What does it mean to be human?

Susan Alberts, Professor, Biology 

What biological traits make humans distinct from nonhuman animals? The course will discuss aspects of human biology that are different from most or all other animals, and will cover genetics, physiology, cell biology, morphology, behavior, diet, reproduction, and cognitive traits. The course will include an off-campus experience in the form of a visit to the NC Zoo and/or the Duke Lemur Center.

Amy Herring, Dean of the Natural Sciences and Sara & Charles Ayers Distinguished Professor, Statistical Science

Rigorous introduction to health data science using current applications in biomedical research, epidemiology, and health policy. Use modern statistical software to conduct reproducible data exploration, visualization, and analysis. Interpret and translate results for interdisciplinary researchers. Critically evaluate data-based claims, decisions, and policies. Includes exploratory data analysis, visualization, basics of probability and inference, predictive modeling, and classification. This course focuses on the R computing language. No statistics or computing background is necessary.

Cross-list: GLHTH 198 CNL  

April Henry, Lecturer of German Studies, German Studies

This course investigates how the genre of Science Fiction can lead to the conception and exploration of groundbreaking ideas. Through a selection of films and literary works, we will examine how science fiction imagines future worlds, challenges current paradigms, and unlocks potential by fostering creativity and innovation. Students will analyze how authors and filmmakers envision technological advancements, artificial intelligence, and alternate realities. The course will highlight the ways in which these imaginative worlds inspire real-world innovation, pushing the boundaries of what is possible and encouraging creative thinking. Through critical analysis, students will gain a deeper understanding of the intersection between science fiction and the potential for transformative ideas.

Maurizio Forte, Professor, Classical Studies 

Understanding who we are now demands understanding where we came from. The study of the ancient mind is thus one of the most challenging and fascinating research activities regarding homo sapiens and human society. This kind of study requires a multidisciplinary approach that involves different disciplines and research backgrounds relevant to understanding how ancient minds thought about the world. This can be possible with a new dialogue between neuroscience and the humanities that, in particular, connects the study of art and material culture with cultural models, cultural patterns, and the evolution of the brain. This course seeks to open new perspectives in the study of the past and in the interpretation of the ancient and modern mind by approaching research questions at the intersection of the brain sciences, humanities, archaeology, anthropology, art, philosophy, aesthetics, and visual studies.

Saskia Ziolkowski, Associate Professor, Romance Studies 

What does it mean to be human? How does imaginative work explore the boundaries of being human? This course investigates these questions in three units: animals, dehumanization, and the uncanny valley. In unit 1 we read works that interrogate the boundary between humans and other animals. How do we conceptualize what defines us and how do creative works interrogate the validity of these human concepts by exploring other animals' perspectives? In unit 2, we continue this exploration, focusing only on human-human interactions, especially in terms of migration, concentration camps, and colonialism. In unit 3, we try to understand who is human (not robot) in diverse media. Authors include Kafka, Coetzee, Spiegelman, Primo Levi, Scego, Maaza Mengiste, Asimov, Collodi, and Philip K. Dick.

Mona Hassan, Associate Professor, Religious Studies 

Description forthcoming. 

Dan McShea, Professor, Biology 

Fear, love, anger, pride, regret, envy – the emotions seem to play a big role in our lives, as well as in the lives of certain other animal species.  But what are the emotions?  Are they guides to behavior?  Are they judgments, or perhaps biases of judgment?  Are they motivations? Or maybe they are epiphenomenal – mere side effects of other mental processes, essentially irrelevant to proper mental function.  The course explores what the emotions are, what they are for, and how they evolved.  We begin with readings of some classic treatments of behavior and emotion in certain animal species, including gulls and chimpanzees. We then consider emotions in humans, reading selections from important works in psychology, neurobiology, and ethics. The central issue in the last part of the course will be the role of the emotions in human judgment, especially moral judgment.

Gabriel Rosenberg, Associate Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies 

Some scientists contend that the Earth has entered a new geological age in which human actions and effects are the dominant force shaping the planet, a so-called, “anthropocene.” Such a planet offers diminishing possibilities for other creatures to live beyond the influence of Homo sapiens. How do animals fit into human societies when human society is now so inescapable? Do animals still exert agency and shape how we live? And how can humans maintain ethical relationships to nonhuman critters? Can we share landscapes and ecosystems, much less an entire planet? This course explores these questions, surveying different approaches to the critical study of animals from the humanities as well as the natural, environmental, and social sciences. We will pursue these questions through scientific papers, philosophical essays, literature, films, and experiential learning activities.

Christian Ferney, Associate Director for Education, Operations, and Media Strategy, Kenan Institute for Ethics 

Humans have always worked, but they haven’t always had jobs. To understand why that’s true, we need to tease out how human modes of subsistence have changed alongside our ideas about what constitutes a good life. Which changes came first? This course examines major shifts in the social, organizational, and normative context of work over the past several hundred years. As we explore this sweep of recent human history, we will focus on how social actors have adapted to—and reacted against—changes in how societies organize work. In this class, you’ll learn to think like a social scientist, examining competing theories of change and evaluating the evidence bolstering those claims. Towards the end of the semester, you will do your own exploratory research on the contemporary landscape of work as you potentially prepare to participate in it.

Cross-list: SOCIOL 152CN

Hannah Davis, Senior Lecturer, Thompson Writing Program 

What does it mean to be creative? What does it mean to be a writer? What is academic writing? In "Writing as a Creative Process," we will explore these and related questions as we engage with both creativity and writing as academic fields of study. As composition scholar Wendy Bishop says, “Writing is, after all, a creative process; and like any such process, it depends on human connection.” As such, we will engage in discussions, writing workshops, and activities that help you explore and investigate the course questions and to learn about yourself, creativity, and writing. Throughout the course, you’ll practice creative thinking, invention, critical reading, drafting, workshopping, and revising as you complete writing projects that introduce you to writing as a mode of inquiry.  

This semester, you will use writing as a mode of inquiry to explore myths about writing and creativity and to join academic conversations. Throughout the semester, you will write short responses and longer, researched papers (1500-2000 words). Each major assignment will receive feedback and undergo multiple revisions. We will spend class time working through the major assignments with a variety of activities that guide your ability to think creatively and engage with writing as a process. 

The goal of this course is not to arrive at definitive answers about the course’s guiding questions but to practice critical thinking, reading, and writing as we explore new perspectives and form evidence-based arguments. If you are interested in learning about and discussing writing and creativity, then "Writing as a Creative Process" is the Writing 120 course for you.

Rhiannon Scharnhorst, Senior Lecturer, Thompson Writing Program 

Mark Menjivar's photo essay “You Are What You Eat” (Gastronomica, Fall 2012) captures diverse refrigerators alongside brief household biographies, reflecting Brillat-Savarin's insight that our food choices reveal our identity. Food practices are shaped by history, culture, and gender dynamics. This course explores how personal identity intertwines with food history, emphasizing women's contributions to food traditions. Through feminist scholarship in anthropology, history, and rhetoric, we'll examine how food symbolically defines who we are. 

Course components include regular writing assignments to develop your critical voice, a collaborative research essay exploring feminist food history, and a student-designed class exhibit for the library titled "We Are What We Eat." Throughout the semester, you'll engage with diverse food writers, conduct primary research, and create work for public audiences while developing essential writing and analytical skills.

David Landes, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Thompson Writing Program 

A revolution is occurring in the ways we pay attention, demanding that we learn, unlearn, and relearn ways of attending across most aspects of contemporary life.  To our aid, a liberal arts education trains students’ attention--liberally and liberatorily--to “cultivate and practice the kinds of attention that will make them intelligent observers, diligent critics, and thoughtful actors on the stage of human life” (Sullivan).  This academic writing course teaches critical research and writing skills through exploring how different kinds of attention shape our various ways of knowing, thinking, and doing. 

Our inquiry-driven writing within the liberal arts tradition will organize our survey of various conceptions of attention and will aid our building of cutting-edge vocabularies for attention’s situational dynamics from the experiencer’s point of view (e.g., the kind of attention you’re using while reading this).  Guiding texts will span the humanities, sciences, arts, and the technological frontier, providing theories and case studies to help us ask: What are the means by which attention is formed in any given situation?  How is attention constructed, structured, and variably reconfigured?  Students will select situations of their interest where the type of attention used determines differences in outcomes.  Writing and research assignments will scaffold the process of conducting attention analyses.  The final essay culminates your work as a participant-researcher analyzing and creating modes of attention optimized for goals in a given situation.  Ultimately, students will be learning two interrelated fundamental methodologies of the liberal arts: 1) the conventions of academic reading, writing, and researching, and 2) the foundational skills of attention that are implicit to all academic work, disciplinary knowledge, and social action.