SDxCO Course Descriptions
Begin your college career this summer!
Explore national and global issues with a group of 10-12 students from across the United States. Develop college level writing, analysis and inquiry skills guided by scientists and scholars. Earn 3 college credits from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, a public liberal arts college in New England’s Berkshire mountains.
Public Health: A Social Work Analysis of Healthcare in Underserved Communities
with Dr. Keith Chan, Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College
This five week, interactive course will introduce students to the terms, concepts and frameworks in social work and health care with a focus on underserved, vulnerable populations. In a time of increased attention to health and economic inequality in the United States, social workers and other health professionals are responding to a call to action to address the social and environmental factors which contribute to disparities in health outcomes for underserved communities. This course will begin with a survey of the history of social work as a discipline, profession and practice with emphasis on social justice, health and mental health. The latter part of the course will focus on special issues in health care within different underserved communities, with emphasis on risk and protective factors relevant to communities of color, immigrants, older adults, and other marginalized and vulnerable populations.
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Introduction to Sociology and Birthright Citizenship: Race, Law, and Belonging in the United States
with Dr. Katrina Quisumbing King, Northwestern University
This discussion-based seminar is both an invitation to think sociologically and an introduction to the social scientific and historical study of U.S. citizenship. The course is designed to introduce you to the “sociological imagination,” a way of looking at the world and gaining insights about people’s behaviors, relationships, and ideas within their social and historical context. Sociology teaches us about how we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves and how everyday actions are connected to bigger forces. We will lay the groundwork for thinking sociologically in the first half of this course. In the second half of the course, students will sharpen their sociological imaginations as they learn about birthright citizenship in the United States. Debates over immigration and citizenship are long-standing. And today’s politicians continue to raise concerns over who (as in what kind of people) should be granted membership. These are fundamentally questions over who belongs and who is deserving. Some on the right, including the 45th President, sought to abolish birthright citizenship, claiming it is a “magnet for illegal immigration.” Students will learn the history behind granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States. They explore the history of U.S. citizenship law and learn about the interests and justifications for narrower and more capacious definitions of citizenship. What are the exceptions to birthright citizenship in the United States? How are decisions about and definitions of rights and membership related to ideas of race? Overall, this course will address how the United States has drawn boundaries of membership in racial terms and explore what this means for envisioning future possibilities.
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
“Uncolonial History” in Amerca: Indigenous and Settler Colonial Transformations
with Noah Ramage, University of California Berkeley
This course examines how Indigenous peoples and their lands transformed in the wake of white settler colonialism. Students will learn how to approach Native history in what is today the United States from various Indigenous perspectives. We will start with a week devoted to Indigenous America prior to European contact. After that, we will look at how the global collision between vastly different societies resulted in an interconnected rise of invasions, new nations, deportations, genocides, racial regimes, and resistance. Given that we will be spending so much time trying to understand colonialism through an often-Eurocentric lens of history, this course will be just as “uncolonial” as it will be decolonial. Though many of these histories will be difficult to understand, we will always evaluate how tribal nations and peoples found power in colonial contexts. We will finish the course with an overview of recent contestations for sovereignty, paying attention to how a pan-Indigenous movement has contributed to (and complicated) the paths to full sovereignty.
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Biogeography: Ecosystems, the Science and Art of Observation
with Dr. Adrienne Keller, University of Minnesota
How often have you stopped to deeply observe the natural world around you, to see the wealth of biodiversity just outside your front door, to ask why certain species live there (and others don’t), and to consider how this biodiversity (or lack thereof) affects you and your community’s health and well-being? In this course, we will use principles of scientific inquiry to explore and understand our local environments as complex socio-ecological systems. We will use a place-based approach, wherein each student will examine the characteristics of their own local environment (e.g. a city block, neighborhood park, or favorite outdoor recreation area) to understand how biodiversity, ecosystems, and human activities interact and affect one another. We will start by observing patterns of biodiversity in our local environments and then connect these patterns to processes of ecosystem functioning. Using observations and experiments to understand connections between patterns and processes is central to the scientific process, and through this course we will come to understand and experience the scientific process as an important method of inquiry. Students will have the opportunity to analyze one aspect of their local socio-ecological system in depth through a field-based inquiry research project. The course content will primarily focus on terrestrial systems, although students are welcome to explore aquatic systems (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans) in their research project.
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Black Women Writers of the African Diaspora
with Dr. Gilmer Cook-Hoet, Dominican University
This course will be an introduction to writing by Black women throughout the African Diaspora, including the Americas, Africa and the Caribbean. Class sessions will focus on highlighting and celebrating the contributions women of African descent (aka: “Black women”) have made in enriching the literary cultures of nations across the globe. Focusing primarily on short stories, essays, and poetry, students will gain a greater understanding of how Black women’s writing influences global discourses on love, motherhood, work, womanhood, and identity. The course will also include engagement with supplemental historical materials in order to ground students’ examination of Black women’s literary traditions within the context of the global legacies behind the African Diaspora’s formation that shape them. Contextualizing Black women’s writing in this way will allow students to gain comprehensive knowledge of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade’s role in founding the nations of the Americas and Caribbean that will familiarize them with concepts for understanding how the mixing of European, American Indigenous, and African cultures through colonialism and slavery dictate the contemporary racial, cultural, and ethnic identities of various peoples across nations of the African Diaspora.
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Pacific Voices: Poetry and Creative Writing
with Arielle Taitano Lowe, University of Hawaii Manoa
COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Songs of Liberation, Songs of Protest
with Jeremy McKinnies, University of North Florida
COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Songs of Liberation, Songs of Protest
with Jeremy McKinnies, University of North Florida
COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Social Justice Movements Communicated Through the Arts in Spain and the Americas
with Dr Max Romer-Pieretti
COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
Ciudad Años de Un Mundo de Pluralidad Cultural y Religiosa. Perspectiva Desde La Historia y Cultura de España.
with Dr Mario Corrales Serrano (note: This course is taught in Spanish)
COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE
Dates/Times: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021, MWF 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern and office hours TTH 5:00pm-6:30pm Eastern
All Student Diplomacy Corps Experimental College (SDxCO) courses are tuition-free for Student Diplomats.
Note: In order to provide high quality student centered experiences, all course descriptions, activities and class meeting times are subject to change.