New Topics and Travel Class Descriptions

Academic & Career Advising collects and posts course descriptions from the faculty who are teaching these Special Topics and New Topics courses. If you can't find the course description you're looking for, you can email the professor of the course. We have a running list of all past courses and their descriptions at the end of this page.

Please refer to the BoxerOnline class schedule for days, times, and other schedule details.

New Courses, Special Topics, and Travel Course Descriptions

2024-25 Civic Engagement Guide

CE Advising Guide 2024-25

Travel Classes - Short-term Study Abroad

International Programs has the list of upcoming travel classes (short-term study abroad).

Winter 2025

ARTST-221-02 Studio II: Paddlecarving
A wooden blade quietly dips in, propelling you through water and through life. When it is a paddle of your own making, ornamented with symbolism that reflects your own journey, it is an experience all the richer. Learn basic woodworking and carving skills while creating a single blade canoe paddle. Core: Artistic Practice & Creative Process, Sustainability

PH-355-02 NT: Experiential Public Health
Public health is a diverse field, tasked with improving community wellbeing across a wide set of issues and operating at multiple levels. In this course, students will visit the professional settings in which public health work is advanced, including government departments, non-profit organizations, and funding agencies primarily in the Portland area. Professionals will introduce students to the greatest priorities in the field and its future directions, including what skills they are looking for in the next generation of public health professionals. Students will gain direct understanding of the breadth of the public health system and the varied modes through which community health work is implemented, reflecting on their future role within the field.

POLS-255-01 NT: Current Issues in US Pols
The course examines the most important current issues and controversies in US politics from a legal, historical, and political perspective. The goal of the course is for students to have a broad familiarity and deep understanding of current issues so that they can be informed citizens. Despite the emphasis on current issues (including elections) it will include issues of a longer-duration that have current-day implications (ex: the abortion debate, affirmative action, etc). Most of the issues covered will have an ideological disagreement between the American Left and Right, which will enable students to understand both sides.

REL/SOC-255-01 NT: Spirituality Soc Justice
This class will examine social justice through the lens of spirituality, and explore the interconnections between the individual and the collective. Students will have opportunities to disconnect from the digital world, experience silent contemplation, and reflect on spiritual wellbeing—not limited to formal religion—individually and as a community in a retreat setting off campus. There will be daily readings and lectures in which the class examines the concepts of spirituality, religion, and social justice, as well as a chance to learn about universal spiritual practices that support individual and collective wellbeing.

Spring 2025

ARTHI-382-01 ST: Images of Power
In this seminar-style course, students will examine how images have power to support or protest a specific ideology or position. In particular, we will explore the power that art has wielded within a variety of contexts, such as political, social, and religious. In a global perspective, the class will cover images from antiquity to modern art in order to understand how power structures utilize art as well as the role art can play to resist those constructions. Using various critical and theoretical models and images of power, the course is an intersection of power, politics, culture, religion, ideology, and aesthetics.

ARTST-121-01: The Creative Process: Printmaking
In this course, we explore the creative process using several different printmaking processes, including relief, monotype, and screenprinting to create multiple impressions of original artworks. Core: Artistic Practice & Creative Process

ARTST-221-05: Printmaking: Etching
In this course, students will focus on the development of craft and technique to create works of art using etching printmaking processes. Etching, or intaglio printmaking has been used by artists for hundreds of years to create prints on paper using copper, acid, and other tools. Previous drawing or other art experience highly encouraged.

BIOL-255-01 Learning Hacks for Intro Bio: Flow of Energy
Do you want to increase your confidence as a science student? Learn how to study more efficiently and effectively? Learn and implement strategies to boost your memory and your exam performance? Have you ever been asked a question on a biology exam and had no idea how to even get started? Want a little extra support to boost your success in Biol 200? Then this course is for you!

The focus of this course is helping students learn how to learn efficiently and effectively. We will practice building skills related to learning in the context of concepts from Biology 200 (Intro Bio: Flow of Energy), which students must be concurrently enrolled in. With faculty guidance and support, students will practice techniques informed by research about learning. We will also be an accountability community for each other as students try to implement different strategies. Practicing skills related to taking exams in biology may also be incorporated into class activities—such as learning how to find the hidden clues in exam questions and break down the problem into steps to solve it. This class is beneficial for students at any level—students struggling to pass biology classes, students wanting to boost their grades from Bs to As, or strong students who want to learn how to be more efficient and effective in their studying. Co-requisite: Biol 200. Grading: pass/fail.

ENV-355-01 NT: Horticulture
Students will explore the multidisciplinary and applied science of horticulture, focusing on the care, propagation, and maintenance of food, fiber, and ornamental plant crops. Covering the fundamentals of plant botany and physiology, the class will delve into sustainably managing plant vigor, health, and yield of specific crops. Content of the course will range from the evolutionary history of plants, phenology and development, plant propagation, and nutrient and water management. While offered as a lecture class, it will actively integrate applied practice of skills and concepts discussed. Students can expect periodic activities on and off-campus, providing a practical dimension to their learning experience. Prerequisite: ENV 200 or BIOL 200 or BIOL 201. 4 credits.

HIST-355-01 NT: Political Hist of Emotion
Humans are not simply rational beings. Emotions play a dramatic role in the way we experience the world. Yet traditional history often omits explorations of life’s affective dimensions. This course will investigate the role of emotions in modern American politics. Drawing on new methodologies developed in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and economics, we will try to understand how rage, resentment, and hatred as well as empathy, hope, and humanitarianism motivates involvement in the public sphere. Whether the issue is power or national security, capitalism or culture, feelings intertwine with cognition. Prerequisites: One 100- or 200-level history course

HIST/GER-355-02 NT: Vienna Prep
Most Livable City Prep Course & Travel Course (poster)

Vienna has the distinction of being the world's most livable city on the Economist's annual Global Liveability Index in 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023. The city's stability, robust health care and educational systems, and its strong infrastructure contribute to its liveability. This course examines Vienna's history of social measures and cultural developments that have contributed to the city's past and present glory, such as the Habsburg monarchy, the Fin-de-Siècle art movements, interwar "Red" socialist times, while also exploring eras in which political and social conditions have challenged liveability, as under National Socialism, the Bosnian war, and the war in Syria. Prerequisites Sophomore standing or German 201 proficiency or instructor consent.

HIST/GER-355-03 NT: Vienna Travel
Vienna has been one of the world's most liveable cities on the Economist's annual Global Liveability Index in 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023. This 2-week travel course includes educational tours of historical, political, and cultural sites related to periods and developments that have contributed to that designation, e.g., the Habsburg monarchy, the Fin-de-Siècle art movement, and interwar "Red" socialist times. At the same time, a critical perspective will challenge the definition of liveability and examine historical periods, e.g., National Socialism, and cultural communities that did not always experience that liveability, e.g., Jews, Roma and Sinti, and contemporary refugees. Corequisites HIST/HUM/GER 255 Vienna: Most Liveable City Prep Course

MUS-355 NT: History of Film and Video Game Music
This course is an introduction to the relationships between sound, film, and video games of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Beginning with silent films of the 1920s, students will explore how music and sound have been used in a variety of ways to enhance media and engage audiences throughout history. The course will also delve into the various strategies that composers and sound designers use to create film and game music, as well as significant social, cultural, artistic, and historical events associated with the creation of these multimedia. Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.

PH/SOC-355 NT: NHPI Community and Health
Through this course, students will engage with the work of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander scholars, activists, and community organizers to explore topics of identity development, community building and relationships, and health. Explorations of NHPI frameworks, like Vāsā and Aloha 'Āina, highlight the how tending to "sacred space" and "sacred relationships" affects one's self of self, community, and health. These explorations will provide students with the ability to engage in culturally responsive participation in local NHPI community events.

PSY-210 Current Issues in Psychology ST: Peoples and Cultures of Hawai`i
The course content uses a standard text in the field PEOPLE AND CULTURES OF HAWAII: THE EVOLUTION OF CULTURE AND ETHNICITY edited by John F. McDermott and Naleen Naupaka Andrade. This book features chapters written by psychological experts of each of the ethnocultural groups in Hawai`i. Each chapter provides an overview of linguistic. sociocultural, and psychological processes of one of each of the 15 major ethnocultural groups populating Hawai'i. Using the book described, the class will focus on updating information on culture, family, socialization, gender roles, occupations, migration patterns, health, and mental health of ethnocultural groups in Hawai`i (Hawaiians, Euro-Americans, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Okinawans, Hispanics, Koreans, Filipinos, Blacks/Africans/African Americans, Samoans, Thais, Vietnamese, and Micronesians.

PSY-355-01 NT: Grief Loss & Mental Health
Students critically explore a wide range of psychological issues related to grief and loss. This course will provide a foundation of the theoretical concepts associated with the impact and consequences of acute stress on individuals, taking into account the process of grief and loss, complicated grief, dying, death, and bereavement, and the long-term consequences of unresolved grief-trauma. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of the human stress response, the social and cultural contexts of death and loss, adjustment to loss, comorbidity with mental health issues, and developing effective coping strategies.
Prerequisites C or better: PSY 150 or PSY 160; PSY 211 Note: A minimum grade of D is assumed for all prerequisites unless otherwise specified. Course assumes a competent understanding (C or better) of foundational psychological theories specifically those relating to mental health and wellness, and assumes understanding of the diagnostic classifications used in the assessment of distress.

SOC-455-01 NT: Fiction as Research Method
In this course we examine the use of speculative fiction as a method for social research. Because this is a less familiar research method that remains generally neglected in most methodology textbooks, we will spend some time establishing its epistemological basis: What can speculative fiction help us know, and how do we know that we know it? What kinds of research questions can fiction address? How are fiction-based research projects designed? By what criteria is fiction-based research evaluated? We will read diverse examples of speculative fiction-based research from scholars such as Donna Haraway, Eman Abelhadi and ME O'Brien, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and others. Finally, alongside learning about this method and reading examples, we will also practice applying speculative fiction to research questions of our own design.

SOCWK-355 NT: SW Global Perspectives: Prep
This course is designed to prepare students for the social work global perspectives travel course, an immersive experience in a diverse global culture. Students will be exposed to various aspects of culture, such as language, traditions, and social, economic, and political dimensions of global experience, with direct application to social work practice and human rights. Students will learn about social services specific to the needs of the global community and participate in community service projects. The specific location of travel will be announced and may change from year to year.

Fall 2024

ARTST-121-01: Printmaking
In this course, we explore the creative process using several different printmaking processes, including relief, monotype, and screenprinting to create multiple impressions of original artworks. Core: Artistic Practice & Creative Process

ARTST-221-01 Studio II: Painting
In this course students will skillfully learn to create form through paint. It will emphasize basic painting principles, color theory, different painting materials and art studio best practices. The media we will be using will include acrylic, oil and watercolor paint. Students will be studying still life, landscape and portrait and abstract painting. This course is designed to help students find their voice by introducing them to a wide range of techniques and practices. After students figure out what media and subject matter they like to work in the best they will create a final painting that showcases their abilities. Core: Artistic Practice & Creative Process

ARTHI-382-01ST: Images of Power
In this course, students will examine how images have power to support or protest a specific ideology or position. In particular, we will explore the power that art has wielded within a variety of contexts, such as political, social, and religious. In a global perspective, the class will cover images from antiquity to modern art in order to understand how power structures utilize art as well as the role art can play to resist those constructions. Using various critical and theoretical models and images of power, the course is an intersection of power, politics, culture, religion, ideology, and aesthetics.

BIOL-255-01: Learning Hacks for Intro Bio: Flow of Energy
Do you want to increase your confidence as a science student? Learn how to study more efficiently and effectively? Learn and implement strategies to boost your memory and your exam performance? Have you ever been asked a question on a biology exam and had no idea how to even get started? Want a little extra support to boost your success in Biol 200? Then this course is for you!

The focus of this course is helping students learn how to learn efficiently and effectively. We will practice building skills related to learning in the context of concepts from Biology 200 (Intro Bio: Flow of Energy), which students must be concurrently enrolled in. With faculty guidance and support, students will practice techniques informed by research about learning. We will also be an accountability community for each other as students try to implement different strategies. Practicing skills related to taking exams in biology may also be incorporated into class activities — such as learning how to find the hidden clues in exam questions and break down the problem into steps to solve it. This class is beneficial for students at any level — students struggling to pass biology classes, students wanting to boost their grades from Bs to As, or strong students who want to learn how to be more efficient and effective in their studying. Co-requisite: Biol 200. Grading: pass/fail.

PH-255-01: NT: Elements of Health
This course examines human health and disease from a public health perspective. This course will discuss the basic fundamental principles of prevention and disease management to promote community health. This course will include a brief review of the etiology, prevalence/incidence of selected diseases with a focus on health disparities. There will be an emphasis on the importance of social and behavioral factors that influence the determinants, distribution, prevention, and health promotion of high-risk diseases.

PH-255-02: NT: Aotearoa NZ Travel Prep
The course provides opportunities for meaningful connections with the land and people of Aotearoa New Zealand as we learn about health and wellbeing. The purpose of the course is to broaden students’ worldview and increase critical thinking regarding transnational relations and how we can grow together. This is a preparation course for the winter Aotearoa New Zealand travel class. This course will provide students with fundamental cultural history and values, initial Māori language skills and resources, ethical discussions about travel classes and engagement with indigenous populations, and travel preparation. This content will be delivered collaboratively with Māori and kiwi partners.