New 1-credit courses for Fall 2020

These new 1-credit, S/U graded special topics courses are timely and cross-disciplinary with many team-taught by faculty from across the college. Space is limited, so go to E-Campus and enroll today!

AAF 120X: Rewatching the Watchmen
HBO’s hit show the Watchmen — which earned 26 Emmy nominations — reinterprets the original comic by way of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Case for Reparations, and critical race theory. Taught by Professor Jerry Jalette, this course will explore the events and media that inspired the show, what media research can tell us about morally complex heroes, and whether or not pop culture can inspire social change.

AAF 207X: Conversations on Race
In this course, you will follow the weekly news and view several current documentaries to prompt discussions about race and timely issues. Using Zoom, you will have the opportunity to create a public talk show on the subject of race. Taught by Professor Vanessa Quainoo, this course has no pre-requisites.

CCJ 100X: Interrogating Criminal Justice Reform
This class is designed for both majors and non-majors alike and will be offered in an asynchronous online environment. Each week explores a different criminal justice topic that is either framed as an issue in need of reform (e.g. excessive force) or as a policy or practice that is designed in hopes of improving the system (e.g. policing body cams). This course, co-taught by Criminology and Criminal Justice professors Megan Parry and Natalie Pifer, will give you the opportunity to connect issues in policing, courts, and corrections to larger conversations about justice.

CSC 292: Being Human in STEM
This course will explore gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status and the overall role of identity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). It has no prerequisites and is held fully asynchronously online with optional live conversations and relevant guest speakers. The online format is discussion and reflection based with no quizzes or exams, and the final assignment is project-based and requires community engagement.

CSC 292: Exploring COVID-19 Data
Public health and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic depends on collection and analysis of accurate information. In this course, you will be introduced to data science through exploration of COVID-19 data while gaining a better understanding of this global crisis. Using datasets from major sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this course will focus on interactive exploration through 1-hour weekly workshop-style sessions. Data scientists who are working on COVID-19 data will join us for talks

ENG 150X: Tolkien, Wordsworth, and Escapism
Taught by J. Jennifer Jones, this is a fully online, synchronous course. While it is obvious how the pure and social sciences contribute solutions to the Coronavirus pandemic, the arts and humanities contribute in a quieter but equally important way. In this course, explorations of the solitude of reading and thought — escapism — show that they are powerfully healing activities that radiate out from the individual seeking self-care, to care for the family, community, and society. The sciences will provide the early solutions to our public health crisis, but the healing qualities of poetry and prose will help us deal with the decades of aftermath as we collectively work to establish a new, equitable, and just normality.

HIS/APG 392X: The URI Campus: A Walk Through Time
The University of Rhode Island was founded in 1892, but the history of the land is much older and is intertwined with the history of Euro-Americans, enslaved Africans, and the Narragansett people. Through expertise from Loren Spears, director of the Tomaquag Museum, and co-instructors from our Departments of History and Sociology and Anthropology, you’ll learn about the complex and often contentious history of this place and be introduced to historical, anthropological, and indigenous sources such as artifacts, oral traditions, and maps. This course is suitable for all majors and all years.

PSC 101X: Workplace Readiness for Social Science Majors
This is a fully online career readiness workshop designed for social science majors in the College of Arts and Sciences to create personalized content and discuss various workplace and career topics with URI alumni. If you are a sophomore, junior, or senior in CCJ, AAF, SOC, APG, ECN, GWS, or PSC, please join us! The course will be co-taught by Political Science Department Chair Marc Hutchison and A&S Associate Dean Brian Krueger.

SCM 351X: 2020TV: Broadcasting Contemporary Issues
Taught by Film/Media Professor Keith Brown, this is a fully online broadcast class that will meet each week on Zoom. No production experience is required! You’ll be assigned research topics for discussion, participate in group research for a show that will be shot each week during class time, and discuss timely issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the upcoming election.

SOC/APG 140X: Anti-Black Racism and White Supremacy
Co-taught by three professors from our Departments of Sociology and Anthropology and Criminology and Criminal Justice, this course will use perspectives from sociology and anthropology to unpack assumptions about the meaning of race; illuminate the pervasiveness of systemic racism; examine the toxic effects of white supremacy in a civil society; and consider possibilities for structural change. In addition to engaging with an active learning community online, every other week you can tune in to a “live” evening lecture with a guest speaker on a variety of timely topics.