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WAYS 101: Critical Thinking Seminar

Below are the WAYS 101 Seminars that will be offered in Spring 2025.

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, and the United States in more detail. 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.

Despite society’s efforts to conserve wildlife and their ecosystems, human activities continue to cause declines, extirpations, and extinctions in wildlife across the globe. In this class, we will investigate the causes for the massive decline of biological diversity and our attempts to counter it through international collaboration in wildlife conservation and management. We will explore the challenges that hinder our capacity to effectively conserve and manage global wildlife populations and the multitude of strategies to help reverse biodiversity loss. Our deeper understanding of the complex global issues in wildlife conservation will allow us to better understand our role as both the problem and the solution.

What is the best voting system? With only two candidates, majority rule is clearly the best. When there are more than two, the solution is not so clear. We will examine some important questions in voting theory. Students will be encouraged to ask their own questions about voting and critically examine arguments. Be prepared to think critically and logically about different voting scenarios.