ABE 199 CHP: Water in a Global Environment
Prof. Prasanta Kalita
55376 | MW | 1:00-2:50 p.m. | POT A Online | 3 Hours
“Water in a Global Environment” enhances students’ understanding and appreciation of the impact water has globally, including in various cultures around the world. Students will be encouraged to step outside of traditional thinking and become knowledgeable about how water availability and quality affect people’s day to day lives. Without water, or suitable water, cultural infrastructure is destined to fail. Water is arguably the most precious resource in the world, and the fact that it is non-renewable provides additional value. Water quality and its impact on global environment will be explicitly covered. Students will develop in-depth analyses of case studies that examine historical and current water-related issues and the solutions utilized to tackle the issues in various parts of the world (i.e., Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, South America, USA). This course’s goal is to not only educate students on one of the most important and critical areas of concern in the world today, but to motivate them to use enhanced knowledge to make an impact both locally and globally.
This course fulfills the General Education categories Physical Sciences and Non-Western Cultures.
Instructor: Prasanta Kalita is Professor in the soil and water resources engineering program in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. His research focuses on water management and water quality, hydrology, erosion and sediment control, and global food security. Professor Kalita is an Elected Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the Indian Society for Agricultural Engineers (ISAE).
AFRO 199 CHP: Black Visions of Agriculture and Food
Prof. Bobby J. Smith II
80568 | TR | 9:00-10:20 a.m. | 212 Honors | 3 Hours
Located at the social science crossroads of African American Studies, AFRO 199 introduces students to a unique set of Black people who engineered new visions of agriculture and food. In the face of intersecting inequities, these visions reshaped how we think about agriculture and food as a nation. A deeper exploration of these views illuminates pathways to consider how Black people have contributed to the development of agricultural and food systems across multiple scales, informing national and global conversations about food justice, food sovereignty, food security, and agricultural methods. These visions also offer students a myriad of critical sites of analysis that promote innovative thinking, strategic communication skills, and collective actualization. In keeping up with this kind of thinking, AFRO 199 provides a canvas by which students can challenge themselves to think seriously how about the visions studied can be used as blueprints to build more socially just, culturally sensitive, environmentally conscious, and sustainable futures for all people. In this way, the classroom in transformed into an incubator to produce an engaging and impactful learning environment that encourages new ways of knowing, anchored in the minds of the professor and students.
This course fulfills the General Education categories Social Science and U.S. Minority Cultures.
Instructor: Dr. Bobby J. Smith II is an award-winning author, social scientist; Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies; and Fellow in the Policy Design Lab in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics. He holds affiliations in the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition and the Center for Social & Behavioral Science. Trained as a sociologist, with a background in agricultural economics, Dr. Smith’s research, teaching, and service creates a public interdisciplinary space to explore how Black people’s historical and contemporary relationships to food and agriculture have shaped both their lives and the world. More broadly, Dr. Smith is an expert in food justice, food systems analysis, food equity, agricultural history, agricultural industry issues, and equitable policy design.
ARTJ 301 CHP: Manga, Anime, and the Margins of Culture
Prof. Lindsey Stirek
75169| TR | 11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
This course offers an immersive exploration of manga (Japanese comics) and anime, delving into their significance within both Japanese and global contexts. Throughout this class, you will trace the evolution of these art forms and examine their relationship with Japan’s cultural heritage, while also observing their departures from traditional norms and how they represent the concept of “Otherness.” By collaborating with fellow classmates to collectively craft your own manga magazine, you will delve into the fundamental aspects of manga as an artistic medium and experience how manga and anime mutually influence and are influenced by individual and societal perceptions. This course will not only introduce you to the captivating realms of manga and anime but also prompt thoughtful exploration of their cultural, societal, and artistic dimensions and their profound impact on the broader global landscape.
This course fulfills the General Education categories Non-Western Cultures and Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: Lindsey Stirek is Teaching Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design and the Visiting Assistant Director of Academic Programming at Japan House. She began studying chadō (the Way of Tea) in 2009 and has spent several years in Japan studying Japanese language and culture. She teaches courses on manga, anime, and Japanese tea ceremony and is currently focusing her research on the convergence of traditional Japanese arts and contemporary and localized modalities ranging from performance to media to three-dimensional art. Professor Stirek received her B.A. in East Asian Languages and Culture from the University of Illinois and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.
ASTR 330 CHP: Extraterrestrial Life
Prof. Leslie Looney
73938 | TR | 5:30 – 6:50 p.m. | 134 Astronomy | 3 Hours
More than half of all Americans believe in aliens, but what do we really know about ET life? In the last 15 years we have gone from knowledge of only 8 planets around only our Sun to nearly 4000 planets around many suns. In the near future, NASA will have missions that may find signs of life on Titan, under the oceans of Europa, on Mars, or may even produce imaging of Earth-like planets around nearby stars. In this course, we will examine the current status of one of the ultimate questions: “Are we alone?” And, perhaps we will ask some new ones. We are searching for signals from ET today, but if we do detect a signal what do we do? Why do “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence?” What are the problems with interstellar travel? The class will dive into many fields ranging from cosmology to anthropology with a little science fiction thrown in for fun and speculation.
This course fulfills the General Education category Physical Sciences.
Instructor: Leslie Looney is Professor of Astronomy. With an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and Physics, he worked as a system engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the Space Shuttle’s digital processing system (i.e., computers, interfaces, and software)– launching shuttles. In 1998, he obtained a Ph.D. in astrophysics. Prof. Looney’s main research topic is the early stages of star formation. In particular, he studies the circumstellar disks surrounding young protostars; these disks are thought to be the natal environment of planets. He has discovered many new worlds and new stars. As protostars form in dense clouds of gas and dust, Prof. Looney uses some of the world’s most sensitive telescopes operating from infrared to millimeter wavelengths.
BADM 199 CHP: The Good Life Lab – Practicing Wellbeing Through Coaching
Prof. Elizabeth A. Luckman
53818 | TR | 3:30-4:50 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
What makes a life well-lived? In this interactive seminar, students will learn and practice foundational coaching skills by supporting each other in the knowledge and development of well-being and human flourishing. Drawing on research from positive psychology, neuroscience, and behavior change, students will engage in structured peer coaching conversations designed to enhance self-awareness, clarify values, and support intentional growth. Through reflection, practice, and conversation, students will not only develop tools to support others—they’ll also take meaningful steps toward designing a more fulfilling, purpose-driven life of their own.
This course fulfills the General Education category Behavioral Science.
Instructor: Professor Luckman’s teaching model combines a dynamic classroom with mentorship. In addition to content mastery, she emphasizes broader themes: problem-solving for complexity, continuous learning and improvement, how ethical, adaptive leaders cultivate higher performing organizations, the vital roles of communication and social interaction, and the paramount goal of creating value for stakeholders, especially the end customer. She is specifically interested in leadership, ethics, negotiation, management, organizational development and change.
Her significant experience with a major corporation, including five years in management, adds valuable insights to her teaching. Having led teams that successfully battled to achieve demanding performance objectives amplify her ability to prepare students to lead with impact.
CHP 395A: Student Life – Analyzing the College Experience Through Autoethnography
Prof. Ann Abbott
31622 | TR | 2:00 – 3:20 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
In this course you will learn about the research methodology and methods of autoethnography. In particular, you will explore why autoethnography can render unique insights about the intersections between your identities and campus culture(s). We will explore the interplay of research and creativity and assume the role of autoethnographers by keeping a research journal, exploring topics through mini-autoethnographies and producing a final paper. By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Define autoethnography, list its research methods and recognize the variety of formats the final outcome can take.
- Engage in the inquiry process by collecting data, posing and refining research questions, drawing conclusions and participating in the peer editing process.
- Explore official and unofficial campus cultures with special emphasis on the role of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, languages, nationalities, and more.
- Apply the autoethnographic methodology to create several autoethnographic projects in class and as assignments.
- Creatively apply the autoethnographic methodology through non-written examinations of the self in relation to campus culture.
This course fulfills the General Education categories Social Science and Western/Comparative Cultures.
Instructor: Ann Abbott is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Her work focuses on student learning outcomes in and critical analysis of the following: foreign language community service learning, social entrepreneurship, social media and languages for specific purposes. She also creates curricular materials that reflect current research. She was the recipient of the inaugural 2021 Xiaohui Zhang Diversity and Community Engagement Award.
CHP 395B: Shipwreck! A Social and Political Investigation
Prof. Peter Fritzsche
31625 | MW | 9:00 – 10:20 a.m. | 212 Honors | 3 Hours
This course is designed to allow students to explore the themes of shipwreck, sailors, and castaways in the early modern and modern world. It is centered around six shipwreck stories. Along the way, we will examine both literature on shipwrecks themselves and on the imagination and metaphor of shipwreck which like the ship itself has broad social and political resonance. We will look at how shipwrecks refashion individuals, bind and break apart society, and create new political worlds of authority and freedom, and we will examine the idea of society as a ship and its self-destruction in war or rearrangement in strife as shipwreck. The course will begin with the Cameron’s Titanic (yes, the movie) and end with Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (also a movie), and along the way examine shipwrecks and castaways in a variety of original sources from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
This course fulfills the General Education categories Historical & Philosophical Perspectives and Western/Comparative Cultures.
Instructor: Peter Fritzsche has taught History at the University of Illinois for nearly thirty years. He has received Guggenheim, Humboldt, and NEH fellowships, and has written seven books in German and European history, including: Life and Death in the Third Reich, Germans into Nazis, Reading Berlin 1900, Nietzsche and the Death of God, Stranded in the Present, and, most recently, An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler. Fritzsche has served as chair of the Department of History and has been recognized for his excellence in teaching, including regular inclusion on the “List of Excellent Teachers.” He has taught honors courses on the Holocaust and on World War I as well as on the wars in Iraq. His pedagogy emphasizes the close analysis of key texts through discussion and debate and the creation of defensible interpretations of human behavior through writing and rewriting and an empathetic understanding of narrative, documentary, and argumentative strategies. His goal is to give students confidence in speaking about the world and ultimately in judging it.
CPSC 199 CHP: Agriculture and the Environment
Prof. George Czapar
15375 | MW | 3:30-4:50 p.m. | W203 Turner Hall | 3 Hours
This course will examine the effects of current agricultural practices on the environment. Discussion topics include pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, water quality, water supply, organic production, food safety, and international agriculture. This course will be a combination of lecture and student-led discussions of assigned readings. Regardless of their career paths, CHP students will likely be required to interpret and explain research results to their peers and the general public. One goal of the class is that students will be able to critically evaluate research articles and refine their opinions concerning environmental issues. Emphasis will also be placed on effective communication of technical information and enhancing presentation skills.
This course fulfills the General Education category Life Sciences.
Instructor: George Czapar is Associate Dean and Director Emeritus of the University of Illinois Extension and an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Crop Sciences. His research and extension programs focused on interdisciplinary projects that address the environmental impacts of agriculture, especially related to water quality. He was the leader of a Strategic Research Initiative in water quality for the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR), and he helped establish the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices (C-BMP).
CW 199 CHP: The How of Where – Writing Place-Based Fiction
Prof. Amy Hassinger
74521 | MW | 11:00-12:15 p.m.| 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
“Story comes from place,” says Pulitzer-prize winning author Annie Proulx. Well, how, exactly? In this introductory creative writing workshop, we’ll set out to explore the answer to that question. Together, we’ll study a selection of evocative place-based fiction, teasing apart what makes the writing work, and then set out to write our own stories that come from and are bound up with place. Students will practice many of the basic elements of fiction writing through targeted writing exercises, story drafting, workshopping, and revision, all in the quest of learning to write place-based stories others will want to read.
By the end of the semester, you will:
- Identify and understand the basic building blocks of successful place-based fiction, including the effective use of concrete detail to describe setting and create atmosphere, exposition of significant history, representation of place as a kind of character, character desire and development tied to place, narrative tension, and plot design.
- Practice using these techniques in a series of weekly targeted exercises and in writing your own complete place-based short story.
- Give and receive constructive feedback, written and oral, with the shared goal of helping everyone create their best work.
- Grow more aware of your own unique writing process as well as your own growth over time through regular reflections on your work.
This course fulfills the General Education category Literature & the Arts.
Instructor: Amy Hassinger is Assistant Professor in the English Department, specializing in creative writing. Her novels–Nina: Adolescence, The Priest’s Madonna, and After the Dam—have been translated into six languages, and her work has won awards from Creative Nonfiction Magazine, the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Publisher’s Weekly, and the Illinois Arts Council, as well as fellowships from the Ucross and Ragdale Foundations. Her nonfiction appears in such venues as The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Her current projects include a middle grade novel set on the Galápagos Islands about the problem of extinction, and a book of creative nonfiction about singing and the pursuit of joy in the face of climate apocalypse
DANC 100 CHP: Intro to Contemporary Dance
Prof. Alexandra Barbier
46037 | TR | 1:00-2:20 PM | 109 DAB and 111 Dance Studio | 3 Hours
This section of Dance 100 focuses on performance-making as a method of autoethnographic research. Students will encounter definitions, histories, and methodologies of autoethnography and performance (including dance, theatre, and performance art) through lectures, viewings, and readings. Experiential and compositional activities (including movement improvisations and embodied rituals) will help students explore the various possibilities of physical performance. The final project asks students to synthesize these ideas into an autoethnographic performance study of their own design. The course consists of one seminar class (Tuesdays) and one studio practice class (Thursdays) per week
This course fulfills the General Education categories Literature and the Arts and Western/Comparative Cultures.
Instructor: Alexandra Barbier is an interdisciplinary artist whose works are often whimsical and humorous while also inspiring critical thought and societal/cultural commentary and inquiry. Weaving together practices from dance, performance art, theatre, installation, Blackness, queerness, and Southern-ness, these works have been presented in theaters, parks, gardens, libraries, festivals, and DIY spaces throughout North America. Her current body of work-in-progress, Stations of Black Loss, is an autoethnographic collection of performance, visual art, and creative non-fiction works that chronicle her journey of learning to love and embrace Black identity. The performance components have been supported by and presented through NCCAkron (Akron, OH), loveDANCEmore (SLC, UT), and the dance department at University of Illinois (Urbana, IL), with research presentations and lecture-demonstrations presented through the International Association of Blacks in Dance, Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, and Popular Culture Association conferences. Alexandra is Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has previously held faculty positions with the University of Utah’s School of Dance, the Joffrey Ballet and Jazz + Contemporary Trainee Programs, and Joffrey South summer intensive.
ENGL 199 CHP: Shakespeare and His Audiences
Prof. Andrea Stevens
40419| MW | 4:00 – 5:15 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
We all know the role Shakespeare continues to occupy within the Western canon. In this campus honors seminar, we will set aside Shakespeare’s formidable reputation as the ‘greatest writer in the history of English literature’ to concentrate instead on Shakespeare the actor and playwright who made his considerable living writing for the London professional theater from roughly 1580 to 1611. Emphases will include an attention to the plays in their earliest moment of composition, rehearsal, performance, publication, and reception, as well as to the production histories of Shakespeare’s plays. What does this history of performance, adaptation, and revision tell us? Do the plays continue to offer us insight into the social world we ourselves inhabit? Do we find any of Shakespeare’s plays to be ‘exhausted’?
Together, we will read seven to eight of Shakespeare’s plays, investigating Shakespeare’s most canonical plays (Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) alongside some of his lesser-known works (Titus Andronicus). Nor shall we neglect those plays critics have labeled, rightly or wrongly, as ‘problems’: Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew. There will be group excursions to local productions of the plays we study whenever possible; activities where we will ‘block’ complex bits of stage action in class; and guest visits from theater professionals arranged by the instructor. Secondary readings will draw from studies of early modern theater history and Shakespearean original practices; works of literary criticism that had an impact on theater practitioners; published scholarly reviews of recent productions; and classics of Shakespeare criticism.
This course fulfills the General Education Category Literature & the Arts.
Instructor: Specializing in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Andrea Stevens is also affiliated with Theatre, Medieval Studies, and the European Union Center. She is the author of Inventions of the Skin: The Painted Body in Early English Drama (2013) and her edition of William Heminge’s 1639 tragedy The Fatal Contract — the first modernized edition of this play-text — can be found in the Routledge Anthology of Early Modern Drama (2020) Her performance-as-research includes dramaturgy and the adaptation of Shakespeare and early modern drama for contemporary performance, for instance Titus Andronicus (KCPA October 2019), Romeo and Juliet (KCPA March 2017), and The Duchess of Malfi (Armory Free Theatre February 2015, which she also directed). Her current research includes a monograph titled Racial Masquerade and the Early English Actress 1600 – 1800 and a further book-length study of the intersection of performance and poetics titled The Unearned Authority of Rhyme.
FAA 110 CHP: Exploring Arts and Creativity
Profs. Bradley Mehrtens and J. W. Morrissette
66964 | R | 1:30 – 2:50 p.m. | 3601 KCPA| 3 Hours
High and street art, tradition and experimentation, the familiar and unfamiliar, international and American creativity provide this course’s foundation. Students will attend performances and exhibitions, interact with artists, and examine core issues associated with the creative process in our increasingly complex global society. Faculty from the arts, sciences, humanities, and other domains will lead students through visual arts, music, dance, and theatre experiences at Krannert Center and Krannert Art Museum to spark investigation and dialogue.
The class meets twice per week: once a week for discussions, and a second time to attend performances and/or exhibitions at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and/or Krannert Art Museum. Event dates will vary. Admission to all events will be provided without charge to students enrolled in the course.
This course fulfills the General Education category Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: Bradley Mehrtens is Instructor and Advisor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. He earned his bachelor’s in biology from Truman State University, and his master’s in microbiology from Illinois. His research interests include educational pedagogy, course design, and assessment. His advising interests include transitions for freshmen and transfer students, preparing for professional or graduate programs, understanding the undergraduate research experience, and acknowledging and addressing academic or personal issues. As for hobbies, he enjoys acting, theatre, movies, music, and sports.
Instructor: J.W. Morrissette is the Associate Head of the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has served in the Department of Theatre for 24 years. He has served as chair of the BFA Theatre Studies Program, the Assistant Head for Academic Programs as well as the assistant program coordinator for INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre. He completed his BFA in Acting at Otterbein College in Westerville, OH, and both his MFA in Acting and MA in Theatre History at the University of Illinois. J.W. has taught and directed for the past 22 years with the summer Theatre Department at Interlochen Center for the Arts. For the University of Illinois, his classes include Acting, Directing, Introduction to Theatre Arts, and Broadway Musicals. He has spent several summers acting with the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the Interlochen Shakespeare Festival and directs professionally when time allows. He has received the Provost’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award at the University of Illinois.
FSHN 199 CHP: Food, Health, and Nutrition
Prof. Hannah Holscher
54313 / TR | 12:00 – 1:50 p.m. | 212 Honors House | 3 Hours
What we eat shapes our energy, focus, resilience, and long-term health—but making food choices can feel overwhelming, especially when transitioning into new living environments such as residence halls, Greek houses, or apartments. This course explores the science of human nutrition through real-life questions: How do foods influence your metabolism and well-being? How can you evaluate nutrition information, diet trends, and health claims with scientific accuracy? How do cultural, social, and environmental contexts shape our food choices? Students will have the opportunity to build a strong foundation in nutrition science while applying concepts to everyday decisions. Class sessions will include a combination of lecture and problem-based learning activities that allow you to apply information to real-life examples
This course fulfills the General Education category Life Sciences.
Instructor: Hannah Holscher is Professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Her research laboratory studies the connections between diet, the gut microbiome, and health. Professor Holscher’s work informs dietary recommendations to improve health and well-being. Dr. Holscher has received numerous research and teaching awards, including the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Division of Nutritional Sciences (2017), Outstanding Educator Award from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (2018), and Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (2023) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
HIST 367 CHP: The History of Psychiatry
Prof. Mark Micale
47510| MW | 2:00 p.m. – 3:20 p.m. | 212 Honors | 3 Hours
This course will study the social, cultural, intellectual, and institutional history of madness and psychiatry from the late eighteenth century to the present. The geographical concentration will be on America and Europe but with collateral consideration of global issues. Topics include: early asylums, religion and psychological medicine, disciplinary versus therapeutic approaches to mental treatment, “mad women,” psychiatry and soldiers, race and psychiatry, Sigmund Freud’s theories, and psychiatric practices in Victorian Britain, Gilded Age America, mid-century Chicago, and Nazi Germany. The final quarter of the seminar will examine contemporary issues in psychiatry of special relevance to young adults, including college students.
This course fulfills the General Education categories Historical and Philosophical Perspectives and Advanced Composition.
Instructor: Mark S. Micale is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, where he has taught since 1999. He specializes in modern European history (especially the history of France) and the history of science and medicine. Most of his publications deal with the history of psychiatry, neurology, and psychoanalysis; they include Beyond the Unconscious, Traumatic Pasts, Interpreting Hysteria, Discovering the History of Psychiatry, and The Mind of Modernism. He is currently working on a collection of essays about “the founder of neurology,” the nineteenth-century French physician Jean-Martin Charcot. Professor Micale has won teaching prizes on the departmental, college, and university levels, and in 2018 he was awarded the King Broadrick-Allen Teaching Prize by the students of CHP.
LAW 306 CHP: The Criminal Justice System
Prof. Jennifer Pahre
78259 | MW | 3:00-4:15 p.m. | Law Bldg, Room J | 3 Hours
This course focuses on the operation of the criminal justice system in the United States.
The words “the justice system” broadly describe the laws that regulate society, and the law enforcement and court units that function throughout the nation at the federal, state, and municipal levels.
Focusing on criminal law, we will learn how the state and federal systems differ; the roles that law enforcement personnel, investigators, judges, attorneys, and other people play in the system; and the process that moves cases through the courts. We will meet with key legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, and talk with them about what they do and what they see as the challenges and opportunities in their work. We will also explore the substantive law and review the rules of criminal procedural law and the key cases that have established that law.
In addition, we will learn about the role that poverty and mental illness plays in the justice system, and note the special problems that arise when juveniles commit crimes. Finally, we will explore a variety of controversies that have plagued the justice system through the years, and we will consider how well our society has responded.
This course fulfills the General Education category Historical & Philosophical Perspectives.
Instructor: Professor Jennifer Pahre is Teaching Associate Professor in the College of Law. She has taught courses in insurance law, constitutional law, remedies, and evidence. She oversaw the Legal Externship Program for 15 years, and then became the College of Law’s first Director of Undergraduate Studies. Working with other faculty from other campus units, she created the Legal Studies Minor, and she now teaches two of the core classes in the minor. Jennifer Pahre was awarded her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University with dual majors in international relations and German studies and was inducted into the Pi Sigma Alpha International Relations Honors Society. She earned her JD degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, where she was the chief note and comment editor of the Loyola International and Comparative Law Review. Professor Pahre is admitted to the state bars of California, Michigan, and Illinois and has practiced law in all three states. In addition, she is admitted to practice in the Sixth and Ninth Circuits of the United States Court of Appeals; in the United States District Courts of the Central, Northern, and Southern Districts of California; in the United States District Courts of the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan; and in the United States District Courts of the Central and Northern Districts of Illinois.
LAW 307 CHP: Law and Literature
Prof. Meghan Brinson
80572 | TR | 1:30 – 2:50 p.m. | Law Bldg, Room F | 3 Hours
Law and Literature introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of law and literature, examining how literature shapes our view of the law, and how society and its conflicts make demands on the law for solutions to social and political questions. The course introduces major theories and concepts of the law from five separate legal subfields, major methodologies in literary studies, and explore fundamental humanities questions about how we organize society as a system of rules, how we develop the values that the rules reflect and replicate those values through literature and through the creation and enforcement of laws to define and resolve social and ethical conflicts. Students will read and respond primarily to literary texts, supplemented by legal documents and abridged passages from interdisciplinary scholarship.
This course fulfills the General Education category Literature & the Arts.
Instructor: A graduate of University of North Carolina School of Law, Professor Meghan Brinson teaches in the Undergraduate Legal Studies Program. She also holds a Master of Arts in English Studies from Georgetown University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. Professor Brinson has experience teaching undergraduate composition, business writing, and creative writing, including as a Piper International Writing Fellow at the National University of Singapore and with Park University’s program on Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point. Her academic background is in 20th century American literature, postmodernism, critical theory and narratology. She pursued law with an interest in nonprofits and higher education law. Professor Brinson’s current interdisciplinary research utilizes law and literature, narrative studies and the law, and critical legal studies to examine how literary tropes influence trials and judicial reasoning. Professor Brinson is a poet and nonfiction essayist with three published chapbooks and several journal publications. She has worked as an editor on a national literary magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review, as well as an editorial intern for the literary journal now known as swamp pink.
HK 446: Physical Activity and Diverse Populations
Prof. Susan Aguinaga
81474| TR | 9:30 – 10:50 a.m. | 255 Freer Hall | 3 Hours
This course explores the various factors influencing physical activity participation among diverse populations. Students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the psychological and ecological determinants that drive or hinder physical activity. They will also examine the social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts that shape engagement in physical activity. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with evidence-based, culturally appropriate strategies to effectively promote physical activity and contribute to building healthier, more active communities.
This course fulfills the General Education category Advanced Composition and Behavioral Science.
Instructor: Susie Aguiñaga is Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology. Through her research, she creates culturally appropriate physical activity and dietary interventions for racially and ethnically diverse older adults with cognitive impairment and those at risk for cognitive decline. Her current research examines the efficacy of a Latin dance program and dietary pattern intervention on changes in cognition among middle-aged and older Latinos. She received the 2023-2024 College of Applied Health Sciences Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award.
MUS 127 CHP: Beatmaking I
Prof. Lamont Holden
80633 | TR | 2:00-3:20 PM | 324 Music Bldg | 3 Hours
Students will learn to understand, identify and apply the basic functions of a DAW (digital audio workstation) in the construction of hip hop, R&B, pop, trap and trap subgenre beats. We will understand, identify and apply sounds used to construct hip hop, R&B, pop, trap and trap subgenre beats. Students also will understand, identify and apply the basic parts of hip hop, R&B, pop, trap and trap subgenre beats and learn how those parts can be sequenced. We will explore samples in hip hop, R&B, pop, trap and trap subgenre beats, why they were used and how they were crafted. And, we will learn basic mixing, from stereo field, mono/stereo, frequency, levels, compression, subtractive eq to mixing hip hop, R&B, pop, trap and trap subgenre beats.
This course fulfills the General Education category U.S. Minority Cultures.
Instructor: Lamont Holden, known in the music production community as TheLetterLBeats, is a music producer, DJ, podcast host, videographer, social media content creator, sound designer, teacher and audio engineer. Returning to campus after four years in Atlanta, GA at the pulse of the music industry, he teaches Beatmaking I & II, Critical Audio Listening and Audio Recording Techniques. During the fall 2021 semester, Professor Holden helped launch the “Illini Anthem” project that combines hip hop music and culture with new athletic and school spirit traditions at UIUC. Professor Holden earned his B.A. from the University of Illinois in 2004 and an M.A. in Teaching & Education at National Louis University in 2011.
PHIL 214 CHP: Biomedical Ethics
Prof. Jonathan Livengood
75438| MWF |1:00-1:50 PM| 212 Honors | 3 Hours
Biomedical Ethics (PHIL 214) teaches students to think critically about ethical problems that arise in the fields of medicine and bioengineering. The course is organized roughly around the three areas of medical procedures, medical research, and medical resources. We will consider ethical challenges surrounding specific medical procedures, such as abortion, euthanasia, and cosmetic surgeries; we will consider ethical challenges for medical research, such as privacy, informed consent, and the moral status of research animals; and we will consider ethical challenges connected to public health and scarce medical resources, such as organ transplantation, triage, vaccination, and the provision of healthcare. Special emphasis will be placed on the relationship between ethical theory and public policies governing medical practice.
This course fulfills the General Education category Historical & Philosophical Perspectives.
Instructor: Jonathan Livengood is Associate Professor of Philosophy. His research is motivated by his interest in scientific method — an interest he’s had since reading C.S. Peirce’s Illustrations of the Logic of Science as an undergraduate. Currently, Professor Livengood is working on several problems under the umbrella of causal reasoning. Some of his research concerns the psychology and semantics of causal reasoning, the normative questions about causal inference from data, and the role and legitimacy of causal reasoning in science. He is keenly interested in biomedical ethics and thinking through the ethical implications of current technology.
PSYCH 296 CHP: Stress Management and Resilience
Prof. Sepideh Sadaghiani
81447 | TR | 3:30 – 4:50 p.m. | 142 Psychology | 3 Hours
This honors course provides students with both theoretical foundations and practical applications of self-knowledge and self-awareness. Students will explore multiple dimensions of self-knowledge—including physical, social, psychological, and spiritual perspectives—through an integration of scholarly study and experiential practice.
Each week, one class session will focus on didactic learning, introducing key psychological theories, research, and principles. The other session will center on guided experiential practices, including mind relaxation, deep breathing, slow meditative movements, visualization, and heart concentration. Together, these approaches support both intellectual understanding and personal development, with an emphasis on building resilience, cultivating awareness, and fostering holistic growth.
This course fulfills the General Education category Behavioral Science.
Instructor: Sepideh Sadaghiani is an Associate Professor of Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience program area) and Bioengineering, and faculty of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She directs the CONNECTlab at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology where she is full-time faculty. Professor Sadaghiani received a Ph.D. in Neural and Behavioral Sciences from the Max Planck Graduate School and postdoctoral training at Berkeley and Stanford. She investigates the role of neural connectivity and spontaneous brain activity in cognitive control and behavior through a multi-modal lens. Professor Sadaghiani serves as handling editor at Imaging Neuroscience (formerly NeuroImage) and Network Neuroscience. She has been recognized as National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awardee, Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors (LEAP) Scholar and Helen Corley Petit Scholar. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and the NSF.