General Education Humanities

Course Description:

Creative Thinking

Students explore creativity as a discipline of study, cultural myths about creativity, and the psychological conditions conducive to creative thinking. By engaging in experiential techniques, their competence and confidence to creatively address practical challenges is expanded. Students examine their own creative processes through reflective journaling, and they demonstrate their learning through exercises, a mid-term assessment, designing a project, and the development of a course e-portfolio.

Introduction to Sociology

This course is designed to provide students with an introductory overview of the discipline of sociology. Topics include fostering a sociological imagination, sociological perspectives, analysis of culture, interaction in social groups and institutions, social inequality, gender, family, race and ethnicity. Through interactive lecture, videos, in-class activities, discussion, and small group work, students will develop their understanding of the social world in which they live.

Psychology Core Concepts

This is an introductory level course in psychology, the science of behaviour and mental processes. Basic concepts, theories and research findings are examined within the biological, behavioural, psychoanalytic, humanistic and cognitive perspectives. Core topics covered will include scientific methodologies, biological foundations of behaviour; learning and memory; language, thinking and intelligence; motivation, emotion and stress, and personality theories. Two optional topics (which vary with each instructor) will also be addressed during the course.

Media and Current Events

This course provides opportunities for students to acquire foundation knowledge about the mass media and how news is reported and analyzed, focusing on the interplay between current events and the mass media. Throughout the course, students will have opportunities to think for themselves and to critically analyze various news items and topics under discussion. Course delivery includes a variety of methodologies from standard lecture format to topical video presentations and group work.

How to Change the World

Students are introduced to the study of social movements and activism, with a particular emphasis on how media can be utilized to achieve social change. By joining forces, individuals can work to transform social norms, create collective identities, change laws, and win human rights. In this course, students develop an understanding of how and why collective action arises, is sustained, and (sometimes) declines. Through various in-class activities, debates, relevant readings, and multi-media presentations, students explore how contemporary social movements are changing the world, including the women's movement, the LGBTQ+ rights movement, the environmental movement, hacktivism, Occupy, and Black Lives Matter.