Summer Term

This course offers practice and training in the professional and technical writing skills common to health professions (e.g., medicine, nursing, dentistry). Attention will be paid to the writing processes of drafting, revising, and editing. Typical assignments include: letters, resumes, personal essays, professional communication genres (e.g., email, reports, patient charts, and histories), and scholarly genres (e.g., abstracts, articles, and reviews). Counts as a Communication Intensive course.

The ability to communicate effectively is a powerful skill, one with real and significant consequences. This is particularly true in the 21st-century workplace, where we use words and images to address needs, solve problems, persuade audiences, and even arrange the details of our professional and personal lives. Communication requirements and expectations are constantly changing, whether we work in small business, large companies, non-profit organizations, research labs, or hospitals. As such, we need to be adaptable writers and readers of all kinds of documents — from print to digital. This course offers students an introduction to professional communication in theory and practice. We will pay special attention to audience analysis, persuasive techniques in written and oral communication, document design strategies, and ethical communication practices. Recommended preparation: Passing grade in an Academic Inquiry Seminar or SAGES First Seminar. Counts as a Communication Intensive course.

The twenty-one films of James Bond have become part of popular culture, and the figure of the superspy has become mythic in proportion. This series, from its first installment in 1963 to the latest reinvention of James Bond in 2006, not only depicts one dashing man’s efforts to save the world from disaster again and again, but also traces the development of our popular culture. Issues of violence, sex, the presentation and treatment of women, racial stereotypes, and spectacle among other topics can be discussed after viewing each film, providing an opportunity to explore the changing expectations of American audiences and the developing form of contemporary cinema. Students who have taken USSO 286D may not receive credit for this class.

Social inequality is deep-rooted in our culture and society, but often unacknowledged because the mechanisms of that inequality serve dominant groups and those in power. In this course, we will study specific social problems in modern society as a way to understand how and why we allow inequality and problems to exist, for whose interests, and the consequences for individuals and society. Topics can rotate, but will address issues related to wealth and capitalism; technology; structural racism and sexism; health disparities; and political disenfranchisement. We will discuss how all of these intersect with gender/sexualities, race/ethnicity, and social class. After taking this course, students will be able to: 1. Evaluate social conditions that harm some individuals or all people in society. 2. Translate “private troubles” into “public issues.” 3. Articulate the purpose and contributions of public sociology. 4. Recognize dimensions of social inequality that cause or perpetuate disadvantage. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.

Examines psychological processes that affect physical health. Covers the physiological factors affecting the immune system, chronic physical disorders, pain, compliance with prescribed medical treatments, the effects of stress and coping, the effects of the patient-physician interaction, and the psychological aspects of the hospital and the health care systems. Recommended preparation : PSCL 101.