After reading the descriptions below, please return to the Advising Questionnaire to list which seminars interest you the most. For an explanation of the ESP general education codes at the end of each description, please refer to the Education through Skills and Perspectives link. Please note that the meeting time for all seminars is Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30-12:00.

Art: I Know It When I See It (4 credits)
Many philosophical questions surround artworks. What makes something a work of art? Do artworks have unique meanings, multiple meanings, or no meaning at all? Is there something called “aesthetic value,” and how does it differ from other kinds of value? How should we treat the artist’s intentions when evaluating a work? In this course, we will consider classic and contemporary answers to these and many more questions. We will then test these answers in light of real engagement with art, artists, and the audience. How well do philosophical theories of art stand up to scrutiny in light of our actual artistic practices? The course will look at art across media and genre, including fiction, poetry, dance, painting, sculpture, music, film, and theater, and the class will visit museums and galleries and attend performances. (AES, f, x, r)

Instructor: Professor Gettings
Student Success Leader: Meredith Hubbard

Dancing Bodies/Moving Histories: Social Dance in the US (early 1900’s to present) (4 credits)
“Social Dance” in the US encompasses diverse forms. What are “social dances?” What makes a dance “social?” Can all dance forms be considered “social dances?” Are “social dances” determined by their communal practice/performance? To investigate these questions and others, Dancing Bodies/Moving Histories will locate/survey American social dances form the early 1900’s to the present moment. The course will map the development of popular social dances (Cakewalk, Lindy-Hop, Twist, the Jerk, Boogie, Vogue to Hip-Hop) and their transformations alongside cultural, social, economic, and political movements/systems in the US. Notions of “place” will serve as a theme to map how, when, and where these dances were/are generated. Simultaneously, the course will investigate/research how gender, race, and sexualities motivate and/or influence the formation/development of social dance forms. The course includes readings in dance history/theory and cultural studies, seminar discussions, viewing dance documentaries/films, and lectures by the instructor and/or invited guests. (DIV, f, x, r)

Instructor: Professor Bullock
Student Success Leader: Lauren Bakst

Heritage, Not Hate? The Culture, Geography and Politics of Nationalism and Heritage (4 credits)
This course examines the forces of nationalism and heritage within contemporary society, analyzing their seductive power and their ability to both unite and divide. We exam how films, novels, symbols, museums, battlefield sites, paintings, oral histories, telemedia, poetry, and schoolbooks all play a role in constructing sanitized and glorified versions of the national past. The case studies in the course examine national identity and heritage in the United States (including Southern regional identity), South Africa, Japan, Germany, China, and Jamaica. Students are encouraged to examine their own national identities critically and to reflect upon the power of heritage discourse. Finally, we examine the role of national mythology and collective memory in leadership development and selection, with a focus on leadership at the regional and national levels. Case studies of how particular world leaders have used and manipulated discourses of heritage and memory in their rise to political power will also be examined. (MOD, f, x, r)

Instructor: Professor Barbieri
Student Success Leader: Olivia Farrow

Heroes: Types and Archetypes (4 credits)
Who’s a hero? What makes a hero? Is there a difference between a hero and a heroine? Throughout history, cultures have produced (or fabricated) heroes who become models of behavior and projections of a society’s hopes and anxieties. This seminar involved the study of various heroes and heroines (both real and imagined), trying to find out why they are considered heroic and what they tell us about the cultures that revered them. We’ll look at some of the early classical heroes like Odysseus, Antigone, and Oedipus, evaluating the way their character and characteristics find a home in western culture from Hamlet to Mrs. Dalloway and Harry Potter. Super powers or prior record of heroic accomplishment not required. (ANC, f, x, r)

Instructor: Professor Markert
Student Success Leader: Destini Price





History Rocks! (4 credits)
From Sam Cooke to Bob Dylan and from Rage Against the Machine to Public Enemy, music has provided the soundtrack for modern American history. Whether garage, pop, indie, southern, punk, grunge, metal, cowboy, or hip-hop, music says volumes about who we are as a people. While much of American culture has fought to wall itself off from foreign influences, the music has embraced those cultures from the British invasion to Bob Marley and from Shakira to German death metal. Music about race, war, poverty, gender, and social alienation has fed the social critique and engaged generations of Americans to work for a better world. This class will use that soundtrack as historical evidence to analyze recent American history. (DIV, f, x, r)

Instructor: Professor Coogan
Student Success Leader: Kelcy Mueller
 
Junk Food Media (4 credits)
Turn on TV, read papers and magazines, check out popular websites, and you will find an abundance of stories about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Nicole-Smith, and the rest of today's popular stars. Why is media obsessed with these stars, and what is the consequence of such wall-to-wall coverage? We will address the issues of pop-culture and the position and creation of celebrity within pop-culture. We will look at the historical developments of the concept of celebrity, the celebritisation of current politics, various media texts and their meanings, the role of media in the production of celebrity, and the response of the audience in interpreting these texts. We will address these questions as we interpret and critique modern popular culture, drawing on Cultural Studies theory. (MOD, o, r)

Instructor: Professor Bratic
Student Success Leader: Tiffany Brown

The Nature and Culture of Water (4 credits)
An exploration of the ways water runs through American name writing.  By close reading, writing, and fieldwork, we will examine and experience how authors integrate this "element" into their work, as well as the way water functions as myth, metaphor, ritual, resource, image, and form.  The natural and cultural realities of our local and home watersheds will remain in focus as we consider how characters and authors reckon with the presence of water in their worlds.  (AES, f, x, r)

Instructor: Professor Moeckel
Student Success Leader: Meaghan Quinn

Numb3rs (4 credits)
“We all use math everyday!” is the catchy introduction to the popular CBS criminal series titled NUMB3RS. But is this statement true? Do we in fact use math every day? And can math really be used to solve criminal cases? NUMB3RS is a first-year seminar designed for students who enjoy thinking logically and mathematically. Students will watch and carefully study episodes of NUMB3RS and, in doing so, will quickly discover that many of the numerical crime-solving techniques rely on very basic mathematical ideas. Students will use these methods to mathematically solve several real-life (similar but different) criminal situations. Moreover, students will work to gain a deeper understanding of the conceptual foundation of these numerical techniques and, in doing so, will uncover a surprisingly beautiful, mysterious and magical mathematical world which includes fractals, chaos games, secret codes and gambling. (o,r)

Instructor: Professor Hammer
Student Success Leader: Marina Stanojevic

Organic Filmmaking (4 credits)
It is unfortunately not hard to imagine a world with less and less resources, especially fossil fuels and water. How will the lack of these resources affect the future of the filmmaking industry? How will it change how we record and store moving imagery? This seminar will concentrate on the concept of “sustainable filmmaking” by exploring ways of creating films that are environmentally friendly and less reliant on fossil fuels. The class will produce group film projects that incorporate new materials and try different production methods to lessen the carbon footprint needed to make and show films. Filmmaking strategies will include following a “green filmmaking manifesto” that lists the criteria for reducing resources, using the electric-free Bolex 16mm camera with its spring-loaded motor, and producing a short group film using cell phones. $100 Lab fee required. (CRE, 0)

Instructor: Professor Gerber-Stroh
Student Success Leader: Angel Jackson

Photography Speaks (4 credits)
In this seminar, you will make and look at photographs that examine cultural and personal identity. Using a Holga plastic lens film camera, as well as the digital lab, you will complete projects based on dreams and memories, family history, and your own place in the world as a Hollins University student. Along the way, you will learn how to use a traditional darkroom and relevant features of Adobe Photoshop. Through visual presentations and articles, you will study a range of work (photographs) that deal with social concerns such as child labor and the environment; the important role of photography in establishing African American identity in the early 20th c.; and that also considers personal identity and gender in contemporary photography. (no previous experience necessary). Lab fee required. (CRE, r)

Instructor: Professor Sulkin
Student Success Leader: Kellie Kunerth

Shakin’ Things Up:  Uncommon Hispanic Women from La Malinche to Shakira (4 credits)
This course will look at how the female voice has shaped Latin American history, politics, business, and culture. Starting with the female leaders of the pre-Columbian era, we will take a journey  through time to look at the influences of a number of uncommon voices including La Malinche, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Manuela Sáenz, Frida Kahlo, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Eva Perón, Shakira, and Isabel Allende. The goal will be to demonstrate how, in predominantly patriarchal societies, these women have broken the glass ceiling and, as a result, have changed Latin America. Are these women viewed as heroines or villains? What does the “official story” say about them? What is their true story? We will try to uncover answers to these questions through reading articles and novels, writing reflection journals, analyzing poetry, viewing movies, and listening to music. You will be challenged to make connections throughout the term between these Hispanic heroines and influential women in our own history and in our lives. What does it take to become an uncommon woman, and how can these women’s voices empower us on our own journeys? No knowledge of Spanish is necessary. (GLO, f, x, r)
 
Instructor:  Professor Ridley
Student Success Leader: Abby Quinn
 

Steppin’ Up and Speakin’ Out: The Rhetoric of Women Leaders (4 credits)
This course spotlights influential U.S. leaders and celebrates their contributions to a variety of social movements and campaigns. Students will learn about the benefits and demands women leaders face by reading primary texts from historical women speakers, interviewing local women leaders, and participating in a campus or community woman-led group or organization. (0, r)
Instructor: Professor Weber
Student Success Leader: Daniella Eguiguren-Menendez




Theatre Improv: Who am I, Where am I, and What’s My Line Anyway? (4 credits) Through disciplined self-reflection, in-studio ensemble exercises, formal research, and live improv performance attendance, students will identify their multiple intelligences, study and perfect improvisational concepts, and practice the craft of theatrical improvisation.  By mid-term, students will perform bi-monthly at the Rat, perform at various university events, and corporately develop a plan to implement campus-wide "Whose Line Is It"-style competitive improv into Hollins’ culture.  (CRE, o, r)

Instructors: Professors Zulia and Zobel
Student Success Leader: Lianne Jackson

What if Michelangelo Had Been a Woman? (4 credits)
Art history makes connections between art and society over time, and one of the things we think about is gender. Naked or clothed, as Venus or the Virgin Mary, women have been the subject matter of art throughout history. But before the 20th century, women faced huge obstacles if they tried to be professional artists. Against all odds, some of them had successful artistic careers, and others shaped visual culture through patronage. In this seminar, we will look at the connections between women, art, and society from the middle ages through the 19th century. Students will research individual women artists and present “dramatic biographies” of their life and work. We will use the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins as our lab for hands-on experience with works of art that were made by women or that feature women as their themes. (AES, r)

Instructor: Professor Nolan
Student Success Leader: Sara Boddorf

Women of Discovery (4 credits)
Emilie du Chatelet was one of the great female thinkers of the 18th century. She was memorialized by Voltaire, one of her numerous lovers, as “a great man whose only fault was being a woman.” Why was it impossible for her contemporaries to imagine intellectual excellence in a woman? In this seminar, we will examine the lives of a variety of women like du Chatelet who excelled in male-dominated fields, despite widespread doubts about women’s intellectual equality to men. Why have women historically been underrepresented in fields such as math, science, and medicine? What strategies of leadership have successful women in these fields adopted? We will discuss theories of leadership and learn about the diversity of experiences among and skills shared by women in a variety fields. Students will do research on individual “women of discovery” in the past and today, as well as projects on Hollins alumnae who are leaders in their chosen fields. Finally, by studying some “thinking tools” used by innovative thinkers, students will discover their own paths to lifelong learning. (o, r)

Instructors: Professors Diefenderfer/Nuñez
Student Success Leader: Allyson Stephens


You Are What You Eat: Making Good Food Choices for Your Health and the Environment (4 credits)
Why do we make the food choices we make? Do we choose food mainly out of habit, or do we consider what is in it and how it was grown? How does the media and advertising influence our diet? In this course, you will learn to critically evaluate the foods you eat and the messages your food choices send to your bodies and the environment. We will examine where our foods come from, how food production and transportation impact the environment, why excessive use of pesticides has become problematic, and why trans fats and genetically modified foods (GMOs) may pose health risks. We will also investigate the energy footprints of processed foods and whole foods and learn why some scholars advocate locally-produced food and plant-based diets as the solution to the many environmental and health issues that surround food. Laboratory investigations will include testing for GMOs in foods, producing cultured and fermented foods, and analyzing our diets for nutritional content. Course readings will include works from Michael Pollan, Sandra Steingraber, Barbara Kingsolver, and others. (SCI, r)

Instructor: Professor Beach
Student Success Leader: Kaila Thorn