Bhisé Center-Aligned Courses

The course, covering the period from 1800 to the present, focuses on changes in indigenous African cultures and states, colonialism and its aftermath, and issues facing independent Africa. Due to the size of the continent and diversity of cultures in Africa, this course covers mainly broad themes and case studies.

Abdin Chande, Spring 2025

Study of American foreign policy and diplomatic relations from Colonial times to the beginning of the 20th century. Explore the cultural, political, and historical perspectives.

Martin R. Haas, Fall 2024

Covers the development of art from the Renaissance to modern times. The evolution of Western art is examined within its social, cultural, political and religious context.

Eva Zak, Spring 2025

This course examines how 20th-century Caribbean-American writers have been influenced by their Black or Hispanic heritage, and in particular, how individual, ethnic/racial and national identity has been affected by the immigration experience.

Patricia G. Lespinasse, Spring 2025

Being Peace is designed to help students develop practices to cultivate inner peace. The course also explores ways we can create a more peaceful world. Students will experience and develop meditation practices. They will also learn about and explore ways to impact the world around them in a peaceful way.

M. Hoffner, Fall 2025

Chronological study of the history and evolution of dance from the dawn up to dance in the United States during the 19th Century. A semester of interactive approaches to understand how dance is not only interconnected with other art forms but also to historical, political, economical, and social events throughout the various period and epochs.

Adelheid B. Strelick, Fall 2024

Learn about the increasingly diverse workforce in the United States and develop the skills needed in working with and managing others who are different from themselves. This class incorporates experiential learning techniques for personal growth.

Raghida Abdallah Yassine, Spring 2025

Study, define, and assess the factors and forces affecting economic development. Examine several theories of development and case studies.

Aditya Singh, Fall 2024

Focuses on how Indigenous, African, Hispanic, Caribbean, Spanish, and Afro-Latinx culinary culture has been represented in a selection of movies and texts. Among the topics covered are the operations of transatlantic networks, stereotypes of gender, race, and ethnicity, and the importance of media in global society.

Ana Isabel Simon-Alegre, Spring 2025

This course is about people of African descent residing outside their home region in the continent. These people foster new regional communities while contending with the impact of racism, slavery, migration, colonialism, resistance, gender, religion and economics in the struggle of developing a global African-descended culture.

Christopher Davis, Spring 2025

Interdisciplinary explorations of how the humanities and the arts create an understanding of social injustices, and at the same time encourage healing. Students will analyze human and civil rights issues through philosophy, history, sociology, criminal justice, documentaries and films, music, poetry, and various artwork.

Rosemarie Daconto, Spring 2025

There are times in history when tragedies strike, when an entire nation experiences a trauma that changes the way their future unfolds. From disaster, sometimes, resilience is born, and a people learn to rebuild their nation in unexpected ways. This course explores examples of such traumas and resilience.

Pamela Buckle, Fall 2024

This course examines the beginnings of East Asian civilization to 1600. While China’s influence during this era is undeniable, we will also examine how Japan and Korea developed their independent cultures. Topics include the diffusion of religion, ideas, and people across the region, as well as conflict and war.

Kristen Ziomek, Fall 2025

This course examines the challenges we face and have faced in efforts to promote justice and explores the ways that people, acting together, have changed the world. We will look at both local and global human rights issues. Our specific focus will be on globalization and human rights around the world with the goal of developing enhanced global citizenship skills.

Rita Verma, Fall 2025

Through lectures, case studies and class discussions, this course examines the foundations of international business, its fundamental forms and objectives. Major environments affecting the growth of international business are compared including legal, cultural, economic, political, financial, and technological. Management actions in the international context are also described and explored.

Aditya Singh, Fall 2024

Comment start This course provides students with a scholarly and immersive introduction to India, including social, economic and political issues in a cross-national and cross-cultural context. Special attention is on understanding how colonialism and globalization have shaped contemporary India and its role in the world.

Chrisann Newransky and Rakesh Gupta, Fall 2024

Surveys anthropological approaches to cultural, socio-economic and political transformations in Latin America through ethnographic literature, film, and primary documents. Students analyze the varied ways colonialism, nation-state formation, peasant and Indigenous struggles, migration and urbanization, religious movements, and climate change have shaped Latin American identities of today.

Christopher Parisano, Spring 2025

Examine how identities are shaped, recognized or misrecognized through conceptions of race and ethnicity. This course explores the philosophical and social significance of racial discourse and how it intersects with class, gender, and sexuality. Students learn how diversity and multiculturalism include, but are not limited to concepts of race.

Sokthan Yeng, Spring 2025

We strive for the ideal of peace—yet it remains elusive. How do we understand peace within violent civil societies around the world? Is there a pathway of justice for survivors, victims and silenced groups? This course examines peace through the expertise of faculty and scholars who work with these issues.

Rita Verma, Spring 2025

This course provides an opportunity to further knowledge of diversity and social justice. We explore systems of oppression and privilege in the United States. Students develop their understanding through self-reflection, community engagement, course readings, and written assignments. They will create strategies to implement change within the local and broader communities.

Anna Zinko, Fall 2025

Is there a universal culture of war or can war only be explained through the prism of nationality and culture? Students will explore the question by analyzing the Asia-Pacific War primarily from the Japanese perspective, but also from the perspectives of the Chinese, Americans and Japanese subjects throughout the empire.

Kirsten Ziomek, Spring 2025

Study the lives of people who live predominantly in developing countries; learn about the interrelated problems of indigenous groups and ethnicity, and their relationship to the state; and examine the issues of food, population, gender, and the roles of non-governmental organizations and sustainable grassroots models for development.

Anna Konstantatos, Spring 2025

Students will examine U.S. immigration from an analytical perspective that transcends their political differences, describing and explaining the development of immigration policy since the nation’s founding and discussing the implications for immigrants and American society. Students will then apply their insights to the current challenges and controversies around immigration.

Sigrun Kahl, Fall 2025

Students will explore the relationship between globalization and the mobility of post-1965 migrants. Topics examined include: reasons for migration, role of the state in shaping human mobility, lives of stayers and leavers, impact of cultural, economic, and social institutions of migrants as well as migrant impact on these institutions.

Jacqueline Olvera, Fall 2025

Focuses on the roles of women in music from the earliest examples of Western Classical music through contemporary pop. Students explore the special challenges female composers and performers faced in each time period, including present day systems of branding and commodification in the music Industry.

Margaret Collins, Spring 2025