We all desire to have a meaningful connection to the place we call home and the people that surround us. But how do people form a sense of self and develop a sense of belonging to a place? How do social categories such as race & ethnicity, gender, and immigration shape what it means to belong in a place?
This course answers these questions by considering the place of Latino immigrants in the United States. We will interrogate how group boundaries such as race and ethnicity are formed, the role of immigration legislation in shaping how we think about Latinos in the U.S., the social progress and inequality U.S.-born Latinos and Latino immigrants face, and how Latino immigrants come to call many places home, including Tennessee. In doing so, we will also look back to previous immigrant groups, like Italian immigrants, and how they achieved their "American Dream".
While this course focuses on the Latino experience it also will allow students to explore key sociological understandings of the broader relationship between groups and how they experience a sense of belonging and well-being in the United States. Students may be able to explore their own family or local history using materials covered in class to develop a critical insight into the way categories such as race & ethnicity, gender, and immigrant shape social belonging in the United States and how it compares to the Latino experience. All are welcome and all belong in this course.
This course examines the cultural, environmental, financial, historical, legal, political, and social contexts of real estate investment. Beyond developing the requisite skills to navigate tax structures and analyze real estate markets, students identify critical approaches to real estate investment and apply them to discussions on the ownership and management of single-family residences, residential rental properties, and commercial buildings.
A liberal arts education provides students with writing, speaking, and analytical skills to succeed in business. This course provides students with an actionable job search strategy that utilizes those “liberal arts skills,” that guides students to identify business career paths that employ those skills, and that emboldens students to acknowledge and emphasize their liberal arts skills and how these skills can benefit their employers in the near and long term. In particular, this course (i) covers job search strategies and career planning for students pursuing jobs in business or adjacent to business (ex. consulting, law, and STEM); (ii) uses real-world examples of jobs at existing companies to demonstrate how to find jobs, network, apply for jobs, and interview successfully; and (iii) incorporates personal finance topics throughout, especially compensation and benefits (i.e., we talk about money in this course). Summary course exercises will tie multiple concepts together, such as using an individual industry to illustrate how to find and attain various jobs. Course work and lessons, with an emphasis on group learning in pairs or small groups, followed by large group discussions, will apply students’ liberal arts skills of writing, speaking, and critical thinking and analysis. By the end of the course, students will have an actionable job search plan to supplement their broad understanding of applying a liberal arts education to different career paths in business.
Organized around a genre rather than a single historical period or geographical context, this course will help students to understand what novels are and how they work. Students will read a set of novels from a variety of traditions alongside material drawn from the critical fields of novel theory and narratology. Possible texts to be determined, but may include novels by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrisson, and/or Salman Rushdie.
This course introduces the fundamental concepts of financial risk, focusing on market risk, credit risk, and liquidity risk. It emphasizes identifying, measuring, and managing risk using quantitative tools and trading strategies. Using theory and real-world examples, students will develop a foundation in risk management practices commonly used in financial institutions and capital markets.
Through immersion in Sewanee’s Domain and its network of community leaders, students work together to explore local community- and place-based solutions to global environmental issues. By exploring local examples while also gaining fluency in the many dimensions of our global ecological crisis—from how we get our food and water to the impacts of biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change upon ecosystems worldwide—students will confront difficult questions about how meaningful change happens, how their own lives contribute to both problems and solutions, and how small places and local communities matter in the grand scheme.
This course explores our place in the world and on the Domain through three complementary activities: reading, writing, and meditation. We will read together a wide selection of poems offering diverse views of “nature” and our relationship to the earth. Mindfulness meditation (a secular form adapted from Buddhist practice), both in and out of class, will foster deep awareness not only of these texts but also of our surroundings. We will also engage in other contemplative exercises, both indoors and outdoors, across the Domain. While some of these exercises invite us to turn inward, they lead us back to community, as poetry does. Through journal-keeping and poetic experiments as well as formal essays and presentations, students will articulate their discoveries and hone their skills as readers and observers, both of poetry and of the natural world.
This course examines the ways human actions and the local environment have shaped (and been shaped by) one another across centuries. Students will explore the background, current state, and future possibilities of the area, from the deep time of geology to the present day. Field trips, readings, journaling, class discussions, and lectures let students explore the region and begin to find their place within it. Assessments will be based on reflective writing, participation, and a final group project.
Listening to a story can engender empathy and understanding about experiences we ourselves have not lived. How do we choose to tell the stories of real events and the people who experienced them? Documentary theatre explores creating narrative using interviews, journals, and newspapers that documents an event, and investigates how identity shaped personal relationships with those events. Students in this class explore the histories, stories, and sites of the South Cumberland Plateau, University Domain and surrounding areas in order to create documentary devised, site-specific performances. Devised performance techniques in this course use collaboration—from performers, designers, and researchers to create the performance outline/script—and locations that are specific to the telling of the stories selected by the students. The course culminates with a performance of the material created by students.
This course will investigate the role of stories in politics. Political decision-makers, advocates, and the public all use stories to understand issues, to convince others of their position, and to make policy decisions. As shortcuts for interpreting information, stories can shape opinions, preferences, and perceptions of risk, and they often have more sway than scientific studies. Their impact revolves around what the story emphasizes (its heroes, villains, and victims), who tells the story, and how the story resonates with cultural beliefs and the audience.
The course will investigate the stories around several policy issues (e.g., public education, housing, food insecurity, health). Students will first learn about these issues on the South Cumberland Plateau and the policies around those issues. Then students will examine stories that decision-makers, advocates, and those affected tell about these issues. To do so, students will engage in some of the following ways: observe school board meetings, serve with literacy programs, meet with housing and health experts, partner with local free clinics, and/or assist at food banks. Students will also read and/or listen to policymakers’ debates on these issues. Finally, students will tie their "story of self" as a global citizen to the "story of us" as part of a final project on the issue, its story, and their own place within that story. Assessments will be based on reflective writing, participation, and a final project.
An introduction to the critical study of religion that places the history of the University of the South within the larger cultural history of the Bible. The Bible examined as an anthology of ancient texts, a material artifact, a transmedia storyworld, and cultural capital. The interpretation of the Bible explored as a collective process of meaning-making through rhetoric and ritual. Particular attention paid to the visual and material culture of the University’s campus (place names, inscriptions, memorials, monuments, art work, family bibles), institutional discourses (the motto, commemorative ceremonies, hymns, sermons, speeches, college policies), and popular culture (film festivals, sports teams, local biographies, folk art). Overall, the course invites students to develop a more expansive understanding of what the Bible is and a more critical approach to how the Bible has been used within the University gates and beyond.
How do states and societies remember political violence? How, and whether, are peace initiatives or nonviolent resistance efforts commemorated across different historical and cultural contexts? Building on the vast and growing interdisciplinary comparative research, political activism, and art on memory studies, truth and reconciliation, and transitional justice, the course will introduce students to various ways in which certain events, individuals, and initiatives connected to conflict and peace are remembered in memorials, museums, monuments, and other commemorative spaces and practices.
The course includes lessons, open questions, and dilemmas that International and U.S. examples offer to scholars, political leaders, and peace activists. Students will learn about different ways in which states and their leaders have transitioned from violence to peace, dealt with injustices, remembered political violence, and ultimately, chose a particular path in the process of integrating their divided societies. They will have an opportunity to work in teams on researching the case of their choice in more depth and presenting their research at the end of the class.
This seminar invites first-year students to explore how humans have constructed, categorized, and authenticated knowledge across cultures and centuries. Together, we will explore how forms of knowledge are not neutral or timeless, but are rather deeply embedded in the historical, social, and political contexts of their creation. The myth of singular, objective truth is a pervasive (and often comforting) one, but in this class we will examine how structures of power influence what is considered "true" across disciplines, from the humanities to the physical sciences.
Our readings will draw from a wide range of sources. From medieval bestiaries to Wikipedia, from royal archives to TikTok "stitch incomings," we'll examine how different societies have built their own architectures of truth—and whose voices have been amplified or silenced in the process. We might consider readings from classical philosophical works (Plato's Republic, Nietzsche's On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense) to contemporary critical theory (Foucault's ideas of power-knowledge, Derrida's "Archive Fever," and Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). We'll use the history and development of the book to analyze primary sources like 18th century encyclopedias, Victorian scientific journals, Cold War propaganda, and current social media content moderation policies. Case studies might include the construction of race in 19th-century anthropology, the role of archives in shaping national histories, and the politics of "truth" in contemporary debates over climate science and misinformation. We will also investigate what architectures of truth are at work here at Sewanee, looking at the University Archives, the seminar classroom, tutoring centers, and tools like the textbook or class notes.
A sacred space for three great religions, the contested future capital of two nations, a place of longing for millions around the world, Jerusalem is one of the world’s great cities. This course looks at the history, geography, and religious significance of the Holy City, while also considering how Jerusalem has functioned and continues to function as a city of the imagination. Over the course of this First Year Experience, we will investigate the city’s place in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, its symbolic importance for Muslim and European imperialists, its status as a major tourist and pilgrimage destination, and its significance in Israeli and Palestinian nationalism. This class aims to investigate the place of truth and memory in the construction of historical narratives and will include comparisons with the construction of historical narratives about Sewanee, the South, and other places with contested histories.
This interdisciplinary course, co-taught by an internationally recognized physician-psychoanalyst and the historian-director of Sewanee’s Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation, examines the cross-generational impacts of traumatic incidents of racist violence and injustice. In addition to exploring the benefits and challenges of combining these different disciplinary methodologies, the course also uses a comparative analysis of a series of historical case studies. Students will interact with experts in the field of restorative justice to study how people in the past and present have responded to redress the effects of racist hatred and violence through language, art, and collective action to heal the wounds and fractures that are legacies of American slavery and institutional racism.
An exploration of contemporary American politics research through the lens of gun politics: Second Amendment constitutional law, political psychology, political behavior, media, and policy design/efficacy. Main themes seek to integrate both behavioral and institutional approaches to the study of politics.
This course examines the production and consumption of various types of media, such as news articles, books, films, podcasts, advertisements, video games, and social media, and explores their effects on human cognition, emotions, and behaviors. The course also explores the broader societal and cultural impacts of media messaging and discusses how media shape, and are shaped by, identities, social relationships, and intergroup dynamics. By learning psychological and communication theories and methodological approaches to studying media, students will cultivate media literacy, develop critical thinking skills, and gain a better understanding of how media create distinct virtual realities for individuals and influence their navigation of both online and offline life.
Why do we make the choices we do? What shapes our thoughts and decisions? And why should we care? This course engages these questions and more, integrating insights from psychology and related fields to help us better understand how our minds work. We’ll consider some of the many factors that impact our thoughts and decisions, along with potential implications for individual and collective well-being and ways of being. We’ll also explore how a better understanding of thinking and deciding can inform our identities and commitments, our relationships and interactions, and our efforts to envision and cultivate a more just and equitable world.
How can psychology be applied to strengthen communities and promote social change? This course explores how people influence, and are influenced by, the social environments they are part of. Examine the role of psychology in understanding and addressing social issues through collaborative, action-oriented approaches. Explore the psychological factors that shape community engagement, empowerment, and resilience. Learn about theories and methods that guide community-based research and intervention, with a focus on participatory approaches that prioritize the perspectives of those most affected by social injustices. This course prepares students to apply psychological principles to real-world challenges.
This course examines effective methods to communicate psychological topics to diverse audiences in both face-to-face and mediated contexts. Through project-based learning, students will engage with primary psychological sources and develop effective and appropriate communication skills. Key elements include analyzing the needs and perspectives of various audience groups, from professionals to the general public, and communicating with or facilitating communication among different stakeholders. The course covers various settings, including oral presentations, online presence, workshops, and digital platforms such as social media, blogs, and podcasts.
This course explores loss as an inextricable part of human development and the personal loss process, resulting from various experiences and occurring throughout the lifespan. Loss, as examined in this course, includes not only that which arises through death but also the psychological, emotional, relational, physical, and situational changes that affect us throughout our lives. Special types of losses and their impact on human development will be examined. This course will explore loss's seminal role in human development and its potential to be transformative or life-threatening. Coping mechanisms that can facilitate healthy adaptations to change and loss, personal growth, and the complex relationship between different types of losses and age, developmental stage, and individual characteristics will be addressed.
Oratory Ancient and Modern shows how ancient ideas and techniques influence the modern rhetorical world and contribute to current discussions. The class surveys the various types of oratory and the famous orators found in ancient Greece and Rome and sets them next to prominent orators from the modern world. Persons discussed across the ancient Greek and Roman world include from Achilles, Pericles, Aspasia, Gorgias, Demosthenes, Socrates, Cicero, Jesus, and St. Paul, and then they are joined by modern authors such as Shakespeare, Reagan, James Baldwin, Kennedy, Hitler, Nikki Giovanni, Churchill, and others. Students will add their own suggestions for modern oratory to examine. The class assumes no prior knowledge of classics or rhetoric.
This course explores the historical role of theatre as a powerful tool for radical imagination and social change. Through case studies, performance analysis, and experiential learning, students will examine how theatre has been used to foster community dialogue and inspire collective transformation.