Looking for interdisciplinary classes that think outside the box? Want to go beyond theory and understand how academic concepts apply in real-world settings? Take a class with the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life! or Service-Learning!
CSPL211 Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Legal Advocacy for Disabled Veterans
Sarah Ryan
In-person with remote students
The public rarely understands what it takes to fight for one’s legal rights or benefits. Good writers can translate those battles in ways that teach, empower, and (re)build community support for struggling individuals. This course is a study in the translation of legal challenges into civic advocacy.
CSPL235 Activism and Theories of Change
Leslie Gabel-Brett
Hybrid with remote students
In this course you will explore strategies and theories of change that shape social justice movements, with particular reference to recent movements in the United States. You will discuss the benefits and risks of the many available strategies including direct action, grassroots mobilization, impact litigation, legislative campaigns, electoral campaigns, artistic protest, and public education. What strategic, ethical or moral questions are raised by various types of protest and communications?
CSPL 239 Startup Incubator: The Art and Science of Launching Your Idea
Rosemary Ostfeld
Online
The Startup Incubator is a one-semester, experiential learning program designed to teach and enable student entrepreneurs to develop sustainable business models from their ideas.The program will bring together an ambitious, committed, and diverse group of individuals from all classes and majors who are passionate about developing successful solutions to challenges; identify as entrepreneurs, disruptors, and thought leaders; and have the tenacity, work ethic, and ability to succeed. All participating students should have a promising business idea and take the course with the intention of launching or running their own venture.
WRCT 250V The Voice(s) of Expertise: How Podcasting Is Changing the Way We Listen and Learn
Graham Whitney Griffith
Hybrid in-person only
In this course, students will examine the changing nature of audio news and storytelling, and the extent to which traditional understanding of the voice of expertise is being disrupted by the rise of podcasting and other on-demand audio forms. This course will be a combination of media criticism, a study of best practices in journalism, and design thinking. As students examine the impact of new media on news and journalism, they will also develop their own ideas for on-demand audio (including podcast design) throughout the semester, working on an individual project, and in collaboration with other students.
CSPL 328 Advanced Human Rights Advocacy
Jim Cavallaro
In- person only
This course will enable students to engage in critical assessment of human rights advocacy while participating directly in projects through the University Network for Human Rights. Students in Professor Cavallaro’s Fall CSPL 316 course are encouraged to apply, as are other students interested in gaining practical experience in human rights. The course will involve seminar discussions and readings that assess the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges facing the human rights movement domestically and internationally.
HIST 308 Trump-Evangelicals: the History of Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism in America
Joseph Slaughter
In-person only
This course examines the history of American evangelicalism, seeking to understand the nature of its support for the presidency of Donald Trump. Students will be challenged to consider the ways issues of gender, race, and economics have shaped 21st-century evangelicalism, and reflect on how the movement’s view of American history contributes to its own sense of identity and purpose.
CSPL 250W Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction
Daniel de Visé
Hybrid in Person-Only
Journalistic nonfiction uses the tools of the newsroom to create long-form stories that read like novels. Students will learn the skills to ensnare readers in any medium of narrative nonfiction writing, from articles and books to screenplays and teleplays. Journalists excel in conducting interviews and marshaling facts. But few journos ever master the art of narrative storytelling. Nonfiction book writers can wield a narrative arc to tell a story. But many book writers are weak on basic reporting. We will read the work of newspaper reporters who learned to write long-form narratives, and magazine writers who learned the skills of the newsroom. By semester’s end, students will know tools of both trades. We will hear from some of the writers about their work.
CSPL 341 Case Studies in Educational Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Anna Shusterman
Online
Entrepreneurship, innovation, and reform are a defining part of the fabric of K-12 education in the US and other places, presenting opportunities and risks. For the first two months of the course, we will be visited each week by one or more experts who have led or studied innovative or entrepreneurial projects in the education sector. Perspectives and cases to be discussed include the founding of schools and businesses, start-up ventures, social entrepreneurship and nonprofit organizations, educational law and policy, and innovation within public schools and districts. Students will learn from conversations with experts in the field about how to define problems in education, how different people have approached solutions to these problems, and lessons learned.
CSPL 480 Engaged Projects
Makaela Kingsley
Online
Engaged Projects (EPs) are rigorous, self-designed endeavors in which a student studies a topic of their choice and completes a final project intended for a non-academic audience. Students are encouraged but not required to select a topic that is connected to another class or their major. Final projects can take the form of blogs, videos, a website, or other media; a work of art, an event, a workshop, a presentation, or panel; a policy proposal or analysis; a white paper or op-ed series; a business plan; and/or any other piece(s) thoughtfully designed for the public.
CSPL 262 Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship
Makaela Kingsley
Hybrid in-person only
In this project-based, cohort-style class, students will learn strategies for understanding social and environmental problems, and they will design interventions to create impact. Each student will select a topic to work on individually or as part of a team throughout the semester. Topics will include root cause analysis, ecosystem mapping, theory of change, human-centered design, business models, leadership and teamwork, impact metrics, storytelling, and more.
CSPL 277 Community Impact: Building Capacity to Support Educational Enrichment and Socioemotional Development
Clifton Watson and Amy Grillo
Online
In this half-credit course, students will build an intellectual and practical framework to guide their work in volunteer settings in the local community. What does it mean to “help?” How do we assess the needs of community partners and build the knowledge and skills that will allow us to address those needs? What do we need to know and understand about the people with whom we work? What does research have to say about effective tutoring techniques and practices? How can we design meaningful learning experiences? How can we maximize not only our impact in the community, but our own growth and learning?