Option 2: Seminar

STEP 1000-09A

LISTENING FOR CHANGE

Ever wanted to make change in your community, but wondered how you could? This class establishes listening as a foundation for making positive change. This project-based community engagement course focuses on analyzing feedback from the community regarding what Laramie means to them and how to improve life here. Our most prominent partner will be United Way of Albany County. Working with United Way will establish a platform to emphasize marginalized voices that often go unheard. This class is relevant to those studying business, sociology, non-profit management, history, American studies, English, and creative writing. If you learn best outside the four walls of the classroom, this class will suit you. In addition to writing and reading projects, assignments often include leaving campus and exploring your new community. You’ll grow individually, academically, and give back to Laramie---your new home.

STEP 1000-10A

CULTURES OF WORK

Messages about work and success are all around us, and how we understand and define success differs between cultures and individuals. In this class, we will explore different cultural ideas about work and success and how they influence society, human behavior, and human-social interactions. We will test common assumptions and explore multiple perspectives about work in order to better understand how principles about work and success operate in our lives. The course will primarily use close reading, discussion, and a self-directed research project (including options for different forms of student expression) to practice critical and creative thinking.

STEP 1000-11A

GEN Z + SOCIAL MEDIA

New college students are part of the first generation ever to experience social media in middle school, but much is unknown about your experiences as the first pre-teen audiences. How did social media affect your life as a pre-teen and teen (and new college student)? This class will explore the explosion of social media and the ways it has changed the lives of its devoted users – in positive, challenging, and intriguing ways! Did you know, for example, that TikTok is the most popular social media app – and that 80% of 16-17 year olds spend 4.45 billion collective minutes watching TikTok videos each day? In this class you will explore current research and popular media accounts of social media, as well as conduct research of your own. If you are interested in people and the forces that act on their lives, this course may inspire you!

STEP 1000-12A

Apple of My I

Ever wondered how true that old cliché, “you are what you eat,” is? This phrase is often used to encourage healthy eating. But can what we eat impact us in ways beyond physical health? By combining self-reflection, our family histories, and analysis of popular food brands and trends, this class will ask, how can the food around us imprint our values? Subsequently, how can the foods we eat be used to assert our convictions? This class is relevant to those studying history, American studies, family and consumer science, business, sociology, English, gender studies, nursing, and more. If you learn best in courses that intersect your experience with the ideas of others, this class will suit you. Assignments require you to dovetail reflection with research and interviews. By taking this class, you will grow as a student while better understanding yourself and your history.

STEP 1000-13A

CREATIVITY ACROSS CULTURES

Forbes magazine recently declared creativity “the skill of the future.” But what exactly is creativity? Where does inspiration come from? Who can be creative and what does it look like across cultures and disciplines? In this class, we will explore these questions and how creativity is valued and manifested in human culture. We will use texts from a variety of genres, active discussion, and a self-directed research project to examine creativity’s influence on human culture and behavior, and practice critical and creative thinking. Students from ALL majors and disciplines who want to bring more creative energy to any part of their life are encouraged to register.

STEP 1000-14A

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES MEDIA SUCCESS

Are you interested in learning about cultures, difference, and reaching across divides? At a time when cultural difference becomes a source of anxiety, it is critical to learn the importance of cultural awareness in understanding each other. In this class, we will explore media from new lenses by examining books, social media, films, and short stories to grow our knowledge about other cultures and build an understanding based on mutual respect. This class will grow your ability to think critically about the many stories that shape who we are!

STEP 1000-15A

HAPPINESS & THE GOOD LIFE

Brand new campus culture, brand new communities, brand new life. With so much new in your life, why stick with old habits? Recent research in positive psychology provides practical ideas that can impact our wellbeing. In our class, we’ll study up-to-date research and then apply it to our own lives by “rewiring” our small habits. We will complicate easy solutions about happiness by investigating “toxic positivity” and bittersweet states of mind. We’ll dive into pressing topics like cultural measures of happiness, physiological factors of wellbeing, and situational supports from fields like psychology, sociology, mindfulness, and environmental studies. This class will culminate in multi-modal research projects. If we choose to take insights to heart from the class--we stand to change our culture in big ways.

STEP 1000-16A

CULTURES OF COLLEGE & WORK SUCCESS

Messages about work and success are all around us, and how we understand and define success differs between cultures and individuals. In this class, we will explore different cultural ideas about work and success and how they influence society, human behavior, and human-social interactions. We will test common assumptions and explore multiple perspectives about work in order to better understand how principles about work and success operate in our lives. The course will primarily use close reading, discussion, and a self-directed research project (including options for different forms of student expression) to practice critical and creative thinking.

STEP 1000-17A

A DAY IN THE LIFE

How do you tell the story of your life? What do we learn when we encounter other people’s stories? Can understanding your life story help you succeed in college and beyond? This class will study written and digital stories about college students to understand how our stories shape our day to day lives. In addition to reading essays and memoirs about college experiences, we will explore social media, online blogs, podcasting, and vlogging as forms of digital storytelling. Assignments include weekly readings and reflections, a group presentation, and a research-based digital storytelling project. No experience with social media, blogging, or vlogging is necessary; just an interest in learning more about how we tell stories about ourselves in writing and online.

STEP 1000-18A

AMERICAN WEST

We usually picture the American West by thinking of a rugged, horseback cowboy on sagebrush-dotted plains. This Western identity lives on in film and in television (think Longmire or Yellowstone). But, more importantly, it lives on in perceptions of Western identity, nationally and globally. Anyone who has lived in the American West can confirm this story of a mythicized West is not always accurate. If the portrayal of Western identity isn’t right, why is it still so common in film, TV, and other popular media? Is there value in maintaining a classic Western mystique? These questions, and others, are the focus of our class. We will examine more accurate and more complex representations of Western identity through media portrayals of the American West. If you have interest in sociology, archival work, American Studies, Indigenous studies, or film and media studies, this class is for you!

STEP 1000-19A

LISTENING FOR LIFE