Centers & Institutes

HUMN 101. Colloquium in the Humanities. 1 Unit.

A multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary introduction to the humanities, which explores the multiple possibilities for working across disciplinary boundaries. The course will include meetings with faculty from across the humanities at the university. Colloquium meetings will consist of discussion of prepared readings; an introduction to Baker-Nord Center programs, including Humanities@Work; an introduction to the cultural institutions of University Circle and Cleveland; and meetings with visiting speakers. Course open only to Baker-Nord Scholars in the Humanities.

HUMN 110. Emerging Scholars Seminar. 3 Units.

This 6-week accelerated summer bridge course for the Emerging Scholars Program introduces students to ways of thinking, reading, and writing about the humanities. Students will read from classic and contemporary works of history, philosophy, and literature, including creative nonfiction, journalism, fiction, and poetry.

HUMN 120. Crossing the Danube - Hungarian Study Abroad Trip. 3 Units.

Shaped by centuries of imperial rule, nation-building, world wars, and a socialist past, Hungary offers a layered portrait of grandeur, progressivism, and tradition. It also holds a distinctive place in global literary and cinematic imagination, where real and invented features intersect to create a setting that feels both familiar and mystical. When Jonathan Harker, in Dracula (1897), crosses the Danube--dividing the capital into Buda and Pest--he writes: "The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East." His words foreshadow how Budapest appears in art and film: as a threshold between worlds. In this study abroad course, we will "cross the Danube" both literally and figuratively, revisiting this sense of threshold. We'll explore Budapest's architectural landmarks--including the Buda Castle District, St. Stephen's Basilica, the Dohány Street Synagogue, and a traditional Turkish bath--while considering how cultural representations compare to lived realities (can we find The Grand Budapest Hotel?). We will also experience a lovasíjászat (horseback archery) demonstration, take part in a hands-on culinary workshop tracing the evolution of Hungarian national dishes, and participate in an ethnomusicology workshop exploring the folk traditions that inspired composers such as Béla Bartók. Offered as ENGL 120, HSTY 120, HUMN 120, INTL 120, MUHI 120, and WLIT 120. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

HUMN 212. Interrogating Information: Research and Writing for a Digital Public. 3 Units.

Current scientific and technological innovations inspire a need to weigh and evaluate information like never before, while navigating the digital world has become a critically important practice. In other words, we must interrogate information instead of passively receiving it as we encounter news, research, and everyday communications. Where scholarly conversations found in books and journal articles form the backbone of academic discourse, these are not the only sources of knowledge worth sharing and not the only forums where valuable conversations take place. These other sources of information and venues for sharing knowledge include digital conversations and knowledge distribution on platforms that include TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Wikipedia, among others. The fundamental question this course seeks to answer is: How do we leverage a multitude of information sources to become more thoughtful and more literate when interacting with the knowledge produced within the digital world? Throughout this course, we will examine different online communities that generate information, from TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube to other outlets such as Wikipedia and the search engines that lead us there. These communities will revolve around an intersectional combination of gender, race, class, and sexuality. Our goal is to explore where and how online knowledge is formed, who forms that knowledge through community engagement, and how it is dispersed to better understand the information networks we rely upon and to put them in social and cultural contexts. Broader questions we will consider and discuss include issues of equity and access to information, how does information lead to knowledge, who dominates information distributed within online conversations, and how do other voices carve out spaces for themselves via diverse communities. Assignments will model the research and writing process and will build towards a substantive research paper alongside a multimedia presentation in the style of a TikTok video or a specialized website focused on a given online community in order to best serve as a communications-oriented course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course.

HUMN 224. Cleveland, Humanities, Collaboration: Research Communities. 1 Unit.

What is collaborative inquiry in the humanities? This seminar explores collaborative and cross-disciplinary methodologies in the humanities, paying special attention to critical research resources and practices that support community-based, public humanities projects and programming. This seminar will provide a space to expand upon a research project from prior or current coursework while experimenting with collaborative modes of research, writing, feedback, and presentation. In the process, students will also develop relevant skills that serve to secure meaningful internships and other summer research opportunities or employment in humanities-related fields. Prereq or Coreq: SAGES First Seminar or FSTS 100.

HUMN 225. Cleveland, Humanities, Collaboration: Leadership Values and Skills. 1 Unit.

How do the humanities shape leadership values? How can the next generation of humanities leaders make the values of diversity and sustainability more central to their organizations? In this one-credit experiential engagement course, students reflect on these questions through a combination of seminar readings and direct conversations with former humanities students who are now in leadership positions at museums, corporations, nonprofits, and community organizations. Over the course of the semester, the students also work collaboratively to broaden their own leadership skills, including through networking, informational interviews, public speaking, career benchmarks, and short writing assignments. Over the course of the semester, students will: - Critically examine the role of the humanities in shaping leadership values - Present their expertise confidently through both live and pre-recorded formats - Explain their social and intellectual values in succinct and engaging ways - Work as teams to network in support of their individual postgraduate goals Prereq: Successful completion of FSTS 100 or SAGES First Seminar.

HUMN 226. Cleveland, Humanities, Collaboration: Sharing Discoveries. 1 Unit.

How do you effectively communicate your humanities research and education to multiple publics? In this seminar, we will explore the practice of translation, paying particular attention to the various modes of writing and communication that enable humanities scholars to communicate both the value and significance of their humanities research and education. This seminar will provide a space to develop your writing and scholarly portfolio while also experimenting with different modes of translation including blog posts, opinion editorials, resumes, grant writing, and digital portfolios. In the process, the seminar will further develop relevant skills that serve to secure meaningful internships and other summer research opportunities or employment in humanities-related fields. Prereq: Passing letter grade in SAGES First Seminar or FSTS 100.

HUMN 250. Responsible AI: Cultivating a Just and Sustainable Socio-technical Future through Data Citizenship. 3 Units.

An introduction to the key issues that inform ethically responsible design, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, with particular focus on the impact of data practices. From generative language models to video surveillance and identity detection to facial recognition, AI is becoming more and more embedded in our everyday lives. These AI technologies are increasingly built on our data, whether we are aware of it or not. In this praxis-oriented course, we will explore how data is fundamental to the development of AI technologies and develop practices for increased awareness of and participation in this data ecosystem. As we interrogate AI systems in everyday life through hands-on engagement with AI tools and their data pipelines, we will begin to construct a data citizenship model that can help us reclaim the power of collective responsibility in order to build a more just and sustainable socio-technical future. Students will focus their individual and group projects on questions and issues directly related to the subject area of the offering they are enrolled in. Offered as COGS 250, ENGL 250, HUMN 250, MUGN 250, PHIL 250 and RLGN 250. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.

HUMN 305. Coding for the Humanities: Python, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning. 3 Units.

An entry-level, humanities-oriented introduction to coding and natural language processing (NLP) with a focus on textual analysis. New technologies are radically transforming education and scholarship in the humanities, not to mention in higher education generally. In order to participate meaningfully in this changing landscape, humanities students and educators need to engage new forms of scholarship and teaching focused on technological experimentation and creative design. Such is the primary goal of this praxis-oriented course: to provide humanities students with hands-on access to emerging computational methods, to empower them to experiment, design, and build with them, and to foster critical reflection on issues and questions as they arise in that process. Offered as HUMN 305 and HUMN 405.

HUMN 318. Sketches of Spain: Imagining the Iberian World in Early Modernity. 3 Units.

In 1764 the Indigenous artist Jose Manuel de la Cerda made a series of lacquerware trays (batea) depicting scenes from Virgil's Aeneid using a pre-Hispanic lacquer technique. Produced in west-central Mexico, these astounding objects--which combine Roman subject matter with distinctly Indigenous motifs and techniques--speak to the visual consequences of Mexico's status as both a colonial possession of Spain, and as a vital bastion of artistic innovation. This course uses objects like this one as a point of departure to investigate the art of the Iberian world--a world that extended far beyond the European continent during the 16th-18th centuries. In this course we will focus on the nexus of transpacific and transatlantic trade that facilitated the production of objects like the batea. We will explore the ways that maps, illustrated travelogues, frescos, paintings and prints worked alongside decorative objects such as feathered headdresses, weapons, and carved ivory statuettes in order to interrogate the place of material culture in the formation of knowledge. Readings will be drawn from art history, anthropology, and sociology and will highlight decolonial methodologies for understanding racial representation and the history of collecting. Themes will include Iberian conceptions of race, caste, limpieza de sangre (blood purity) and settler colonialism. Students will have the unique opportunity to work on the Public and Digital humanities publication Baroque Without Boundaries--a digital mapping intervention facilitated by the CWRU Freedman Center. Offered as ARTH 318 and ARTH 418 and HUMN 318 and HUMN 418. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

HUMN 345. Issues in the History of Art and Medicine. 3 Units.

This course will explore issues at the intersection of art and medicine, with particular consideration of environmental equity and social justice surrounding the history of health and the body. Particular attention will be devoted to the long nineteenth century in Britain in the context of industrialization and globalization, with consideration of contemporary resonances and case studies in the United States and other countries. The course will begin with methodological approaches to art in the medical humanities, as well as the critical connections between environmental justice, decolonization, social justice, and health. We will also consider particular ethical concerns that exist in the study of art and medicine surrounding consent and the body. The course will then be structured around a series of case studies in thematic groupings, including: food and nutrition, reproductive health and sexuality, contagion and contamination, poisons and pollution, poverty and class disparity, physical fitness and exercise, race and the body, disability and ableism, and mental health. The course will incorporate the close study of objects in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as the Dittrick Medical History Center and the Cleveland Clinic. Students will be encouraged to draw connections between class discussions and challenges facing the greater Cleveland community today. Offered as ARTH 345, ARTH 445, HUMN 345, and HUMN 445.

HUMN 349. Digital History Internship with the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 3 Units.

This directed digital history internship focuses on familiarizing students with the evolving nature of on-line, vetted historical resources, most particularly encyclopedias and other multi-authored datasets, and providing experience in expanding and maintaining a major web-based historical resource. Students will work with the editor (the instructor for the course) and the graduate student associate editors of the on-line edition of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (https://case.edu/ech/) in creating new content for the on-line edition of the Encyclopedia and in modifying and enhancing its website, as well as assisting with the management of its social media components. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History was the first urban encyclopedia on the Web, and today its site averages over 100,000 page views per month. Work on the Encyclopedia will be complemented by weekly assigned readings relating to the evolution of digitally-based historical works and more generally to the issues of professional authority and veracity that have come to complicate historical discourse on the Web. These readings will serve as the basis for a seminar-style weekly meeting and for a topically focused research paper due at the end of the semester. The internship itself will require students to research and write at least ten new short entries for inclusion in the Encyclopedia; to assist the staff in preparing social media announcements; and to engage as needed in modifying the website. Offered as HSTY 349, HSTY 449, HUMN 349, and HUMN 449. Counts as a Disciplinary Communication course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course.

HUMN 364. Global Anglophone Poetry. 3 Units.

The course will focus on modern poetry -- its major writers, texts, performances, and movements -- from the Anglophone world, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, South Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Students will learn to recognize forms, traditions, and literary devices of poetry written in English; to analyze the political and economic impacts of imperialism, colonization, and globalization on culture and creativity; to examine the invention, renewal, and circulation of poetic genres of self-expression and community engagement; and to understand how poetry illuminates global histories of race, indigeneity, gender and sexuality. A student may not receive credit for both ENGL 364 and ENGL 364C. Offered as ENGL 364, ENGL 364C, ENGL 464, HUMN 364 and HUMN 464. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

HUMN 377. Ecopsychology: Reconnecting Mind, Body, Community. 3 Units.

Evidence from psychology, biology, ecology, and other disciplines converges around the finding that humans need a close connection to the natural world in order to be psychologically healthy. This course introduces students to a branch of psychology that considers the mind to be fundamentally connected to the planet on which it evolved and exists, Ecopsychology. Ecopsychology's goal is to support the pursuit of ecological justice by transforming people's psychological orientations toward the natural world and the ecological crisis. In this class, we'll consider the relationship between the mechanistic thinking of mainstream cognitive science and historical and ongoing environmental and racial injustice. We'll consider the consequences of disconnection from our planet for our physical, mental, and social health. You will read, write, reflect, and get to know places and people in our community. These class activities will 1) allow you to develop and apply wellness-related knowledge in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle and improved quality of life for yourself and your community, 2) develop civic and societal responsibility and a deeper understanding of communities in Cleveland. Some classes are held outside and off campus. Offered as COGS 377 and COGS 477 and HUMN 377 and HUMN 477. Counts as a Full-Semester Wellness/Non-movement course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course.

HUMN 405. Coding for the Humanities: Python, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning. 3 Units.

An entry-level, humanities-oriented introduction to coding and natural language processing (NLP) with a focus on textual analysis. New technologies are radically transforming education and scholarship in the humanities, not to mention in higher education generally. In order to participate meaningfully in this changing landscape, humanities students and educators need to engage new forms of scholarship and teaching focused on technological experimentation and creative design. Such is the primary goal of this praxis-oriented course: to provide humanities students with hands-on access to emerging computational methods, to empower them to experiment, design, and build with them, and to foster critical reflection on issues and questions as they arise in that process. Offered as HUMN 305 and HUMN 405.

HUMN 418. Sketches of Spain: Imagining the Iberian World in Early Modernity. 3 Units.

In 1764 the Indigenous artist Jose Manuel de la Cerda made a series of lacquerware trays (batea) depicting scenes from Virgil's Aeneid using a pre-Hispanic lacquer technique. Produced in west-central Mexico, these astounding objects--which combine Roman subject matter with distinctly Indigenous motifs and techniques--speak to the visual consequences of Mexico's status as both a colonial possession of Spain, and as a vital bastion of artistic innovation. This course uses objects like this one as a point of departure to investigate the art of the Iberian world--a world that extended far beyond the European continent during the 16th-18th centuries. In this course we will focus on the nexus of transpacific and transatlantic trade that facilitated the production of objects like the batea. We will explore the ways that maps, illustrated travelogues, frescos, paintings and prints worked alongside decorative objects such as feathered headdresses, weapons, and carved ivory statuettes in order to interrogate the place of material culture in the formation of knowledge. Readings will be drawn from art history, anthropology, and sociology and will highlight decolonial methodologies for understanding racial representation and the history of collecting. Themes will include Iberian conceptions of race, caste, limpieza de sangre (blood purity) and settler colonialism. Students will have the unique opportunity to work on the Public and Digital humanities publication Baroque Without Boundaries--a digital mapping intervention facilitated by the CWRU Freedman Center. Offered as ARTH 318 and ARTH 418 and HUMN 318 and HUMN 418. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

HUMN 422. Humanities Teaching Careers at Community Colleges. 0 Unit.

This course is designed to give CWRU graduate students in the humanities, arts, and humanistic social sciences an introduction to teaching careers at community colleges. Topics will include: student and faculty life; course design and assessment; online, hybrid, and dual-enrollment teaching; community engagement; and research, tenure, and career paths within community colleges.

HUMN 445. Issues in the History of Art and Medicine. 3 Units.

This course will explore issues at the intersection of art and medicine, with particular consideration of environmental equity and social justice surrounding the history of health and the body. Particular attention will be devoted to the long nineteenth century in Britain in the context of industrialization and globalization, with consideration of contemporary resonances and case studies in the United States and other countries. The course will begin with methodological approaches to art in the medical humanities, as well as the critical connections between environmental justice, decolonization, social justice, and health. We will also consider particular ethical concerns that exist in the study of art and medicine surrounding consent and the body. The course will then be structured around a series of case studies in thematic groupings, including: food and nutrition, reproductive health and sexuality, contagion and contamination, poisons and pollution, poverty and class disparity, physical fitness and exercise, race and the body, disability and ableism, and mental health. The course will incorporate the close study of objects in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as the Dittrick Medical History Center and the Cleveland Clinic. Students will be encouraged to draw connections between class discussions and challenges facing the greater Cleveland community today. Offered as ARTH 345, ARTH 445, HUMN 345, and HUMN 445.

HUMN 449. Digital History Internship with the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 3 Units.

This directed digital history internship focuses on familiarizing students with the evolving nature of on-line, vetted historical resources, most particularly encyclopedias and other multi-authored datasets, and providing experience in expanding and maintaining a major web-based historical resource. Students will work with the editor (the instructor for the course) and the graduate student associate editors of the on-line edition of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (https://case.edu/ech/) in creating new content for the on-line edition of the Encyclopedia and in modifying and enhancing its website, as well as assisting with the management of its social media components. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History was the first urban encyclopedia on the Web, and today its site averages over 100,000 page views per month. Work on the Encyclopedia will be complemented by weekly assigned readings relating to the evolution of digitally-based historical works and more generally to the issues of professional authority and veracity that have come to complicate historical discourse on the Web. These readings will serve as the basis for a seminar-style weekly meeting and for a topically focused research paper due at the end of the semester. The internship itself will require students to research and write at least ten new short entries for inclusion in the Encyclopedia; to assist the staff in preparing social media announcements; and to engage as needed in modifying the website. Offered as HSTY 349, HSTY 449, HUMN 349, and HUMN 449. Counts as a Disciplinary Communication course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course.

HUMN 464. Global Anglophone Poetry. 3 Units.

The course will focus on modern poetry -- its major writers, texts, performances, and movements -- from the Anglophone world, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, South Asia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Students will learn to recognize forms, traditions, and literary devices of poetry written in English; to analyze the political and economic impacts of imperialism, colonization, and globalization on culture and creativity; to examine the invention, renewal, and circulation of poetic genres of self-expression and community engagement; and to understand how poetry illuminates global histories of race, indigeneity, gender and sexuality. A student may not receive credit for both ENGL 364 and ENGL 364C. Offered as ENGL 364, ENGL 364C, ENGL 464, HUMN 364 and HUMN 464. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

HUMN 477. Ecopsychology: Reconnecting Mind, Body, Community. 3 Units.

Evidence from psychology, biology, ecology, and other disciplines converges around the finding that humans need a close connection to the natural world in order to be psychologically healthy. This course introduces students to a branch of psychology that considers the mind to be fundamentally connected to the planet on which it evolved and exists, Ecopsychology. Ecopsychology's goal is to support the pursuit of ecological justice by transforming people's psychological orientations toward the natural world and the ecological crisis. In this class, we'll consider the relationship between the mechanistic thinking of mainstream cognitive science and historical and ongoing environmental and racial injustice. We'll consider the consequences of disconnection from our planet for our physical, mental, and social health. You will read, write, reflect, and get to know places and people in our community. These class activities will 1) allow you to develop and apply wellness-related knowledge in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle and improved quality of life for yourself and your community, 2) develop civic and societal responsibility and a deeper understanding of communities in Cleveland. Some classes are held outside and off campus. Offered as COGS 377 and COGS 477 and HUMN 377 and HUMN 477. Counts as a Full-Semester Wellness/Non-movement course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course.

ORIG 485. Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology. 3 Units.

This course presents physiological concepts from the comparative and evolutionary perspective. Aspects of vertebrate and mammalian evolution will be considered with respect to the generation of adaptive advantages for organisms to changing environmental challenges since the Cambrian. Comparative physiological concepts include scaling, variations in nutrition, energy metabolism and work efficiency. The important influences of time, temperature, water and energy on mammalian biology will be presented. The course is a lecture based course that can be taken in person or on-line. Evaluations will be by regular quizzes, a mid-term and a final exam, all MCQ. Offered as PHOL 485 and ORIG 485.

CHST 301. Public Policy in Child Development. 3 Units.

This course introduces students to issues in public policy that impact children and families. Local, state, and federal child policy will be considered, and topics will include, for example, policies related to child poverty, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and children's physical and mental health. Students will learn how policy is developed, how research informs policy and vice versa, and a framework for analyzing social policy. Recommended preparation: One social sciences course or consent. Offered as ANTH 305, ANTH 405, CHST 301, CHST 401, and POSC 382A.

CHST 302. Experiential Learning in Child Policy. 3 Units.

Focus on state and federal legislative policy impacting children, youth, and families. Course includes an experiential learning component at the state or federal level and a travel experience to either Columbus, OH or Washington, DC to learn firsthand how policy is formed. Students may take this course twice for credit. Offered as ANTH 307 and CHST 302.

CHST 398. Child Policy Externship. 3 Units.

Externships offered through CHST 398/ANTH 308 give students an opportunity to work directly with professionals who design and implement policies that impact the lives of children and their families. Agencies involved are active in areas such as public health, including behavioral health, education. juvenile justice, childcare and/or child welfare. Students apply for the externships, and selected students are placed in local public or nonprofit agencies with a policy focus. Each student develops an individualized learning plan in consultation with the Childhood Studies Program faculty and the supervisor in the agency. CHST 398/ANTH 308 is a 3 credit-hour course and may be taken twice for a total of 6 credit hours. Offered as CHST 398 and ANTH 308. Prereq: CHST 301.

CHST 398C. Child Policy Externship and Capstone. 3 Units.

Externships offered through CHST/ANTH/PSCL 398C give students an opportunity to work directly with professionals who design and implement policies that impact the lives of children and their families. Agencies involved are active in areas such as public health, including behavioral health, education, juvenile justice, childcare and/or child welfare. Students apply for the externships, and selected students are placed in local public or nonprofit agencies with a policy focus. Each student develops an individualized learning plan in consultation with the Childhood Studies Program faculty and the supervisor in the agency. Offered as CHST 398C, ANTH 398C, and PSCL 398C. Counts as a Capstone Project course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course. Counts as a SAGES Senior Capstone course. Prereq: CHST 301.

CHST 399. Independent Study. 1 - 6 Units.

Students propose topics for independent reading and research.

CHST 401. Public Policy in Child Development. 3 Units.

This course introduces students to issues in public policy that impact children and families. Local, state, and federal child policy will be considered, and topics will include, for example, policies related to child poverty, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and children's physical and mental health. Students will learn how policy is developed, how research informs policy and vice versa, and a framework for analyzing social policy. Recommended preparation: One social sciences course or consent. Offered as ANTH 305, ANTH 405, CHST 301, CHST 401, and POSC 382A.