Fall 2024 Courses

What makes a person or a country "modern?" What or where does "modernity" come from? In this LC, we will explore the tumultuous early modern and modern periods in East Asia through literature, performing arts, and history. Our cast of characters includes star-crossed lovers, raunchy comedians, gangsters, revolutionaries, foreign invaders, Emperors and kings, supernatural beings—and young students leaving home for the first time. LTCH 250 will focus on fiction, poetry, and other literature from China, while HIST 118 will focus on historical change across China, Korea, and Japan.

Who dat say dey ain’t been to New Orleans? This learning community is a fusion of Political Science and English, focusing on the vibrant culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Specifically, “Who Dat '' centers the work of Blackmasking Indian and artist Demond Melancon, Big Chief of the Young Seminole Hunters tribe of New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward. This community will use Melancon’s art in two ways: first, as a lens to reflect/view issues and ordering concepts in world politics such as international political economy, conflict and human rights; second, as visual text, wherein students discuss Blackmasking production as a site of composition, literacy, and rhetoric. Through multimodal and communal learning, students will interrogate Melancon’s art as political and cultural identity, narrative storytelling, and locate his work within and across the global Black diaspora.

In this Learning Community, we explore how human-Earth interactions can create social inequities while modifying Earth’s physical environment. In the “Environmental Geology” course  (GEOL 104), hands-on activities and field trips will allow students to apply Earth science  principles to evaluate unsustainable uses of Earth’s resources and disproportionate impacts in  many regions of our planet. In the “Introduction to Environmental & Sustainability Studies”  course (ENVT 200), students explore how meaningful sustainability involves the integration of  social, political, and environmental factors, which requires interdisciplinary perspectives, and  how systems thinking can drive solutions. These courses will prompt students to consider the  interaction of natural and social forces impacting the world around them.  

CofC’s first black graduate Eddie Ganaway once said of his experience, “It was almost like Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. I did get the sense that I was being looked through." (College of Charleston Magazine, 2007). In this class, we will prompt students to ask: “How can we increase visibility and shine a light on black student, faculty, and staff trailblazers, so that the College of Charleston and Charleston community can better acknowledge and appreciate their contributions?”

This course introduces students to the significance of 1967 (year of desegregation at the CofC), black student contributions at the CofC, and the history of black Charleston. The course also connects students with the Charleston area through lectures, workshops, and community engagement activities.

Come along with us on an exciting adventure into the wonders and worries of genetic science! We’ll dive deep into history as we uncover the fascinating stories of our ancestors, all written in DNA preserved over hundreds of thousands of years. We'll also explore the amazing variety found in modern human genomes, learning how these differences shape our health and who we are as individuals. And of course, we'll discuss how genetic engineering is changing the game in agriculture and medicine.

During the presidential campaign season, candidates tout their stances on economic, fiscal, and foreign policies. Because of its “clarifying and often-predictive role in selecting presidential nominees for both the Republican and Democratic Parties”, South Carolina is an important host for policy discussions, especially as it hosts the first primary election of the 2024 election cycle. The learning community will examine how government policy impacts the economy (ECON 200) and how these impacts are captured in the financial statements of publicly traded corporations (ACCT 203).

This course will cover the regulatory framework of business with a focus on food and the laws surrounding it as a business. The principal federal and state regulations as well as common law relationships applicable to businesses are presented to provide the student with an understanding of the limitations and consequences of business decisions, as well as the social and ethical responsibilities implicit in decision making. Topics to be covered will include Commerce Clause, dispute resolution and the court system, contracts, torts, intellectual property and ethics all using food law and legal cases dealing with food as examples. 

Students will access information on laws and food regulatory agencies available on the internet. The credibility of sources, .gov as opposed to .com will be stressed. Students will have to source their articles from credible internet sources. 

Students will be asked to use the library to access cases and information. Students will be encouraged to use the writing lab at the Center for Student Learning as they will be assessed on Big Thinks (writing assignments).

This course offers an exploration into questions regarding music and race across the Americas, including the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. We begin by looking at readings from Music studies from the past twenty years that ask what it means to study music and race from a critical perspective. After developing theoretical foundations to address the ways in which music engages with racial politics, we examine a range of musical genres and cultures across the Americas to pose an inquiry on how music contributes to racialized representations and how it provides modes of community building among racialized groups. We get to listen to a lot of music and to see live concerts!

Despite globalization, geographic, political, cultural, and economic borders still shape important aspects of our lives today. We will try to understand the history of their creation as well as their contemporary significance and erosion by studying important phenomena relevant to different parts of the world today. Among other things, you will study trade and human development from various perspectives, international politics and the changing face of the nation-state, poverty and its relationship to health and hunger, as well as migration and tourism and their relationship with the environment and its degradation. Students will become familiar with different ways of looking at the world, as well as the ways in which other regions are different from or similar to each other.

Join us for a journey into the heart of radical empathy and its role in fostering social justice education. Students will explore how radical empathy can transform perspectives and drive positive change through discussions, exercises, and real-life examples. This course is for students entering the Teaching Fellows, Call Me MISTER, and education-related programs.

This course will examine how identity, privilege, and oppression intersect, empowering students to recognize and challenge systemic barriers with empathy at the core. Students will learn to connect with others and confront social injustices authentically by reflecting on personal biases and engaging with diverse perspectives.

From historical contexts to contemporary issues, students will explore empathy as an active force for social change. By the course's end, students will emerge with heightened self-awareness and a commitment to making a difference in their communities. Join us as we embrace radical empathy to build a more just and equitable world.