Below are the WAYS 102 Seminars that will be offered in Fall 2025.
The Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Mothman---these are the names of just some of the elusive creatures that stalk through humanity’s imagination. The uncanny, the unknown, the misunderstood creatures of myth have fascinated and inspired scientists, artists, and authors alike for centuries. This course will explore the role cryptids and mythical creatures play in the human consciousness, the similarities that link some of our greatest fears across cultures, and the biology upon which many of these monsters are based. We will develop skills to research, analyze, and construct written arguments about cryptids from a variety of habitats around the world. We will also explore the numerous techniques writers employ to capture ideas and thoughts into organized prose and implement those skills to create written works of our own.
This course introduces you to critical analysis of fandoms and how to write about them in an academic context. We will consider how fans use media to highlight racism, sexism, transphobia, and other oppressive systems. We will also examine fan practices of composition as a model for public writing.
This course will investigate some of the weird, the wild, the mysterious, the unusual, the too-good-to-be-true occurrences that, at least, some people have believed for a time. You'll develop reading, writing, and critical thinking skills as we reveal the facts behind a number of famous, infamous, and less-famous frauds and hoaxes. The topics for the course will largely come from the realms of archaeology and anthropology, but, from time to time, we will draw upon examples from other related academic disciplines.
To stand up for equity in education and society during the War on Poverty In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the “heroic teacher” myth as a rhetorical move to convince US legislators to involve the federal government in the challenges of education, equity, and poverty in the US. Has the mythical “heroic teacher” managed to solve these problems or has it limited progress to achieve equity in education and society? Through analysis of film, music, advertisement, literature, and scholarly research, we weigh the inspirations, pitfalls, benefits, and costs, of the presence of the “heroic teacher” myth in education to explore what reform is needed for equity in education and society. A component of this course will be mindfulness and yoga practices designed for teachers by teachers to calm the “hero teacher” within.
Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between plant life and human life. This important connection is the basis of fiction and nonfiction writing about plants. In this course we will discover, through stories, the latest knowledge about the relationships between plants and people including plants as medicine, plants as food, and plants in material culture. We will discuss plant histories, plant conservation, cannabis legislation, psychedelic mental health treatments, and the intelligence and legal rights of trees. Using examples of environmental writing - fiction, journalism, and creative nonfiction - we will explain the influence of plants on human culture and consider the importance of ethnobotany within the interdisciplinary field of environmental studies.
How do we actually learn, and what are the biggest myths holding us back? This course explores the science of how we learn, drawing from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and education research. We'll investigate research, bust myths and try out evidence-based strategies for effective learning, memory, and skill development.
Should all art in museums around the world be returned to the country of origin? Should we “fix” broken statues and clean and restore dirty and damaged paintings? This course will examine these and other issues in the arts, such as appropriation (using work originally created by other artists) and AI-generated art. Writing assignments will include reactions to readings on art of aboriginal Australia, China, Egypt, Greece and Rome, and Native American cultures.
Modern society is built upon the mineral resources that we extract from the Earth. But how do a bunch of rocks and minerals get turned into cell phones, art, or even milkshakes? In this class we will learn about minerals, how they form, the social and environmental costs of extracting them, and how they are used to build the world around us.
Knitting is one of the oldest fiber arts. This course looks at some history to think about how and why this ancient fiber art is still so popular. We will think about how and when knitting was gendered, how knitting functions as art and as social practice, the impact of knitting on the environment and in economic terms, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the popularity of knitting. You will choose one of those categories and develop a research project on it. Finally, we will learn to knit.
Do you know the difference between a conga and a djembe? Have you ever wondered why there are so few women percussionists? Drumming has frequently been a male-dominated practice, but that has continued to change over the past several decades. This course will examine the unique music and lives of trailblazing women drummers, especially in light of significant gendered shifts since the late Twentieth Century and emergence of new musical practices for women. We’ll learn about percussive traditions in cross-cultural contexts including samba, bata, taiko, and salmunori, in addition to touching on women’s roles as drummers in popular music.
Why do women write science fiction? Ursula LeGuin, author of The Left Hand of Darkness, suggests that science fiction is really a thought experiment about the present, and the writers we will study tackle such relevant issues as gender identity, reproduction, and the environment.
Why do we “watch” birds? Many years ago, we identified a bird after shooting it and examining it on a table in a lab. Eventually someone asked: do we have to kill the birds first? Then we started to identify birds in the field, which led to field guides that provided systematic ways to identify birds. Then, birdwatching became birding. What's the difference? When and how did this happen? Finally, birders became citizen scientists, providing their observations to scientists, such as those at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology via eBird, who then use these data to study birds. Does this really help the birds? Or could it sometimes harm them if word got out about a particularly vulnerable bird?
This course offers an in-depth exploration of contemporary young adult (YA) literature, examining texts of diverse genres and formats from the past two decades. What makes a particular YA book popular? Which YA books demonstrate literary quality? Using the texts themselves, along with critical essays and analyses of these works, we will analyze and evaluate key changes, innovations, and trends, and trace the evolution and growing complexity of YA literature.