How are meanings made? How do meanings emerge from making and doing, as well as from seeing and listening, thinking and feeling, and even just being in the same place at the same time? This seminar takes up these fundamental questions, primarily in relation to materials drawn from visual art, poetry, theater, film, and music. It also attends to other ways in which people engage in meaning making, individually and collectively. Throughout the course, creative exercises, creative activities, and creative projects provide students with opportunities to explore and apply what they have learned about meaning making.

Chris Robinson, lead guitarist for the Black Crowes once stated, “Musicians playing together, it’s like a conversation, and ideally I want our conversation to be really intriguing and interesting and beautiful.” In this course, we will have intriguing, interesting, and beautiful conversations about the power of music and the role it plays in our lives. We will read about and explore the lives and artistry of famous musicians such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Prince, as well as their roles as agents of social change. 

As they are today, conceptions of sex and gender were hotly debated in Renaissance Italy. In this seminar, students first explore ideas and debates that shape 21st-century understandings of sex and gender. Students then consider how current conceptions inform the study of women artists in Renaissance Italy, when women’s artistic abilities were vehemently debated. Course assignments teach students to engage in meaningful discussion on controversial topics, to visually analyze works of art, and to find and evaluate a variety of sources for individual research projects.

Movement and dance encourages the exploration of complex ideas through investigation, knowledge, and expression of the body. Dance embodies both historical and cultural values and also awakens new perceptions which help you learn and think in new ways. Over the course of the semester, we will consider the role of movement and dance as a vital form of human expression, understanding, communication, and interaction. Come and be “moved” by the power of dance. No dance experience required.

Exploring our multilingual, multicultural, and multimedia world, this seminar examines the concepts of “self” and “other” through the lens of Asian popular cultures. From K-pop music to kung-fu movies, Pokémon to PlayStation, and BL fiction to boba tea, this class uses popular Asian cultural products as entry points to study the diverse histories, perspectives, and societies locally and analyzes how “Asian pop” has been represented, reimagined, and reinterpreted globally. Reflecting on their college experiences, students also engage with academic resources that can shed light on power dynamics and intersectional identities, including race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Various cultural texts, such as literature, films, anime, music, social media, and video games, serve as references. Core activities consist of group discussions, fieldwork, individual and collaborative projects.

In 1874, a group of Norwegian-Americans founded St. Olaf’s School, later to become St. Olaf College. And now 150 years later, a new group of students (you!) are beginning your studies here. Why was St. Olaf founded and who were its first students? Are the things that brought students to St. Olaf then the same as they are today? Over the course of the semester we’ll explore three main themes: what brought us each to the Hill, how we can be our best selves here, and how to navigate our individual paths forward. Within each of these themes, we will dig into stories of institutional history and the experiences of students, faculty and staff. By researching both published and unpublished college histories available through our college’s archives, we will gain insight into how St. Olaf became the college we know today. We will practice general research skills including finding information both online and at the library, giving presentations, leading discussions, and writing short descriptive, analytical, persuasive, and critical responses. Some of our findings may be featured in the College’s sesquicentennial commemoration.

Habits make up a large part of our daily lives – the estimates range from 40% to a whopping 90%. Your habits contribute to your happiness, your mental and physical health, and your GPA. Some habits are considered good, some are bad, some simply are, and an ever-growing number of apps have been created to help you track all of these habits. In this seminar we’ll explore the science of learning and habit creation, how stress, sleep and health are directly connected, and how harnessing the power of cues can help create habits that can improve your life, for the rest of your life.

In this seminar, we will collaborate and use a variety of methods to try to answer the question: Who is science for? Through readings, discussion, and community engagement, we will explore the natural world around us and consider issues like vaccine acceptance and climate change. We will ask: Are people too skeptical or not skeptical enough of science? How do people start to think of themselves as scientists? What do we need to learn about our own community in this part of Minnesota to make science accessible and useful to more people? Moving from inquiry to action, we will use our learning to help us develop and curate materials to be used for science outreach at community gatherings and in schools. The seminar will culminate with a science outreach event in the community. This seminar has an Academic Civic Engagement Component: Students will have the opportunity to spend five Wednesdays working and learning with youth in the community during and after class until 5pm. Alternative assignments may be available only under special circumstances (athletics or music conflicts).

Where does democracy come from? What does it take to sustain it? Why does it matter? This class will explore ideas, practices and processes about democracy globally. We will compare and contrast ideas from ordinary people and social scientists as we seek to answer each of these questions. Our focus extends around the world. We will watch documentaries, read two books (Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics in Kenya and Why Bother? Rethinking Participation in Elections and Protests) and explore data from the Varieties of Democracy project, based in Sweden. The culminating class project involves mapping several dimensions of democracy using ArcGIS StoryMap software, to help us see how it is imagined and realized today.

American politics is as divided as it has ever been, causing many to be apprehensive about engaging in the political process. While the political environment can be challenging and often off-putting, the opportunities for political engagement are abundant. Through readings, discussion, and a community engagement project, this seminar explores these ideas in tandem — why is politics so polarized, and how can we be ethical and effective political actors when the system often seems so broken? This seminar has an Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) component. ??Students will attend Day at the Capitol on March 11, with an alternative assignment only for college-designated conflicts.

How can we learn to think critically and communicate our ideas effectively by developing our identities as writers? And in doing so, how can we develop our civic identities as well? Course texts and activities will engage students in participating in and reflecting on the democratic process, with an emphasis on local elections and issues. This section is writing intensive and focuses intentionally on the writing process; students will express opinions, analyze texts, research local election issues, and respond to political opinions. Students will also be trained as Election Ambassadors to encourage their peers to vote, and they will participate in various college events surrounding the 2024 election. This course meets a First-Year Experience OLE Core requirement and carries Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) designation.

According to Gallup’s 2024 World Happiness Report, Americans under the age of 30 are far less happy than those over the age of 60. What caused this happiness gap? What can we do, as communities and individuals, to “get happy” again? Using Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Happiness Hypothesis” as a guide, students will weigh happiness wisdom from across the centuries, drawing on the disciplines of biology, religion, literature, and psychology. They will then experiment with a variety of happiness practices, offering written reflections on usefulness and practicality. In addition to reflective exercises, students will report on current trends in happiness psychology, conduct a wisdom interview, and use research and personal experience to critically engage with at least one potentially faulty happiness hypothesis. (Disclaimer: happiness is a hoped for, but not guaranteed, outcome of this course.)

In this seminar, we will read, research, discuss, and analyze fairy tales both old and new. Students will learn about the history of fairy tales, their evolution, as well as the archetypes, structures, and other conventions that so commonly recur. Though fairy tales are an old form with a rich oral history, they are still told and retold. Why continue to revisit a story like “Sleeping Beauty” in modern novels, films, or television? What do the shifting versions of fairy tales tell us about the environments in which they were created? This seminar will examine why and in what forms fairy tales persist today. Writing assignments will include a researched essay, reflective writing, as well as an opportunity to write a fairy tale retelling.

How did we get from Richard Nixon and DJ Kool Herc’s break to Obama’s playlists and Cardi B? This seminar uses hip-hop culture as a guide to the social, political, economic, and artistic changes that have taken place in the US since the early 1970s. We will focus on the historical circumstances and unique spaces out of which hip-hop has arisen as well as the culture’s own conceptions of history, social life, and aesthetics, or what you might call its poetics of place. Our study of hip-hop culture will encourage us to think about writing as a process, a practice of daily attention and development. To this end, you will learn to write in diverse formats, from close listening exercises and album reviews to personal reflection papers and a research-driven essay. As a class, we will participate in a semester-long series of workshops that will invite you to generate and circulate drafts among your peers, respond to and provide feedback on the work of others, and revise your writing.

Increasingly often, we ask ourselves, “What can I do about climate change?” Maybe we try to recycle or donate to environmental causes, but we wonder if such actions make a difference. In a way, what we’re really wondering is this: in the time of climate change, how do we live well–that is, overcome climate anxiety, find joy, and work toward collective human and environmental justice? What can we do to be good ancestors to those who inhabit the world yet to come? To address these questions, we’ll read and discuss environmental media from diverse thinkers. 

The word “utopia” means both a “good place” and “no place.” Utopian literature embraces this duality by imagining places better than our own. This seminar will begin with these literary utopias before considering historical attempts to make a “good place” in a real place and time. We’ll investigate the common problems that both real and imagined utopias have tried to solve, and we’ll seek to understand the roots of these problems. We’ll end the semester with a collaborative project to create a utopian college community. Writing will emphasize research, analysis, argumentation, and reflection

Environmental Humanities is the name given to the effort to bring together the humanities (literature, art, history, philosophy, etc.) and the sciences to address contemporary environmental problems like climate change and mass extinction. This approach recognizes the physical, cultural, and social elements that contribute to complex definitions of environment and environmental problems. In this seminar, we will explore a variety of texts that engage the sciences and humanities to appreciate the essential role that storytelling, poetry, cinema, and other creative genres play in bringing diverse voices and multicultural perspectives to understanding and addressing environmental issues. Students will write in a variety of forms and genres and develop a research and writing project based on a course theme of their interest.

In her 2009 TEDTalk “The Danger of a Single Story,” novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie states that we often learn about a topic from one point of view. While that one perspective isn’t necessarily bad, it limits our understanding of the topic and, more importantly, of the world as well. In this course, we will analyze the idea of the “single story.” We’ll start by interrogating the single stories we’re familiar with in our cultural contexts, academic experiences, and personal lives. Who creates these stories? Why do they do so? How do these narratives take root? We will then seek out works that challenge these master narratives by addressing the same topic from another angle: a different author’s perspective, a different discipline’s approach, or a different culture’s beliefs, to name a few.

In the U.S., perhaps no other value is as widely promoted as freedom. To give “free rein” to our “free will,” to be “as free as a bird” or to “live free or die” — these phrases suggest the great stress placed on the capacity to control one’s life and live unconstrained by others. But beyond easy affirmations that, e.g., U.S. citizens are more free than those in totalitarian states, we often find ourselves debating the precise contours of freedom. Critics challenge those who act in the name of freedom, insisting that it should be limited by respect for some other principle, or that their acts enable some but threaten or abuse others. In this seminar, we’ll consider situations in which the pursuit of freedom is questioned in this way, as it conflicts with values such as equality, justice, and privacy.

How do we know what’s ethical in a medical setting, and how can we explore those ethics through literature? Going a step further: how can reading and writing lead us to deeper insights about the nature of health itself, including the health of an individual, a group, or even a society? And how do processes of research and reflection inform the daily choices of readers, writers, and medical practitioners? As we explore a range of genres in this seminar, from illustrated memoir and drama to journalism and personal essays, we’ll ask how literature and medicine can interact to teach us about observing details, setting priorities, and listening in ethical ways. By working on three sequenced portfolio collections of writing during the semester, each student will first hone their own authorial voice, before learning to engage with one other writer on a key medical debate, and finally hosting a research conversation between multiple cited sources.

Minnesota was home to indigenous peoples long before the arrival of the colonists whose legacy remains today in the form of American institutions, laws, and cultural conventions. In this seminar, students will explore texts relating to the history of forced assimilation of indigenous children to US culture through boarding schools from the late nineteenth century through the 1970s. Students will explore primary documents and contemporary media and scholarship on this topic, with particular attention to indigenous voices from the Upper Midwest that have taken the lead in exposing both harms done and roads to healing. The seminar will culminate in students doing a “deep dive” into a research topic relating to a new local movement or organization identified with indigenous justice.