Dean's Seminars
Dean’s Seminars provide Columbian College first-year students with focused scholarship that emphasizes lively discussions on topics relevant to the issues of our time. Sometimes edgy and always engaging, the seminars provide students one-of-a-kind opportunities that challenge the mind and often tap into emerging interests.
First-year Columbian College students can register for Dean's Seminars through the GWeb Information System.
"A memorable experience was when Professor Dane Kennedy took us to the Library of Congress for our Dean's Seminar class on empires. The maps and artifacts gave a visual history that one cannot get out of a textbook."
Albert Cramer
BA '12, History
Fall 2024 Dean's Seminars
For the dates and times that these courses meet, please review the Schedule of Classes.
- Arabic Comics & Youth Culture
- ARAB 1000.10
- Professor E. Oraby
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
Would you like to meet Arab Superheroes? To travel all the way from Beirut to Cairo to Guantanamo Bay through impactful and artful comics? Would you like to learn the skills to make your very own revolutionary comic? Or perhaps express your artistic vision through the medium of comics? This course offers an adventure into Arab popular visual culture. We will explore questions as: What makes a comic? How do Arab artists utilize comics to complicate social and political issues in their lives? How does the art of comics intersect with contemporary internet activism and social movements? What does it mean to live in the Arab world today? The readings of the course will include Arab comics and graphic novels by artists from the gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. The topics aim to discover how contemporary Arab artists respond to social and political issues including war, feminism, gender issues, authoritarian governments, imprisonment, displacement and immigration. In addition to Arab comics, we will overview readings in contemporary comics studies. By the end of the course students will have learned how to read, interpret, and create different comic-art forms.
- Great Bromances of Arabic Literature
- ARAB 1000.11
- Professor J. Tobkin
- GPAC: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
History is the process of reporting events about the past so that they form an interesting and meaningful story, and the telling of stories for entertainment is well attested in the Arabic language. Some of these stories are based on real people and events, and some are entirely fictional; some were told before a public or private audience many times before being recorded in writing.Arabic texts often use the word “brotherhood” to refer to a social and emotional bond between two or more men unrelated by blood, and brotherhood is a major theme in pre-modern Arabic literature. Combine that with “romance,” in its meaning of a semi-historical tale about the extraordinary deeds of a legendary hero, and you get “bromance.” One of the bromances we will study in this class is truly the stuff of legend; the Abbasid Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd, the vizier Jaʿfar al-Barmakī, and the poet Abū Nuwās spent only a few years together at work and play, but their era, the late 700s and early 800s, is widely considered a Golden Age of Arab-Islamic civilization, and writers throughout the centuries have celebrated and vilified this trio. The other is the story of two men who have dedicated their artistic careers to preserving underrepresented aspects of the Egyptian cultural heritage, namely the poetry, tales, and music of Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia; the members of this bromance are the poet Abdel Rahman El-Abnudi (1938-2015) and the singer Mohamed Mounir (1954-). In this class, we will encounter Arabic historiographical writings, tales from the 1001 Nights, Arabic poetry and prose literature from various eras, as well as documentary films and music. Students will also explore other historical figures and trends tangential to the ones which are the focus of our class.
- The Art of the Exhibition
- CAH 1000.10
- Professor B. Obler
- GPAC: Critical or Creative Thinking in the Arts
Museums across the country (and world) are facing a historical reckoning and in many cases scrambling to address their elitism and complicity with colonialism. Museums and other arts institutions are rethinking the ways they approach issues of accessibility, decolonization, and sustainability. In this seminar, we will take museums and galleries in DC as our case study. What specific challenges—and opportunities—exist in this nation’s capital? Through site visits and practical assignments, students will learn about current strategies and imagine possible futures.
- Art & Politics
- CAH 1000.10
- Professor L. Matheny
- GPAC: Critical or Creative Thinking in the Arts
At the heart of this class is the deceptively simple question, “Is all art political?” From this central query, we will explore others: Can art spark political change? Does it have a moral obligation to do so? Should art provide a respite from politics? Is there a line between art and activism? Between art and propaganda? Between art and reportage? Among the lenses through which we will study this subject are portraiture, photography, language and conceptual art, public art, craft, abstraction, government sponsorship, and museums. Using these organizing categories, we will discover how artists from the early 20th century to the present have responded to a range of issues, including war, immigration, identity politics, climate change, gender and sexuality, racism, health policy, and economic justice. Examples of topics covered include cultural policy in Nazi Germany, the use of abstract art as a strategic tool of the Cold War, artistic responses to the Vietnam War, the creation of the AIDS memorial quilt, artistic attempts to humanize the migration crisis, and visual artists’ painful and poignant grappling with the reality of police brutality. The course will include field trips and special effort will be made to incorporate discussion of art seen in Washington.
- Unreasonable Doubt
- CHEM 1000.10
- Professor H. Thorp
- GPAC: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
The covid pandemic has revealed more widely the methods with which forces that seek to deny science operate. Some of these events have taken the world of science by surprise, with even NIH Director Francis Collins proclaiming in response to what he could have done better on covid, "I wish we had studied more carefully the problem of hesitancy." In reality, social scientists and historians have been studying these problems for decades and predicted the denial of science that has occurred during covid and recent related episodes. Nevertheless, science curricula have not emphasized these topics in undergraduate education, leading to a generation of scientists that is unaware of the modern history of science and how it informs uptake of scientific information by the public. This course seeks to address this problem by examining the history of science and science denial through the lens of a scientist.
- Modern Architecture & Design
- CIAR 1000.10
- Professor S. Travis
- GPAC 1: Critical or Creative Thinking in the Arts
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright once stated, “No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.” Wright’s love of nature inspired a portfolio of work through a wholly original style that merged the natural and built environments. His buildings, interiors, furniture, and lighting continue to awe! This course will explore Wright and other iconic designers from the 20th and 21st Centuries through case studies, so that students master the concepts and ideas related to each. The best way to learn about architecture is to experience the buildings firsthand; therefore, a strong component of the course is visiting modern buildings in DC such as the Hirshhorn Museum and the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. Other course components are interactive lectures, dynamic discussions, and documentary film clips. Ultimately, an overview of the architecture, interiors, and furniture of the most significant buildings in modernism will be explored and examined. By merging conceptual thinking, design thinking, and critical thinking in combination with history, this course will incorporate a complete exploration of modern architecture and design. This course is a GPAC Arts in Creative Thinking and meets the Cross-Cultural Perspective attribute.
- Imagining Better Social Media
- COMM 1000.10
- Professor D. Sude
- GPAC: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
What is your experience of social media? How could it be improved? This Dean’s Seminar puts you in the driver’s seat, culminating in a mock proposal to your favorite social media company as to how to improve their platform. You will look at social media through the lenses of your personal experience, academic scholarship, industry practice, and government policy. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own experience and to understand what is unique versus common about your personal experience on social media. Topics of study include entertainment, physical and mental health, social conflict, politics, misinformation, and marketing. As a Dean’s Seminar, this seminar-style class encourages active engagement in discussion and debate about social media. Accompanying the discussion, this course asks you to write several short papers. Each paper is designed to build on the previous paper, culminating in your final proposal. You will receive plenty of feedback and opportunities to produce your best work. These papers fulfill the criteria for the GPAC “Critical Thinking” designation. Students will analyze and critique scholarly arguments and evidence; apply scholarly theories and concepts to their own experience on social media; and formulate arguments based on scholarly research.
- Global Dress and Culture
- CTAD 1000.11
- Professor T. Wetenhall
- GPAC 1: Critical or Creative Thinking in the Arts
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- GPAC 3: Oral Communication
'Global Dress and Culture' presents dress as material and visual culture, illuminating the relationship between dress and humans as social, biological and aesthetic creatures. Students engage with 'dress' as clothing, costume, fashion, bodily modification and adornment and its 'culture’—the processes, activities and relationships of global dress-related practices, particularly its material production and uses as a symbolic system. Students learn Eicher and Evenson's culturally sensitive classification system for analyzing dress and consider how dress and textiles reflect local and global economies and trade, exhibit customs and ideologies, and how dress signifies status as a social construct. In-class sessions include: + learning about the primary fibers, dyestuffs, and textiles used in creating dress; + examining historical fragments and objects; + preserving and displaying dress in museums; and + discussing contemporary issues such as cultural appropriation and sustainability. Directed explorations of the agency of dress in various art forms, its illustration in historical media and emerging visual technologies, and the performativity of dress as a medium of social action and expression of humankind's continuous migration, intellectual interchange, and condition form part of the discussions. The course introduces students to renowned GW and Washington DC research centers and resources, including GW's Textile Museum (GWTM), the GWTM's Textile 101 Lab, Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection, Arthur D. Jenkins Library, and other DC cultural institutions. Assignments introduce research skills and methods for the humanities and the applied science of museum studies. 'Global Dress and Culture' fulfills GPAC with CCAS: Arts, Oral Communication, Global, and Cross-Cultural perspective course attributes.
- Creativity Across Arts & Culture
- CTAD 1000.13
- Professor J. Kanter
- GPAC 1: Critical or Creative Thinking in the Arts
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
The mission of this course is to provide students with a comparative introduction to key concepts in the making and analysis of art across disciplines and cultures. In addition, the course provides students with a framework for thinking about the relationships between the arts and social justice. The course will include guest lecturers from across the Corcoran School.
- What's New About New Plays
- ENGL 1000.10
- Professor E. Schreiber
- GPAC: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
This Dean’s seminar takes advantage of the theater offerings in Washington and asks the question: What is new about new plays? Are contemporary playwrights reworking classical themes or are their works entirely new entities? What themes reappear and how are they presented? The course also considers how classical plays are re-imagined for modern audiences. For example, is a Shakespearean work staged in a different political or social milieu than the original production? Why would directors make these types of artistic decisions? What does it mean for plays to be culturally relevant? Students will consider who attends the theater and who will be in the audience in the future. These questions form a large part of decisions about what plays Artistic Directors select to be produced each year and the nature of those productions. We will read at least three classical plays and three new plays. We will attend two plays, as long as theaters remain open for in-person performances. I have arranged with Artistic Directors in DC and elsewhere to have filmed performances of new plays streamed to us to provide additional new plays to view.
- Migrants in the City
- GEOG 1000.10
- Professor E. Chacko
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- GPAC 2: Oral Communication
In this course students will investigate and analyze key ways of examining the relationships between migration (flows of human beings across internal administrative borders as well as international borders) and the city, through readings on migration theories and processes, the evolution of immigrant enclaves and neighborhoods, immigrant identity as it relates to place, immigrant entrepreneurship, the gendered nature of some migrant flows and the mutual influence of immigrants and urban landscapes. Students will also conduct research on immigration and its effects in cities (with an emphasis on the Washington Metropolitan Area), gathering and analyzing data from archival sources, the Census and information gathered during field work by students.
- Can We Mine Our Way Out of Climate Change
- GEOG 1000.10
- Professor S. Odell
- GPAC: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- Fairy Tales: Grimms to Disney
- GER 1000.10
- Professor M.B. Stein
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- GPAC 3: Oral Communication
For centuries folktales and fairy tales have fueled the popular imagination of children and adults. As art form and communicative practice, the fairy tale has undergone radical transformations in form, style, structure, and meaning. Beginning with the work of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century collectors and concluding with twentieth-first century critics, authors and filmmakers, this course examines the socio-historical development of the fairy tale in its traditional contexts as well as in its modern transformations and critical interpretations. The course is divided into three parts: 1) literary and historical contexts, 2) methods of folktale analysis, and 3) modern adaptations and critical readings.
- Black Political Thought
- PSC 1000.12
- Professor J. Smith
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
This course examines central questions in African American politics and political thinkers. This course will be structured historically and thematically, covering Black political thinking in times of slavery, reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement. It will also cover themes such as Black Feminism, criminality, the law, fiction, religion, etc. At the end of the class we will ask what the future of Black politics looks like. Ultimately, this class treats the experience of African Americans as the basis for rethinking the foundations of modern democracy and considers how different African American thinkers envision Black political empowerment.
- Islam in the Digital Age
- REL 1000.80
- Professor K. Pemberton
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
This mixed methods course draws upon technocultural studies, marketing theory, visual analysis, social psychology, cultural studies, and critical feminist and gender studies to assess the ways in which digital technologies have shaped expressions and understandings of Islam, Islamic authority, and Islamic markets (especially the 'halal' market). Beginning with an introduction to the emergence of new technologies in Muslim-majority countries in the late 19th century and Muslims’ varied responses to them, we pay special attention to the ways in which digital technologies have enabled the development of new and innovative paradigms for understanding the role of Islam in the public sphere. Gender -- particularly as it relates to debates about Islamic masculinities, femininities, and sexualities – serves as a pivotal theme and point of inquiry throughout the term. The course is highly interactive and provides many opportunities for student participation in small group discussions and in-class collaborations.
- Hollywood & Politics
- SMPA 1000.10
- Professor P. Phalen
- GPAC: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
Hollywood & Politics provides an introduction to the American media industry and its age-old relationship with American political life. Did you know that leaders from Hollywood and DC had connections as far back as 1920? Or that suspected communists were blacklisted in Hollywood during the 1940’s and ‘50s? Well, now you do – but you’ll learn the details of these and other topics in Hollywood & Politics! The course covers the history of connections between Hollywood’s executives and political leaders; the influence of celebrities on politics; the representation of politics in television and film; the politics of Hollywood’s business practices, and much more.
- The Many Histories of Contemporary East Asia
- HIST 1000.10
- Professor B. Trifoi
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- Literary Imaginaries of Human Rights: Caste, Race, and Gender
- ENGL 1000.10
- Professor L. Sugathan
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- Zombie Capitalism
- AMST 1000.10
- Professor D. Orenstein
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Oral Communication
- Gender at Work
- ANTH 1000.10
- Professor R. Hildebrandt
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- Evil
- PHIL 1000.10
- Professor L. Papish
- GPAC: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
This course will confront questions related to the phenomenon of evil. What do we mean when we say that some person or act is evil? What distinguishes evil from the merely bad? What are the psychological and social mechanisms behind evil? Does the existence of evil show that God does not exist, and can we criticize evil unless we rely on the concept of God? When, if ever, is evil forgivable? We will rely on philosophical sources to help address these questions, though occasionally we will also turn to literature, history, and the social sciences.
- Statistically Speaking: Understanding Data Through Examples
- STAT 1000.10
- Professor S. Balaji
- GPAC: Quantitative Reasoning in Mathematics or Statistics
- Feminist Cultures
- SLAV 1000.10
- Professor T. Efremova
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- Practical Politics: Team Red and Team Blue and What it Means for You
- PSC 1000.10
- Professor S. Bornstein
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- GPAC 2: Local/Civic Engagement
- Identity Politics in Global Perspective: An Exploration through Film and Literature
- PSC 1000.10
- Professor A. Syed
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
Spring 2025 Dean's Seminars
- Drugs and American Culture
- ANTH 1000.10
- Professor K. Blevins
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning or Scientific Reasoning in the Social Sciences
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- Despite being the home of the global “War on Drugs,” people in the United States use drugs at one of the highest rates worldwide. Pharmaceuticals are a multi-billion-dollar industry. Workers across the country regularly use stimulants to help them start their day and depressants to wind down from it. Supplements line the aisles of our grocery stores. New technologies for drug delivery are developed and marketed every year. And, of course, drug abuse and addiction are constantly present in the media, in politics, and in our communities. In this class, we will explore the relationship between drugs and American culture from an anthropological perspective. What are drugs, and what is “American culture”? How have drugs shaped American culture, and how do they continue to shape it? How do cultural processes—and aspects of American culture in particular—shape drug use, representations of different drug users, and the U.S. government’s approach to drug regulation and enforcement?
- Designing Classical Ballet
- CTAD 1000.10
- Professor T. Wetenhall
- GPAC 1: Critical or Creative Thinking in the Arts
- GPAC 2: Oral Communication
- GPAC 3: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
- Designing Classical Ballet' introduces study and research in visual culture, cultural production, and the visual and performing arts. Ballet's classical era inducts students into the art form as a site of historical, political and contemporary discourse surrounding gender, power, war, (in)equality, racial diversity, and inclusion. Ballet's history, aesthetics, and various cultural perspectives reveal how ballet's design has specific functions or ends. Through readings, close viewings, and structured discussions of seminal works of classical and contemporary ballet, students consider the agency of costume in performance; artists designing for the stage; ballet's global appeal; ballet as a tool of cultural diplomacy; how to affect change in the art form; and the diverse cultural, political and historical perspectives shaping the shared theatrical experience of 'going to the ballet', particularly in 2025.
- African Futures in U/Dystopian Literature & Film
- FREN 1000.10
- Professor A. Waberi
Examines African futurism, magical realism, and other forms of the unreal or fantastic in literary texts, film, and other media. Through close reading and attention to historical, cultural, and sociopolitical context, students consider how these works reinterpret the past, diagnose modernity, and posit alternative futures. Particular attention given to the roles race, gender, class, and sexuality play within these radically imaginative worlds. Topics vary from week to week but might include works by Nnedi Okorafor, Amos Tutuola, Wanuri Kahui, Birago Diop, Amadou Hampaté Bâ etc.
- Folklore, Politics & Social Chang
- GER 1000.10
- Professor J. Freedman
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
Folklore – broadly defined as traditional, vernacular, or unofficial culture – has had extensive influence on political thought and human experience for centuries. This class explores folklore concepts, genres, and methods by studying specific historical eras in which folklore forms (songs, stories etc.) took on political significance and effected social change. The class focuses on Germany and the United States: two places in which folklore has had importance both as a concept and as a field of study. We will look at the similarities and differences between the use of folklore in Germany and the US, and we will examine the ways in which folklore continues to be used politically in the present.
- Fashion and the Body
- SLAV 1000.10
- Professor T. Efremova
- GPAC 1: Critical Thinking in the Humanities
- GPAC 2: Global or Cross-Cultural Perspective
Fashion offers us many joys: it helps us stand out and blend in, it lets us enjoy the expressive looks of the Met Gala while being at our most comfortable wearing jogging pants. Its magic is rooted in ways it engages with the body: stifling it to fit an impossible standard and helping us reinvent it. This class explores fashion as a vehicle of constructing and reimagining the body, and with it – our ideas of gender, cultural identity, and global consumption. We will look at gender politics of the post-war era through the study of the 50s full skirts, examine the power of stiletto heels to express protest, chart the connection between the Japanese kimono and oversized streetwear, think about fashioning non-standard and queer bodies, as well the artificial body of the Barbie doll. We will explore the collection of the First Ladies’ gowns presented at the National Museum of American History and discuss the changing role played by American women over the past century. We will also examine the implications of fashion as a Western construct and consider how dress industries functioned beyond the ideas of designer collections and fashion market (in the Soviet Union) or fashion season (in African cultures). In class, we will analyze fashion images and videos, magazines and look-books, as well as new media sources such as Instagram and TikTok. This course will challenge you to think across media and share your thoughts in a blog.
- The Science of Uncertainty
- STAT 1000.10
- Professor H. Mahmoud
- GPAC 1: Quantitative Reasoning in Mathematics
Probability and the calculus of chance are presented at an introductory level. Axiomatic probability is introduced. Some fun scenarios, such as poker urn schemes, and paradoxes are brought to the fore, then some standard discrete and continuous probability distributions are presented. The course touches on elements of estimation and predictions. Scientific discovery through hypothesis testing is briefly presented. Elements of stochastic behavior are discussed.
- Statistically Speaking: Understanding Data Through Examples
- STAT 1000.10
- Professor S. Balaji
- GPAC: Quantitative Reasoning in Mathematics or Statistics
Dean's Seminar Highlights
