United States in more detail. In addition, we will also explore fascism in Latin America. Moving beyond the Hollywood cliché of fascism, as a sensationalized and transhistorical metaphor for “evil,” we will explore the specific conditions that incubated past forms of fascism.
Infographics, hashtags, memes, online trolling, and our elections. This course will focus on how we get and vet our information online. We will explore social and cultural contexts of new media and emergent digital writing technologies and provide a space to analyze and research across social media contexts and platforms. Students will look at multimodal compositions from across the internet, examine not only instances and examples of new media but also the impact new media has on society and how shifting social norms influence new media.
Buried treasure, walking the plank, and a bottle of rum: these are our stock images of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries. But what was piracy in its Golden Age really like? What was a pirate, exactly, and why might a man – or woman – be inclined to go pirate? What were the differences between a corsair, a privateer, a freebooter, and a buccaneer? By examining contemporary writings by pirates, their victims, and enemies, we will discover answers to these questions and grapple with the devilishly wicked problem of distinguishing between the moral legitimacy of private crime versus state warfare.
How did witch beliefs, Satan, gender, economics, politics, law, speech, and one misguided Godly minister all collide in 1692 to create a witchcraft crisis of unprecedented proportions in the Massachusetts Bay colony? We will explore witchcraft through many lenses, including the social, religious, and gendered contexts of witchcraft and the legal dimensions of witch-hunting. Using manuscripts, primary & secondary sources, and film, we will debate which interpretations work best to explain the enduring power of witchcraft accusation and witch-hunting. While the Salem witch hunt is our focus, a wicked problem lurks in the background: how do historians reconstruct the past based on the scarce evidence that remains? How do historians know what they know?
Calling all film fans! Have you ever been curious about how and why the soundtracks of films can stir up different emotions in the audience? Have you ever wondered how texture or rhythm can immerse you in the world on screen? In a world filled with movies, videogames, and TikToks the intricate relationship between sound and image is all around us. Learn to explore and analyze the relationship of sound/image through film, video art, and media. Through research of concepts and the creation of your own audio/visual works, you will express your understanding of sound and image in our world. No prior musical or video-editing experience necessary!
Is technology severing us from the natural world — or expressing it? This course explores the evolving relationship between human innovation and the living systems that sustain us, moving beyond simple binaries. We examine technology as a force that both destabilizes and extends nature, from fossil fuels and climate change to AI and renewable energy. Through film, philosophy, and other media and texts, we consider whether technology has its own momentum, whether humans act as stewards or disruptors, and what responsibility we bear if tech and nature are not opposites, but entangled parts of the same unfolding process.
From the Odyssey to Star Wars, myths are stories which guide us through life. But these stories constantly evolve, as new societies adapt them to their concerns. This course explores how and why myths arise and change, from the ancient to the modern world.